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Guess Who’s Praying For You

Your Unceasing Prayer Partner

UNSHAKEABLE: The Holy Spirit is actively engaged, even at this very moment, interceding within you and through you, taking your case before the throne of the Heavenly Father and praying the Father’s perfect will for your life. God, who knows all things, knows exactly what you’re up against in this world, which from a human perspective, looks pretty overwhelming much of the time. But God knows his plans for you (“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer 29:11), and both Father and Spirit are in continual dialogue, strategizing how to turn the circumstances of your life, both good and bad, into that which will bring the greatest glory to Him and produce the greatest good in you.

Father, Son, and Spirit are in a continual dialogue, strategizing how to turn your circumstances, both good and bad, into that which will glorify God and produce good in you. —Ray Noah

Unshakeable Living // Romans 8:26-27

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Need some encouraging news today? How about this: You’ve got quite a team praying for you!

Paul says the Holy Spirit is actively engaged, even at this very moment, interceding within you and through you, taking your case before the throne of the Heavenly Father and praying the Father’s perfect will for your life. God, who knows all things, knows exactly what you’re up against in this world, which from a human perspective, looks pretty overwhelming much of the time (just read the context of this verse, Romans 8:17-27 and you’ll see what I mean). But God knows his plans for you (a perfect plan by the way, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,” according to Jeremiah 29:11), and both Father and Spirit are in continual dialogue, strategizing how to turn the circumstances of your life, both good and bad, into that which will bring the greatest glory to Him and produce the greatest good in you.

The best part of God’s plan, Paul says, is that through those very circumstances, God is working to conform you to the image of the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” (Rom 8:28-29)

But that’s not all. Not only are Father and Spirit in a constant conversation about you, the Son is in on the discussion as well. Paul writes in Romans 8:34, “Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Hebrews 7:24-25 tells us that “Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”

Did you catch that? Jesus’ job description now that he is the resurrected Lord is to be your personal high priest. That means he stands night and day before the Father representing your case. And he intends not just to help you get through whatever you are going through, his mission is to save you completely! Of course, you are already saved if you have placed faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior—that part of your salvation is complete. What Jesus is also doing is bringing to bear all of heaven’s resources to enable your salvation to be practical and powerful in your moment-by-moment life right here and right now!

Furthermore, The Triune God is willing and able to then bring both your positional salvation (when you received Christ) and your practical salvation (your daily walk with Christ) to the finish line in glorious fashion (Philippians 1:6, Jude 24) in the next life. In other words, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are actively engaged on your behalf at this very moment, and they won’t stop until they see that the Father’s perfect plan is fully worked out in you, for you, and through you both in time and for eternity.

That’s quite a prayer team you got, isn’t it? And I’ll bet you had even realized that. So dwell on that a little bit, and you’ll walk through this day with a lot more confidence and purpose, knowing that the eternal God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—has invaded your gritty reality with the best of heaven.

Get Rooted: Read Romans 8:1-39 then memorize verses 38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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Royal Family Kids

You Are A Prince … A Princess! Now Walk Like One.

UNSHAKEABLE: You and I are now heirs of all the same promises God made to the children of Israel. We are not second-class citizens to the Jewish nation — we have been given a ticket that has a first-class seating assignment! And to seal the deal, God even sent his Holy Spirit to dwell within us (Eph 1:13-14) to guarantee our spot in his royal family for both time and eternity. That sense of family is what the presence of the Holy Spirit causes in you; that’s what his indwelling work produces in the deepest parts of your being: An expectant reaching out to God as your very own Father. You are a prince…a princess, now walk like one!

Royal Family Kids

Unshakeable Living // Romans 8:14

Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

“You are a princess—now walk like one!” So goes the story of the queen, whispering to her daughter as the young lady is about to make a public appearance.

In essence, that’s what the Apostle Paul is saying to you and me: You are a prince…a princess — a kid in the royal family of God — now walk like one! We have been adopted (spiritually, a legal reality — Eph 2:5, and internally, a sense of identity, intimacy, and security is produced by the indwelling Holy Spirit — Rom 8:15-16). We are in the family of God — no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. By Christ’s redeeming work, we who were once far from God have been brought near to God and firmly, fully, and forever implanted in his family. (Eph 2:13-14)

You are a prince…a princess, now walk like one! Get this: You and I are now heirs of all the same promises God made to the children of Israel. We are not second-class citizens to the Jewish nation — we have been given a ticket that has a first-class seating assignment! And to seal the deal, God even sent his Holy Spirit to dwell within us (Eph 1:13-14) to guarantee our spot for both time and eternity.

That sense of family is what the presence of the Holy Spirit causes in you; that’s what his indwelling work produces in the deepest parts of your being: An expectant reaching out to God as your very own Father. I love how the Messages renders Romans 8:15-17,

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance!

That is not just something you naturally do. It’s not how you normally think. It is not a usual human instinct to act that way. However, once the Spirit gets a hold of you, you begin to live with a sense of royal family. You can’t help it when he is there reminding you of your true identity and your eternal destiny.

So now that you have been reminded of your new and true identity, walk like the prince or princess you are. Act like the royal family kid that you really are. That’s why Paul begins this section by reminding us of the obligation we now have: “Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation — but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.” (Rom 8:12) Rather, we are to say no to the old family identity (the sinful nature — Rom 8:13) and yield to the moment-by-moment leading of the Holy Spirit who dwells within. (Rom 8:14)

You are a princess…a prince, now walk like one! Yield to the Spirit — it proves you are a royal child of God. Be led by the Spirit—it is what God’s true children do. How? Look for the Spirit’s direction in your circumstances. Submit to the Spirit’s sanctifying work in your daily life (Gal 5:16,17,25). And primarily, saturate yourself in God’s Word, allowing the Holy Spirit to illumine your spirit with Divine truth and empower your will to obey it. (Eph 5:17-19, Phil 2:12-13).

You are fully and forever in God’s royal family — now walk like it!

Get Rooted: Read Romans 8:1-39. Meditate on Romans 8:1-2, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Memorize Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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Revivals: Much Ado or Much To Do

Get Off Your Spiritual Mountaintop And Move On To Your Spiritual Mandate!

Once in a while, God breaks through in a group of people’s lives and what we call a “revival” breaks out. Such is the case currently in a Christian university chapel in Asbury, Kentucky. While much is being said about this revival, there is nothing new about God stirring the hearts of his people. In fact, we see several times in both the Old and New Testaments where spiritual awakening occurs. Interestingly, what I would argue is a common thread in each case is the instruction the Holy Spirit gives those who are enjoying their “mountaintop” moment in God’s presence: “Get off the mountain and move on,” God told the Israelites. “As they were coming down the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus gave them orders.” After the spiritual awakening on Mount Zion in Acts 2, Acts 8 tells us, “So a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, that all except the apostles were scattered … and they preached the word wherever they went.” A mountaintop experience is wonderful and necessary from time to time, and there is nothing wrong with longing for extended and life-altering times in God’s glorious presence, but we are not to fixate on the experience. We must resist the urge to set up camp there so we can live forever in the warm afterglow. We should never rate the rest of our Christian experience against our revival, but rather we should see that mountaintop moment for what it really is: faith fuel for the assignment ahead. Of course, a spiritual awakening is a little bit of heaven on earth, yet God’s presence remains a down-to-earth deal that calls us to so get off our high and “go give ‘em heaven.” A lost world is waiting for fired-up believers!

The Journey// Focus: Deuteronomy 1:6-8

When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, “You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the neighboring regions—the Jordan Valley, the hill country, the western foothills, the Negev, and the coastal plain. Go to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, and all the way to the great Euphrates River. Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it is the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants.”

“Get off the mountain and move on,” God told the Israelites. “As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave orders” to Peter, James and John on the way back down the Mount of Transfiguration. On Mount Zion, the book of Acts tells us, “So a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, that all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria….And those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”

We love a mountaintop experience—what we might call a spiritual high— an experience so wonderful that we never want to lose the emotional euphoria of its warm afterglow. We never want to lose those fuzzy feelings we had at the moment of salvation, or an ecstatic encounter with the Holy Spirit, or when we cried our eyes out at the altar during summer youth camp, or at a revival meeting when God’s presence seemed so thick you could slice it

The problem with those kinds of experiences is that we tend to fixate on them, and then rate the rest of our Christian walk against them. Unfortunately, nothing can quite live up to the warm fuzzies of a mountaintop high.

We love to stay on the mountaintop with Moses as God delivers the Ten Commandments. We never want to leave that moment with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. We don’t want to get out from under the flow of the Spirit in Jerusalem to go into the rest of the world. After all, it is so spiritual…and it feels so good! Going back down the mountain is a drag. This down-to-earth business of Christianity is way overrated.

But obeying God always means we have to “get off the mountain to go possess the land.” We have to leave the sanctuary, the worship service, the warm incubator of our small group Bible study and get back into the game of extending the Kingdom on God’s behalf.

Moses had been on the Mountain Sinai for forty days talking with God. The top of the mountain was covered with special effects not even Hollywood could replicate. Peels of thunder so loud and flashes of lightning so bright no one else dared to wander up Sinai. In fact, the people had been warned that even touching the mountain as their leader communed with their God would bring instant death. Talk about the third rail.

Who wouldn’t want to stay in that holy moment? I sure would! I would want to can that spiritual experience and pull it back out of the can everyone once in a while—okay, a lot—to whiff the fumes of that intoxicating spiritual high all over again.

Here’s the deal: God never intends for us to fixate on the mountaintop experience. We have not been called to park our spiritual fannies in a spiritual high. Those amazing moments are meant for fuel to empower us for some spiritual assignment: to possess the land, to minister to the people, to take the Gospel from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and to the “uttermost part of the earth.”

I am not down on mountaintop experiences. They are wonderful, and necessary from time to time. Just don’t fixate on them. Resist the urge to set up camp there so you can live forever in their warm afterglow. Don’t rate the rest of your Christian experience against them. Simply see them for what they are: Fuel for the assignment ahead.

Then get off the mountain and back in the game. Authentic faith is a down-to-earth deal. So bring a little of that heavenly high with you, get back down there, and go give ‘em heaven!

Going Deeper: Is there a “spiritual high” from your past (an ecstatic experience, a fruitful time of ministry, a wonderful season in an amazing church family, a dramatic period of spiritual growth under a gifted spiritual leader) against which you tend to measure current experience? Stop doing that! Repent of worshiping that experience and instead ask God to show you how he intends for that “high” to fuel you for the kingdom assignment setting before you today.

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Sin Doesn’t Stand A Chance

We Are Not Alone in the Fight

UNSHAKEABLE: We are not alone in our struggle with sin. We do not have to be disheartened by the overwhelming nature of the spiritual contest we are in. For sure, we experience a strong pull back into the slavery from which our sinful natures were freed. However, we have an infinitely stronger, incomparably more powerful, indefatigable Person who is dwelling within us. The Holy Spirit. With God’s Spirit residing in us and working for us, we cannot lose — if we will cooperate with him.

Unshakeable Living // Romans 8:11

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

I have heard this particular verse quoted most of my life — usually in the context of praying for the healing power of the Holy Spirit for a physical malady. I have received prayers, and I have offered prayers using this verse as a faith builder — that the same Spirit of God who raised the body of Jesus from death is dwelling in us, and we can expect that same resurrection power to bring divine life to our physical bodies as well. And to be sure, I believe that to be true.

What never hit me until this moment is the larger context in which we find this verse. Up to this point in Romans, Paul has been extensively contrasting the bondage to sin we experienced while living under the law with the freedom from sin we have living under the lordship of the resurrected Christ. Paul has shared his own struggle with sin — of doing what he shouldn’t and not doing what he should. And he has been quite realistic about this back-and-forth wrestling match that goes on in our lives between sin-bondage and Spirit-freedom.

Then he drops this truth on us: We are not alone in this struggle with sin. We do not have to be disheartened by the overwhelming nature of the spiritual contest we are in. For sure, we experience a strong pull back into the slavery from which our sinful natures were freed. However, we have an infinitely stronger, incomparably more powerful, indefatigable Person who is dwelling within us and is fighting for us. And that Person is the Holy Spirit, who is helping us to overcome sin.

With God’s Spirit residing in us and working for us, we cannot lose — if we will cooperate with him. If we work with and walk with the Holy Spirit, we then can tap into the same force he exerted in the lifeless body of Jesus to reconstitute each dead cell and catalyze life in his breathless spirit to produce something that had never happened before, something that the master of sin, the devil, never counted on: The first fully resurrected man.

Not only that, this first fully resurrected man was just the beginning. Now, we who accept Jesus by faith enter into that same resurrection life by that same indwelling resurrection Spirit. And the indwelling Spirit enables us to live in that same resurrection power that will not only heal our sick bodies, and not only guarantee our immortality but will empower us each and every day to resist the pull of sin and live the victorious, overcoming Christian life.

Think about that! On this day, at this very moment, the same Holy Spirit that coursed through the body of our Lord and brought him back to life again is coursing through you.

Wow! Suffering, sickness, and sin — especially sin — doesn’t stand a chance!

Get Rooted: Read Romans 8:1-39. Meditate on Romans 8:1-2, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” And memorize Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be.”

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Don’t Tempt Me

Finally Free To Simply Enjoy God’s Grace

UNSHAKEABLE: Where are you most vulnerable to temptation? What represents your irresistible compulsion? Maybe it’s a box of Dunkin Doughnuts — perhaps you are an overeater. Maybe it’s the letters S*A*L*E — perhaps you’re an over spender. Maybe it’s an adult site on the Internet — perhaps you’ve got a compulsion for porn. Could it be your compulsion is alcohol or drugs or gambling or gossiping or griping or incessant social media consumption? Maybe it’s the joy of passing judgment on other doughnut-eaters, which, reveals your battle with a critical spirit. Each of us has an area where we do what we shouldn’t and don’t do what we should. How hopeless we feel at times! So, who will rescue us from the doughnuts?” Jesus will!

Unshakeable Living // Romans 7:15,19,24

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do… For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice… O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Huh? Did you catch that? Paul had a convoluted way of saying something straightforward, which was simply this: “I do what I shouldn’t and I don’t do what I should — man, am I in trouble!”

Can you relate to Paul? I sure can. He was in a wrestling match with sin, and sin was whupping up on him. It was frustrating because Paul knew what he shouldn’t be doing — yet he was drawn to sin like a mouse to a cheese-laden trap or an insect to a bug zapper or bees to honey — pick your metaphor.

Let me ask you this: Where are you most vulnerable to temptation? What represents your cheese-laden mousetrap? Maybe it’s a box of Dunkin Doughnuts — perhaps you are an overeater. Maybe it’s the letters S*A*L*E — perhaps you’re an overspender. Maybe it’s an adult site on the Internet — perhaps you’ve got a compulsion for porn. Could it be your compulsion is alcohol or drugs or gambling or gossiping or griping or incessant social media consumption? Maybe it’s the joy of passing judgment on other cheese-eaters, which, reveals your battle with a critical spirit.

Each of us has an area where we do what we shouldn’t and don’t do what we should. As Paul might say, “What a sicko I am! Who will rescue me from the cheese?”

Jesus will! That’s also what Paul said in Romans 7:25, “Thanks be to God — it’s through Jesus Christ our Lord!” When Jesus died, he broke the power of sin, so it no longer has a hold on us. Through the power of the resurrection, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God has provided a way out from under every temptation:

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Did you catch that? Your battle with temptation is winnable. The last part of the verse says, “But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out.”

That’s good news. There’s always an escape route — always. When you’re tempted, God himself will provide a way out; he will make a way. God has provided a door — but I must look for it and walk through it!

What are those escape routes?

One way of escape is to immerse yourself in Scripture. Psalm 119:9 & 11 says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word…I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

That’s how Jesus battled temptation in the wilderness. Every time the tempter came at him with something that would tear him away from his Father, Jesus came back at Satan with the truth of scripture. There is no more potent weapon against temptation in your life than in reading God’s Word systematically, meditating on it daily, and memorizing it strategically.

Another escape route from temptation is to become accountable to another believer, especially for your particular weakness. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” We need to bring our temptation into the light of accountability to other people—as difficult as that may be.

Proverbs 27:5-6 says, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” You would do yourself a huge favor by finding someone with whom you can be accountable for your weakness?

And yet another way out is to ask God to deliver you daily from the tempter. Jesus taught us to pray a daily prayer that acknowledges both our weakness and our need for divine power in this area: “Deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13) As simple as that seems, the amazing thing is, God hears those prayers. And he provides a way out.

Who will rescue you from this body of death? Who is going to keep you away from the Dunkin Doughnuts?

Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me. (Rom 7:25)

Get Rooted: Read Romans 7:1-25. Memorize Romans 7:24-25, “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Throughout Romans, it seems as if Paul has been pounding on the law. So was the law bad? Obviously not! So if the law is not bad, yet it doesn’t lead to true righteousness before God, what is its purpose then? Do a word search in Romans and Galatians

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The Great Breakup

Finally Free To Simply Enjoy God’s Grace

UNSHAKEABLE: The law, itself, was not evil. In fact, the law was “holy, right and good.” (Rom 7:12) But the Old Testament law could not deliver people from their sin. And its whole purpose was to remind people under its demands of that very impossibility. God, the Lawgiver, would have to step in himself and do what we, ourselves, couldn’t do through our efforts to obey the law. You see, if God’s own law cannot rescue us from sin, how much less can any other human law or religious demand or personal effort rescue us! Only grace from the Lawgiver that comes through his Son, Jesus Christ, can get that job done for us. And best of all, under that grace we are divorced from the obligation of even trying to live up to the impossible standards of the law. Rather, by that great breakup we are free to simply enjoy what God has provided. And that, my friend, is life!

The law of grace

Unshakeable Living // Romans 7:4 (Message)

When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God.

They say that breaking up is hard to do. Whoever “they” are, they’re right. Whatever else, good or bad, painful or pleasurable we might experience from a breakup, the one thing it does is to release those involved from the responsibilities of the relationship.

In this opening section of Romans 7, Paul uses the illustration of a marriage breakup — in this case, a breakup caused by the death of a spouse — to illustrate a Christ-follower’s release from the obligations of the Old Testament law. Now keep in mind that Paul’s primary purpose is not to establish a theology on divorce and remarriage — so don’t go there. What he has to say about that must be considered in the light of the rest of scriptural teaching on the matter.

Rather, Paul is using this marriage breakup illustration to make a different point. And the point is that when a marriage relationship is broken apart by death, the living partner is morally, emotionally, and physically free to pursue another relationship. What bound the person before — which would include all the bad baggage that often attends human relationships — is now null, void, and ineffective. In principle, the living spouse is completely free. Any leftover obligation the living spouse carries is empowered only by the credibility they, and only they, voluntarily place in that obligation.

So as it relates to the Old Testament law, when Christ died those old obligations were completely canceled. His death is representative of our death to the law, and therefore our death to the sin the law revealed and empowered. In Christ, we have gone through a painful, but good breakup with the law that leads to sin and death.

Paul’s illustration here, and the teaching that follows, wonderfully explains the profound contrast between that impossibly burdensome life under the law with the new and life-giving relationship made possible by grace. Through Christ’s death, we have been divorced from the old and are now married to the new — hallelujah! Watchman Nee describes it well in his book, The Normal Christian Life:

Grace means that God does something for me; law means that I do something for God. God has certain holy and righteous demands which He places upon me: that is law. Now if law means that God requires something of me for their fulfillment, then deliverance from law means that He no longer requires that from me, BUT HIMSELF PROVIDES IT. Law implies that God requires me to do something for Him; deliverance from law implies that He exempts me from doing it, and that in grace He does it Himself.

Now keep in mind that the law, itself, was not evil. (Rom 7:14) In fact, the law was “holy, right and good.” (Rom 7:12) What Paul is revealing is simply that the Old Testament law cannot deliver people from their sin. And the whole purpose of the law was to remind people under its demands of that very impossibility. God, the Lawgiver, would have to step in himself and do what we, ourselves, couldn’t do through our efforts to obey the law.

So what all of that means for you and me is that if God’s own law cannot rescue us from sin, how much less can any other human law or religious demand or personal effort rescue us! Only grace from the Lawgiver that comes through his Son, Jesus Christ, can get that job done for us.

And best of all, under grace we are divorced from the obligation of even trying to live up to the impossible standards of the law. Rather, by that great breakup we are free to simply enjoy what God has provided. And that, my friend, is life!

Get Rooted: Read Romans 7:1-25 and memorize Romans 7:24-25, “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Throughout Romans, it seems as if Paul has been pounding on the law. Was the law bad? Obviously not! So if the law is not bad, yet it doesn’t lead to true righteousness before God, what is its purpose then? Do a word search in Romans and Galatians (www.biblegateway.com is a good source) and read each context in which law is mentioned and see if you can come away with a better understanding of the purpose of the law that was revealed in Old Testament scripture.

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Cost Benefit Analysis

Before You Sin, Count the Cost

UNSHAKEABLE: One of the strongest antidotes to the ongoing and habitual sin in my life is the spiritual discipline of doing a cost-benefit analysis before I commit it the sin. That’s what Paul is asking us to do in Romans 6:21. If in everything we do — whether it be acts of unrighteousness, or simple errors of judgment, or the outright, and deliberate plunge into sin — the inalterable law of sowing and reaping is in effect (so says Galatians 6:8-9), then wouldn’t it be wise to first stop to consider the outcome of our actions?

Cost Benefit Analysis

Unshakeable Living // Romans 6:21

What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!

Most of us struggle with it; a blessed few don’t — or at least that’s what they say. I’m talking, of course, about our struggle with sin. Even though we have been redeemed from our sins, credited with Jesus’ righteousness, set free from the law of sin and death, given a new identity, and set on the path to a glorious destiny in Christ, we tend to drift back into the sins that once held us in bondage before our salvation. That’s how powerful sin is and how susceptible we are to its pull.

Now please understand that I am not excusing the inevitable surrender to sin. I am only explaining it. Sin seems to win a fair share of skirmishes with us, and if it weren’t for God’s grace and the reality of unlimited forgiveness (1 John 1:9), we’d be toast!

But as satisfying as grace and forgiveness are, I want more! I want to be free from all sin. I don’t want to lose any more skirmishes. I don’t want sin to have any more dominion over me — not in the least.

Now is that really possible? Is my total and complete sanctification possible? Can I attain sinless perfection in this life? Of course, our positional sanctification before God is an accomplished fact — remember, we’ve been credited with Christ’s righteousness, and as a result, we can’t get any more righteous than that before God! What I’m talking about here is practical sanctification. Can I be completely free from sin and holy in my everyday, moment-by-moment life in my Christian walk?

Some would say yes (the sinless perfection proponents); most would say that’s not possible—and I tend to side with the latter. But here’s what I do know for sure: One of the strongest antidotes to the ongoing and habitual sin in my life is the spiritual discipline of doing a cost-benefit analysis before I commit it the sin. That’s what Paul is asking us to do in Romans 6:21. If in everything we do — whether it be acts of unrighteousness, or simple errors of judgment, or the outright, and deliberate plunge into sin — the inalterable law of sowing and reaping is in effect (so says Galatians 6:8-9), then wouldn’t it be wise to first stop to consider the outcome of our actions?

Especially sin, as Paul makes clear in Romans 6:23, where he reminds us of the outcome of sin: “the wages of sin is death…” Not a pleasant outcome, is it? Ultimately, those who continue in sin will suffer eternal separation from God in a Christless eternity. But even for those of us who have been redeemed, not making an all-out effort to overcome sin will mean death to the fullness and favor of God that he’s promised to those who overcome. Sin blocks God’s best in our lives. And to me, that’s death!

I don’t want that, do you? No, you and I want life: “But the gift of God is eternal life,” verse 23 goes on to say. And, my friend, eternal life doesn’t just start the minute after you die. You see, each time we say no to sin there is a bit more of eternity that is unleashed in our hearts in the here and now. And the benefit of surrendering to God far outweighs any momentary high that comes from surrendering to sin — especially in light of the fact that sin’s “high” fades in a heartbeat, leaving in its wake only guilt, pain, and forfeiture of the blessings of obedience.

So, in light of that, what say we begin to practice a spiritual discipline? I will, and I hope you’ll join me. Before we pull the trigger on that next temptation, let’s just first run it through a little cost-benefit analysis.

My guess is, if we can commit ourselves to that simple practice, we aren’t going to be committing too many sins, because sin ain’t gonna be looking so good after all!

Get Rooted: Read Romans 6:1-23, then memorize Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Compare Romans 6:21 with 6:23. Do a cost-benefit analysis of the particular sin that you seem to struggle with on a recurring basis.