Christian Commentary Encouraging Devotions

Romans 7:4 and Romans 6:2

Fact:- Our old self was nailed to the cross with Him. Romans 6:6

Action:- Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God.

Let not sin rule in your mortal bodies.

Do not yield to sin, but yield to God.

Fact:- We are not under the law, but under grace.

Action:- If you continually surrender yourselves to any one to do his will,

you are the slaves of him whom you obey.

Having been set free from sin,

so now yield yourselves as servants of righteousness. Romans 6:11-19

Fact:- The wages of sin is death;

but the free gift of God is eternal life

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23

Problem:- I do not understand my own actions -

I do the very thing I loathe.

Fact:- However, it is no longer I who does the deed,

but the sin principle has possession of me. Romans 7:15-17

I need something more!

For if I know the law but still can't keep it,

and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions,

I obviously need help!

I realize that I don't have what it takes.

I can will it, but I can't do it.

I decide to do good, but I don't really do it;

I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.

My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions.

Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. (MSG)

Dilemma:- Who will release and deliver me from this body of death?

Solution:- God will through Jesus Christ, our Lord! Romans 7:24-25

Fact:- There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

We live and move not in the ways of the flesh

but in the ways of the Spirit -

our lives controlled by the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:-4-5

Those who think they can do it on their own

end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle

but never get around to exercising it in real life.

Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—

living and breathing God!

Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end;

attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.

Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God.

Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God,

ends up thinking more about self than God.

That person ignores who God is and what he is doing.

And God isn't pleased at being ignored. (MSG)

Action:- Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are habitually putting to death

the evil deeds prompted by the body.

Result:- All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8:13-14

So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent.

There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all.

The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life.

God's Spirit beckons.

There are things to do and places to go! (MSG)