I must say that through all this election business it was brought home to me, by the Lord, how very easy it is to forget where we came from, and who redeemed us. 2:1 And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins 2:2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. 2:3 Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 2:6 and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 2:7 that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God-- 2:9 not because of works, lest any man should boast. 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Wow! How easy it is to let the elemental principles of this world, which have the appearance of wisdom come in and cloud our minds so that we begin to judge and condemn the world.
Justified by grace and made a new creation by grace. It took me decades to see that we aren't standing before an erased blackboard—that used to enumerate our shortcomings—and are charged to now keep it clean by our own efforts; but by grace the God who commands holiness is also the God who produces that holiness by His Spirit, through His Son. So that I may count on the fact that it is God who is in me [us] both to will and to do of His good pleasure. The hard part was learning that my weaknesses would never be made strong, but that His power would be made perfect in them…so that I am not left boasting in myself but in him. It's hard to watch countless brothers and sisters in the Lord live in Romans 7 as if that is the normal Christian life. But it is also comforting to know that it is the normal process by which all self confidence is destroyed and a new confidence in Him is formed. Christ our life: the One who does not sin and who lives only to and for God the Father. If, not when, we sin we have an advocate and God is faithful to forgive and cleans us of all unrighteousness if we but confess that sin. 2:17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! 2:18 But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. 2:19 For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 2:21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.
Every time we are tempted to walk by our flesh [what we were born with the first time], trying to change it and live up to the standard of the law, we find ourselves in Romans 7. It isn't that Christ our life doesn't work or has failed…it is that I am not abiding in Him with my mind set on the things that are true and eternal. We have died to the law—ending our relationship with it—and live to God; we have been put to death with Christ that He can now live His life through us, as we trust Him to do so. He is love [agape] when all I feel is hatred [my weakness]; He is all that God could ever require of a man and is manifest through us so that all the glory is his and we especially know that ourselves.
Blessings!
Craig | 
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