I've had an Epiphany!

Romans 7:15-25a 15  For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.  16  Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.  17  So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.  18  For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.  19  For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.  20  Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me.  21  So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me.  22  For in my inner self I delight in God’s law,  23  but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taki...

Romans 6:1-11 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?  2  Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?  3  Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  4  Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5  For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.  6  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,  7  since a person who has died is freed from sin.  8  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live ...

Romans 5:12-15 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.  13  In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law.  14  Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a type of the Coming One. 15  But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. (CSB) “They came to a place called Golgotha (which means ‘the place of the skull’)” (Matthew 27:33; Mark 15:22; Luke 23:33). Golgotha was just outside the city gates of Jerusalem (John 19:20), so there would have been plenty of people walking by and gawking at the sight of crucifixio...

Romans 3:21-25a, 27,28 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God   has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.   22  This righteousness is given through faith   in   Jesus Christ   to all who believe.   There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,   23  for all have sinned   and fall short of the glory of God,   24  and all are justified   freely by his grace   through the redemption   that came by Christ Jesus.   25  God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,   through the shedding of his blood … 27  Where, then, is boasting?   It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith.   28  For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Growing up on a farm, I had plenty of animals to take care of – beef cattle, a flock of sheep, a handful of...

Romans 5:6-11 6  You see, at just the right time,   when we were still powerless,   Christ died for the ungodly.   7  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.   8  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9  Since we have now been justified   by his blood,   how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath   through him!   10  For if, while we were God’s enemies,   we were reconciled   to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!   11  Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. It was years ago, when a small-town newspaper ran an article about the city council. The owner of the paper, upset by some recent events, had writ...