REFERENCE: Romans 7:4-6 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. 5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

Observation: So how does this law/sin/rightousness thing work anyway? What we must understand is that when Paul talks about the law he is talking about two things at the same time: 1) the written Law. That is, the rules, the things we must do to be right with God under the Old Testament system. 2) The principle of the law and how it effects those who come up against it.

Understanding this principle is the key to overcoming sin in our lives. The principle is simply that we want to do whatever we are told we can't do. The thing that ties us in knots is the the more we tell ourselves that we can not, we must not do something, the more we must do that very thing. Do you love ice cream? Try putting a big bowl of it in front of you and saying over and over: "I can not have that ice cream. I will not eat that ice cream." What will be the result--you will eat the ice cream.

What Paul tells us is that now, under the grace of God, we have a new and effective way to fight sin in our lives. It is called living by the Spirit or walking in the Spirit and it simply means that instead of putting our energy into fighting our urges, we give all we have, heart mind and soul, to pursuing and loving God. When we do that, He gives us the grace to overcome the sin in our lives.

Too often Christians think that they can out will sin. As Paul tells us else where, what we need is God's grace, His gift of rescue. Our will is never enought. His grace is always enough but we have to pursue it with all that we are.

The next time you are tempted. Stop, get alone with God and ask Him, plead with Him for His grace. Ask Him to help you to see yourself as dead to that sin. Don't leave that place until you have His grace and go back as often as nessesary.

Better yet, start there each day. Have you noticed that the best way to eat the right thing is to do it first (eat the banana before you eat the Twinkie)? The same way with temptation. A day begun gettting in God's face is a day that will be easier to say "no" to the wrong things  and "yes" to the right.

Application/Confession: I have spent a lot of my life fighting sin. I am learning the power of throwing myself on His grace. I am coming to recognize that I can't win against sin because I was never meant too--without His grace. So I am asking for it and, when I do, I am finding that He can, indeed, win the battle for me.

PRAYER: I need Your grace, Your intervention to be right. Draw me closer, always, to You so that I can learn to let You win the battle for my soul. I can not do it without You. May I never forget that.