Ministry

Life is full of tests. 

Perhaps one of the most annoying tests we all experience is the ‘I am not a robot’ test we take to ensure online security. 

I think the following question could also be an ‘I am not a robot ‘ test.

Have you ever done something that you knew you should not do? 

We all have. 

It is one of those unfortunate truths that we all have to wrestle with, accept, and then (hopefully) find a solution for. 

This reality is something humans have had to wrestle with for as long as we have been around. 

Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul outdid Dr Seuss to write the following about this problem we all have, and that he had: 

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do… 

He takes a break from his Dr Seuss work to say this: 

I agree that the law is good.  

What Paul means by saying that ‘the law is good’ is that what God tells us about our brokenness is true – we discover by experience that there is something wrong within us that we cannot fix. Christians commonly call this ‘sin’. 

And we need a solution. Paul found his in Jesus; someone who would rescue him from what is wrong within him. 

And when Paul turns his attention from what is wrong with him, to Jesus, Paul shares some amazing realities that are true for all who have faith in Jesus. 

These include: 

• There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus 
• We are God’s children 
• In all things God works for the good of those who love him 
• If God is for us who can be against us? 
• Nothing can separate us from the love of God 

To me, all of these things are greater than what I find wrong and do wrong in my life. That’s not to say I should go on doing the wrong thing, far from it! But I, and Christians, have discovered that each of these things are far more powerful than what is wrong with us. It changes us. 

Receiving the joy that comes from each of the above, well, that’s the ultimate proof we aren’t robots, because it gives us new life, life that trumps doing those things we know we shouldn’t do. 

God bless.

Chris Mann

College Pastor