I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezekiel 36:26-27
We are in a series on Paul’s letter to the Romans. In the first three chapters, Paul takes on three different groups of people; the pagans or Godless, the Moral or good ole boys, and the religious. For the pagans, he showed how God had given them over to their depraved minds and then listed several of the ways that they sin against God.
For the moral people, Paul showed us how we run the risk of becoming morally superior – we see our sin as small and certainly not evil as the sin of others. Though we are born with an innate sense of what is right and what is wrong, we still fall way short of the righteousness that God desires for and from us. We will look at the religious and what Paul has to say this week.
This has been some heavy stuff. I mean, it all seems like bad news and that we are all condemned by the Law and by our conscience. I don’t think Paul was trying to crush everyone’s toes and leave us in despair. Rather, I think he is showing us the bad news so that we could more appreciate the Good News of our Savior, Jesus. I pray that you will go back and read Romans 1 and 2 again. Wrestle with what God is saying in these passages. Let His word speak to you.