Easter is the time when we remember the death, and even more so, the resurrection of Jesus. But Jesus did not die and rise from the dead just to put on a show. There was a reason. And that reason was to set us free from sin that we might live for Him!

At the end of Romans 7, Paul paints a painfully accurate picture of a person who is trapped and defeated by their sin and flesh. Apart from Christ, we too are like this person, but in Christ, we can have real victory over the sins that once trapped us.

As humans, we are all slaves to something. Meaning, something or someone is calling the shots for our lives, telling us what is true and how to live. For those under grace, we are slaves to righteousness, slaves to God and His ways. He calls the shots in our lives now!

In faith, we have shared with Christ a death to sin and resurrection to a newness of life! Sin can no longer reign in our lives. We are set free, so live set free!

Adam was supposed to lead us to a life of knowing, trusting, and following God. Instead, in his own passivity and disregard for God, he and Eve went their own way and brought sin into the world. Jesus on the other hand, did what Adam could not do, and has introduced a new and better way for us.

By faith in Jesus, our position before God is changed, and we are moved to a place of rejoicing and celebration in all that is to come! Praise be to God for His abundant blessings. 

Often times when we look to faithful men and women of God who have gone before us, we judge their salvation by what we can see, the fruit in their lives. This was true of Jews with Abraham as well. But Paul tells us that even Abraham, the father of Judaism, was justified by faith alone. True faith. Faith that is fully convinced God is the One True God, that God is true to His Word, and thus surrendered to Him in all of life. 

When we’ve believed something our entire lives, it’s difficult to just change what we believe. Can it really be that what makes me right with God has nothing to do with what I do, but wholly on what Jesus has done? Yes. Yes and amen! Our justification is wholly made possible by Jesus alone.

No one is good; no not one. Paul has spent the first 2.5 chapters of Romans communicating that no one - not the religious (Jews) or irreligious (Gentiles) - is right before God. But now, there is good news. Hope has come. God has justified us, made us right, through redemption in Jesus.

Christ did not come to the Earth to condemn us for our sins, but in order that through Him, we might be set free from the bondage of our sins! Paul reminds his Jewish brothers and sisters in Romans 3:9-20 that they are all under sin, just like the rest of humanity. It is because of this sin that we are in need of the Grace of Christ.