Romans: In the Grip of Grace Online Bible Study Week Three — The Battle We Fight

Hey, friends! It’s week three of the Romans: In the Grip of Grace OBS. How are you doing? The first five chapters of Romans gave us a lot to chew on and there’s so much more to come! Primarily:

Jesus set us free… into His grace!

We’re not set free into wild freedom to just be our same old dead selves. No! He paid the price for us so that we are set free into a brand-new, purified, unshackled, unburdened, beautiful life with a great story of redemption to share to others who are still bound.

We know that our old life died with Christ on the Cross so that our sinful selves would have no power over us and we would not be slaves to sin. Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control. — Romans 6:6-7

Sin always equals death. Always.
Sin kills. It murders. Sin mutilates.

So, why do we keep going back?

Like Paul said, our inner selves keep messing up and sinning and keep wanting to mess up and sin! We have a sin nature so in the flesh, we are drawn to sin.

Here’s the thing: We belong to God. We’re His.

But that old snake, Satan is so sneaky! He tempts us and then shames us for being tempted! What a creep!

Sin separates us from God, but God in His unrelenting gorgeousness will forgive us again and again and again and again and again. Endlessly! It was all already taken care of on the Cross.

With one sacrifice, He made perfect forever those who are being made holy. — Hebrews 10:14

We’re not in Heaven yet, so we’re not yet perfected. We’re going to keep making mistakes and sins but Jesus knows that and He’s with us and for us! Like little kids, we keep getting dirty, with scraped up knees, messy, and in trouble, and God the Father keeps lovingly cleaning us up when we come to Him with repentance.

Let’s keep our eyes on Him and stay the course.

There’s grace, friends! In His mercy, in His goodness, in His beauty, in His presence, there is grace.

Memory verse: Romans 6:22-23

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This week in your study:

1. Then, watch the video for session three of Romans: In the Grip of Grace on our study home page and take notes in your study guide on pages 35-42 and stick around to go through the questions afterward!
2. Grab your Bible and enjoy your personal study this week on pages 43-51.
3. Join the conversations about this week’s teaching and get to know our community in our private Facebook group.

Scriptures this Week

Romans 6-8

Prayer for the Week

Jesus, we love You! Thank You for Your radical gift on the Cross for us. Even though we continue to be tempted to sin (which isn’t sin), and then we do sin, we turn our backs on You, we fail You, we forget Your goodness and Your sacrifice, we forget how good we’ve got it! Thank You that Your mercy is new every morning and You are always always faithful to forgive us when we come to You to be forgiven, cleaned up, and set on our feet again. We are so thankful, God, to be Your children. We love You! Amen.