Out Of The Dark Forest

"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." - Romans 7:15 ESV

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? I'm reading Romans chapter 7 very carefully this morning and making my way into chapter 8. It is like Paul has shown us a special pathway out of a psychic forest and out into an open place.

"For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve 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 has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and 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 for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." - Romans 7:22 - 8:4 ESV

There are forces that work on all of humanity but Jesus has put a new dynamic in our lives and it is an aerodynamic force that works in the midst of the gravity we experience because of our fallen nature.

Jesus does what we couldn't do. Jesus did what the law couldn't do. That work is finished. There is no condemnation. We have a way out of the forest.

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." - 2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV

If we are too strong we fight it out in the forest and never see the mountaintop. Grace is 'sufficient' but we don't know that if we are held in the struggle that everyone is held in down on the ground.

In Jesus' victory, we see that 'the law of the Spirit of life has set you (us) free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.'

We are free in the 'no condemnation' place. When it is finished we cease from introspection. We are brought out by God's power.

"In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?" - Psalm 56:11-13 KJV

There are some projects I want to tackle today and I'm not going to pump myself up to go fight in the forest. I need eagle eyes. I'm not asking for strength. I'm asking for provision and I move proactively in reliance so that I can approach each moment as a free man. 'It is finished' takes me out of the cycle and into a place where power can rest on me because my soul is resting in God's Son.

--