Elahe Hessamfar

  • Home
  • Bio
  • Book
  • Reflections
  • Contact

These are my reflections on those Scriptures that God has used to comfort me as I have travelled through the "valleys of Shadow of death." I am hoping that they will comfort those fellow-travelers who are going through the wilderness of life. At times, I will also write blogs relevant to mental illness, particularly as it relates to issues of faith, theology and community. All Scriptures used here will be from New American Standard Bible, unless otherwise specified.

Law Awakens Pride

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Elahe Hessamfar

For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. Romans 7:5

Our flesh is sinful and though we may have put our trust and faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, that does not mean that our flesh is dead completely. The process of crucifying our flesh is a life-long endeavor called sanctification, a process through which more and more our flesh dies and more and more the Spirit of God takes hold of our heart. We become holier and holier every day as we obey the Lord’s commandments and surrender our will to Him. As we become smaller, Jesus becomes bigger and more prominent in our lives (John 3:30). In Romans 7 we see that even Paul has a hard time with this process. Even he cannot get rid of his fleshly sinful acts overnight. Though he desires to follow the spirit of God, his flesh keeps acting against what his spirit desires.

In today’s text, Paul explains that the root of our problem is our innate pride that rules in our soul. We want to be in control and rule our lives. In fact, Paul explains that the more we learn what we should not do according to the Law of God, the more our sinful desires are awakened to do the opposite. That is because our pride does not surrender and does not want to be told what to do. Therefore, when the Law says “Don’t… ,” that is enough for our ego to want to do exactly the opposite. Due to our ego and pride ruling our heart, the commandments awaken our sinful passions against themselves, and those sinful passions lead to death and destruction. That is why through the law we become slaves of sin, by rebelling against the commandments. This does not mean that there is anything wrong with the law. It only shows that the law has no power to change our heart toward obedience.

But sin shall no longer be master over those who are not under the law, but under grace (Rom.6:14). As flesh is crucified more and more, those sinful passions cannot be awakened any longer, because they will be hung on the cross. Sin has lost its mastery! By His grace, we will have more power to say “no” as we grow in the Spirit.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Category: Devotional Tagged: Grace, Law, Pride, Romans, Sovereignty of God, Suffering

BOOK AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

Order Book

In the Fellowship of His Suffering: A Theological Interpretation of Mental Illness – A Focus on “Schizophrenia”

About Elahe Hessamfar

ELAHE HESSAMFAR is a former business executive and has a PhD in Divinity from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She has an MA in biblical studies from the Reformed Theological Seminary, an MS in computer science from the George Washington University, and a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK

FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK

Follow Me on Twitter

My Tweets

Order Book

In the fellowship of His suffering: A Theological Interpretation of Mental Illness.

Order In the fellowship of His suffering: A Theological Interpretation of Mental Illness via Amazon.

Social Links

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Recent Posts

  • What if Some of Our Psychiatric Symptoms are Iatrogenic?
  • Gaining Freedom in the Midst of Darkness: A Theological Perspective
  • A Theological Interpretation of the Language of Madness
  • What Should We Make of Hearing Voices?
  • Do Not Trust in Riches and Worldly Goods

In the fellowship of his suffering.

A Theological Interpretation of Mental Illness. - A Focus on "Schizophrenia"

Order Book

Copyright © 2025 · Elahe Hessamfar

Copyright © 2025 · Minimum Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in