January 21st - Reflection

Readings
Romans 7:1-6 (NRSV)
The new life of the Spirit

Do you not know, brothers and sisters -- for I am speaking to those who know the law -- that the law is binding on a person only during that person's lifetime? Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

Reflection
I am sinner and saint. There is part of me that is dealing with the law. Part of me that is being condemned daily for my failure to keep the law. There is part of me that realizes that I can't make it on my own because the law overwhelms me and I fall desperately short of salvation.

But there is also the saint part of me. This part tells me of Christ who has died for my sin and released me that the failures of the sin and the law. This part of me walks free from sin and bears fruit for God. This saintly part of me walks in the freedom of salvation through Christ alone to joyfully serve, praise and love God and to joyfully serve and love those God places in my life day after day.

I am sinner and saint, but thanks be to God through Christ Jesus, I am called as a child of God to walk in the Kingdom day after day.

Prayer
Lord, as I am aware of my sin and seek forgiveness, renew me, forgive me, call me, gift me and send me free to serve You daily. In joyful expectation I walk with You. ---Amen