Who are you...really?

Today, we talked about the critical subject of being a new creation. 2 Cor. 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (NIV). But we also acknowledged the nagging temptations. If I am a new creation and if the old one is gone, why is it that I still struggle with some of the temptations from my 'old' self? I referred to Paul's letter to the Romans and read a good sized section of chapter 7. I didn't have it on the screen, and several people asked me about the reference in the hallway after the service. thought I would give it to you here, in case you are one of those who needed it:

Romans 7:15-8:2 (exerpts, NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do... [17] As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. [18] I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. [19] For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. [20] Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. [21] So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. [22] For in my inner being I delight in God's law; [23] but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. [24] What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? [25] Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. [8:1] Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, [2] because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

I know plenty of people who struggle with their past - their history, what their parents did to them, what they did to others, what they did to themselves. We should hold our heads high - not because we're proud of our actions, but because we are not who we used to be. You can claim that truth because it's a promise God made to every person who makes Jesus Christ the Lord of their lives.

I enjoy every Sunday, but today was an especially great day...
Brian