[finished with the cross]

Sometimes you gotta just return to the gospel. Return to the cross. Return to the basic "meat and potatoes" of your faith and get your fill.

Last night I did that. Spent a couple hours studying Romans 7:7-25, and man, that is not a feel good chapter. But it's humbling. It puts you back in the reality of your fallen self. It reminds me once again that my desires and my actions do not always match up, and there is no escape from that.

Sin is mentioned at least 17 times and is often used with verbs in that passage. It's active. It seizes opportunities to manifest itself (vs. 8 & 11). It deceives (v. 11). It enslaves (vs. 14 & 25). It is living in all of us, and we cannot exterminate or wipe it out in this lifetime (v. 17, 20 & 23).

Additionally, the law is described as spiritual (v. 14), holy (v. 12), good (v. 16) and God's (v. 22). Just because the commandments and law condemn us and our inability to keep them, doesn't make them bad or wrong or unspiritual. Instead, it causes us to see sin as just that -sin. As "utterly sinful" (v. 13).

Utterly sinful. Funny when you think about that word. Is it that we don't understand the meaning of sin? Is it that we don't take the word seriously? Is it that we believe God is only gracious and not just? Is it that we excuse away the black and white in favor of a gray - "it's not as bad as (fill in the blank)"? I'd like to suggest all of the above and more. We like to think the best of people. We already think the best of ourselves. And it's much easier to believe good people receive good rewards in the next life for being kind and nice and honest here on earth.

But this is our great error. Good people are. not. free. from. sin. Christians are. not. free. from. sin. When you believe in Christ and become a Christian, you don't watch your problems disappear. Instead, you actually begin to see the battles within yourself more and more clearly, and you struggle with that war and tension between what you know and what you do.

However! There is good news my friends. Check out Romans 8:1, the next verse after the passage I studied. "Therefore" it starts. Notice that's a transition word. In light of all that has come before, now the writer wants to make a statement. Therefore, because of what was written before and now that you understand - "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Therefore, even though we will struggle forever on this earth between what we know we should do and what we actually do, God is good enough and gracious enough and merciful enough to create a way we can be freed from drowning in fallen humanity for eternity. And He's done it without any aid on our part. This is the rescue mission of Jesus Christ.

Let's pretend it's a movie. Adam and Eve come on the scene. Life is perfect and how it should be. Man is made perfect in God's image and display that for the world to see. Sin enters because of humans. The law enters to help humans return to a right relationship with God. Sin goes crazy at work in the hearts of men to degrade them based on this law, though, and to trick and trap and seize their lives. God unfolds a counter-attack and sends Jesus to live and die and conquer death three days later. I've got Denzel Washington's voice in my head from the movie "Remember the Titans". He's talking to the other coaches about not letting up even after a tragic car accident with one of the team leaders, but he doesn't let anything stop him. "I'm a winner," he says. "I'm going to win."

This is the gospel we are all invited to daily. A winning one. A grace-filled one. A tragic one when we understand our condition, but a beautiful one when we realize God never left us there helpless. He continued with the "therefore" and finished with the cross. Price has been paid. Ransom made. Rescue complete.