My chains are gone, I’ve been set free.

My God, My saviour has ransomed me.

And like a flood, his mercy reins.

Unending love, Amazing grace.

“My chains are gone, I’ve been set free.” Oh, the joy in those words. Friends, do you understand the weight of those words? The chains of sin holding you right now, whatever they are, can be broken. We all have them, no matter what they may be.

“For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body?” (Romans 7:15, 18–19, 24 HCSB)

Doesn’t that sound depressing, yet familiar? I hope Paul knew that he wasn’t alone when he wrote those words in his letter. I’m right there with you Paul. The desire to do good is with me, yet time and time again I fail. I wasn’t the mom and wife today that I wanted to be. I didn’t pray enough. I gossiped. It’s absolutely frustrating, and Paul hit the nail on the head. It’s a never-ending trap that we fall into again and again. Thankfully, Paul set an example when he turned his attention away from his own sin, and to the one who set him free from it. Romans 8 is one of my favorite chapters in the bible. Mostly because of the hope and joy that it brings, but also because of the tune change in Paul. A tune change that could only come from hope in Jesus Christ.

Because of the cross, sin is defeated.Because of the Grace of God and his gift of Jesus, nothing can separate us from him if the spirit is within us. Nothing. Not my pride, shame, or guilt. Not one of my sins is great enough to separate me from my savior. Just look at the first few verses of chapter eight. We went from defeat and frustration, to seeing the true joy and hope we have in Jesus Christ. That is the joy we should have, and that is where our focus should be. Not on the trap we can’t help but fall into, but on the one who saves us from that trap.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4)

I love those words. “There is now no condemnation for those who are  in Christ Jesus”. That, my friends, is true freedom. Today lets focus not on our shortcomings, but on the one who loves us despite of them. Jesus doesn’t want us to get cleaned up, fixed up, and dressed up before we come to him. He wants us as we are, where we are, how we are. He will take care of the rest. This morning I leave you with the end of Romans 8, and I pray that it may bring you affirmation that you are loved by the most high God, and nothing can change that.

“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.” (Romans 8:38-39)