2nd October 2026

2nd October 2026 


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Romans 5:12-21 –– focussing on v.20) 


Pray (ACts)


Message (Stuart McKimm) 


I hate shopping for new clothes. Mostly because I hate changing room mirrors. I thought they were supposed to make you look better in their clothes! Instead, they show up everything I don’t like about myself in glaring detail. Hence my love of black, baggy clothes. 


That’s a similar dynamic to what’s going on in Romans 5:20 –– “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more…” Bartel Elshout (a Dutch Reformed minister) gets it right when he says, “How exceedingly painful it is when the Spirit sheds light upon this truth and causes us to see our life from God’s perspective! Then we agree with Isaiah: ‘The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it’ (Isa. 1:5-6)”. Isn’t it a bit of a relief to hear that this is the Christian’s experience? That as we stand in front of the mirror of God’s law, it isn’t given to us to make us look terrific & feel great about ourselves! It’s supposed to expose more and more the ugly depths of our deformity, how far off the standard of God’s righteousness we are, so that we feel ourselves to be seriously unfit & unwell, & continually left with no confidence in ourselves before God. This is the ongoing role of the law in the life of the Christian, & we need it. Later in Romans, Paul says what we need to feel about ourselves via the Law: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh… Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:18, 24) In the same way it’s good for us to periodically have a reality-check about our health & fitness levels, we need the Law to every so often show us what we really are, morally & spiritually, from God’s perspective, & thereby have our dangerous, silly self-confidence and self-righteousness chopped down. 


Paul, speaking the words of the Holy Spirit, aims here at re-wiring where we’re disposed to put our confidence: he wants us to be ever more inclined to rely on God’s grace confidently, and distrust ourselves completely. And he’s going about it by emphasising to us what we saw previously in vv.15-17 –– the extraordinarily greater strength of the kindness God feels and shows towards sinners, than the horrifying strength of sin in them. The law of God doesn’t encourage us that we’ll find grace; its message runs out when it makes us feel exposed, ashamed, & condemned for what we are. And yet, because of the deep sin-sickness in our souls, we very often stay under the sound of the Law’s message, & don’t run away (as the Law actually wants us to!) to find the grace we need. Today, we need to pray for God’s help to be people who use His Law rightly – as a terrifying experience that tears self-righteousness out of us. And we do need that; but then, we need to take our leave of it. When I’ve seen clearly how the clothes don’t suit or don’t fit in the changing room, & I’m sufficiently humbled, I don’t stay in the changing room. I go to where I’m supposed to: my baggy black clothes, that more than sufficiently cover me in all my flaws. And so it is with God’s “super-abounding” grace (v.20) –– there’s enough grace in Christ to cover all the dire deformities in my soul from God the Judge’s sight, & so after my humbling experience at the hand of the Law, I must cast myself into those endless depths & riches. 


When it comes to the issue of our right-standing with God - our justification - it’s essential that we abandon self-righteousness, & cling to Christ’s righteousness alone, freely offered to us. This is the proper use of the Law of God - to make us enjoy the abundance of our God’s generosity to the undeserving. So let’s not stay stuck, beaten up, ashamed – let’s run swiftly to enjoy the invincible righteousness of Christ that’s always available to the spiritually ugly & undeserving.  


Pray (acTS) 


Sing 


WSC 
Q 81 What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment forbiddeth all discontentment with our own estate, envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor, and all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.
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