Romans 7:24-25a

Romans 7:24-25a “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

My commute each morning and evening is about an hour each way. To help me pass the time, I check out books on tape from the local library. Most of the time, I listen to non-fiction, books I don’t have time to read and probably wouldn’t choose for recreational reading. I’ve listened to books on World War I, World War II, and the Civil War, and biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Feynman, and Alexander Hamilton.

In the Alexander Hamilton biography, he’s shown as a brilliant man who overcame a disastrous childhood to play a vital role in the American Revolution and in the formation of our national government. But as brilliant as he was, one word keeps appearing throughout the narrative: “unfortunately.” Unfortunately for Alexander Hamilton, he had his flaws, and they proved to be his downfall frequently—both politically and personally. And those flaws are spelled out, along with the brilliance, in black and white for all the ages to read.

Listening to this book has made me glad that I won’t be famous enough for anyone to write a biography of me. I have my flaws, and they have been my downfall more than once. I don’t want my sins to be remembered for eternity. As the author of Romans proclaims, “What a wretched [person] I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

Thanks be to God! Through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord, my sins have already been wiped clean and will never be remembered. Even if my sins are written in a book here on earth, God Himself has cast those sins into the depth of the sea and as far away as the east is from the west. It is nothing that I have done, but only by the grace of God that He has done this.

How about you? Will your sins be remembered forever, ending in death and eternal separation from God? Or have you been rescued from death through faith in Jesus Christ? Take that step if you need to. Put your faith in Jesus, and He will wash away all your sins and give you new life in Him.

Brenda