Trust in an Imperfect World

"THE good that I wish I do not do, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice." Do you find this to be true in your case? Be encouraged to know that the apostle Paul had the same problem; yet he was a man of outstanding Christian integrity. Is this not a contradiction? In his letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul analyzed the problem: "If, now, what I do not wish is what i do,the one working it out is no longer I, but the sin dwelling in me." To what sins does he refer, and how did he overcome it so as to be a man of integrity? -Romans 7:19, 20.

Earlier in his letter, Paul wrote: "Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned." The "one man" was Adam. (Romans 5:12, 14) Adamic sin-the sin of the first man, Adam -is the cause of the inbred imperfections of the human race and an underlying reason why keeping integrity is a real challenge.

Paul's view of "original sin," as it used to be termed, is not widely accepted today because the Bible's account of creation has been rejected in theological circles in favor of theories of evolution. "Scholars have thrust the whole passage aside" is how one modern commentary on Romans 5:12-145 puts it. Yet a hundred years ago, Bible commentaries consistently explained that "when Adam sinned . . .he tainted with that sin and with its consequences all his progeny."

Next time: Original Loss of Integrity

Watchtower, 19997