Romans 7: Inner Will and Sin

Neville's Inner Vision

Beloved, the scene in Romans is not a condemnation of your identity but a map of your inner landscape. The I AM, your true self, stands behind the scenes while the footprint of habit calls forth actions you would not have chosen. When you read, 'it is not I who do it, but sin that dwelleth in me,' recognize that the I AM is simply aware of the movement; the 'sin' is a mistaken habit of thought, a voice in the flesh identifying with lack or limitation. Your task is not to punish but to reidentify. The good that you will is present; to perform it arises from the revision of your sense of self, not from moral struggle. When you acknowledge that will is possible and that the agent of action is the I AM, you enfranchise the good within. The law is good in that it reveals the separation between who you think you are and who you can become. By steady imagination, you can dissolve the habit through the conviction that you are already the kind of person who acts from the good you intend.