Who Will Deliver Me out of the Body of This Death?

Through the apostle Paul's confession of the fierce battle within him between the law of sin and the law of God, the passage reveals how weak and self-centered human beings are. Paul came to recognize sin through the Law, yet he still gives in to the temptation of sin in his members and struggles, and this shows that the same is true of believers who have received Christ. We often mistake ourselves for 'good people' on the grounds of our moral superiority or good deeds, but true goodness comes from God and cannot be a matter of human standards.

The sermon uses the life and tragic death of Pastor David Wilkerson as an illustration, dealing with moments of pain and testing that human logic cannot understand. He devoted his whole life to drug addicts and gang children, but in the end his life ended in a car accident. Many people would easily take this as an unfair judgment or as God abandoning him, but the preacher stresses that this is an attack by Satan meant to make us doubt God, and that the moment every human way fails is exactly when God's love wins. Even in the hardships we face and in the shadow of death, we must remember that God is with us and that he has a plan.

We have lived believing in our own goodness, but when a great trial actually comes, we find our joy gone and ourselves resenting or doubting God. In this conflict, we must reflect on whether we are still judging situations in a self-centered way, or living in trust of Christ's will and God's sovereignty. When we see Pastor Wilkerson's death, what is the first thought that comes to us?