Occasional thoughts

I started this a  while back with the idea that I would record some occasional thoughts. Not sure why I have not used it for a while. Maybe I got lazy, maybe I felt nobody was reading, maybe I have not been thinking!

Decided a few days ago that I would re-start and set myself a goal of writing at least twice a week as this would be a good discipline to make me think things through. I had an initial thought but this as overtaken a couple of days ago so I will come back to that thought later.

I am currently working through a little booklet for Lent from the Church of England called Living Hope. On Thursday it referenced verses from Roman & which includes the words “²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!.

I was reminded of something I wrote a couple of years ago and show it below.

The Roman Empire produced a lot of positive benefits for the world but when it came to punishments it also produced many cruel and violent things. We are familiar with crucifixion but there were other punishments. One of these I was not aware of until a few weeks ago. A murderer could be required to have the corpse of his victim strapped to their back their back for the rest of their days.

Imagine the difficulty of carrying that weight or trying to sit or lie down. Imagine the stench as decomposition set in – surely appetite would disappear, and starvation would kick in.

Imagine the diseases as the body rotted away.

What would kill first? Exhaustion? Starvation? Disease?

No chance of relief and death the only release.

Did Paul have this in mind when he wrote in Romans, Chapter 7, verse 24, “wretched man that I am! who will release me from the body of death?

The earlier verses may suggest that he did but although the murderer had no one to rescue him, we do. In the next verse he continues “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”

In chapter 13 verse 14 he says “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh”

In this background I find an understanding that had eluded me.

How about you?

1st December 2022