Romans 7:15
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
The fact is: We do stupid stuff. Procrastination of a chore that will have to be done sooner or later. How stupid to put it off, but we all know what it is to drag our feet. Anger over some trivial matter which only makes matters worse. How stupid is that? Stubbornness. How stupid. A hard heart—recklessness. A careless word—thoughtlessness. Leaving someone else out—just plane unkindness. “I don’t understand what I do.”
The famous comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had a falling out and wouldn’t speak for years and years. Stupid.
According to one historian, the legendary feud between the Kentucky McCoys and the West Virginia Hatfields began when two of their children, Roseanna and Johnse just wanted to get married. Others say the blood feud which eventually claimed dozens of lives began over ownership of a hog. Floyd Hatfield had it and Randolph McCoy said it was his.
Who knows? But we do such stupid things. A grudge. A bad habit. Absence from worship. Failure to apologize. Nit-picking criticism of others. Take a close look and one of those will fit.
Paul said again in verse 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.”
This was more than the puzzlement or bewilderment of a man stating the truth of his own stupidity. This was a man aware of the sin living in him. He confessed, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” A feud was being waged in his own mind and body.
Intelligence is no cure for stupidity. Some very intelligent people like former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich flabbergast others by their senseless stupidity. Neither are more rules or legislation a therapy for idiocy. An idiot like me only breaks them and becomes more evil. The apostle knew this profoundly. “Who,” he cries out, “will rescue me from this body of death?”
Who will rescue me from this incomprehension and incredulous stupidity warring in me?
“Who,” he cries. Not what! Who will rescue me from my stupid, stupid sins? Not, “When will I grow up?” or “How can I beat this thing?” or “Where can I escape from my folly?” but WHO—who will come to help me?
Who never retaliated, never made threats (1 Peter 2:23), never returned insults or harmed? Who never made a gaffe or blunder—a man without error, a sinless man? I need one who is wisdom. I need “Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (1 Cor. 1:30).
Of course, remember that even his friends thought Jesus was stupid to return to Jerusalem when the authorities already had tried to stone him there. His leading disciple, Peter, considered Jesus ridiculous not to at least put up a fight. This was nothing new. Once his own family went to take charge of Jesus, for they said, "He is out of his mind." (Mark 3:21) Was Jesus stupid to love us so? Was he a meathead to endure the foolishness of friends and the farce set up by his enemies?
You can believe that they called him that and more. What names were hurled at God’s Son we shame to even think. Oh, God, what assault to his ears, his character, his person when it is I who am such a sinful fool, doing what I hate and failing to do what I ought to do.
St. Paul’s answer to his incomprehensible dilemma was simply to shout, “Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25), who has never called us a name except to call us Christian—to give us His name; who never played the fool but displayed the very wisdom of God through the cross. Going to his death for you and me was never rash or dim-witted. It was conscious, reckoned, holy, deliberate, and intentional.
Jesus doesn’t do stupid stuff.
When he forgives you, he is not being taken in or played for a sucker. He is rescuing you. When he daily and richly shields and cares for you, it’s not silly. It is our God mindful of his promises and premeditated in the guardianship of you, whom he loves, not because you’re astute or know how to step carefully (you and I aren’t any more than St. Paul was), but because He, Christ, is flawless in mercy, love, and undeserved favor. We have been unwise in many things and have done more stupid stuff than we can count. But there is nothing stupid in the cure of all that in the cross.
Prayer: Lord, forgive my stupidity, my sin. And help me to see the wisdom of the cross by which my Savior, Jesus Christ, heals and blesses me. Thanks be to God. Amen