Why Does the Christian Life Seem So Hard?Sample

From Despair to Hope

So, the question is: How do we, on a day-by-day basis, go from feeling like we are stuck in a battle tinged with despair to fighting a battle filled with hope?

The answer is tucked into the early verses of Romans 7, where Paul tells the struggling believer, “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6).

We experience the victory of the gospel by steeping ourselves in the reality of the gospel. We might feel like we’re in the midst of turmoil and struggle. But from God’s perspective, the battle is done. We’ve already been released from the law. We’re already alive in the Spirit.

The challenge for us is to believe in these divine realities—every day, to re-believe the news of Christ’s victory.

We are to reckon ourselves as already dead to sin, even though sin still feels very much alive in us. As we do, God infuses the power of new life into us. Literally, by believing you are in the resurrection, God infuses into you the power of resurrection. God releases resurrection power into us—the power to live the Christian life—as we re-believe the gospel. In Christianity, believing is the way to becoming.

To progress in the Christian life is always, as Martin Luther said, to begin again—to go back to the essentials of the gospel. The gospel is the place from which all the Christian’s power flows.

Question for Reflection:

How does the gospel transform your struggle with sin from a battle tinged with despair to a battle filled with hope?