We as Christians struggle with doing right and with sin. It is a constant fight to keep our heads above water. One side, the spirit, tugs at us to follow God’s commands and please Him. The other, our flesh, pulls us the other way trying to please ourselves, and we often fall. Paul faced the same struggles:
Romans 7:18-21 (ESV)
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
It’s the sin in our lives, both past and present, that causes us to withdraw from God, to see ourselves as worthless, as unworthy, as unqualified for what Christ gave and the salvation He offers.
A little over a year ago, I met a man, Jim Delozier. Jim was a Christian, but you could see by how Jim presented himself that he had faced some hard times in his past, that his was a tough. He was, as was said at Jim’s memorial service, “a warrior.” You can hear Jim’s testimony on Youtube.com here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao1uasDBwwE It starts about 18 1/2 minutes into the video.
Anyway, something Jim said in his testimony last year was about a dream Jim had had. It describes how we feel and how we often respond to our Lord.
In Jim’s dream, he saw Jesus come to him. Jim began to weep, and Jesus asked, “Don’t you believe in me?” In his dream, Jim said, “Of course I believe in You. It’s me. I’m the one who doesn’t deserve it.” We see ourselves facing Jesus with our sin standing alongside of us.
The born-again experience is such a personal thing that I often see only myself and Jesus. I think no one else carries the sin I carry. No one else has hurt God as I have hurt Him. But Jim’s simple but powerful statement clarified it for me and for all the men in that room. The dream ended with Jesus telling Jim He was coming back for him.
No matter what we have done, no matter Who we have hurt, no matter the guilt we carry inside of us, as Jim says at the end of his testimony, Jesus is coming back for us.
A friend of mine, Steve, told a story the other day of his son and a hunting trip they had taken together. They stumbled on an old railroad track, and his young son started picking up railroad spikes that lay all around the site. Soon he had 35 pounds of these spikes in his backpack, and he was struggling. But, because his dad had warned him it would be too heavy if he picked up too many, pride kept him from dropping some of the spikes.
Jesus tells us, like Steve’s son, we carry a heavy burden we don’t need to. Yes, we feel worthless and unworthy to accept Jesus’ gift. We think we are the exception to John 3:16. “God, couldn’t really want me, we tell ourselves.”
God knew all about the human condition. That’s why He had Paul write Romans 7. But He also had Paul write chapter 8 which starts out:
- Romans 8:1-4 (ESV)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Paul is saying, if we are still holding ourselves responsible for sins of the past and the present, we are purposely rejecting Christ’s gift and living under the Law. Condemnation because of sinful works is the other side of the “salvation by works” coin. These are not God’s plan.
Jim went to be with the Lord earlier this month. Jesus came back for him. The Lord didn’t count Jim’s sin against him. He counted his heart and his love for Christ. We will be held to that and only that standard as well.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 