Gravity and Grace

Lynn McChlery March 24, 2026 1 0

Playlists

Add to Favourites

Save for later

Listen to this daily worship

Romans 8: 6-11 (NIV-UK)

6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

“Fasten your seat belts, ready for take-off.” We sit back in the aircraft as the engines whirr and speed gathers, accelerating along the runway, building anticipation. Then the momentary surge, and incredibly, 500,000 kg of metal is airborne. The law of aerodynamics takes over from the law of gravity, and we’re up!

In these densely reasoned verses, Paul talks similarly about two competing forces: the law of the spirit of life, and the law of sin and death. We are born under the law of sin and death governing our corrupt human nature. Our default mindset (which Paul calls “the flesh”) tugs us towards selfishness – resisting submission to the law, hostile to God and unable to please him. Our inner lives, like our outer bodies, bear the weight of sin’s gravity and will inevitably be dragged down to death.

But Christ’s death and resurrection introduce a new and opposite law – the law of the spirit of life. Christ’s new spirit enters us to set us free from sin’s downward drag and raise us to a whole new mindset of life and peace. Energised by this spirit, we find ourselves eager to keep God’s law, to exalt in our freedom and bring him delight.

Someone once said to me regretfully, “I’d love to be a Christian, but I could never keep it up.” Nor can I! Christianity isn’t about self-improvement, it’s about Christ-replacement. We give up pushing against the gravity of our own sin and learn to live in the new reality of our grace-governed nature, the person we are in Christ. And even more, we are promised that our inner renewal will one day show outwardly in a new resurrection body. Our God is making all things new!

Prayer:

Transforming Spirit, I yearn to live in the reality of the new life you give me. Yet like graveclothes, some old habits and attitudes still hang around me – unforgiveness, self-centredness, lack of love. Give me your new spirit to replace the old – your forgiveness for people who have wronged me; your obedience for my strong will; your love for those I find hard to like.