Daily Bread

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

If I'm honest I sometimes find Paul's writing, in places, to be a little bit tangly but I absolutely love this passage from his letter to the church in Rome.

Paul, using himself as an example, explains the human condition and the salvation we have in Jesus Christ.

Christians assert that good and evil exist — that if we were not around to witness good and evil they, a bit like mathematics, would still exist.

Goodness or God's 'higher law' exists apart from ourselves and we consciously recognise it as the bar, level, or standard to which we aspire.

However, you don't need me to tell you that none of us reach that bar, level, or standard — no matter how hard we try.

I cannot live a single day to my own standards let alone God's!

Therefore, we are essentially screwed, or as Paul puts it, "Who will rescue me?"

Because Jesus did reach the bar, level, and standard, he popped out the other side of death and was resurrected!

And because of this, we who cling to Jesus make the grade too! We are literally no longer condemned and the divine law no longer has hold over us. Jesus has liberated us and set us free.

The gospel really is good news!

Today's prayer is based on the song by Martin Smith, 'Thank you for saving me'.

Holy God
Thank you for saving me,
what can I say?
You are my everything,
I will sing your praise.
You shed your blood for me,
what can I say?
You took my sin and shame,
a sinner called by name.

Great is the Lord,
Great is the Lord,
For I know your truth
has set me free,
You've set your hope in me.

Mercy and grace are mine,
forgiven is my sin,
Jesus my only hope,
the Saviour of the world.
"Great is the Lord" I cry,
God let your kingdom come,
Your word has let me see,
thank you for saving me!