[Darris McNeely] For a Christian who is sincere about worshiping God, following God's teachings, His commandments, His word, and the law, and we live by every word of God, there are times and moments when we come to a point in our life when we may recognize that our life just doesn't match up to Scripture. When you come to the Passover service every year, when you keep the days of Unleavened Bread, those days which picture putting sin out of our lives and putting Christ's life in us and the Passover where we remember the death of Jesus Christ, His suffering and that sacrifice, we take the symbols of the bread and wine that are part of that service that are so critical to the covenant and to the commitment that we make to God when we are baptized and start off on His way of life, we go through a period where we wonder, you know, "It's not been such a good year." Or some of the same things that we are struggling with, works of the flesh, certain problems are still with us. We haven't been able to put them out of our life.

And we may echo the words of the apostle Paul in the book of Romans 7 where he himself had that same problem and he said, "My desire is to do what is right, but there's this law deep inside that's working against me that drags me into sin." And he came to an exclamation in verse 24 of chapter 7 of Romans, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" That's pretty dark. That's pretty deep. I've been there. Maybe you have as well.

You know what, in the next verse he gives the answer. You don't wanna stay in verse 24. You ever get there? And I've been there. Don't stay there. Go on to verse 25. He says, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." So then with a mind, I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh, the law of sin. I thank God. You thank God. We have Christ's sacrifice to forgive us. We have the life of Christ within us through His spirit. If we have been baptized and repentant and received that gift of God's Spirit. Keep reading. In 8:1 he says, "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."

We're not condemned by God if we have had the sacrifice of Christ applied to us. If we renew that covenant, that commitment every year with the Passover, there is no condemnation. Now, we must confess our sin. We must continue to strive against the sin that often very easily comes upon us. And we will sin. We can never come to the point we say that we're perfect and we haven't sinned. As long as we're in the flesh, we will. But don't beat yourself up to the point of depression, discouragement. "O wretched man that I am!" Paul said. No, no, we thank God. There's no condemnation as we walk this way, as we walk by the Spirit.

That's an important lesson that must be uppermost at this time of year as we soberly reflect upon the death, sacrifice of Jesus Christ because He does live. He was resurrected three days and three nights later. And He can live within us by and through His Spirit. And we can be led by that Spirit, and that makes the difference.

That's "BT Daily." Join us next time.