TGIF
This past week has been a tough week for me. I can summarize it with this following verse of scripture.
Romans 7:15 – For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate.
Do you ever feel this way? Fortunately, I don’t feel this way often, but this past week I did. I felt bad because I had a number of life events where I wasn’t pleased with choices I made. Those bad choices weighed heavily on me for a week, so I am hoping that writing about it will be therapeutic. If you ever have weeks like mine, maybe this message can be therapeutic for you as well.
Here is one additional verse from the Scripture that would summarize my week.
Galatians 4:9 – But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles, to which you want to be enslaved all over again?
Let me see if I can now respond to this weakness and hopelessness that we can experience at times in our lives, as described by Paul in his letter to the Romans.
Romans 7:18-19 – For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
This scripture contrasts the Spirit we have received through Jesus which indicates our “willing” desire to obey Him with the “flesh” we possess from which sin still operates in our Christian lives.
Romans 7:21-22 – I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person.
The “principle” we know to be true is that we continue to be sinners, yet “joyfully” agree with the law of God against sin. We find this acknowledgement in numerous places of scripture.
Psalm 1:1-2 – Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and on His Law he meditates day and night.
2 Corinthians 4:16 – Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day.
Ephesians 3:14-19 – For this reason I bend my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.
Finally, let us return to the summary of this discussion as shared by Paul in his letter to the Romans.
Romans 8:1-2 – Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
The word “Therefore” is important here because it indicates that the following statement is the result or consequence of the truth that was just taught in the earlier verses shared from Romans. That result is that there is “no condemnation” for true believers, that no sin a believer can commit – past, present, or future, can be held against him, since the penalty was paid by Christ and righteousness was imputed to the believer. No sin will ever reverse this divine decision.
I hope this message has been helpful to you, as it has helped me. Although I still feel bad about a number of my thoughts and actions this past week, I know that God loves and forgives me.