The Problem is Inside of You

It is pretty frustrating doing what you know is wrong or doing what you hate doing and not being able to stop. Getting mad at a spouse, cheating at work or school, or harboring jealous thoughts. Something inside of us tugs at us and tries to tell us to stop. Maybe you can join in the same lamenting as Paul does:

Romans 7:17-20 - As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 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.

Paul struggled with being a Christian and having these conflicting desires. One side wanting to do good and one side wanting to do what pleases self. This is the old devil and angel on your shoulder. Some people call this the conscience.

This same idea is played out in the famous short story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this story Dr. Jekyll, literally tries to separate the sinful side of himself from himself. Mr. Hyde is the "sinful" side of him, which he transforms into when he wants to blow off some steam and release his sinful desires. In the end Dr. Jekyll dies and learns that you cannot separate the two, he was flawed from the inside. 

But I was still cursed with my duality of purpose; and as the first edge of my penitence wore off, the lower side of me, so long indulged, so recently chained down, began to growl for license. Not that I dreamed of resuscitating Hyde (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by :Robert Louis Stevenson)

 Dr. Jekyll wrongly assumed you could separate the two sides, visit the sinful side for a short while and then transform back and have altruistic motives.

The sin problem is inside of you, and Jesus is the person who can deal with it. You cannot separate them but you can kill the one.

Romans 6:6-7 - For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.  

Jesus, lived and died in place for your sins because your sins are not just pricks against your conscience. They are actually crimes against God. Jesus died to pay the penalty on your behalf for those crimes. He offers himself and new life to anyone who comes to Him in faith.

The problem is inside of you and the solution is outside of you in Jesus.