The flesh has no facilities for grace. It finds satisfaction in what it can do, and so the moment a son tries to reason his way into grace, he has already stepped into self.

This teaching works through the distinction between dead works and good works in the context of relationship. Dead works are what you feel you should do. Good works are what you are led by God to do, for the pleasure of the receiver. The teaching argues that enforcing your own idea of goodness, even with sincere intention, is actually a form of harm to the person receiving it, because it strips them of the space to say what they actually need. From there, the conversation moves into Romans 8 and the question of how a son navigates the tension between personal desire and God's intention. The answer is not about balance. It is about coming to believe that God's purposes for you are better than anything you could want for yourself, and that trying to reason your way into that belief is precisely where self re-enters.

SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:5-14

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Midweek teaching on The Word on Wednesday: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ZZ4O2QgtNKXASp3tsb12x