We often put biblical heroes on pedestals, imagining they lived above the messy struggles that we face each day.

But even the Apostle Paul, the man who wrote half the New Testament, confessed to doing the very things he hated and failing to do what he knew was right.

Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall teaches from Romans chapter 7.

In this passage, Paul pulls back the curtain on his own spiritual battles, revealing a shocking truth.

Even spiritual heroes wrestle with sin. This isn't a

message of defeat. It's your roadmap to victory. Chuck titled his message, Portrait of a

Struggling Christian.

In our journey through the letter to the Romans, we've arrived at the classic section that describes what I have called the portrait of a struggling Christian.

I don't know how many people upon seeing that title said they could pose as a poster

child for that title. They feel like that. We all do on occasion, even the Apostle Paul, as we read

his testimony of the other side of his life that is rarely even addressed. So glad he does it in Romans 7. Let me read a few of these

verses selectively through the chapter. Romans 7 1, or do you not know, brethren, or I am speaking

to those who know the law, that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives.

For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living.

But if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

So then, if while her husband is living,

she is joined to another man,

she shall be called an adulteress.

But if her husband dies, she's free from the law

so that she is not an adulteress,

though she is joined to another man.

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ

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