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 as it is written:

“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.”

“Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

in their paths are ruin and misery,

and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

- Romans 3:10-18 ESV

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

- Romans 8:7-8 ESV

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

- Romans 7:24-25 ESV

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

- Romans 6:6 ESV

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

- 1 Corinthians 1:28-31 ESV

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

- Romans 3:27-28 ESV

The Story?

In ourselves, we are wicked. We could not deliver ourselves. Christ came to deliver us from ourselves. Since we cannot do it, we must rely on Christ. This is faith. And because of our inability, it must be free.

If you will not freely receive, your sins will not be covered.

If you will not freely receive, you will not be delivered from your sin nature. 

Freedom from the penalty and power of sin is a gift. This is the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

We cannot receive only forgiveness but not freedom from sin’s power. Christ is not divided. We either receive all of Him or none of Him. But the gift does not cease to be free. Yes, the blood of Christ not only washes away the stain of our sins, but our desire for them. And shouldn’t it be so, that we are dependent on the only Righteous Person in the entire Universe to be righteous—to be righteous, inside? Yet we are surprised that we need God to even desire good and be free from desiring evil. We make our crucifying ourselves some sort of currency, but God will not receive it.  

Abba, in Your mercy, may the church be purged of trying to overcome her evil desires without total reliance on You, through Jesus Christ. Unveil His glory. Relieve us of our relentless fascination with our broken light bulb. 

“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”

- Romans 5:17 ESV