Dear Friends,

Just what does the law of God do for us? Most obviously it guides our lives and restrains our evil but those are not the most important things. The most important thing the law of God does for us is that it reveals to us our sin and our need of the Savior. Today’s devotional illustrates this powerfully. God bless you.

Because of Calvary,

John Janney

• Romans 7:8-9

  Romans 7:8-9   English Standard Version (ESV)

  ⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

Romans 7:8-9

“Lord, how secure my conscience was,
And felt no inward dread!
I was alive without the law,
And thought my sins were dead.

My hopes of heaven were firm and bright,
But, since the precept came
With a convincing power and light,
I find how vile I am.

My guilt appeared by small before
Till terribly I saw
How perfect, holy, just, and pure,
Was thine eternal law.

Then felt my soul the heavy load;
My sins revived again;
I had provoked a dreadful God,
And all my hopes were slain.

I’m like a helpless captive, sold
Under the power of sin:
I cannot do the good I would,
Nor keep my conscience clean.

My God! I cry with every breath
For some kind power to save;
To break the yoke of sin and death,
And thus redeem the slave.”
[Isaac Watts]