Slices
Prepare
How has your life changed as a result of being a Christian? Spend time thanking God for that change. Ask him to show you how he wants it to continue to change.
Bible passage
The law and sin
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognised as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[c] a slave to the law of sin.
Explore
Before I was a Christian, I lived life my own way or according to the rules of my particular social group. When I responded to Christ, I became aware of how my living measured up to God’s standards. God’s ‘law’ taught me about living in God’s way; it also showed me that, as a human being, I couldn’t do it (vs 9–11)!
So here’s the problem, the enigma: I want to do what’s right, but often I do, say or think what is wrong (v 21). The longer I am a follower of Christ, the more I understand that I am sinful. I break God’s law again and again (v 20). Paul understands our problem, using the personal pronoun ‘I’ to emphasise that this is his own inner experience. Our human sinfulness holds us prisoner, ‘slaves’ to sin. What wretched people we are (v 24)! But there is an answer.
‘Thanks be to God’ – Jesus has rescued us (v 25)! Through his death and resurrection the law of sin and death has been defeated. While we still struggle with the sinfulness of our fleshly life now, in Christ we are bound to his way. As we ‘delight in God’s law’ (v 22), transformation comes about.
Respond
Ask God to show you how you need to change in the here and now.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 1 Chronicles 15,16; 2 Corinthians 13
Pray for Scripture Union
Thank God for all who faithfully support the mission of SU with their love, commitment, generosity and prayers. Pray that God will encourage and bless them with the knowledge that they are contributing to sharing Jesus with the 95.
