Awesome Reality Check
Did you look at today's heading and shake your head?In everyday use the word "awesome" implies something that is beyond belief and beyond comprehension. This doesn't really fit in with "reality check" does it?
But our reading for today is a picture of a reality that Jesus accomplished for us and it is an incredible, amazing, wonderful and true reality. (And then maybe the word "awesome" in its original sense of "producing a sense of awe" is applicable.)
In Romans 7 Paul wrestles with the truth that no matter how hard he tries, he can't be fully obedient to God's law. This vexes him to the point that he exclaims "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
The incredible truth and reality we celebrate today is this:
- We are not condemned because, although we are broken and guilty, we are in Jesus. Our guilt has been "wrapped up" in His innocence.
- The Law couldn't save us because we couldn't keep it. So Jesus came, and, having lived sinlessly, could be the sin-offering that satisfied the Law's requirements.
- This opens another option for us. We don't have to be slaves to our brokenness - God's Holy Spirit can guide us into a new way of life where we can overcome sin and brokenness.
God has done what we couldn't!
He has forgiven us!
And He will work in us so that we can overcome our brokenness.
It's real and it's awesome. Check it out below!
| Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans8:1-4) |
