[Newsletter] Daily Devotional

[littlejane at rgcministries.com]

Get Off My Back


Read: Romans 7:14-25


Who will deliver me from this body of death? ~ Romans 7:24


Roman emperors saw torture as a legitimate way to put muscle and teeth  
into their laws. They were known to bind the body of a murder victim  
to the back of his killer. Under penalty of death, no one was allowed  
to release the condemned criminal.

This terrible practice calls to mind the words of the apostle Paul in  
Romans 7. It?s as if he felt that something dead was strapped to him  
and accompanied him wherever he went.

As children of God, we long for purity and holiness, yet at times we  
feel helplessly bound to the ?dead body? of our flesh. Even though we  
are new creatures in Christ and we know that the physical body itself  
is not evil, the tendency to sin is always with us. This causes us to  
cry out with the apostle, ?Who will deliver me from this body of  
death?? (v.24).

Paul answered his own cry in Chapter 8. He said that through the  
forgiveness of Christ we are freed from eternal condemnation (v.1).  
Then by the strength of the indwelling Holy Spirit we are empowered to  
do the will of God (v.9). And someday in heaven these mortal bodies of  
ours will be redeemed (v.23). We are not hopelessly bound by the flesh.

Praise God, Christ broke the power of sin! We can serve Him in newness  
of life.

~ Mart De Haan

At times sin?s power within grows strong,
Too strong, it seems, for us to bear;
But Jesus says, ?Look unto Me.
I broke sin?s power, so don?t despair.?

~ D. De Haan


Thought For The Day:
To overcome sin, starve the old nature and feed the new.