Dc Talk - Jesus Freak 25Sample

In the Light

“I do the very thing I hate.” 

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever dealt out hurt and harm unintentionally? The well-known saying “we hurt the ones we love the most” came to be for a reason. On our best days, we may feel like decent people, but we can quickly and easily inflict pain or leave a wake of damage in our path.

In Romans 7, Paul describes the angst, frustration, and failure that result both from doing something unintentionally and from trying to do good. The question and conclusion the song raises are poignant: What’s going on inside of me / I despise my own behavior.

This is the very sentiment that caused Paul to exclaim, “Wretched man that I am! Who will free me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24, ESV). 

Here is where Jesus Christ enters and embodies an entirely different way of living. It’s a way that runs counter to our natural instincts. Fundamentally, it is not through our effort that we keep from sinning, and it is not through our effort that we are able to do good, but rather these happen when we do not try. This warrants explanation.

Jesus’ life-changing gospel tells us we are indeed in need of a Savior because our own attempts to bring this sickness under control have utterly failed. We want to be in the light as He is in the light—yet this is not a matter of trying harder, but rather of accepting that “the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7, ESV). This is vital: it’s not about the trying, it’s about the dying. 

Contemplate these passages:

“The one who has died has been set free from sin.” (Rom. 6:7, ESV)

“So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 6:11, ESV)

“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Rom. 6:14, ESV)

The gospel calls us to experientially know we have been crucified with Christ and have His Spirit now living within us in a way that truly changes everything (Gal. 2:20). Sin no longer has any authority or any power whatsoever in the believer’s life, for s/he has been made into an altogether new creation (1 Cor. 5:17). We may not always feel this way, we may not always act this way, and yet it is, as the saying goes, “the gospel truth.” The old is gone and the new has come.

When we live in this died-with-Christ reality, self-control and the integral exercise of spiritual disciplines (prayer, Scripture reading/meditation, fasting, etc.) rightfully become a response to being made new in Christ rather than our own effort to bring sickness (sin) under control. For in Christ, the sickness is gone. And this difference makes all the difference.