I’m not a frequent reader of the Message version of the Bible, but now and again I give it a read and am always struck by how it conveys truth in a powerful way that grabs the heart and the imagination. How’s this for the author’s take on Romans 8:4
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
How often do we mess it up, or feel that we’re not good enough, need to do better, and respond by redoubling our own efforts? That is not the gospel.
The gospel says that the answer is not in our own effort. It is simply to embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
