Thursday
“We have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” (7:6)
Paul spend a lot of time in our reading today, talking about the law – this is the law of Moses – the Law that God gave his people on Mt Sinai. The Law was not evil or bad, it showed us what was right and wrong. Without it we would never have known that worshipping other gods was wrong… or coveting our neighbors’ belongings was evil. But what Paul tells us, is that because the Law points out what is wrong, it didn’t help us to stop doing them… because we can’t possibly obey them in our own strength. So in actuality, the Law (which pointed out our sins) was the reason why we knew we sinned, and therefore caused us to sin. But the Law itself was not wrong or evil, it was our response to the law that pointed to how evil we are. It is a complicated argument, but the outcome is that God has made a way for us through Jesus Christ and the Power of the Holy Spirit, to no longer be controlled by sin.
Sin is no longer our master (remember yesterday’s reading 6:12-14). Because the grace and mercy of God abounds and forgiveness is freely offer, we don’t need to walk around with a defeated attitude. We can live a full and victorious life.
Grace and Peace
Pastor Kathy