So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. (Romans 7:21, NIV)
Even after all these years, par is mostly a dream. I know, I know, it’s only a number printed on the scorecard. But I’m increasingly convinced, as my drives cover less ground and my short game grows chunkier, that the printer—or whoever ordered the printing—is a sadist. Maybe together they delight in the frustration of those who cannot hit greens in regulation or who are illiterate when it comes to reading putts.
One of the ways to push past our golfing despair is to laugh at our ineptitude. It’s classier than throwing a club, that’s for sure. But it’s hard to come to the same conclusion about our sin. Brushing sin away with a humor-minded, self-deprecating remark never works. God isn’t laughing with us.
However, God is a realist. His holiness cannot make light of sin, but in his mercy he remembers we are dust. And when we understand grace, what we find is that it understands us. It comes with forgiveness because we cannot come with perfection.
In the past, Paul could only appeal to his own law-abiding, which he now knew to be impotent.The apostle Paul, our subject of these several weeks now, certainly understood forgiveness and grace. He had been the leading conspirator in seizing early followers of Jesus for persecution and death. Though “as for righteousness based on the law, faultless,” he was not righteous unto God himself. Like us, Paul lived a thousand miles from God’s holiness.
Once the fullness of truth had been revealed to him through Christ, Paul began to recognize a new purpose in the law. Rather than keeping one from sin, it exposed the sin in him. “The law,” Paul wrote to the Romans, “is holy.” But we, in the light of that law, are not. And Paul’s further words in Romans 7 openly recognized this. Paul could not go anywhere, it seemed, without evil dogging him. Surely you have felt this same vexation. Sin goes where you go.
Paul’s observations in Romans 7 led to a cry of exasperation: “What a wretched man I am!” But now, as a student of grace, he advanced to an ensuing question: “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” In the past, Paul could only appeal to his own law-abiding, which he now knew to be impotent. His salvation came straight from heaven: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Only in Jesus is there rescue for our lingering sin.
—
Jeff Hopper
April 26, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
OTHER DEVOTIONS IN THIS SERIES
Rescued from Death 1: Bad Religion
Rescued from Death 2: A Changed Life
Rescued from Death 3: Time to Grow
Rescued from Death 4: The Help We’re Given
Rescued from Death 5: Real-World Disciples
Rescued from Death 7: Our Confidence
Rescued from Death 8: Disciples and Protégés