Two Faces: Bible/Song Meld, part 2

This is a sequel. That means there was another Bible/Song Meld. What can I say. I listen to a lot of secular music. I read the Bible. They both move me. It struck me how this song and this Bible passage both work together. The Bible is in bold and the Springsteen is in italics.

I met a girl and we ran away
I swore I'd make her happy every day
And how I made her cry
Two faces have I

I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within my keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

Sometimes mister I feel sunny and wild
Lord I love to see my baby smile
Then dark clouds come rolling by
Two faces have I

It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

One that laughs one that crys
One says hello one says goodbye
One does things I don't understand
Makes me feel like half a man

I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?

At night I get down on my knees and pray
Our love will make that other man go away
Be he'll never say goodbye
Two faces have I

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

Last night as I kissed you 'neath the willow tree
He swore he'd take your love away from me
He said our life was just a lie
And two faces have I

With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

Well go ahead and let him try.

God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son.

The Bible passage is Paul's letter to the Romans, 7:14 to 8:3, taken from "The Message" by Eugene H. Peterson. The song is Bruce Springsteen's "Two Faces" from the under-appreciated album TUNNEL OF LOVE (Columbia, 1987).