"My Greatest Ene-ME" October 30 Readings: Romans 6-7

Today's Reading - Romans 6-7 

Background

• I've been saved by grace so it really doesn't matter if I sin, right?
• Forgiving my sin brings glory to God, so I might as well sin so that he can be glorified in forgiving me, right?
• We aren't under the Old Testament Law anymore, right? So I can live any way that I please!

It is amazing how many ways people have found through the years to distort and pervert the teaching of the greatest truth ever - salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In Romans 6, Paul begins of his teaching on "righteousness by faith" that would continue through chapter 7, dealing with the common objections to the teaching and excuses people might give for living shoddy lives after receiving God's grace.

He answers three questions - excuses, really - that people have set forth for sin. Many take the beautiful, wonderful teaching of grace and twist it into something ugly, an excuse to sin, and this causes others to reject grace. So Paul at the very beginning answered these questions. He makes it clear, in the baptismal formula in verse 4, that...

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Since this is true, verses 12 and 13 explain clearly how we ought to live.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

Those who have been given a free salvation, won by Christ's work and not our own works, ought not to use that as an excuse to sin. We ought never to allow sin to reign over us - Christ has broken its grip, it's mastery over us - but instead, we ought to offer ourselves completely to God and every part of our existence to him for his use.

It is the only fitting response to so great a salvation as ours.

Devotional - My Greatest Ene-ME

Hey, who has been reading my diary? That's not right! 

Ever felt that way when you were listening to a preacher and suddenly its like he is talking directly to you, like he knows your heart and life? That's how I feel when I read Romans 7, especially verses 13-24.

(NOTE: Theologians debate this passage as to who Paul is talking about - many doubt that some of Paul's statements could apply to the redeemed. That is silly to me. Every Christian I've ever known is both redeemed AND struggling - just like Paul's testimony here. Sometimes theologians perhaps theologize too much for their own good?)

In those verses, Paul describes the inner struggle that Christians go through between the work of God's Spirit within them, drawing them toward righteousness and holiness and the power of the sinful flesh that remains in each of us. Verses 22-23 say, 

For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, 23 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.

Paul admitted being torn between the inner work of grace and the remaining power of sin. It was a constant and lifelong struggle, even for the redeemed. And Paul often felt trapped in this struggle. He wanted to do what was right, to follow the ways of God, but sin continued to lay its appeal before him. Verses 18-21 explain the conflict. 

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. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me

That's me in a single paragraph. I want to do right. I want to break bad habits and build new ones. I want to say yes to God and no to sin. I really do want to, but sin is still there. I do not do what I want to do and what I want to do I do. Evil is right there ready to fight against the work of God in me. 

I wish a day would come when the struggle would be over, when my flesh would no longer draw me toward sin, when the Spirit's work in my soul would be complete and my life would only be righteous. I wish. And it will be like that one day. It's called heaven. Glory. But here in this world, we have to live with the struggle. 

But we do not have to lose the struggle. We may lose battles along the way, but Jesus Christ died and rose so that sin would not control us or enslave us. Observe verses 24-25. 

Wretched man I am! (Anyone else feel that way from time to time?) Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Some days I want to give up on myself because of my fleshly failures but thank God, it's not about me! Jesus Christ has delivered me from the penalty of sin. He will one day deliver me from the very presence of sin. And today, day by day, Jesus Christ is working to deliver me in this lifelong, intense, often challenging and discouraging battle against the power of sin. He strengthens me! Thanks be to God that Jesus does for me what this wretched man cannot do for himself - to battle sin and win. 

I thank you, Father, that through your Son I have hope. I get so frustrated with myself, but you are patient and powerful. Father, fill me with your Spirit today that I may walk in the victory over sin you have given me. 

Think and Pray

Do you use the grace of God as an excuse for careless living? Repent and ask God's strength to walk in the new life God prepared for you.
Remember that Jesus Christ gives us victory as we walk in him and he can and will give us the strength we need in this battle with our own inner, "wretched man."