Many Christians can understand Dr. Banner's plight, whether they realize it or not. Just think: how many times have you been trying so hard to walk with God, thinking you were growing in your faith, only to totally screw up? Maybe it's a recurring temptation you keep falling for, or maybe it's an attitude that you just cannot shake. Regardless, you feel like you have a dark side that no matter how hard you try, it keeps on bursting forward like your own Hulk. The apostle Paul understands your struggles. Look at this:
"Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power. For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law. But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body?" -Romans 7:13-24, HCSB
He gets us! The same guy who said "To live is Christ, to die is gain" was, in fact, a human that struggled with sin like we do! How comforting, first of all, is it to know that even the apostles struggled with sin, just like us?
The question we arrive at, however, is the same one Paul arrives at: who will rescue us from our sinful, wretched body that continues to strive for godlessness? The answer is in verse 25 of the same chapter:
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin." -Romans 7:25, HCSB
Thanks to Christ's death and resurrection, and our subsequent salvation, we are no longer slaves to the sin that tortures us. Yes, we will still struggle, as our flesh remains a slave "to the law of sin." BUt our minds and souls are now bound to Christ, and we are being sanctified (made like God) through Him! Whoo!
I challenge you, Christian: remember you are no longer bound to sin, and look to the cross in times of temptation. I will try to do the same. If you aren't a Christian, or aren't sure, run from your sin and earthly desires! Run to Christ, and allow Him to free you from the bondage of this world. He is the only way for us to escape our inner Hulk. Let Him do it.
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