Romans 7:17 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

For our entire lives, society and our own minds, teach us and lead us to do what is right. We are taught and think that if we change and follow the law we will have the ability to do the right thing. Nearly all religious effort is founded on the principle of right living by conforming ourselves to rules. We are told, and our minds tell us, if we do the right things, then we will please God. We think, if I stop lying, or stop eating so much, or stop doing drugs, or start going to church more, or start reading the Bible more, then I will be happy or please God or be a good person. If I could just follow these rules, then everything will be OK. But really, if we examine ourselves and the Law closely we find something completely different from what we think or have been taught. Looking at ourselves, if we stop doing one sin we start doing another and our sin problem just shifts. Or when we really compare our lives to any one of the laws or rules we will find that we can never really stop any specific sin. The harder we try to stop sinning, it often seems, that we just start sinning more. Have you ever felt the harder you try to stop sinning, the more you sin? Or, the harder you try, the more sin you discover in your life? Have you ever felt as though sin were impossible to overcome? I have felt these ways many many times and have become extremely frustrated with my inability and weakness. I am sure many of you have also felt this way, if not, I would challenge you to seek out an understanding of the Law and directly apply it to your life. If we do this, we will find that we fall short of following the Law constantly and can never really fully follow any one commandment ever. Only then will we discover that no good dwells in us and we have no ability to please God on our own. The normal response to this discovery is to ignore it or to say we are doing better than most people and God will be OK with that. But that is not true. God is not satisfied by our best efforts, or that we are doing better than most other people. God is only satisfied with completely perfect following of the law, which is completely impossible for us.

Contrary to what we would think, it is at this point of frustration that we can experience deliverance from sin. We cannot overcome sin, but Christ has overcome our sin for us. If we can come before God and say, "I have nothing but sin in my life God, I have no ability to do anything to please you, all I have is Jesus," then we will experience deliverance from sin. It may take us being broken by sin over and over again as we try to stop any particular sin. But God allows our failure in order for us to realize we can't overcome any sin, only Jesus can for us and that we desperately need Him. Only this complete dependence on Jesus pleases God. Only compete dependence on Jesus' righteousness and forgiveness of our sins pleases God. God does not want our righteousness and goodness, we have none. God wants you covered with and depending on Jesus' righteousness and goodness.