We love those lyrics, but few of us like the unflattering reference, who wants to be

typecast as a wretch?

Well the hymn writer didn't invent that word.

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall invites us to open our Bibles to Romans chapter

7.

In this passage, we find that this self-depreciating reference came straight from the Apostle Paul.

Sadly, it describes the spiritual condition of every human heart.

Chuck titled today's message, We've Met the Wretch, He Is Us.

God's word often comforts, it always instructs, occasionally it surprises us, and on a few

rare occasions, we're shocked by what we read.

I say shocked because you would not necessarily expect these words to come from someone as

cute, godly, and brilliant as the Apostle Paul.

He reaches a climax in the 7th of Romans, where he declares his own statement, wretched man,

I.

You realize that he hasn't been writing about someone else, some other person who struggles

with an old sin nature, it's his own testimony, and he doesn't deny it, wretched man that

I am.

We reached that shocking climax at verse 24 when we read together from Romans 7.

I'll be reading from the new living translation.

Now begins the 7th of Romans.

Now dear brothers and sisters, you who are familiar with the law, don't you know that the

law applies only while a person is living?

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