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For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Romans 7:15 One of the challenges of struggling with anything, is the feeling of isolation. Often, we keep our failures and trials a secret because we’re ashamed of the struggle. We…
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For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 Today’s passage makes it very plain – following our own sinful nature leads to death and destruction. Following Christ, however, leads to eternal life. It isn’t complicated, and it makes me wonder…
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But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. Romans 6:21 Addiction, tragically, can and does sometimes lead to overdose and death. I once thought that this physical death was what Paul referred to in today’s passage. Though…
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For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. Romans 6:19 When my wife and I were first married and considered buying a house, the idea was daunting. Paying something off for thirty…
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Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Romans 6:12 I wrote yesterday of the spiritual transformation that is available to those who come to faith in Christ. As he was buried and resurrected, so we too, through faith, have been buried and born again into a new…
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We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4 I wrote a few days ago about how, when I’m down, I still remember the destructive, instant gratification…
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What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Romans 6:1 I wrote yesterday of the grace that my wife showed me in the repeated failure of my addiction. I spoke of how her grace…
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Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:20 Fifteen years of selfish, addictive behavior takes its toll on a marriage. Yes, I contributed to and invested good things into my relationship…
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For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Romans 5:12 In one of the few upsides of Covid-19, my son had an extended college break…
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Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. Romans 5:12 One of the first things modern medicine teaches about addiction, is that we once viewed it as a sin (behavioral problem) and thus, we saw addicts as terrible sinners.…
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