Category: Romans

Take a moment to read Romans 6:1-11 before reading the devotional below.

If grace is too good to be true (see yesterday’s post), then we don’t have to worry about what we do, right? The more we mess up, the more grace there is. We don’t need to worry about whether we get it right because God will cover us. Paul begins today’s passage with this very question, and he shows us it is the wrong way to think.

Sin hurts you. Even after you are saved and you have welcomed God’s grace, sin hurts you. Sometimes  it hurts other people too. We don’t want more of it in our lives just to get more grace. We already have enough sin when we are aiming for a better life. We don’t need to give ourselves any excuses to make poor choices. Accepting Jesus means entering a kind of death — a death to sin. When you accept Jesus, you are spiritually resurrected into a totally new life. The power of sin is broken and you get to live a whole new way.

Here’s your freedom for today: sin doesn’t define you anymore. Sin can’t hold the same grip on you when you know Jesus. The Holy Spirit moves into your life and starts making some supernatural changes. Sometimes those changes are obvious, like the woman I met this week who was supernaturally freed from smoking addiction after an encounter with God at our church. Nothing fancy, no big production, I don’t think anyone even prayed with her. There, sitting with herself and in her own conversation with God, he set her free in that area. Other changes are more gradual — how you look at other people or the world, what you truly want in life, how you find meaning or value in things you do. As you watch chains break in your life, you start to explore what a new life with Jesus can mean for who you are. You’ll never be the same, that much is guaranteed.

I’d love to hear stories of how you have experienced freedom in Christ. Comment below to share with us!

Take a moment to read Romans 6:12-23 before reading the devotional below.

If you can’t tell, I’m all about freedom. The life Jesus offers us does not begin when we get to Heaven. It starts right now. If you are a human being, you have been trapped. You have experienced being stuck or being in bondage to one type of sin or another. There’s no point in comparing sins, because all of them own us without Jesus. Today Paul is writing about how to live a free life. It starts by giving yourself completely to God.

There are few things we do “completely” anymore. Most products are made to break and be replaced, a half-job is fine if you can get away with it, and we often expect that whatever we don’t finish someone else will come along and do for us. We have gotten sloppy as a culture, so the idea of giving ourselves completely over to God may be a bit beyond our immediate comprehension. Pause and think about every aspect of your life. Family, work, money, home, community, hobbies, sports, etc. Take a minute to make a list of everything in your life. What would it mean for you to turn all that over to God?

Here’s your freedom for today: in God’s kingdom, you are free. God will never make you a slave, and you can be sure of that because throughout the Bible we are told that we have a choice. “Give yourself completely to God” is an action only you can take. He’s not going to capture you and enslave you. Satan is happy to do that and sin is his heavy chain. With God you are free to give it all or not, but if you want his life-transforming power you can only access it through total surrender. What are you holding on to today? What has a hold on you? Whatever it is, it will kill you. Take a gift of freedom from Jesus today and let go of anything you can.

Take a moment to read Romans 7:1-13 before reading the devotional below.

In today’s passage, Paul uses the Jews’ deep understanding of the law to help them understand the concept of death to the power of sin. It is tempting for us to read the first three verses of this chapter as a pronouncement (or clarification) of law. But that would miss the entire point. Paul is not saying, “Here is how you need to understand marriage and how it works legally.” He is simply using an illustration the people will understand: you know how the law releases you from marriage after a person dies? That’s how your obligation to sin ends too.

When you die to yourself by handing yourself over to God completely, you participate in Jesus’ death. There is a sacrifice made to God that produces a removal of sin. When you journey into a new life with Jesus, you have no obligation to sin anymore. The law doesn’t own you anymore.

Here’s your freedom for today: you do the right thing when you have the right reason. Simply having a law that says, “Don’t do this” will not be enough to stop you from doing it. If you think you can get away with something and you just want to look good in front of other people, you will break the law repeatedly. Those who have studied the process of moral development have found that higher levels of morality involve doing the right thing because you want it. If I only slow down in a school zone because a sign is posted, then what happens if the sign falls down? Will I speed right through? Or do I care enough about the safety of the children that I will voluntarily slow down because I believe it to be best? When you turn your life over to God and he gives you his Holy Spirit, you begin the process of heart transformation. The law has no power and you don’t need it anyway. You start wanting what God wants for all the right reasons.

Take a moment to read Romans 7:14-25 before reading the devotional below.

This is perhaps the most relateable chapter in all of the Bible. Paul captures the inner struggle that we all face — we know what we want to do, we have good intentions, yet we continually sin and fail. Paul is continuing to build his argument about why the Jewish law was not enough for salvation. The law is good, it reveals God’s heart, it shows us a good way to live. But following the law perfectly is impossible. Even when you study it and set your heart on doing exactly what God wants, you will fail.

Paul is using himself as an illustration, showing that there is no spiritual peak we all can climb to where we will no longer struggle. If Paul, called by God to be an apostle, isn’t a spiritual giant who can rise above sin, then none of us have a shot either. Paul does a great job of capturing the war between our flesh and our spirit. We are divided creatures.

Here’s your freedom for today: God is not surprised by your struggle. God did not hand down his laws and find himself shocked that no one could follow them. He gave the law knowing that humans living in a cursed world could never work their way out of it. Over and over again, Paul reminds us that God gave us the law in order to reveal our total inability to get right with God on our own. We need a Savior. You need a Savior. I need a Savior. Jesus came to fulfill the law, release us from our obligation to sin, and bring us back into a right relationship with God. Even when you don’t get it right, and you try and fail (again), God just wants to love you.

Take a moment to read Romans 8:1-17 before reading the devotional below.

As we continue to follow Paul’s in-depth explanation of salvation through Jesus, he shows us a beautiful picture of how God’s justice and his love go together. God established a rule of law to protect his people. After all, no one wants to live in a lawless society because that only breeds evil. Laws require a backbone of some kind — a way of enforcing justice when people break the law. But because God’s laws reveal the perfection of his kingdom, we cannot follow all of them no matter how hard we try. As we discussed in yesterday’s post, God is not surprised by our inability to avoid sin.

Verse 3 tells us that “God did what the law could not do.” He upheld justice by allowing Jesus to fulfill the laws’ requirements of death. How is that fair? It isn’t. But in ways we can barely comprehend, it is just. Justice demands payment — like an overdue bill. The credit card company doesn’t care who pays, they just want the money. Justice is satisfied when the debt is paid. Our earthly legal system is inherently unjust, making it hard for us to understand fully God’s justice. But his love for us brought him to the point of being willing to cover for us. To pay what we could not.

Here’s your freedom for today: you don’t have to be afraid anymore. Living by the Spirit is a totally different kind of life. The power of the Holy Spirit gives you access to God’s ways from the inside-out, and you no longer owe a debt to sin. When you stay in tune with the Spirit, your flesh can’t control you. And it certainly won’t own you for eternity. In this fallen world, sometimes it is hard to remain aligned with the Spirit 100% of the time because your flesh tempts you to sin over and over again. Life in the Spirit is like a drink of fresh water in a desert — when you find it, you are restored and brought back to life once again.