31st December 2024

New Year Resolutions – some of us do great with them. Some of us don’t make any resolutions. And some of us might want me to change the subject. I get it.

It has been reported that only 8.9% of people succeed in keeping their New Year’s resolutions. That’s a failure rate of over 91%. ¹

Here’s an example:

A friend of mine told me about being quite convicted by a sermon when he was 13. He felt guilty about how he had been treating his younger brother, so he decided that he would show him kindness and not pick on him for an entire day. With all the strength and resolve he had in him, he set out to be a good brother. That lasted about thirty minutes. He discovered that while he knew what he should do, he didn’t have it in him to do it. His resolve was good but misplaced.

In the book of Romans, Paul shares our struggle with keeping resolutions as he wrote to Jewish leaders who were having a difficult time accepting the fact that they could not resolve their way out of sin. Paul explains his own struggle.

So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  (Romans 7:21-25 NRSVUE)

Paul empathises with us. We know what we want to do – thus the New Year’s resolutions – but we can’t follow through. Paul, himself, had to come to the end of self-effort and throw himself upon the mercy of God.

In this passage, Paul comes to the one answer that gives him peace. Thank you, Jesus. He is the only true rescuer; he alone saves us. (v.25).

Right after sharing this with his readers, Paul informs them that in Jesus they are no longer slaves of sin, condemnation is removed, and they have been adopted into God’s family and now live by the Spirit. (Romans 8).

Resolutions don’t bring about change; Jesus does. We can’t change, but he can change us. We learn to stop trusting in our own efforts but trust in the accomplishments of Christ Jesus. He is our hope and our answer. He is our great resolution this coming year, and every year to come.  

¹ https://dreammaker.co.uk/blog/new-years-resolutions-statistics/

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