In our last visit we found there’s a wonderful answer to Paul’s agonizing cry in Romans 7:24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
A critical step before you can fully grasp the answer is to recognize and admit two things. First, he was wretched. No matter how hard he tried to be something other than wretched, underneath it all, that’s what he was. Second, he needed someone else to do for Him what he couldn’t do for himself. He needed to be rescued.
Who could do that? Romans 7:25 says, “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord.” God’s grace provided Jesus Christ as our Savior. He must, however, be recognized as our Lord as well. It’s only as He’s in control of our lives that we’ll experience the full extent of God’s gracious provision for our victory over sin. The practical dynamic is this: We need to recognize Jesus Christ as the answer. Only a righteousness that comes through faith in Him is acceptable to God.
After we are saved we need to recognize we can’t produce righteousness any better as a Christian than we could as an unbeliever. If we try, we’ll struggle as Paul did, doing what we don’t want to do, and not doing what we want to do. We have a sinful nature that trips us up if we try living for God by sheer willpower and effort.
We need to be reminded moment by moment: Only when I surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord and depend on Him will victory come and be maintained.
