10/24             Romans 8:12-14 

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 

WE

We are no longer slaves to sin, we have a choice.  But only by the power of Jesus can we exercise that choice.  Know the Lord and seek wisdom in Him.  He will lead you to the right way.  

10/23             Romans 8:9-11 

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. 

PAID

Jesus paid the price for our sin.  Now we live as we seek to become more like Him.  Our struggle is sin.  Only Jesus can deal with our sin and only when we come to Him and repent do we find the relief that our inner person is aching to have.  Jesus is Lord of life and death and us.  

10/22          Romans 8:7-8 

For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. 

APART
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  God has made provision for sinful mankind and that solution is Jesus Christ. 

10/21          Romans 8:4-6 

He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. 5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 

SPIRIT

When we are in Christ, we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God who guides us in the way of life and peace.  Jesus is Lord.  

10/20          Romans 8:1-3

1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 

END 

In Jesus we find the solution to our slavery.  He sets us free from our bondage to sin and gives us new freedom as members of God’s family.  Jesus sets us free.  

10/19          Romans 7:22-25

I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

LORD

Jesus is Lord.  If we accept Him He will be our Lord.  We need Jesus.  

10/18          Romans 7:17-21 

So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. 18And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. 21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 

SIN

Sin is real, it is enslaving and only in Jesus can we deal with our sin.  We need a new heart and a new mind and forgiveness for our sin.  Jesus does this for us.  His gift free-life is a grace gift.  Jesus is Lord.  

10/17          Romans 7:14-16 

So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 

OVERWHELMED

Without Jesus we are overwhelmed with sin and unable to overcome.  We cannot cleanse ourself from sin.  We cannot forgive ourself.  Only Jesus can provide forgiveness for our sin and help us to walk on a Godly path.  

10/16          Romans 7:11-13

11 Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. 12 But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. 13 But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. 

EVIL

Sin is evil.  It is always evil.  The Ten Commandments and the Law of God help us to understand, identify and beware of sin.  Jesus forgives our sin and paid the price to give us His righteousness.  Jesus is the only way.  

10/15          Romans 7:7-10 

Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” 8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. 9 At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, 10 and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. 

SIN

Sin is easy for us to get tangled up in and miss the point of a Christ-like life.  We must willingly surrender ourselves to the Lord and present ourselves usable and useful every day.  When we decide to do our thing and not God’s thing, and we know what that is, we are sinning.  Sin is destructive and separates us from the Lord.  Know God’s Word, write it upon your heart and do the next right thing.