July 15, 2022

The Almost Daily will be on Summer Vacation until August 8th. But fear not! You will receive a devotional each Monday through Friday from the excellent Mockingbird Devotional entitled Daily Grace. Enjoy! - Paul Walker

What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. (Romans 7:7-10)

Once, when I was at a music festival, the host/sponsor took the stage to try to ignite the crowd. Multiple times and with crescendoing volume, she asked us if we were having fun. When the response was lackluster, she belted out, “You’re in my house here! The only rule in my house is that you’ve GOT TO HAVE FUN!”

The host was just doing her job, but she made me want to leave, despite the good music, weather, food, drink, and company. Rarely do people like to be told what to do and how to feel. Often, a command will produce the opposite result. For instance, does being told to relax actually result in relaxation? Once you notice this dynamic, it is startling to realize how much everybody likes to tell everybody else what to do!

This is also how the law of God works. God’s law is holy and righteous, but it does not produce the fruit of holiness and righteousness in us. Instead, the scripture tells us that it produces sin and death. As the Apostle Paul says in today’s passage, “the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.”

Thankfully, our Christian faith is not ultimately about what we are to do. Rather, it is about what Jesus Christ has already done for us on the cross. “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do” (8:3).

We thank you, heavenly Father, that you did for us what the law could not do, by giving us your Son. Give us grateful hearts today, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Paul Walker, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]