I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can’t help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things. I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can’t make myself do right! I want to, but I can’t. When I want to do good, I don’t. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. It seems a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

I never would have guessed that me and a man over 2,000 years old could have so much in common…