Memorize: Problem of continued sin
Key Verses: 4, 6, 11, 15, 21, 24-25
Our relationship and obligation to keep all the rules of the Old Testament has ended, just as a wife’s relationship and obligation to her husband ends when he dies. We have switched masters. We can now serve God in a new way. We are not bound to the old way of rule keeping. The Holy Spirit will lead us, if we are willing to follow.
The commandments were meant to point out our need for God’s intervention in our lives. They were never meant as a way to earn a standing with God. That is why there is such a short list of commands and such a long list of sacrifices. The sacrifices were used as a way to acknowledge our failures. People still think that if we keep the 10 commandments we are pleasing God. But they were never meant as a means of obtaining God’s favor. That is the deception. We can never keep them absolutely, completely, without failure. And as soon as we fail in one, we are guilty. We need God’s forgiveness and grace.
The big struggle for humans is that we know what we should do, but we do the opposite. It is not that we lack knowledge of what is right, it is that we choose the wrong. Paul identifies a foreign law in our bodies that ends up doing the sinning. He calls it our flesh, our sinful nature. And a battle rages between this law and our desire to do good. Part wants to please God, and part wants to indulge in sin. Do you recognize that struggle in yourself? I do.
Some hear this struggle and conclude that they are failing as a Jesus-follower, that the presence of the struggle means they must be failing at the Christian walk. The presence of the struggle does not signal failure. The question rises in the middle of the struggle that determines our destiny. Do we cry out to the Lord or do we tough it out ourselves? If we draw closer to the Lord in those moments, then ultimately the struggle has yielded fruit in our lives. If we allow the struggle to create distance between us and the Lord, then sin has won the battle.
That is how Paul can break out in thanksgiving. He recognized that Jesus brings deliverance. Our obligation to keep the old rules has ended. We now listen to the direction of the Spirit and our lives become more and more pleasing to God. They reflect the character of the One who saved us to an ever increasing degree. Our obedience does not earn our way to heaven, it demonstrates that we have changed masters and are now serving Jesus rather than selfishness and sin.
The Arnold Journey 