Today’s reading is Romans 7: 1-13

Romans 7 is one of the most heartbreaking and painful chapters of the Bible, to me at least.  But Chapter 7 is the Good Friday to Chapter 8’s Easter.  Chapter 8 is so beautiful and powerful, but we’ve got to walk through the power of sin and it’s effects to get there.

Paul tells us that just as though when a woman is left widowed is free from the vows of her marriage, so when Jesus put the law to death, we are free from the law and its effects. But he later tells us that the law isn’t bad.  Sin is bad.  The law doesn’t create sin and is actually a really good thing. Sin sees the opportunity for guilt, for pride, for death that the law creates.  Hear, as Paul tells us, the Law is not bad. It isn’t.  It is a good thing.  It God’s gift to us. It shows us our sin, shows us our need, shows us all of this.

But the law doesn’t save us.  And either we think we keep it and become prideful or we realize we can’t and become broken. Pride or brokenness aren’t the answer.  Grace is the answer.

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