Juxtaposing Law And Grace

October 18, 2017

Juxtaposing Law And Grace

Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 7:24-25a

Read Romans 7:21-25

Paul was a genius. All through this chapter, which is so necessary to frame the condition of God’s people, he has made the power of sin abundantly clear. He affirmed in verse fourteen that we are all too human, slaves to sin, and he closed Chapter Seven with these words: “. . . because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin” (Romans 7:25b). Wow, we are in a tough place!

Even so, I can just picture Paul as he was writing these closing verses. He is sitting at his table writing this truth: “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” Then I can see the smile that came across his face as he jumped up and danced a little jig before returning to his table to proclaim: “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul is the master of juxtaposing law and grace! In the next passage, Paul tells us how Jesus is the answer. For today, let’s just take time to worship the One who is the answer!

My Takeaway: I can too easily get caught up and dwell far too long on Paul’s assertion of what a miserable person I am. For me, daily I need to heed the advice of the writer of Hebrews 12:2 and keep my eyes on Jesus, who gave me faith and who is at work perfecting my faith. Yes, “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2017 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.