Mon Feb 10

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words do and law

Reading

Romans 7:14-25—Who will rescue me?

Optional Reading

Optional Reading Judges 2:1-15

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Even God’s people can have bad practices of sin
But we’re not under sin’s power any more
Jesus rescues us from sin’s power and sin’s practice

Questions

(some read these before notes, then ask them after)

Are believers entirely free from sin? Explain.
In what ways does sin still live in the Christian?
Who will rescue us from this body of death?

Notes

Through Christ, the believer has been put to death in relation to the law so that we might belong to Him (v. 4). We are able to serve in the newness of the Spirit (v. 6). We take delight in our inner being in God’s law (v. 22). Nevertheless, the weight of sin drags Paul, and us, down. As Doriani notes, Romans 6 states that believers are free from sin, but Romans 7 says, “Not entirely.”

What we read in Romans 7 seems a little bit like the cycle of sin we see in Judges 2: I don’t understand what I do. I do what I hate, what I don’t want to do. I have no ability to do good. I practice evil.

Olyott states that here in Romans, we have a very clear picture of what a Christian is like. He is not ruled by sin (ch. 6), but nor is he free from sin (ch. 7). He knows nothing more of reigning sin (ch. 6), but none the less he is agonized by surviving sin (ch. 7). … [Non Christians] live in sin; he does not (ch. 6), although sin still lives in him (ch. 7). He is characterized by holy desires, but frustrated by sin in his members.

This leads to the cry, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” So, who will rescue us? Paul answers clearly—Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! It is in Christ—and Christ alone—that the believer finds rescue in the day-to-day struggle against sin and temptation. Thanks be to God, indeed.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday reading for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 119r

Prayer

Thank God for Christ rescuing you from the power of sin.
Pray for a specific application from yesterday's sermons.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.

Notes this week are drawn in part from commentaries by John Calvin, William Hendriksen, Kent Hughes, Stuart Olyott , Simon J. Kistemaker, the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) and from notes from the CSB Study Bible, and the Reformation Study Bible.