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Day 12: Nobody Can Perfectly Keep God's Law
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
» Do you believe that man is born good and turns bad through the contamination of this world OR that man is born already broken and incapable of true goodness? What difference does it make?
» Do you truly believe that life works best only when it is lived in God, for God, and in obedience to God? Is there an arena of your life where you fail to practice this belief?
» When life is lived in and for God, He becomes the source of our Identity. Where do you find your identity? (God? Money? Popularity? Success? Other?)
» Practice the memory verse.
QUOTE
“As a result of the fall we’re not just spiritually impaired but incapacitated. We’re not just weak; we have no innate power to obey God’s law and glorify him. We’re estranged from our Creator, from one another, and from the rest of creation.”
- Leo Schuster
SCRIPTURE
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
- Romans 3:10-12
DEVOTIONAL
In Romans 3, God makes His assessment of mankind painfully clear: all of us have turned away from Him and have become worthless; none of us does good or seeks for God. The great human rebellion against God has resulted in a tragic reality: all are now born with hearts that are deceitful and beyond cure. We don’t even recognize or understand the complexities of our own hearts. (Jeremiah 17:9) We are fundamentally broken, and we lack the insight to fully grasp how broken we are.
This is horrible news, yet it is important to recognize that it’s not the end of the story, but the beginning. It is the bad news that sets the table for the good news of Jesus Christ, who kept God’s Law perfectly and offered Himself as a substitute for us. All who trust in Him are justified through faith and restored to God. They are set free from bondage, guilt, and shame. This is a gift from God, through faith, by the power of His Spirit in us.
“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19) We all fell with Adam, but we have been raised with Christ. The God who raised Jesus from the dead is powerfully at work in us and won’t let us go. Remind yourself of this often. Even though Christ is alive in us, our sinful nature also remains very much engaged.
Even after we have met Jesus, we cannot obey God’s law perfectly. Our flesh just won’t roll over and quit, so the battle of sin rages on. We can, however, practice victory daily as we walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. This is accomplished moment-by-moment as we quiet our flesh and actively surrender to the desires and power of the Spirit of Christ in us.
One day He will bring us into His everlasting Presence, where we will no longer battle our flesh. There we will finally, freely, fully, and forever obey the One who made us His own.
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By Evergreen Christian CommunityREFLECTION QUESTIONS
» Do you believe that man is born good and turns bad through the contamination of this world OR that man is born already broken and incapable of true goodness? What difference does it make?
» Do you truly believe that life works best only when it is lived in God, for God, and in obedience to God? Is there an arena of your life where you fail to practice this belief?
» When life is lived in and for God, He becomes the source of our Identity. Where do you find your identity? (God? Money? Popularity? Success? Other?)
» Practice the memory verse.
QUOTE
“As a result of the fall we’re not just spiritually impaired but incapacitated. We’re not just weak; we have no innate power to obey God’s law and glorify him. We’re estranged from our Creator, from one another, and from the rest of creation.”
- Leo Schuster
SCRIPTURE
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
- Romans 3:10-12
DEVOTIONAL
In Romans 3, God makes His assessment of mankind painfully clear: all of us have turned away from Him and have become worthless; none of us does good or seeks for God. The great human rebellion against God has resulted in a tragic reality: all are now born with hearts that are deceitful and beyond cure. We don’t even recognize or understand the complexities of our own hearts. (Jeremiah 17:9) We are fundamentally broken, and we lack the insight to fully grasp how broken we are.
This is horrible news, yet it is important to recognize that it’s not the end of the story, but the beginning. It is the bad news that sets the table for the good news of Jesus Christ, who kept God’s Law perfectly and offered Himself as a substitute for us. All who trust in Him are justified through faith and restored to God. They are set free from bondage, guilt, and shame. This is a gift from God, through faith, by the power of His Spirit in us.
“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19) We all fell with Adam, but we have been raised with Christ. The God who raised Jesus from the dead is powerfully at work in us and won’t let us go. Remind yourself of this often. Even though Christ is alive in us, our sinful nature also remains very much engaged.
Even after we have met Jesus, we cannot obey God’s law perfectly. Our flesh just won’t roll over and quit, so the battle of sin rages on. We can, however, practice victory daily as we walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. This is accomplished moment-by-moment as we quiet our flesh and actively surrender to the desires and power of the Spirit of Christ in us.
One day He will bring us into His everlasting Presence, where we will no longer battle our flesh. There we will finally, freely, fully, and forever obey the One who made us His own.