Romans 7:24-25
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
It isn’t easy to talk about the battles that go on in our lives but here, Paul lets it all pour out! Here is a mature Christian leader and brilliant teacher admitting that, although he wants to do what’s right, he often found himself doing the exact opposite. Paul recognised that there was a power inside him that encouraged him to be a slave to sin.
It was an agonising dilemma that left him feeling miserable. But Paul also celebrated the fact that sin didn’t have to have the last word. The answer was – and is! - Jesus. By looking to Jesus and placing his trust in him, Paul found the liberty he craved. And so can we.
The problem with sin is that it keeps knocking at the door of our lives. However mature we are in our Christian faith, it keeps trying to find a foothold in our thoughts, words and actions.
Paul’s astonishingly blunt words remind us that we need to be absolutely honest with ourselves. We can become very good at putting on an act and trying to make it look as if we’re fine, even when we know that we are battling with sin in our lives.
It may be easy to deceive other people, but we can’t fool ourselves – and we will never fool God. We must take a leaf out of Paul’s book and look at ourselves in the mirror.
God is never in the business of humiliating us. As we own up to our sin and claim his gift of forgiveness, he delights to set us free and open the door to new life.
Question – Are you willing to be totally honest with God today?
Prayer – Lord God our Father, I thank you with everything in me that, through Jesus’ death on the cross, I can be set free from all of my sins. Amen