Redeemed Failures, Day 31: Paul –When the Apostle Still Struggled

Romans 7:15–25

If we expected anyone to have conquered sin's influence, it would be Paul. Here was the apostle who planted churches across the Mediterranean, authored much of the New Testament, and experienced revelations so profound they transported him to the third heaven. Yet in one of Scripture's most startling passages, this giant of the faith makes a confession that stops us in our tracks: "I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Rom. 7:15).

These are not the words of a backslidden believer or a new convert still learning the ropes of Christian living. This is Paul—the seasoned apostle, mature saint, theological heavyweight—admitting to an ongoing internal war that refuses to end. His language carries the weight of genuine frustration, the kind that comes from knowing what righteousness looks like yet finding himself repeatedly falling short of his own convictions.

The Tension: Already, Not Yet

Paul's struggle illuminates a crucial distinction that brings both clarity and comfort to the Christian experience: the difference between our position in Christ and our progressive growth in holiness. Positionally, Paul stands justified before God, clothed in Christ's righteousness, forever freed from condemnation (Rom. 8:1). The courtroom verdict is final and irrevocable.

Yet experientially, Paul still inhabits fallen flesh in a fallen world. He lives in the tension between the "already" and the "not yet": already declared righteous, not yet fully glorified. Sin no longer reigns as his master, but it remains as a defeated foe that still skirmishes from the shadows. The old nature has been dethroned but not yet destroyed, awaiting the final blow that will come only with resurrection.

This tension explains the peculiar frustrations of Christian living. We are neither what we once were nor what we shall be, but something wonderfully in between: redeemed people in the process of being renewed.

Renewing Our Hope

But Paul refuses to maroon us in despair over this ongoing struggle. His anguished question—"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"—immediately gives way to triumphant gratitude: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom. 7:24–25).

The deliverance Paul anticipates doesn't come through heroic self-effort, rigorous law-keeping, or mystical spiritual techniques. It comes through Christ alone—the same Christ who justified him, the same Christ who is progressively sanctifying him, the same Christ who will one day glorify him completely. Paul's present struggle becomes not a source of shame but an opportunity to magnify Christ's sufficient grace.

An Encouragement

Paul's transparent confession offers profound encouragement to every Christian who has ever felt the sting of spiritual failure. Our ongoing battles with sin are not evidence of defective faith or insufficient commitment. Instead, they are proof that the Holy Spirit is alive and active within us, creating the very dissatisfaction with sin that drives us back to Christ.

The Christian life was never meant to be a story of triumphalistic perfection but of grace-enabled perseverance. We are called not to sinless living but to what Eugene Peterson memorably termed "a long obedience in the same direction": a steady, grace-sustained journey where sin is gradually weakened and Christ is increasingly magnified.

The same Savior who declared us righteous will not abandon His work until it reaches completion (Philippians 1:6). Our present struggles are not the final chapter but the middle verses of a story that ends in perfect conformity to Christ's image.

Enjoy all 31 devotionals in the Redeemed Failures series here —stories of grace, second chances, and the God who still restores.