I crawled into bed and pulled out my Bible, shaking my head. It seemed as though yet again I had messed up. I had taken my eyes of Christ and put them on myself. I felt like I was never going to be enough. But then a verse popped into my mind, one that felt quite relatable. I flipped my Bible open and searched until I found the right chapter, Romans 7. Below are the verses I was looking for:

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.” Romans 7:18-23

I am so thankful that Paul wrote these words, because I can relate! I often feel that war of my old, sinful self, and my new, godly self. I long to be a perfect Christian and to live a godly life, but in my own strength I fail every time. What is the remedy to that failure? How can we overcome our sinful nature? I love the answer we find in the next few verses:

“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 7:24-8:4

In our own strength we cannot be saved from sin. It is impossible. We are saved from sin through Jesus Christ! Our weak flesh couldn’t save us, so God sent His Son to die in our place and conquer death so that we could have victory over sin. What a beautiful, amazing gift!

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.” Philippians 3:7-16

As Christians, we are to live completely and totally surrendered to Christ. We are to be found righteous, but not in our own strength. We are to possess Christ’s righteousness that comes by faith in Him.

Notice how Paul mentions that we are to press on towards perfection, towards the goal of godliness. We are to live by the standard of Christ.

In the Christian culture of today, we often see two extremes – one of “grace covers everything” where sin is okay because we have grace, and the other of “if you’re not perfect you can’t be saved” where you have to strive to become perfect so that hopefully God will accept you. But both of these philosophies are not true.

In Jesus Christ, we are saved by grace through faith (see Ephesians 2:8-9). We cannot earn our salvation. But once we have accepted this free gift, we must put off our old way of life (see Colossians 3:9-10). We cannot live a worldly life with a Christian nametag. We need to be accurate representations of Jesus Christ and live completely and totally surrendered to Him. We must look like Christ in our actions! While we do have grace, God doesn’t say, “keep on sinning because you’ve got grace.” God says, “I give you grace so that I can help you live the life I’ve called you to live.”

The most beautiful thing about it all is that none of it is by our strength. We simply have to surrender and let our loving, awesome Father work through us to make us more like His Son. Through His strength alone we are made perfect.

Are you struggling with doubts and fears because you aren’t perfect enough? I know the feeling and can sympathize. I encourage you to remember these passages and read them when you’re feeling like you’re not enough. Remember that you don’t have to be enough, because you have Jesus in your heart, and He is enough, which makes you enough. Jesus will always be with you to help you carry on and to help you to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him.

I hope you find joy today as you remember that in Christ we are made perfect. Isn’t that beautiful? 🙂

With love,

Kelsey