Before any of us can fly to Christ and be born again I believe it is necessary for each one of us to be convinced of just what sin, righteousness and the judgement really means by allowing the Spirit to bring us to the end of ourselves in order to see and know ourselves as the Lord knows us to be. We need to have a glimpse of God! At that time we will also glimpse ourselves for what we are; by The Light that does not lie, and we will come to utterly abhor who and what we see.

We each need to have our own "Woe Is Me" experience with God. We all need to know and see the power of SIN at work in us for what it is and how it has made us so inextricably one with it that there is no escaping it! I believe that only this vision; this brief glimpse of God, will in turn cause us to realize who and how He is and who and how we are. This will give us all the motivation and convincing proof we will need to cause us to turn in desperation to the Lord to save us from the condition that SIN (Romans 3:23; Galatians 3:22) and Adam (Romans 5:12) has put us all in.

There are two things that I ask you to keep in mind as you read this:

#1. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9

#2. There are "sins" and there is SIN. I am speaking here of SIN, of our SIN nature. "sins" are what we (who remain unregenerated) do, because SIN is Who we are... it is our very own Nature. (This is who and what we must see and bring to the cross!)

Isaiah had an earlier experience as Paul had, of catching a glimpse of God. Isaiah had seen the King, pure and holy, and recognized only then, how insufficient he is and how unclean he is in himself. For the first time, he sees himself as totally unclean and can do nothing to purify himself while in God's presence.

Isaiah 6:5 "Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."

This is what seeing the purity of God does to one's soul. Paul also had a similar experience as Isaiah, writing down his conclusions in Romans Chapter 7:14-25:

(14) "For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin."

Paul describes the operation of SIN and what it was doing to him. Romans 7:15-16, 19 and 22:

(15) "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
(16) If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
(19) For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
(22) For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:"

Paul says how much he delights in the Law of God and hates sinning, but he finds out that he can't seem to stop himself or turn around. He wants to do what God says so badly he can taste it, but ends up doing the evil he hates instead. By wanting to do what's right Paul consents that the Law is good and holy. In his reflecting back on this he realizes that something (i.e. "Christ in you") is lacking in him, keeping him from doing all that God commands. He has come to this conclusion, that he (in and of himself) cannot obey God's Law perfectly as God instructs him to and as he wants to, and at this point, he doesn't know why.

The trouble with Paul as well as with us; at least at first, is that we all see that we need to seek and ask FORGIVENESS for our sins, YET we don't realize at first that another even more powerful principle is operating in us: "SIN". Before we come to the cross, we are what we do, and do what we are. This is our nature! However God wants us to go and sin no more!

We all need to ask Jesus to come and FORGIVE us of our sins, yes, but how much more do we need to come to Him in order to be CRUCIFIED with Him, in order to do away with our SIN nature (i.e. the Old Us), in order to be Born Again? The Cross is where WE chose to die with Him - to the Self-Life - to the WHO we are - to the Old Man - to the oneness we share with our SIN nature, then at our burial and beyond is where HE comes and puts and lives HIS LIFE in us!

In Romans 7: 17, 18, 20- 21 Paul; in reflecting back on it, came to see and discover this inescapable principle of SIN at work in him:

(17) "... it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
(18) For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
(20) Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
(21) I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me"

Paul has discovered this power of SIN operating in himself! He discovers how sin and himself are inextricably one and that there is no escape from this condition. He sees that he cannot please God in this condition. This is exactly what Paul needed to see! So at this point not only is Paul doing the evil he hated doing, but he comes to realize WHY he is in this awful condition in the first place. It's because he comes to see the sin (i.e. SIN nature) that is alive and dwelling in him, and that It is his very own nature.

Therefore, Paul was brought low to see what we all need to see and realize for ourselves: That we sin because us and our SIN nature are woven through as one and the same and there is no escaping this. The Spirit of Truth convinces us that we remain under God's wrath while in this condition. To recognize this is the beginning of the Christian life and walk.

Romans 7:23-24 Gives us the reason that we all need to recognize this horrible condition that we're in for ourselves and see and admit to our absolute hopelessness of obeying God, which in turn causes us to fly to Christ to be saved:

(23) "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
(24) O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

There is no escaping our death! We ALL must be brought low by the Spirit in order to see ourselves in this awful condition we're in. Until we do I believe there is no reason for our wanting to fly to (and become crucified with) Christ. Until we do, none of us will think that we're all that "bad". We must all come to see what SIN has done to us, and come to Jesus (who is The Way) to save us from WHO we are!

Finally in verse 25 Paul finds deliverance from SIN in Jesus Christ:

(25) "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

I like the way that Paul says it in Galatians 2:20, and Romans 8:2-4:

(20) "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

(2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me FREE from the law of sin and death.
(3) For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
(4) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk NOT after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

One final note. Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-29 and John 14:4-6:

(28) "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
(29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

(4) "And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
(5) Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
(6) "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."