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Wretched Man That I Am
Some examine their lives in light of their current and past circumstances. Before them is a sinking, sickening of the heart. An unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What is it that so unnerves them? It seems, perhaps, that the analysis of their current predicament lies among considerations beyond their depth.
“Oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!”
If we are truly honest with ourselves, we discover that we too are unnerved. We are all wretches. Wasting our lives in impotent passions. Enduring a lifetime of misery. Destroying any semblance of hope by satisfying our own desires. An echo perhaps of the monster raging inside ourselves.
I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery;
Frankenstein, Volume III, Chapter 7
There is a war raging in each and every one of us. It’s endgame? To make us captive to the very sin that chokes us and tortures us.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Romans 7.24
It’s the inner turmoil of sin. And it may very well be the defining question of our lives. How can we escape? Where can we turn for hope when we find ourselves miserable, abandoned, an abortion to be spurned at, kicked, and trampled on?
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
Romans 7.25
Paul reminds us that there are two principles at work in our lives. On the one hand, there is the law of God that we want to obey and follow. And in direct conflict with that, there’s the law of sin that our fleshly desires want to obey.
Who can deliver us from the abyss of death and sin?
Jesus. Our Lord. The Light of the World.
Where one sees a monster, He sees a soul struggling for redemption. There are no souls that are beyond redemption. The answer has always been there. Right before our very eyes. If we will but just open them and gaze at the Light. Only in Him can we find the power to readjust the very history that has cast such a dark shadow over our lives.
“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
Romans 8.1
This my friends is the declaration of hope and rejoicing.
Praise be to our God and Savior who loves us.
