Daily Devotional

Under the cruel Roman Empire of the first century AD some who committed a crime, depending on their social status, could be fined, disgraced publicly, enslaved, or banished. Sometimes they were shackled, whipped, and jailed. Some were forced to wear wooden shoes or carry wood around their neck.

For capital offenses you could be burned at the stake, drawn and quartered, stoned, beheaded, hanged, impaled on a stale, buried alive, crushed, disemboweled, sawn in two, placed in the breaking wheel, thrown off a cliff, pierced by sword or spear, poisoned, starved to death. or thrown to the wild beasts. Some of the fortunate ones were given the opportunity to commit suicide. One of the more unusual punishments (poena culle) was being tied up in a sack with a poisonous snake, a dog, and a rooster, later to be thrown into the river to drown. Of course, non-Roman citizens could be crucified—one of the most painful and feared punishments.

However, in describing the rottenness of his sin, the apostle Paul alludes to another cruel Roman punishment. A living man or woman was tied to a rotting corpse with each part of the body corresponding with its matching putrefying counterpart. Face to face. Mouth to mouth. Limb to limb. Daily, the stench of death invaded the person as the decay slowly spread to his whole body.

Romans 7:24 - “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”

Who will unshackle him…and us…from this rotting body of sin that is attached to ever part of us. The apostle Paul gives the dramatic answer: Romans 7:25 - “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He continues in Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Earlier in Romans 6:23 he described the clear contrast: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because of Christ’s victory over the cross, we are no longer afflicted by the sting of death (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:57–58). In fact, even the stench of death has left us and the sweet aroma of Christ wafts from us.

2 Corinthians 2:14–16 - “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?”

‘Now the words of the old song have become our victory cry:

I had a debt I could not pay,
He paid the debt He did not owe,
I needed someone,
To wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song,
“Amazing grace” all day long,
Christ Jesus paid the debt,
That I could never pay.

New American Standard Bible (NASB)
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