Tag: Romans 7
Thanks be to God!
Scripture reading for June 23: Romans 7
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 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. 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 7:21-25
Paul described for the Roman believers how he personally wrestled in his own body and soul with the sin nature that was exposed by being under the law. The law of God acted as a mirror, revealing the rebellion to God’s law within him. In his mind, Paul wanted to do right and obey God’s law. In fact, he was a zealous Pharisee who delighted in God’s law. But he found a war going on within the members of his body that wanted to do evil and break God’s law. He felt like a captive in his own body to the appetites of his flesh, defeated in fulfilling his desire to do right. He was a wretched man under bondage to his flesh. Who would be able to deliver him?
Paul answered his own question: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” It is through faith in Jesus Christ that the old sin nature in our members is defeated. God’s gift to us is Christ’s righteousness and the indwelling Holy Spirit Who leads us in triumph and applies Christ’s blood to our sins and eliminates guilt. Through the Spirit we put to death the old nature and find freedom. The Spirit reveals God’s Word and nature to us and in us as we humbly confess our sins and ask for mercy and power. The Spirit gives us understanding that we are God’s children and His love is shed abroad in our hearts! The Spirit brings the gifts and fruit that transform us into witnesses of Christ’s resurrection power.
Have you ever experienced what Paul describes as a war inside him between the desire to do good and evil present? Were you able to make the changes in yourself to defeat the evil desires from victory? Describe your “Thanks be to God” moment that helped you to victory.
Prayer: Father God, thanks be to You and Jesus Christ my Lord for the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Through Your Spirit, I am daily finding new freedom to walk in victory through humble dependence and obeying Your Word. Fill me with the Holy Spirit afresh today and use me to witness to a wretched soul. Amen.
The Way of the Spirit!
Scripture reading for June 22nd: Romans 7
Key Scriptures for over-comers: Romans 7:4-6 “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the Law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the Law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”
Jesus Christ came to earth to fulfill the Law and thereby be able to offer Himself–His body and blood–for the sacrificial payment for the sins of all other men born of Adam. Through faith in Christ’s death, we died to the Law of God. In Christ’s resurrection, we also were raised to a new life in order to bear fruit to God. Under the old sinful nature our attitudes and actions bore fruit for death. Sin (breaking God’s Law) always produces death! In Christ we are released from the Law and now have been given new life through the Holy Spirit! He wrote God’s Law on our hearts and leads us in the way of the Spirit!
Observations for over-comers: Over-comers live in the power of the Holy Spirit, they count their sinful nature dead through the cross of Christ and follow the way of the Spirit! “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
The new way of the Spirit!
Scripture reading for June 23rd: Romans 7
The way of Jesus Christ is not a set of laws or rules that one keeps to be right with God! Paul, a devout Jew before conversion, knew the futility of trying hard to keep God’s law and wrote about the experience to help those familiar with the law to experience the new freedom found in following Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
“So my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to Another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7:4-6)
Paul explained that the law of God was given to help man know what sin was. When Paul was young, before knowing God’s law, he was alive and unaware of the laws demands. When he learned the law, sin came to life in him and brought death to light. He became aware that he was ‘utterly sinful’ and a ‘slave to sin’. (Romans 7:13-14) He tried hard to keep the law, but failed repeatedly because of his sinful nature! (Romans 7:18-21)
But Paul found relief from his state of condemnation and death through Jesus Christ! Through the ‘new way of the Spirit’ he was released from the law, made alive, and set free to produce fruit for God! This way is available to all who would believe in Jesus Christ the Lord!