Thursday, November 25, 2010

"Hardly Helpless"


Scripture Passage



(Mel Gibson - Braveheart -- You've seen it, right?)

Scripture Focus

Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. (Romans 6:14 NLT)

Observation

People sometimes testify as to how God has instantaneously delivered them from powerful addictions and destructive habitual behaviors.  Often they’ll say something like, “…God took the desire away, and I never wanted [insert name of specific temptation here] again!”

Without discounting those testimonies in any way, it’s not really worked that way for me. Temptations that challenged me thirty years ago fall into such fundamental categories that those battles continue in some fashion yet today. The primary message of Romans 6, however, is that—though sinful desires may remain (see v. 12, for example)—the power that once made those desires irresistible has been broken. Bottom line, there was a time in my life I was unable *not* to sin—but no more, because of the transformative activity of God’s grace.

That’s an incredibly powerful work on God’s part, and a distinction in my life worth noting. Fish breathe through their gills because that’s who they are. My dog sniffs around because that’s who he is. And sinners act in sinful ways because that’s who they are. But when believers act in sinful ways, it’s because we’ve chosen to do so.  (Probably ought to read that sentence again.)

I don’t like what that distinction says about my behavior. But Paul makes it clear in Romans 6 that the power of sin has been broken in our lives…that “we are no longer slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6 NLT). The liberty is mine to “use [my] whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God” (v. 13) and to “do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life” (v. 22).  So…“Today, Lord—let me live in the freedom your grace has supplied!”

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