Hidden Potential!

[Jesus] told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." (Matthew 13:33)

Yeast—it’s an ingredient only used in small quantities compared to the whole mixture in which it is placed. Just a little bit has quite an effect. And once it is mixed in, it’s completely hidden—for all intents and purposes, it is gone; but it’s effect is not. Yeast is a hidden talent—something small, barely noticeable; but very evident if it is missing; and very potent, very powerful in its effect.
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

In the parable, the yeast is mixed with quite a large amount of flour—three measures—probably enough flour to make as much dough as any one person was able to knead at a time; probably enough flour to make enough bread to feed quite an extended family, perhaps up to a 100 people.

The yeast is hidden in the flour. Its presence is known only by the rising of the dough.

In other biblical passages, yeast is a symbol of evil or corruption. We need only look as far as the 16th chapter of Matthew to find Jesus warning about the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and in Corinthians. Paul exhorts his readers not to celebrate with the old yeast of malice but with new unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Think about the Passover story. In this most significant feast of the people of Israel, the bread was to be unleavened, a sign of the haste required in preparation for the departure of the Hebrews from Israel. But because of its significance in this significant feast, unleavened bread became a more important sacrifice than leavened bread and yeast, therefore, was seen in some way to "taint" the dough.

And in some ways, yeast does work as an irritant, a catalyst to the rising of the dough, a prod to provoke the chemical reaction that produces not flat, but risen bread. Yet, according to the parable, Jesus says that the realm of heaven is like yeast in flour rising to make the dough which, when baked, will be bread.

The yeast is mixed with one of the staples of our diets, flour or meal, the carbohydrate base for a filling meal. The yeast is mixed with an ordinary ingredient, something that would have been used every day and the effect of that yeast is to add something extra to the ordinary to make it the staple food that it needs to be. But the reaction doesn’t occur immediately, it occurs over time. Breadmakers know that the dough needs to put aside, to be allowed to rise before it is kneaded (and perhaps allowed to rise again), before it is finally shaped and baked.

So what is the yeast doing in this parable? The parable of the yeast is a parable about the unexpectedness of the form of the realm of heaven. We know neither the day nor the hour and we may not even recognise it for what it is. We may see it as an irritant. We may discount its presence. We may simply not notice that it is there in the mix. But it is there and it does have an effect. The realm of heaven is not easy to discover or to discern. It is not easily recognised and it may even be misrecognised. We humans don’t always know what we are looking for.

But this promise of the extraordinary power and presence of God in our lives often seems just a small presence in our ordinary lives; and we wonder what effect it will have; what effect it does have. Yeast has a huge effect on an ordinary mixture of dough. And as the people of God, we are called to watch out for the extraordinary presence of God in those the life that we take for granted. And more than that, we are called to take the gift of that yeast and to place it in the abundance of the life that is ours, and to watch it have the effect that it will have because it is the very presence of God.

"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

Discussion Starters
1. In what ways was yeast described?
2. Where have you caught glimpses of God’s presence in the ordinary?
3. What does it mean for the people of God to place God at the centre of our life?
4. In what ways is the body of Christ like yeast in our everyday world?

No Condemnation!

If you were to ask me what my favourite book in the Bible is, I’d say Romans. Then, if you were to ask me what my favourite chapter in that book is, I’d say chapter 8. In this one chapter, there is such a wealth of theological truth, that you could spend your whole life just studying this one chapter. Indeed, in reading this chapter, it’s not very hard to simply become preoccupied with verse 1. Verse 1 of chapter 8 of Romans holds so much hope: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

As you know, Paul has been talking a lot about the Law—about the way in which the Law makes us slaves to sin and death. It makes us slaves to sin and death, because when we try to follow God’s Law in our own strength, we are doomed to failure. You and I can never be good enough, never be whole enough, never be humble enough to fulfil everything that God calls us to be. And if we think we have a hope, we’re kidding ourselves. And if we think we might actually do it, we’re stark raving mad!

But I guess most of us are a bit mad, at least just a bit. I am. I made a commitment to Jesus when I was 8. I was certain I was going to be good after that; but of course I wasn’t; so I felt guilty and the more I tried to be good, the more I failed, the more I felt guilty. So, at the same camp, the following year, I made another commitment. And this time I just knew I was going to be good; but of course I wasn’t; and I felt guilty and the more I tried to be good, the more I failed and the more I felt guilty. And so on… I’m not sure when the message sank in; but eventually it did. It wasn’t that trying to be good was wrong. It was just that I’d missed the point completely: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

It’s not that trying to follow God’s Law is wrong; it’s just that trying to do it ourselves is futile; and, as it turns out, completely unnecessary. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

God’s gift is that we are not required to prove ourselves, not required to justify ourselves, not required to get it all right, because we can’t. No, God’s gift is that in Christ, through Christ and because of Christ, we are never, ever pronounced guilty in the first place. In Jesus, God sets us free—not free to do anything; but free to rest in God’s love and God’s grace and to trust God to work in us and through us, despite us. And in that handing of everything over to God, that submission to God, we just may discover that God’s Law of justice, mercy and grace has been fulfilled in us because it was fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus fulfilled God’s Law and that meant death on a cross. Because any way you look at it, fulfilling God’s Law or rather trying to fulfil God’s Law means death to self—death to our sense of wholeness and wellbeing because we are consumed by getting things right; death because God’s Law has never and can never be embraced fully by humans on their own; and death because we don’t like it when someone seems to be coming close to making it on their own and we like to make sure that they know that and know that they can’t. But we don’t have to be neurotic, and we don’t have to be guilty, and we don’t have to be jealous, and we don’t have to fulfil God’s Law on our own because… “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

What a gift—to be set free of guilt, and sin and death—to really fulfil God’s Law because we have been incorporated into the resurrection life of Christ through the power of God’s Spirit. Charles Wesley was just one hymn writer who got pretty excited about that one powerfully brief message at the beginning of chapter 8 of the letter to the Romans:

No condemnation now I dread:
Jesus, and all in him, is mine!
Alive in him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine…
(Charles Wesley 1707–88 alt.)

Accepting God’s gracious, loving embrace of us as the very human creatures which we are is, I think, what the parable of the sower is on about, too. We can hear the message that we are called to love God and love others; but if we do not comprehend that loving God means accepting that God loves us, God’s Word has not taken very deep roots in our hearts. We are hearing the good news only as seed spread on rocky ground—very superficially.

We can hear the message that we are loved by God, but when we keep getting caught up in the competitive, individualistic and consumerist priorities of the very human culture in which we are immersed, we have not really understood the good news that God really does love us, and that that means we are really released from the unhealthy systems in which we find ourselves. We are like seed choked by the thorns.

No, we are called to drink deeply, breathe fully, and understand completely, to let the roots of the good news that God loves us grow deep—nothing else matters; and when we open our hands and our hearts to accept that love, we may just find that loving God and loving others is much, much easy than we ever thought it could be. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).

[T]here is … no condemnation when we enter the sphere of Christ's influence and power ([When we are] "in Christ"). Why? Not just because there is forgiveness; nor just because we have someone else to reinforce the authority of the Law in telling us how to be good—[in fact] not at all the latter! Paul explains immediately what achieves the difference: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has liberated you from the law of sin and death" (8:2). (Bill Loader)

In Christ, God doesn’t just provide a marvellous example of idyllic servanthood; nor does God only provide a substitute sacrifice for the sin which binds us. No, in Christ, God says, more powerfully than words… in God becoming human, in incarnation, God communicates that God utterly loves us.

God takes “the initiative to bring about liberation” (Loader). God enters right into the middle of the human predicament in order to restore the broken relationship between humanity and God; in order to disempower the effect of sin in our lives; in order to set us free.

And that freedom—if we choose to accept it—will bear fruit:

…by opening ourselves to God's Spirit which brings transforming love we are transformed to become loving people. When that process starts happening we more than fulfil what the Law intended. Its goals are achieved [not through slavish observance], but on the basis of a loving relationship. Love … reproduce[s] love. Human experience tells us that this really does work. While there is a role for behaviour modification and rules, nothing changes a person so much as the experience of being loved. (Loader)

That is what Paul is on about. And that is what sets the agenda for Christian life. If we truly believe that God loves us, we cannot help but love others, even our enemies.

When we operate out of sin and fear, we reproduce sin and fear. When we operate out of love and hope, we reproduce love and hope. In both cases this is more than living by ideals. (Loader)

It is about a choice of systems: one that highlights sin and failure; and another that embraces love and gives life. Love and life are our hope. Love and life are our calling. Love and life are our inheritance in Christ.

Paul holds out the hope of us all one day being free “from the negative aspects … [that are] instilled into our human condition”, our slavery to sin and death. For Paul, that hope “means a resurrection body”, a new embodiment, a new incarnation of God’s love and God’s grace.

Until then we need to face the reality that we carry about with us both systems and can easily lose focus and surrender ourselves again to the sin syndrome. The ruts and routines don't magically disappear! (Loader)

Our fear and guilty and jealousy and neuroticism have deeper roots for us as humans than the victory of God’s love over all that would bind us to sin and death. For Paul, there is:

no liberation in people with plagued consciences. Paul's gospel lifts people beyond such self preoccupation so that they are now free to "get on with the job" of living. Death does not reign. Life does. There is now no condemnation. There is the Spirit of life. As we allow ourselves to enter this powerful new way of being set free, we ourselves have some chance of also embodying such good news and being good news for others. (Loader)

“There is therefore 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 …” (vv. 1-2). Or as Jesus says in other places, “Go now and sin no more.”

God Welcomes!

So what does it mean to be Christian? In the letter to the Romans, Paul is wrestling with issues that he either knows or suspects other Christians are wrestling with too. What does our Baptism mean? How do we cope with the reality of our lives where, despite our best intentions, we still do wrong? What does the graciousness of God really mean for us now? It is perhaps the most influential book in the Christian scriptures. Some of our most important Christian theologians have found the core impetus for their understandings of who God is and who we are before God in this letter.

But these days, we often hear these profound passages through the lens of a kind of Enlightenment individualistic moralism: “Sin is bad.” “Don’t sin.” “Sinners are bad.” “You are all sinners.” The blame is on us. The guilt is on us. The onus is on us to do something about it. It’s all about us!

And that’s precisely the opposite of where the focus lies for Paul. For Paul, it is always about what God has done; not what we have done or what we do: “ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)

As New Testament scholar, Bill Loader, points out, we need to make sure we read everything in its proper context: “the wages of sin [may be] death, but the free gift of God is eternal life” (Romans 6:23). If we focus only on the first half of the verse, we focus on the system that God has not only called us from, but the very life from God has released us—the system from which God has set us free.

In the letter to the Romans, Paul has been talking about the reality of Baptism. He is challenging believers to take the promises of Baptism seriously—not the people’s promises which he probably thinks the people are taking too seriously by putting the onus on themselves; not the people’s promises, but God’s promise, God’s promise of liberation in Christ. “[W]hen we accept God’s generosity, celebrated in baptism, we enter a new way of life.” (Loader) “Ritual life [is] not virtual life; it [is] real life in its most basic form expressed ritually.” (GBoD) Baptism means something. In fact, Baptism means everything.

Our problem is not that we need to keep turning over new leaves and trying harder (Loader), but rather that we need to accept the new reality into which we have been enfolded. Our problem is that we do not live out of the reality that our Baptism declares and embodies (GBoD).

In Baptism, we enter a new way of being, a new dynamic, “a new set of possibilities”, “a new relationship with God where… by opening ourselves to God's goodness we not only experience forgiveness and hope but also begin a journey where [God’s] love produces love in and through us. God's goodness and generosity reproduces itself [in and through us].” (Loader)

[I]n the light of entering this new life with its dynamic generation of love and goodness … Paul declares [that we should not let ourselves] be ruled by the competing system which generates sin. (Loader)

Sin is the result of alienation from God; of the failure to live out of God’s free gift of mercy and love. Sin is the expectation that it’s still all up to us to get it right.

When we enter the new life with its new possibilities the old patterns and systems do not shut down. The destructive ruts and routines are still there, [but we do not] have to surrender to them [we do not have to live out of them] because [God’s] new life [lifts us] beyond them.

In [verse] 12, [Paul] identifies [sin] as having [its] roots in our human bodies, in particular in our appetites. In this he shares the views of many of his time [and perhaps of our own time too]. [Though] For Paul the body is not evil; nor are its desires, but when we allow our lives to be determined by satisfying our cravings without any thought for the consequences for ourselves or others—whether that is as unsophisticated as [violence and] … abuse or as sophisticated as ripping off the developing world through hogging wealth and resources—then we are caught up into a power network which produces destructive behaviour. Paul is thinking about two different systems: sin and death on the one side and goodness and love [and generosity] on the other. (Loader)

And Paul is reminding us to live out of the new system, not the old, the new dynamic into which we have been baptised. He is calling us to accept the freedom that God gives.

[Verse] 13 is about integration [in] and orientation [to the new life we have been given]. When openness to love becomes a possibility for [us], then [our] journey has just begun. That journey includes the process of bringing all parts of [our] being into the sway of this liberating power [by simply allowing ourselves] to be taken up into the dynamic goodness and generosity of God [by simply allowing ourselves to be open to God’s action]. That is what resurrection life is about. Baptism [means] death to the old system. Christian life means living that reality out so that it affects everything. As [verse] 14 puts it, [the new reality is that] sin no longer rules.

[That same verse] goes on to say that we are no longer under the Law but under grace. [You can almost hear] the hackles of [Paul’s] opponents rise. No longer under the Law, the [Scriptures] (as [they] knew [them])! What does Paul possibly mean? You can just hear them reiterating their argument: "all this talk about love is not enough; you have to have the commandments! That's the trouble with Paul." [But] Paul is being [very] courageous here. [He even seems to court] opposition. [For in verse] 15 he restates [his opponents’] … question for them: doesn't all this mean we should keep on sinning? It echoes the question with which he began [right back at the beginning of chapter 6]. Paul is not, of course, suggesting they dispense with scripture. But he is saying: when you live on the basis that you try to observe the commandments and keep on failing, then you are caught in a system which does not work. The Law treated in this way is bad news. [The next chapter of Romans continues this theme.]
… [God’s promise is freedom] from the old system, so it makes no sense to [keep] surrendering to it. To develop [t]his idea… [Paul] uses the image of slavery (6:16). [H]e refuses to reduce the discussion to rules about doing good. He is [much] more interested in the processes and what they do to people. So he repeats: the sin system produces destructive behaviour; the grace system, … the system based on God's goodness and generosity produces goodness and generosity. Here Paul plays with the [slavery] image: [in Christ] we undergo a transferral of ownership from sin to God and goodness (6:18). Some slavery! But Paul is wanting people to think in systems and the dynamics that they produce.

Ultimately the fruit of living a life which feeds on God's goodness and generosity or grace is not just goodness and grace in our lives (and surely that is even more than the Law demands and more than [what] fulfils it!); [ultimately, the fruit of God’s promise] … is … holiness or "sanctification" … not … withdrawal [from the world] or even [some puritanical perfection, but love].

For Paul God's being is not preoccupied with being untarnished and pure, but with being generous and self-giving, making something out of nothing, raising the dead, helping people from the sin-death syndrome into the goodness-life processes which love generates.

[Verse] 23 then is not primarily about sins leading people to hell, and about the gift of life as escape from hell into heaven… Paul is talking about something much more encompassing and [he’s] doing so with his back to the wall. He is contrasting two fundamental dynamics at work in human beings and their behaviour which had also become the stuff of conflict among Christians [and indeed still is today]. The way of sin and death shows itself in actions, but it is much deeper and stems from powerful forces within our own being which are generated through our alienation from God, from others and from ourselves. They are so destructive they can even take good commandments and subvert them to send us sinking further into the mire [by getting us caught in an impossible cycle of our failure to follow them exactly]. That [cycle] is … death - here and now and forever.

Against it Paul argues the liberating effects generated by the relationship of generous love which God's goodness offers people. [God’s grace transforms us for the sake of extending that] same goodness and generosity [to] the world. That is "eternal life" - beginning in the here and now [and extending beyond…] That is the good news of which Paul is not ashamed (1:16) because it is powerful and is rooted in God's goodness (1:17) [God’s graciousness, God’s generosity]. (Loader)

Baptism happens to us and changes us. We have been buried with Christ in baptism, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life… If indeed we have been buried with Christ, we are actually dead to and freed from sin. If indeed we have been raised with Christ in baptism, we are actually freed from the power of death.
The key word here is "freed." Just as a captive is set free from bondage, so we have been set free from sin and death. …What former captive in his or her right mind would attempt to live lawlessly after being freed from captivity, unless the condition of captivity has become "home"? Likewise, given that we have been freed in baptism from sin and death, why would we give ourselves to the ways of sin and death again, rather than [opening ourselves to the graciousness ] … of God in which we now stand?

If we have been given grace and power to renounce the forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, repent from sin, resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, why do we seem so timid and powerless in the face of these things around us? Is not our timidity a sign that we have resubmitted ourselves to sin and death, rather than, as our [Baptismal] vows [affirm, given our allegiance] to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour in union with his living body, the church?

Put another way, if [in our Baptism, we renounced evil and claimed Christ, what is our calling now?] … Paul understood Baptism [to declare and enact] the very reality into which we have been initiated. (GBoD)

God’s free gift is already begun in us through Christ; and all we have to do is live out of God’s gracious promise.

An Invitation to the Table

This is the table of Christ, and of Christ’s body, the church.
Here we are formed as God’s people.
Here we are named as God’s heirs.
Here we are grafted to the vine of Christ.
Here we are empowered by the Spirit for service.

Come, not because you’ve made it
in our world or God’s realm.
Come, not because you’ve failed
yesterday or forever.
Come, because you have been enfolded into Christ,
and are God’s creative work in progress.
Come, because in Christ, there is no condemnation
and all are free as Christ is free.
Keep your eyes on Christ and your heart will follow.
Keep your face towards Christ
and your actions will proceed in the right direction.

Come share this meal in thanksgiving and honour and praise
for the God who needs no justification
to lavish unfathomable love and grace upon us
through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer,
and the Spirit who makes us holy.

Setting the Table

Grain is gathered from the field;
threshed and milled for flour.
We are formed from the grain of God’s harvest.
Flour is mixed with water to produce basic dough.
The water of baptism unites us.
Yeast is added to transform the mixture.
The vision of God’s realm draws us onwards.
Oil softens the dough and makes a new texture.
The Holy Spirit anoints us as the body of Christ.
A little salt improves the taste.
Jesus calls us to be the salt of the earth.
The bread is kneaded and shaped, moulded and baked.
It is God who makes us a holy communion.
Grapes are harvested and crushed for juice.
You are the vine, we are the branches, O Christ.
Juice and skins are mixed with yeast for fermentation.
God’s reign is coming. God’s hope is here.
There is a time of waiting; then a time of pressing.
God’s new life presses forth through the sediment of our lives.
And finally, the feast is here!
Let us celebrate the feast of our life in God.

Based on an idea by Simei Monteiro & Lindsey Sanderson, “A Communion Meditation” in What Does the Lord Require? Compiled by Francis Brienen, Canterbury Press, 2000.

God's Easy Yoke!

Have you ever watched a toddler who has just learnt about the idea of not being allowed to do some things, and of having the capacity to do exactly what she or he is aware that he or she should not be doing (or at least what Mum or Dad says that she or he should not be doing). Sometimes it can be a game, as the child reaches towards the heater or the stove saying, “Burnie”, with a glint in her eye, and as soon as she knows she has Dad’s attention, the hand is withdrawn, and maybe there’s a scuttle away. Sometimes it’s a pure act of defiance: “You tell me I can’t do that Mum, but I am going to do just that!” And poor Mum ends up having rescue little Tommy from imminent danger. Paul is taking about neither of those situations.

In this section of Romans, Paul is taking about the situation where we have an idea of what God is calling us to, and want with all our hearts to achieve that goal, but simply because of ourselves, our human frailty, our completely human misunderstanding of what it takes to get it right, we are not able to achieve that illusive goal of the life to which God calls us: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15)

Human life is like that. We want to do good. We want to do the best. We want to do what is right. We may even want to perfect. But we cannot, we are not, and do not do what we really want to do. Because life is full of unexpected consequences; and we are not free. We are not free from the vagaries of mortal existence. We are not free from the realities of being physical beings. We are not free from our contexts. We are not free from the complexities of being beings who are not just alive, but who think and feel and want what we cannot achieve by ourselves because of precisely who we are—mortal beings.

As New Testament Scholar, Bill Loader, notes, Paul’s hearers were probably familiar with this idea: “It was alive in the intellectual traditions of the Greco-Roman world as an analysis of the human predicament and how people are not free.” The idea reached back as far as the ancient Greek playwrights. (http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/AEpPentecost3.htm) Think of the story of Oedipus Rex. His parents, warned by an oracle that he will kill his father and marry his mother, leave him to die on a hillside—an act that precipitates the very tragedy which they are afraid will happen. Human beings are not free. We think we know what we are doing. We think we are conscious of what we are doing; and we think we are in control of our lives, but we really aren’t. We do the best we can; and that’s all we can do. And that’s what Paul is on about: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15)

For Paul, the Law, God’s Law, plays a complex role for us as God’s creatures, as God’s people. It reminds us of the life to which God calls us; and it reminds us of how far short we fall in achieving that life on our own. As quickly as the Law tries to free us from ourselves, it binds us to our frailties. It is tragic; and maybe just a little bit comic too—the ultimate double-bind or Catch 22 situation.

And here, surely, we are hearing part of Paul’s very own story: “I tried so hard to live up to the Law, but it wasn’t until I discovered that that was futile, that I discovered the freedom I have been given in Christ. It wasn’t until I realised that I couldn’t do it, that I discovered I didn’t need to.” For Paul, God’s graciousness in Christ is freedom from this double-bind, this impossible puzzle. And this is the good news, this is the Gospel!

As we open ourselves in faith up to the story and promises of God, God’s gift of grace and mercy, God’s love and God’s utter forgiveness, as we simply make ourselves available to God, we move from the cycle of death and failure to the wonder of life and growth and freedom—freedom from sin and guilt and death; freedom to live hopefully and love freely, freedom from the effort of an impossible struggle for perfection grounded in fear. God’s love for us, when we accept it, reproduces in us, love for others; and that is the fulfilment of the Law. The acceptance of God’s love for us is the pathway to life in God, not trying harder and harder to obey a set of commandments.

In verse 24, Paul voices the profound question of human existence, of human hopelessness: “Who will rescue us from this roundabout of death? Who will help us get off this never-ending treadmill of guilt?” And in verse 25, he answers is own question: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

“I may have tried to serve God when I was busting a gut to follow the Law; and intellectually I might have understood what was required, but I was thoroughly incapable of achieving what I thought I understood. And that made me not a slave to the Law, but a slave to sin, a slave to guilt. And the Law becomes not an instrument of freedom, but a tool which enslaves me to the profound internal conflict of hopelessness and despair.”

These days, psychologically we know that it is not prohibition but positive reinforcement that changes people’s behaviour, changes people’s lives. We need someone to believe in us in order to be the people we are meant to be. And Paul’s profound insight is that God believes in us—God made us, God loves us and God believes in us! Shame and guilt and fear are banished in the face of this utterly unconditional love. God’s radical love offers us new life, new birth—all we have to do is trust God’s love, accept God’s forgiveness, live out of God’s graciousness. And God’s additional promise is that through that acceptance God’s love will be reproduced in us.

“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15) Who will rescue us from this roundabout of death? (v. 24) “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25) This is God’s easy yoke! And it is much, much lighter than the burden of our sin, shame, guilt and fear! Thanks be to God.