Yep, I'm back

I'm back...
It was a great week of rest, good food, family time, and laughter.
Time at the beach....
Time with the grand kids at the pool...
Trivial Pursuit...
Yahtzee....
Scrabble...
In other words, I was on vacation.
It was a time for Clan Bynum to gather under one roof for a week long get together. This year was the best one we have experienced.
Very grateful that God would allow us such a blessing.

Romans 6:14
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

This past week, I stayed parked in the first 6 chapters of Romans. J. Vernon McGee and I went through the chapters a verse at a time and I had some thoughts come to my mind.

I love this verse in chapter 6. When it speaks of "sin", Paul isn't talking about the sin we commit daily, he is talking about the initial-in-the-garden-eat-the-fruit-fallen nature of man. In other words, we do not have to be under the rule of sin. Jesus' death and resurrection broke that power over us. 

We are not under the condemnation of the law any more. (Remember the law? The ten commandments that God gave Moses?) Now I don't know about you, but that is really good news to me. The law can not save anyone. It only points out our need to be saved. The law doesn't produce life...it judges and finds everyone of us guilty.
God gave us those ten commandments to show us our need for a savior. 

We are no longer under the curse and penalty of the law, but rather are under grace. What does this mean? Does this mean that the law no longer serves any purpose to us? Can we simply discard the law and life willy-nilly as our heart desires? No! But what the law demands from me (which is death)no longer applies. I am living under the grace of God. The blood of Christ has been applied to my sins, my life and my body so that the law is fulfilled, so that when God looks at me, He sees the blood of Jesus as payment for my life.

I am now living under the grace of God, and, as always, I turn to James Ryles for the definition of grace.
"Grace is the empowering presence of God in my life that enables me (empowers me) to be who God created me to be, and to do what He has called me to do."
That is the life I now live in Christ. Like Paul, I have been set free from sin but choose to live as a bondservant to Jesus. 

One of the wonderful thoughts that came to me this week during my study of Romans, was that the passage in Chapter 6, verse 14 is a promise. Spoken by God through Paul, God tells me that sin does not have to rule me. Sin does not have to dictate my ever move in which my sole purpose is to feed my selfish nature. I am covered and filled with the grace of God. I have been empowered to rise above the dominion and rule of sin and no longer am a slave to the kingdom of darkness and my own selfish, destructive wants and desires. Now I don't care what anybody says....that's good stuff right there.

Chew on this today and let it seep all down inside you.
let your mind roll this around while your heart is joyful.
See you tomorrow.
God on you..
mb