In our last visit we found that there is a wonderful answer to Paul’s dilemma described in his agonizing cry in Romans 7:24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Actually he was now prepared for the answer because he recognized and admitted two things. 

 

First, he was wretched. No matter how hard he tried to be something other than wretched, underneath it all, that’s what he was. Second, he needed someone else to do for Him what he couldn’t do for himself. He needed to be rescued. Who could do that? Verse 25 says, “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

 

It is God’s grace that provided Jesus Christ as our Savior. He must, however, be recognized as our Lord as well. It is only as He is in control of our lives that we will experience the full extent of God’s gracious provision for our victory over sin. 

 

The practical dynamic that Paul has been developing and describing in Romans 7 is this: We need to recognize our need for Jesus Christ to be our Savior. Only a righteousness that comes through faith in Him is acceptable to God. 

 

After trusting in Jesus Christ to save us we need to recognize we can’t produce righteousness any better as a Christian than we could as an unbeliever. If we try we will struggle as Paul did, doing what we don’t want to do, and not doing what we want to do. There is a sinful nature that remains in our lives and trips us up if we try living for God by sheer willpower and effort.