Study Desk

You get what is coming to you when you sin. It is death! But God's free gift is life that lasts forever. It is given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

A married woman is joined by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if he dies, she is free from the law that joined her to him.

My Christian brothers, that is the way it is with you. You were under the power of the Law. But now you are dead to it because you are joined to another. You are joined to Christ Who was raised from the dead. This is so we may be what God wants us to be. Our lives are to give fruit for Him.

but now we are free from the Law. We are dead to sin that once held us in its power. No longer do we follow the Law which is the old way. We now follow the new way, the way of the Spirit.

Then what are we saying? Is the Law sinful? No, not at all! But it was the Law that showed me what sin is. I did not know it was sin to follow wrong desires, but the Law said, "You must not follow wrong desires."

We know that the Law is right and good, but I am a person who does what is wrong and bad. I am not my own boss. Sin is my boss.

I do not understand myself. I want to do what is right but I do not do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate.

I know there is nothing good in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do good but I do not.

But there is a different law at work deep inside of me that fights with my mind. This law of sin holds me in its power because sin is still in me.

God's Law has power over my mind, but sin still has power over my sinful old self. I thank God I can be free through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The Law could not make me free from the power of sin and death. It was weak because it had to work with weak human beings. But God sent His own Son. He came to earth in a body of flesh which could be tempted to sin as we in our bodies can be. He gave Himself to take away sin. By doing that, He took away the power sin had over us.

Those who let their sinful old selves tell them what to do live under that power of their sinful old selves. But those who let the Holy Spirit tell them what to do are under His power.

If your sinful old self is the boss over your mind, it leads to death. But if the Holy Spirit is the boss over your mind, it leads to life and peace.

But you are not doing what your sinful old selves want you to do. You are doing what the Holy Spirit tells you to do, if you have God's Spirit living in you. No one belongs to Christ if he does not have Christ's Spirit in him.

If you do what your sinful old selves want you to do, you will die in sin. But if, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you destroy those actions to which the body can be led, you will have life.

If we are children of God, we will receive everything He has promised us. We will share with Christ all the things God has given to Him. But we must share His suffering if we are to share His shining-greatness.

But if we hope for something we do not yet see, we must learn how to wait for it.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit helps us where we are weak. We do not know how to pray or what we should pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays to God for us with sounds that cannot be put into words.

God did not keep His own Son for Himself but gave Him for us all. Then with His Son, will He not give us all things?

But we have power over all these things through Jesus Who loves us so much.