Day 20. Romans 7:24-25

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

When I read the Epistle to the Romans for the first time, I was very confused. The language was very exhaustive and, except the famous 8th chapter, the other chapters, I just breezed through. But the more I read about Augustine, Martin Luther and other saints, I was surprised to see that the Epistle to Romans kept popping up all the time. So, I went back to reading the epistle, with my own knowledge and again was completely baffled.

Finally, when I was struggling with certain recurring sins, I was reading the 7th chapter of Romans and it hit me. I won’t say that I have understood the deep spirituality hidden in this great epistle. But just that verse: “Wretched man that I am!” hit a raw nerve. And the next verse changed my gloom into joy – “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”