Living in the Spirit

July 4, 2020

Scripture Reading: Romans 7:15-25a
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is

do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

I do believe these words from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I also understand that all people are created by God with free will. We have the right to chose whether to do good or to do evil—to be righteous in the eyes of God or not. God prefers that we live in righteousness. I think God created the earth and all that is in it to function optimally when we are all living righteously. God also did not leave us clueless as to what is right or just. God, through Moses, gave us the Ten Commandments, through Jesus, a role model to follow, and ultimately through Christ, the forgiveness of our sin. Still yet, not leaving us on our own, God gifted us with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

I also think God was purposeful in creating a wide variety of plants, and animals, and people to populate the earth. We are better for that diversity. On this day, we celebrate our country’s Independence brought forth by ancestors who were just as human as Paul describes himself to be in our scripture today. We must concede that we, too, are all totally capable of doing the very thing we hate and be overcome by sin. God is not through with us yet. God continues to remold and make us like God divine. As we grow in faith, hope, and love, we see more clearly the value of the right choices as we build a world ruled by love.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the depth of your love that created a world full of the wonder of diversity. Guide us in righteously caring for it. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.