Winning the war between good and evil within
Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
When Robert Louis Stevenson published his Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde it quickly became an international bestseller. Dr Jekyll concocts a potion that turns him into the depraved and deformed Mr Hyde. The story depicts extremes of good and evil in the one person.
“Jekyll is a dreadful thing . . . ,” wrote Stevenson to a friend, “but the only thing I feel dreadful about is this damned old business of the war in the members.”
The “war in the members” comes from Romans 7:23 (KJV) where Paul speaks of the war between good and evil within. We all have a Hyde inside—to some extent.
In Romans 7, Paul wants freedom from a life influenced by evil. Then he exclaims: “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25, NLT). Through Jesus there are victories, but before the ultimate victory (the Second Coming) the Hyde inside remains.
When Stevenson settled in Samoa in 1890, the locals called him “Tusitala,” “Teller of tales.” That’s how he’s best remembered—he wrote the classics Treasure Island; The Master of Ballantrae; and Kidnapped.
I once walked to the top of the not-so-high Mount Vaea on Samoa to Stevenson’s grave (he died in 1894, aged 44). It’s an impressive tomb—with a great view. His Requiem is inscribed on it:
“Under the wide and starry sky,/ Dig the grave and let me lie./ Glad did I live and gladly die,/ And I laid me down with a will./ This be the verse you grave for me,/ Here he lies where he longed to be./ Home is the sailor home from the sea,/ And the hunter home from the hill.
He’s at rest, at peace. His “war in the members” is over. But for those of us still battling the Hyde inside: “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
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