March 22 | Romans 8:31-39 | Nothing Separates us from the Love of God The Path of Descent leads us to the Spirit of Christ. And as Paul says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” When we pursue God . . . there is no condemnation. Paul says, “We become more than conquerors through him who loved us” which means we experience unconditional grace.

March 15 | Romans 7:15-25 | The Inner Conflict It’s hard to go down this Path of Descent. Our flesh wants to hold on to sin. Paul goes as far to say we are enslaved to this pattern. Psychology calls this the ego. As Paul says, “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.” To truly become more like Christ, we must wrestle with this inner conflict and realize when left to our own devices, we sin and fall short.

March 8 | Romans 6:1-14 | Crucified with Christ The Path of Descent is best described through the ritual of baptism. When we go through the waters, we descend . . . dying to our old selves . . . crucifying our sin unto Christ . . . and rising in grace. Our ashes become redeemed when we become crucified with Christ.

March 1 | Romans 5:12-21 | Grace Abounds in the Descent When we take the Path of Descent seriously, we see a theological truth that surpasses understanding: Grace. Like Adam who came into the world and introduced sin . . . Jesus came into the world and introduced grace. Scripture says, “But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.” In other words, when we move towards Christ, grace abounds.

February 22 | Romans 5.1-11 | A Path of Descent Scripture says, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” Jesus takes the Path of Descent to bring us out of our sin . . . and we must do the same. Our path is one that starts with suffering which luckily produces endurance which produces character which produces hope. We get to hope through taking a Path of Descent starting with our suffering.