Having standards is good. You know what’s expected. You can make a plan for action and then strategically follow through.
But what if the standards are too high to hit? Too far beyond your abilities. What if the standards are simply impossible?
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21
Then we don’t see them as good; we see them as depressing. We no longer find any hope of being able to reach that which has been set before us. Instead, we despair. We lose all sense of capability.
Our text today is from Romans 12, and St. Paul lays out a lot for us to consider — a lot of standards, a lot of to-dos, a lot of things every Christian needs to not only consider but to follow through with.
They’re all good things. I don’t think any of them are ones that we would disagree with or have a problem with.
But when we really look at the magnitude of them in number and scope, it is more than unsettling. It is frightening. It is daunting. It is, truly, at its core, impossible.
If this is what God requires of us, then God help us, for we cannot do it. Taking to heart just the list in our text produces a guttural “Uh-oh” moment as we grasp the true height of God’s perfection and the depth of our depravity.
Just the last verse in our text, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21), seems so simple and innocuous. But how are we supposed to do that? How are we supposed to overcome evil with good when we’re not good ourselves — when we so often fail to even recognize what good is, when we so easily drift or even run to evil ourselves? The evil within us. The evil around us. The evil that defines us.
God help us indeed!
And that’s where we have to land. That’s the only place we can land: in the merciful, forgiving, loving hands of God, who not only helps us in keeping his commands but went even further — and through Jesus kept all of them for us. Fully. Willingly. Lovingly.
All that God commands us now is possible through the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the lens of Christ’s satisfaction for all of these standards, now completed on a cross and through an empty tomb. “Uh-oh” becomes “A-ha!” All that God requires, he has fulfilled. All that he desires is completed through his gracious invitation, because of our faith in his Son, our Savior, Jesus.
Now all the things laid out for us are gracious invitations: to follow in His footsteps, invitations to love as He loved, invitations to live as He lived.
We no longer need to read God’s commands with an “Uh-oh,” but rather with the excitement of knowing that even when we fail to follow through perfectly, when our heart is joined to His, our imperfection is no longer an obstacle but a covered detour through faith in Christ.
Thank You, Lord!
“Gracious Father, You have laid out so many acts of love and service for us to follow in our discipleship to You and service to others. We confess we have failed to keep Your standards but rejoice that Jesus has done so for us. Grant us Your Spirit to now see Your loving Law, not as daunting but as exciting opportunities of doing; and when we inevitably fail in our execution, set us back up in You and move forward to try again. In the precious and perfect name of Jesus do we pray. Amen!”
Scripture
- Romans 12:9-21
- Psalm 26 (responsory)
