Fairground Shooting Ducks!

I do enjoy the Home Group of which I am a part! There's something about having the input of other people that gets my own "little grey cells" (with apologies to M. Poirot!!) working so much better. At the end of this evening's get-together, we were thinking about Paul's words to the believers in Rome:
"... shall we keep on sinning so that God can keep on showing us more and more kindness and forgiveness? Of course not! Should we keep on sinning when we don't have to? For sin's power over us was broken when we became Christians and were baptized to become a part of Jesus Christ; through His death the power of your sinful nature was shattered. Your old sin-loving nature was buried with Him by baptism when He died; and when God the Father, with glorious power, brought Him back to life again, you were given His wonderful new life to enjoy.
For you have become a part of Him, and so you died with Him, so to speak, when He died; and now you share His new life and shall rise as He did. Your old evil desires were nailed to the cross with Him; that part of you that loves to sin was crushed and fatally wounded, so that your sin-loving body is no longer under sin's control, no longer needs to be a slave to sin; for when you are deadened to sin you are freed from all its allure and its power over you. And since your old sin-loving nature "died" with Christ, we know that you will share His new life." (6:1-9; TLB)
The trouble with sin, it seems to me, is that as soon as an individual sin is dealt with, another pops up to take its place! As Paul wrote, later in the same letter:
"I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can't. I do what I don't want to - what I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking. But I can't help myself because I'm no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things.
I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can't make myself do right. I want to but I can't. When I want to do good, I don't; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. Now if I am doing what I don't want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp.
It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God's willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin.
So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I'm in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature?" (7:15-23; TLB)
It's a bit like that stall at the Fairground, where one shoots at a row of ducks. Every time one hits a duck, and knocks it down, another one pops up!! No wonder Paul seemed to despair. His "ideal situation" in the earlier part of the letter, seems to be contradicted by the reality of his everyday experience. And while I can't speak for anyone else, it's just the same for me!
But Paul was close enough to the Lord to know the final answer.
"Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free." (7:23; TLB)
That's the secret! What I cannot do, He has already done, in Christ Jesus. In HIM, I am freed from the power of sin - but not from its influence. The devil doesn't easily give up on me. He keeps digging away - throwing up sins that are long in the past, and that have been fully dealt with by Father God; using every weakness in my flesh, and in my spirit, to try to pull me back down to his level.
When Jesus hung on the cross, the last recorded words that He spoke were, in the English language translation: "It is finished". In the original Greek language, it was just one word: "Tetelestai!" And this was not the cry of frustration from one who had seen his best plans thwarted. It was not the miserable whimper of one who recognised total defeat. No! It was the triumphant shout of One Who knew that His work was completed; His mission accomplished; His victory assured.
If you know the power of sin in your own life, don't try to fight it in your own strength. Instead, go to the One Who has already conquered; seek His forgiveness for your own sinfulness; and trust Him to set you free, bit by bit, until that "glorious morning" when you shall see Him face-to-face, and be like Him (I John 3:2). Hallalujah!