The Law And The Cross

Romans 7:15-25; 8:1-10

(7:15) For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

(7:18) For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the desire is present in me, but the doing of the good is not....

(7:21) I find then the principle that evil is present in me, Me, the one who desires to do good.

This is where I found myself as a young person. I wanted to be a good person who lived my life doing good; but I found myself instead falling into my besetting sin, over and over again.

(7:24-25) Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!...

Then God showed me Jesus on His Cross, and I knew that He didn't deserve any of it, but I did; I deserved it all for all the evil I had done: Jesus paid my debt of death, He took my place on the Cross--that's how much He loved me, even when I was still sinning!

(8:1-2) There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

That day I discovered that I had been "seeing in black-and-white," now I saw in glorious "Technicolor"! And I had a new power, the ability to choose to do the right, instead of automatically falling into that sin again; I could say "No!" to wrong and turn to do what was right! I couldn't do that before.

(8:3-4) For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh,

I knew what was right, but I could not do it; I had only my flesh, which is weak.

God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

Jesus took on Himself an actual human body of flesh, in order to be that "sacrificial lamb" the Law stipulated to be brought by the penitent person to the priest, he laid his hands on the head of the animal, conferring his sin onto the animal, which died in the person's stead. Jesus is our "Lamb of God," Whose Divine Blood purchased the whole world, enough to pay off in full the whole debt of all our sins.

(8:7-9) Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the Law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

This is why the Law could not save us; we cannot obey it because our flesh is too weak to be able to. 

(8:10) However you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

He means here that we are not just in our flesh, but we are also in the Spirit. God's own Life is living inside us, alongside our fleshly life. So now we have a truly free choice, for we have the power and authority to choose the right, or still choose to sin. Our choice.

So if you find that your only choices seem to be to go against the right that is hard to do, then search your own heart, to determine if you have really humbled yourself before Him in admitting that you deserve to die, and Jesus died for you.

If you don't think you're that bad, then consider that Jesus took our sin nature upon Himself on the Cross; He didn't just die for certain sins, He took the whole basket & everything in it. So if you've not been perfect, that "missing the mark" shows that you have that sin nature, that Jesus bore at Calvary, and let Him love you by paying your debt in full. Then God will give you His Spirit of Life, and you will be free, indeed.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!