All Access - Day 12 - April 27

READ – Hebrews 4:14-16

There is a photo taken during the Obama Presidency that I absolutely love. It shows the President in the Oval Office, working behind the Resolute Desk. He is intently focused on what he is doing. So intent that he is oblivious that his daughter, Sasha, is belly crawling behind the sofa, about to launch a surprise attack on her dad.

When I was in high school I toured the White House. We saw the usual sights: the Red Room, the Blue Room, the Green Room and, as a guest of a sitting congressman, some unusual sights, including a chance to sit in the White House theater and visit with Nancy Reagan’s Chief of Staff. But we weren’t invited into the Oval Office. 

Imagine what would have happened if I had snuck away from our tour group and barged into the West Wing. Do you think I would have made it all the way to the Oval Office? Not a chance. I don’t care who my congressman was, we didn’t get that kind of access.

Sasha didn’t need an invitation to see her dad in the Oval Office. She didn’t need an escort. The Secret Service didn’t pat her down or run a background check. It wasn’t the Oval Office to her; it was her dad’s office. And you don’t need a special invitation to see your dad.

That is the kind of access that Jesus purchased for his followers, and now believers can “…approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

All Access - Day 11 - April 26

READ – Romans 8:1-11

In the previous chapter, the Apostle Paul laments that he is unable to do what he wants to do. The Jewish Law, which Paul desperately tried to follow, required perfection. And when that perfection was violated, it required sacrifice in order to repair one’s relationship to God. Try to be good in order to be one with God… fail … offer a sacrifice … repeat. It was a discouraging cycle leading Paul to declare, “what a miserable person I am!”

That’s what makes the opening words of chapter 8 so amazing:

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

Christ’s sacrifice on the cross – his once for all time, life-giving sacrifice – reconciles each Christian with their heavenly Father. It purchases forgiveness, and ensures access to God. Access that is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit living within each follower of Jesus.

Not only that, but the Holy Spirit enables every believer to resist temptation. Paul writes that, “…you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do … through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature.” When your willpower to resist sin runs out, you have access to God’s. He lives inside you, after all!

All Access - Day 10 - April 25

READ – Romans 7:14-25

This might be one of the most despairing passages in the New Testament. Paul – this giant of the Christian faith – is nakedly transparent about his struggle with sin: “I want to do what is good but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.”

We’ve all been there, haven’t we?

We’re all addicts. 

You might not be addicted to the needle or the bottle. (Or you might be.) But all of us seem to have an unhealthy addiction to sin. We try to stop, but fail. We try to replace these unhealthy urges with positive alternatives, but we can’t seem to succeed in that, either. Like Paul, we can sink into despondency, crying out, “Oh what a miserable person I am!” 

And yet we have cause for great hope. Like Paul we can also say, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Because, when your willpower fails you have access to His.