Superhero Theology I: Indwelling Sin and Deliverance

I figured it would be clever to take public wallpapers and drop in some theology with a superhero motif. I'm pretty sure these can be considered fair use for educational purposes but...who knows? I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.

This will be the first of many or until I get told to stop using the images. Today's post is of a wannabe hulk and a passage from Romans on man's indwelling sin and the Law at work in man. In the end it points us to a need for Christ (constantly). 

Romans 7:15-26 ~ “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. 

Even after we are saved, there will continue to be a struggle with our very natures which are sinful. There is a constant tension described above and an inability to rid ourselves of our sinful nature that urges us to do things that lead to sin/death come out clearly in Paul’s writing here. Like hulking mass above we will never fully escape this battle with temptation in this life but through Christ we will have victory over sin in the end. It does not mean it will not plague us. True to our nature (and all superheroes) we will be frustrated in this battle. Please note that Paul asks who will save him, not what. It is a man, not a thing. It is the god-man that overcame sin with His own life. It is why all including superheroes must turn it over to Christ if we are to overcome this indwelling sin that frustrates and torments us at every turn.