“If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
“Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” [ROMANS 7:7-20].
“We know that the law is spiritual.” This is quite an arresting statement that the Apostle penned. Though many Evangelical Christians seem prepared to dismiss the Mosaic Law as archaic, inconsequential, somehow unworthy of revelations in the New Testament, the Apostle clearly held a high opinion of the Law. He wrote, “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” In making this statement, Paul asserts that mankind intuitively recognises that the law is spiritual. Nevertheless, he is adamant that neither he nor anyone else dared assert they were capable of keeping that law. The Apostle exposes the struggle mankind has with knowing God’s mind and their failure to fulfil the will of the Living God.
It is one thing to accuse lost people of failing to live up to God’s revealed will—the lost neither know God nor can they please Him. Oh, make no mistake, many lost people know about God—they know His Name, they say prayers when it seems necessary, they may perform rites and rituals, they may even go to church; however, the unsaved have no desire to put God first, seeking His glory. However, in the passage before us, the Apostle is exposing the failure of those who profess to walk with God to fulfil His divine will. The Apostle to the Gentiles is charging professed Christians with failure to fulfil the Law. And he is correct!
For an individual living in the flesh—and that would be all of us—there is no possibility of actually being spiritual. Oh, yes, we may argue that we are spiritual, when we actually mean that we are religious or that we are cognizant of the spirit world. Perhaps we mean that we are spiritual beings in that if we are born from above we have the Spirit of God living within; nevertheless, we struggle for mastery over the Spirit, seeking involuntarily to assert ourselves against the upward pull of God’s Spirit.
What is especially galling for the Christian is that she or he is certain that the law is spiritual—after all, God gave the Law. However, the Christian knows that the purpose of the Law was not to make us righteous; in fact, the Law exposed our unrighteousness. This admission is painful, it devastates our personal estimate of our own goodness. Yet, many of the professed people of God appear intent on demanding that God judge them by their own goodness. They view the Law in a cursory fashion and claim that they have kept that Law. However, the Word of God is quite clear that no one has ever kept the Law.
THE LAW IS SPIRITUAL — “We know that the law is spiritual.” In making this statement, the Apostle is contrasting the origin and the purpose of the Law with the inability of mankind to satisfy God’s righteous demands. The full statement is, “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin” [ROMANS 7:14]. It is not that people don’t want to do what is right; rather, it is that people cannot do right. Neither lost people nor redeemed people are able to do the things God calls us to do in our own strength.
Let me be brutally honest with you listening today. The majority who hear me now are Christians. You are twice-born children of God. You have faith in the Son of God and His Spirit lives in you. You know that your sins are forgiven and that He will receive you into His heaven by His mercies when you exit this life. Because you are born from above, you want to do what pleases the Father. And yet…
You face an internal struggle that seems never to give you rest. Your old nature is at war with the Spirit of God living within. The thing you must never forget is—You’re Not Alone! This is a battle each Christian faces. If this was not the case, why do we need the admonition, “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” [HEBREWS 12:1, 2]. It is precisely because we struggle against our old nature.
It is because we struggle, and not always successfully, against the old nature that we hear the admonition, “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” [EPHESIANS 4:22-24].
Because we do struggle, the warnings of the Word have a great impact in our lives, revealing what we become when we fail to heed the Word of God. The Apostle warns believers, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all” [COLOSSIANS 3:9-11].
The Law does not make us sin; the Law exposes our sin. God’s holy directives reveal our true nature; and our new nature will be engaged in a continual struggle to suppress what is natural. Let me remind you that it is natural to worship our own ability or to create a god of our own choosing, because it permits us to maintain control. It is natural to blaspheme God, because we want to remain in control. It is natural to ignore worship, because we want to please the body rather than honouring God. It is natural to treat our parents with contempt, because we place ourselves at the centre of our universe. It is natural to hate, to lust, to steal, to lie and to submit to greed, because the flesh demands that we exalt self rather than honouring God. The Law exposes who we are; it does not make us who we are.
The Apostle demands that we submit to the new nature, permit the Spirit of God living within to direct our life. Let’s admit that fulfilling this demand is not something we can do, and certainly it is not something that we can sustain, in our own strength. If we will submit to the new nature, we must be empowered to do so by that Holy Spirit living within.
This is the reason for instruction, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! —assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
“Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” [EPHESIANS 4:17-5:6].
Let’s understand the origin of the Law. “We know that the Law is spiritual,” writes Paul. God gave the Law. No parliament gave the Law. No congress met and drafted the Law. No legislature created the Law. God gave the Law. Though people may argue that human minds united to create the tenets that accord with the Law of God, the evidence suggests otherwise. Arguably, the greatest political document of western history is the American Declaration of Independence. That document, copied by multiple nations and honoured by all (if only superficially) declares, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
In writing that “all men are created equal [and] that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” those men who drafted this American Declaration of Independence appealed to the Law of God. God’s Law gives liberty, gives peace, gives power to serve and honour Him who gives life. Thus, when we read the Ten Words, or when we read any other portion of the Word, we recognise that God has given this Law for our good. This truth is too often forgotten in this day, or if it is remembered, it is ignored. Perhaps we imagine that we are the people and that wisdom will die with us.
In my devotional reading, I read alphabetically through the Bible. That way, I’m compelled to read from both the Old Testament and the New Testament on an ongoing basis. Currently, I am reading the Book of Leviticus, the presentation of God’s divine Law. Whilst reading several chapters yesterday morning, I reviewed various laws concerning purity. I read about the days of ritual purification for a woman after the birth of a child, the contamination arising from and necessity for purification resulting from various skin diseases as well as the contamination of a house and the required purification rituals. Now, I’m the first to admit that on the surface, the Book of Leviticus does not appear very engaging. The recitation of the Law doesn’t excite us; candidly, the book bores us and we avoid wading through it if possible.
Nevertheless, as I read these chapters on this occasion, I found my thoughts turning to why God would be so meticulous with what appears to many to be tedious at best. Then, I read this statement, “Thus, you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst” [LEVITICUS 15:31]. That is significant! Daily life in Israel constituted an environment in which the people would be constantly reminded of their sinful condition and they would be convinced of the need for God’s mercy if they would have any hope of ever honouring Him in worship. It was not a matter that they needed purification occasionally! They would need to be purified repetitively and constantly. It must have seemed impossible to be ritually pure for one living under the Law. The Law didn’t purify the people; the Law exposed their impurity!
The Law of God exposed the unbridgeable gulf between God and man. The Law of God revealed the contamination of the flesh and the righteous demands of the Living God. The Law of God demonstrated man’s inability to do anything to make himself acceptable to God. After centuries of living under the Law, of multiplied generations attempting to be perfect, an unknown writer confessed, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” [HEBREWS 10:4].
OUR INABILITY TO FULFIL THE LAW’S DEMANDS — “I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” [ROMANS 7:14b, 15]. The Law originates in the mind of God and reveals true holiness; therefore, the Law is spiritual. We see true holiness revealed in the Law, we hear the call to submit to the Law and we are forced to confess that we are incapable of keeping the Law.
When Paul and Barnabas appeared at the Jerusalem Conference, they showed how God was working among the Gentiles. One would think that hearing of the salvation of lost sinners would be a joyful report for redeemed people. However, we read in Doctor Luke’s account, “But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses’” [ACTS 15:5]. The conflict between Law and grace was breaking out, leading to open conflict among the Christians.
Take note of the response of these first believers. “The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, ‘Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will’” [ACTS 15:6-11].
Did you notice Peter’s argument focused on the inability to keep the Law? That inability results from the disparity between the Law’s spiritual origin and man being in the flesh. The natural man can never fulfil the Law’s demands. Those individuals who argue that they live by the Law are claiming to do something that none of the elders of that first congregation were able to do. The denominations that teach that one might keep the Law and please God must confront the admission delivered by the Apostle to the Gentiles, “Why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear” [ACTS 15:10]?
That objection anticipated Paul’s confrontation of the churches of Galatia. These Christians had suffered an invasion from people who shared the view of those challenging Paul at the Jerusalem conference. Consequently, the believers were very careful to observe the Sabbath and to keep the Law as they understood the Law. The Apostle was compelled to write, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain” [GALATIANS 4:8-11].
On another occasion, Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae because they were being bothered by people who were attempting to restrict their freedom in Christ. The Apostle’s words can be read in COLOSSIANS 2:16-23. “Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
“If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—'Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”
Did you pick up on what Paul said? The day on which you worship must not be imposed as human dictum. Regulations for worship degenerate into mere appearance, though they have no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. The regulations and rituals that some count as so essential to pleasing God tend to cause self exaltation rather than leading us to worship in Spirit and in truth. The reason for this inability is the disparity between the Law’s origin and man’s condition. This is the meaning of Jesus’ teaching to Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” [JOHN 3:6].
These passages all point to the same thing—our inability to fulfil the Law’s demands. Regardless of how well we imagine we know what the Law demands of us, regardless of our resolve to honour God through keep the demands of the Law, regardless of that fact that we can diagnose the cause of our failure, we can never keep the Law of God.
Here is a fascinating insight into what the Apostle has written in this chapter. The Law is vitally important to understanding Paul’s argument in this chapter. He speaks of the Law twenty-three times. Almost equally important is the concept of sin. He points to sin on fifteen occasions in this same chapter. Obviously, there is an intertwining of the two concepts. If we will understand what the Apostle is saying, we need to unravel the two concepts.
The Law is God’s diagnostic tool. The purpose of the Law of God is to expose the disease that has infected all mankind since the fall of our first parents. Then, having exposed our own contaminated condition, the Law confronts us with the prognosis—the disease is fatal if it is not treated. However, our disease is completely curable. The Law doesn’t cause death anymore than an MRI causes cancer.
CONFUSION AND CONSTERNATION — “I do not understand my own actions. I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” [ROMANS 7:15-20].
The Apostle writes of his quandary, a conflict that has no resolution. The entire passage demonstrates serious inadequacies inherent in the human condition. These summary statements reveal that human knowledge is insufficient. We know what is the right thing to do; but knowing does not make what is right and good happen! Intuitively, we know that it is right to honour God. So, we attempt to please Him by being religious. We go to church, say prayers, observe rite and ritual and immediately return to living as we have always lived. We know what is right; but we find it impossible to do right.
When you think of the issue in that vein, it reveals a fatal flaw in human thinking as practised in western culture in this day. We are told that we can choose to be whomever we imagine we want to be, despite knowing that biology cannot be ignored. In our world we witness human lizards, men and women who split their tongue, tattoo their skin to resemble scales and insert metal or plastic into their head and face to resemble horns. However, no one is so deceived as to believe these individuals actually become a lizard. They are still human despite all the external transformation they have subjected themselves to.
Similarly, a male can imagine he is a woman, or a female may decide she is a man. Either of these individuals may enlist the help of a surgeon to mutilate the body in an attempt to appear to be their newly chosen sex. However, biology remains unchanged, the genetic code is not changed. A male will remain a male and a female will remain a female. An individual can fight against biology, but it is a losing battle.
The Psalmist gave voice to the reality of our situation when he wrote in PSALM 139:13-16,
“You formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.”
I cannot change biology. I can declare that I am a twenty-year-old, seven-foot-tall basketball player. Nevertheless, I am deluding myself if I think that NBA scouts are going to sign me to play basketball. More than that, if I think that by declaring myself to be a young man I will have the strength and stamina that I had when I was fifty years younger, I am sadly misinformed. Jesus challenged contemporary man’s battle against biology, when He said, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life” [MATTHEW 6:27]? Man’s supposed knowledge fails to transmogrify the individual into something that person decides should be when the knowledge biology; biology refuses to play along with our delusions.
Just as biology determines our sex, our height and our physical parameters, so pleasing God is an issue of whether we are born from above. God gave a perfect Law, and no one was ever able to keep that Law. That Law revealed God’s holiness; and it exposed man’s failure to be holy. Tragically, it is impossible to reflect the character of the Living God if we have never been born of the Spirit into His family.
There is a vast difference between righteousness and religion. Knowledge of what is right cannot equip us to do what is right. Religion is our outward effort to compel God to receive us on our terms. Knowing who we are allows us to be honest before God and honest with ourselves. When we are honest, we are able to come before the Lord God humbly seeking mercy and asking that He equip us to honour Him by fulfilling His will for our life.
Again, the passage before us reminds us that human resolution is inadequate. Perhaps we know what is right, and we may even declare that we are determined to do what is right. However, despite our resolve, we fail again and again. We are forced to the conclusion that man’s will, divorced from divine power, can never fulfil the will of God. The alcoholic resolves to quit drinking each day she awakens with a hangover. The pornography addict resolves to quit each time he is caught wallowing in the muck of degradation. However, resolve is never enough to empower an individual to do what is right. The Law condemns us, and we feel terrible; but our feelings only make us more miserable and our resolve is futile in the face of sin.
Perhaps you will recall Peter’s bold declaration after the Master had warned of His pending passion. Peter asserted, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death” [LUKE 22:33]! Worse yet, we read, “All the disciples said the same” [MATTHEW 26:35b]. All the disciples, and especially Peter, were resolved to stand firm in the face of challenges that were coming. You know the rest of the story, however. Peter, and all the disciples, deserted the Master in His trial. Their resolve melted away like the morning dew before the threat of crucifixion. It was one thing to revolve to stand firm when the Master stood with them and they did not see the immediate threat. When the threat materialised, their resolve failed to meet the challenge.
This passage reveals the limitations of diagnosis; knowing the flaw in our nature does nothing to change us into a righteous person. The Apostle knew what was wrong; but he was powerless to change anything. Likewise, many of us know exactly what is wrong in our life, but we are powerless to change it. We are like the woman who complained to her pastor that something was wrong in her walk with Christ, but she wasn’t quite sure what it could be. The pastor wisely said to her, “Take a stab at it. You’ll likely name it quite convincingly.” We know what is the problem in our life; but knowing is not transforming.
Paul says, “It is no longer I who [sin]” [ROMANS 7:17a]. He is adamant that the real Paul would never consent to living in this way. The evil that he is doing is accomplished against his own good intentions.
He is not excusing himself, however. Paul recognises that the sin which plagues him and makes him miserable is nothing less than “sin that dwells within me” [ROMANS 7:17b]. Paul realises that sin has fatally infected the flesh; and all that is associated with the flesh is contaminated. Theologians speak of this as total depravity. It is not that we are as sinful as we could be, but it does mean that we are incapable of making ourselves acceptable to the Living God through our own efforts. The Apostle is not denying personal responsibility in making these statements; he is recognising reality. The real Paul is being made holy, but the flesh is dying. There is a continuing struggle between the flesh and the Spirit.
I’m speaking to some people who want to do what is right, and you cannot. I’m speaking to some people who feel at times exhausted because the intent of their lives is God’s glory, and they feel frustrated because they cannot live so as to honour God. There are days you feel miserable because you long to be holy, and you know you have failed. You try to read the Word of God, and it seems as if each verse condemns you. Your condition is described by Paul’s testimony, “I delight in the law of God, in my inner being” [ROMANS 7:22]. You want to shout, “Yes!” as you read that. The corollary is found in the next verse. “But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” [ROMANS 7:23]. It is this struggle that drains you of spiritual energy. So, you find yourself pleading, as does the Apostle, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death” [ROMANS 7:24]?
Here is the good news for despairing saints: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” [ROMANS 7:25]. So long as I am in the flesh, I will always struggle with sinful impulses, knowing that I have failed to measure up to God’s holy Law. However, the real me—the one who is twice-born, will move steadily Heavenward. My desire to please God will only grow stronger, and I know that there are days I shall feel miserable because of my failings. However, I am comforted by this thought—what I could never do, Christ has done for me. This is the reason Paul will shortly write, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” [ROMANS 10:4].
The positioning of verses and chapters in contemporary Bibles can be most unfortunate on occasion. When the Bible was originally written, there were no verses or chapters. Read again what Paul has written as he moves from despair to victory: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” [ROMANS 7:24, 25].
That is a good statement, but the Apostle’s train of thought continues into the following chapter; and that chapter is necessary for full encouragement. Listen to how that chapter opens. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” [ROMANS 8:1, 2]. If you are a child of God, if you have faith in the Son of God, you are not under condemnation because you are in the flesh. The Spirit of God brings freedom in Christ Jesus.
This is but an iteration of something Paul wrote in an earlier letter to the Churches of Galatia. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” [GALATIANS 5:1]. Shortly after writing these words, the Apostle emphasised both the freedom we enjoy in Christ and the responsibility that freedom imposes when he wrote, “You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” [GALATIANS 5:13].
The Apostle provides an explanation for how this freedom in Christ has been secured. Paul writes, “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” [ROMANS 8:3, 4].
There is a warning given to those who never struggle, or those who surrender to the flesh. We read, “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” [ROMANS 8:5-8].
Permit me to conclude with this word of encouragement for believers. I’m speaking especially to you who struggle against the flesh. You don’t always feel as though you are successful in your struggle. You know the Law of God; in fact, it is written on your heart. However, you have never kept that Law, though you want to. This final testimony is for you. “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” [ROMANS 8:9-11].
Those who attempt to assuage God’s wrath by keeping some sort of Law. Ritual only exposes your inability to please God. Even attempting to maintain the Law of God as given in the Word of God must lead to frustration as you shall surely fail. We must realise that the Law of God exposes us for the sinful creature that we are. What we need, then, is not Law, but grace. And that grace is found in Christ Jesus as Master of life.
God presented His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sin. Now, we are called to look to Him, receiving His sacrifice in our place. This is grace. Hear the promise of God, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” [ROMANS 10:9, 10]. Paul concludes that call with a citation from the Prophet Joel. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [ROMANS 10:13].
And that is our call to each one. Believe on Jesus as Master over life, and you will be free. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
