Romans 7-8
Paul continued his line of complex reasoning, developing the thought that he might be controlled by sin, so that he did not do what he wanted, but what sin wanted. Some of the class compared this to the role of the Devil in some of Luther’s writings, others to Flip Wilson’s famous line “The Devil made me do it”.
We looked briefly at how Paul describes the Devil as “Lord of this World”, and discussed how this might answer the question “Why does God let bad things happen to good people”. Paul, indeed, does not expect Christians to have a comfortable life, but warns them to expect suffering.
Paul describes how the Law could suggest sinful actions, and thus be counter-productive. Paul suggests that Jesus can be the solution to these dilemmas, and concludes chapter 8 with the famous statement “I am persuaded that neither death not life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, no any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord."
A discussion we had on whether any scripture was written by women is posted separately.