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| PentecostalTheology.com
No Longer Wretched – Ray E Horton
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24a).
Throughout the Bible, believers are referred to as saints. But sometimes Christians who think that we are still sinners because we sometimes sin in the flesh, point to what Paul said in Rom. 7. But they need the fuller revelation of who Christ made us to be and the complete work of redemption in re-creating our human spirits.
I was wretched, but now redeemed
In Romans 7, Paul was showing us how, as a pre-Born-Again sinner, we were wretched, crying out: “Who will deliver me from this body of death” Rom. 7:24.
But thank the Lord that He went on with the answer in Vs. 25, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In Jesus we are delivered from the wretchedness of a sinner. Jesus delivered us, and while our unredeemed flesh still gives us trouble, that is not our identity, which is our perfected spirit.
Paul continues in Vs. 25, “So then with the mind I serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” Our mind tries to follow our spirit, but our flesh still tends toward sin.
He continues to explain the victory that Jesus won for us in Rom. 8:1-2: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
We have been redeemed, surely by nothing that we have done
We are now free to walk according to and by the power of the spirit, and the flesh no longer must rule us. The old man is dead! We renew our minds to this truth and overcome in the power of the Spirit. And we can boast in no-one but Christ. It is only through His death and resurrection that we have been redeemed, surely by nothing that we have done.
We did not deserve His grace, but Jesus loved us so much that He made the sacrifice with joy: “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2b). Therefore, when tempted or pulled away, we “look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb 12:2a). So, rejoice; you are no longer wretched and lost, but you are now an overcomer in Christ.
