"For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh..."  Rom. 8:2-3.

It doesn´t say that Christ was sent for our sins nor does it say that He condemned the sins in the flesh.  Why?  Was not Christ sent for our sins?  Indeed, that great gospel has already been proclaimed in the preceding chapters.  But right here  Romans don´t deal with our sins, but with sin in us of which  ch. 7 speaks so dramatically.  It says,  "sin (not sins) that dwells within me"  (v.17,20), which means that sinful nature or poisonous  principle in us that makes us conscious of our complete "wretchedness".

That sin nature is still there.  It will never in this life be improved nor removed.  The way of deliverance is not a super holiness experience, but a look of faith by the elucidation of the Spirit to the effect that God has already dealt with the dilemma of sin in us through the death of Christ in which we also died.  Yes, death (the death of Christ) is the answer.

I never forget when the Spirit one day in the boys´ dorm in our so called "boot camp" (New Tribes Mission) in PA gave me that look into the gospel.  I was at that time fed up with the futility of Christian living. Rom. 6:13 in a flash made me understand that I had already in  Christ "been brought from death to life", meaning that I should no longer try to be "good" or be "approved" by any leadership or my fellow believers.

I jumped up, I remember, and found a place where I could praise the Lord for that gospel, and the following two mornings I joyfully shared with the camp what my eyes had seen in Romans.  That "look" has sometimes been blurred, so it has again and again to be brushed up as need be.

Many blunders have been made over the years, but the gospel has not failed.  I often shamefully hide my face in my hands, and yet I may wash my face anew  point to Him, still dwelling on the liberty of Romans.

April 12, 2019 - jn