Romans 7

Our brains have difficulty processing negatives. In fact, I wonder if it's even possible for us to process a negative statement. Let me give you an example: do not think about an elephant in a tutu. You saw in your mind an elephant in a tutu, didn't you? Of course you did, you can't help it. It's almost as if your brain completely ignores the word "not." It's part of our nature, and it creates opportunities for sin.

Before I told you not to think about an elephant, odds are that you weren't thinking one, but the second that I told you not to do it, you did. And even now, you may still have some thought of an elephant in your head that you just can't get rid of. Why an elephant? Why is it wearing a tutu? Is it graceful? Sorry, I got sidetracked.

The point is, as a species, we are sinful, but our sinning tends to increase in relation to number of things that we are told to avoid. Thinking about an elephant is not all that important, but the second that we are told not to covet, to use Paul's example, we start to covet. It's a destructive cycle. The good news is that we can live through the grace of Jesus and step away from the legality of the Law. We can't ignore the Law, but we don't have to be bound to it, and we can live with assurance of salvation and forgiveness through grace. Because trying it on our own is going to be like trying to not think of an elephant, it's impossible.