Remember Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde? Dr. Jekyll believed he could explore the dark side of his life, but discovered that his sinful nature was darker and more sinister than he ever have imagined.
We may resonate with Paul’s words in this passage. Who is Paul talking about in Romans 7? Is he saying that before he became a Christian he did wrong even though he didn’t want to? Or is he saying that the Jekyll and Hyde life is the normative Christian experience? Paul goes on to declare gratitude for deliverance from the power of his sin nature. Christians are free, Paul will go on to say in chapter eight, not only from the penalty for sin but also from the power of it.
Dan Yeary once watched his son Doak playing in the backyard with friends. He stood at the end of the picnic table and caught kids until one little girl came flying into the air, expecting to be caught, only to hit the ground hard. Dan ran out and checked on the startled girl. Then he asked Doak, “Why didn’t you catch her?” Doak answered, “We are playing Peter Pan and sometimes I am the Pan and sometimes I am Captain Hook. I forgot who I was.”
We all had a bit of Captain Hook in us before Christ. Now that we have become followers of Christ, though, we must remember who we are in him. Christians are not sinless, yet, but we do sin less and less and less.
