Day 203 Bible Readings – Romans 7: 24-25 (ESV)

Hosea 6 & 7, Romans 7: 7-25, Psalm 108: 1-5

Romans 7: 24-25 (ESV)

“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.”

Verses 24 and 25 from Romans 7 is the conclusion of Paul’s question of whether the law is sin. Paul argues that sin eventually leads to death. Even if we are saved in Jesus Christ and given a new life, we will still struggle with sin. Paul writes “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.” Even though we may delight in the law of God, we will always face a struggle within ourselves between our body and our mind to commit sin. Paul argues that the only way to win this inner struggle with sin is to rely on Christ. We cannot face this struggle alone. Faith in Jesus doesn’t take away the struggle, but Jesus works through so we can victory over sin. David Guzik in his bible commentary has argued that 1) the law teaches us what not do but we couldn’t do because of our sinful nature, and 2) the law tells us what we need to do like a coach but we still couldn’t do it, and 3) the law cannot heal our sinful nature; what we need is a savior and that savior is Jesus Christ.

Day 202 Bible Readings – Romans 6: 20-23 (ESV)

Hosea 3-5, Romans 6: 15-23, Romans 7: 1-6, Psalm 107: 33-43

Romans 6: 20-23 (ESV)

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Verses 20 and 21 from Romans 6 shows Paul asking us to look into our future to see what we get if we continue to sin and forget how our faith in Christ saved us and gave us a new life. If we continue to do the same things over and over again and sin, does it lead us to a better life 20 to 30 years down the road. Paul says NO, sin leads us to death. Now contrast this bleak future with the future we are promised with faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ leads to eternal life with God when we die. We will live in paradise with God when we die. We will not judged by our life of sin, because the grace of Christ prepaid our sins before God.

I think Paul’s advice is also a great way to look at any habit we want to break from rom in our life. We need to view each habit that we want to eliminate from our life and ask ourselves to see what our life will be like 20 to 30 years into the future if we continue this habit. Does the habit lead to us to have a long, fulfilling life filled with pleasure and fun? Or does the habit lead to a future that is filled with problems of health, wealth, and worry? If we don’t like the future we see with that habit, it may be enough incentive to give up the habit for good and create new habits to create the future that we do want. I know that I like the future I see with my continued faith in Christ. I see a future that is free from worry and filled with miracles from God.

Faith in Jesus Christ is the 13th Step to break free from addictions

I just realized after reading a part of Romans 6 that faith in Jesus Christ is the 13th step. If you follow 12-step philosophy about how to break addictions or strongholds, there is a phenomenon called the 13th step. When you reach the 13th step, you break your addictions to the point where you no longer identify yourself as a person who was addicted in the first place. You have a new life.

If you have believe you have been truly saved by Jesus Christ and you identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, then you have a new life and body. Faith in Jesus Christ gives you a new life as a person who never had the addictions and strongholds of your old life. 

But this type of belief in Christ can only come to a person who believe that grace and faith in Christ has truly changed them. For some believers this will be an all-at-once process. For other believers, this change will take time. A part of our life will be changed, and another part will need to be changed. But if we have faith and trust in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, then we know that we will be guided to change the parts of our life that have not been changed. It make a take a lifetime, but we know that we will have victory with God on our side.

Day 201 Bible Readings for July 21 – Romans 6: 3-4 (ESV)

Hosea 1 & 2, Romans 6: 1-14, Psalm 106: 23-32

Romans 6: 3-4 (ESV)

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.”

Verses 3 and 4 from Romans 6 shows Paul reminding us that once we have faith in Christ and were baptized into the faith, we are also baptized into how Christ died. Jesus was crucified on the cross and his physical body died, and he was buried and laid in a tomb. Three days later, Christ was resurrected by God his father and lived a new life. I believe Paul wants us to identify with how Christ died so we know as Christians that when we have been born again, it is like a physical death to our old self. When we are saved, we have a new life. Our old self died like Christ and was resurrected by God. If we believe this, then our relationship to sin is changed. We can no longer sin in the same way because we are different people who have been given a new life.

Does this mean sin will never be in our life when we become a Christian? No, because we are still in a physical body. But if we really believe we have a new life when have been saved by Christ, then our nature has truly changed. Sin can longer control us as it did before our new life with Christ. We have been set free in Jesus from sin, who gives us strength and grace to battle with sin.