This theological reflection – in 7 parts – explores key ideas that Paul raises in his letter to the Romans in chapters 7 and 8, and, in particular to a key passage in chapter 7, verses 15 – 20, which are worth quoting, so that we have them present in mind. I will add verses 24- 25.
“I do not even acknowledge my own actions as mine, for what I do is not what I want to do, but what I detest. But if what I do is against my will, then clearly I agree with the law and hold it to be admirable. This means that it is no longer I who perform the action, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me – my unspiritual self I mean – for though the will to do good is there, the ability to effect it is not. The good that I want to do, I fail to do; but what I do is the wrong which is against my will; and if what I do is against my will, clearly it is no longer I who am the agent, but sin that has its dwelling in me.
Wretched creature that I am, who is there to rescue me from this state of death? Who but God? Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord”.
Sin, grace and freedom : Romans 7 and 8
Part 1: What we want and what we really want: the divided mind
Paul is clearly in great distress, and facing a severe dilemma. He is trying to make sense of his own weakness – that is, of human weakness. He is clear in his own mind that he really does want to do the right thing. He is devoted to God and can completely see what he should do, and that the course of action that he instead takes is wrong. He is truly committed to God, and truly wants to do what is right and what honours God. Instead, he finds himself doing the very thing that he has set himself against, that fills him with dismay, and leaves him feeling a failure who has betrayed God and deserted his faith. He was put to the test and failed. He is aware that this has happened over and over again. He has made his most solemn promises to God, that this time he will not let his Lord down – and then he’s gone and done it again.
What are we to make of this? From our modern perspective, we have some advantages. We are indebted to Augustine and his idea of the divided mind, and we can make sense of this through our understanding of evolution. Human beings just are equipped with minds that have at least two layers. We have the will that arises from our values, principles and reasoning. This leads us to make decisions of which we approve, and we are fully aware of how we came to this decision. However, we also have our more ancient mind – sometimes referred to as “the reptilian mind” which is completely selfish. To our mind now, it is immoral, because it makes decisions of which we do not approve, but, strictly speaking, it is amoral, because it simply doesn’t take moral value judgements into account. This will simply says, “I want this!”. We are conscious of these desires, though this element of our mind can also work unconsciously.
What often happens in practice – and I think this is what Paul is lamenting – is that we are absolutely firm on sticking to the action that we approve of. Our will is saying, “Do this!”, and we say, “Yes, yes, yes” – until, all of a sudden we find that we have switched allegiance to the other part of our will, and have done precisely the action of which we don’t approve. Immediately, we are remorseful: “Why on earth did I do that? I really didn’t want to do it”. Yet we find that we have done exactly that.
While our modern understanding of our mind is helpful, it still doesn’t allow us to abdicate responsibility for the failure of will represented in the switch to doing what we don’t want to do. Paul understood it as a spiritual failure – a failure to show sufficient will power and sufficient devotion to God, and I think we should honour this point of view, for it is still true – even if we can now use our understanding of how our minds work, hopefully, to help us in additional ways that Paul wasn’t aware of. How then can we make progress on this issue?
Spiritual Devotion 