Passage
What, then? Should we
sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Let it not be so. Having not known that the one to whom you
present yourselves as slaves into obedience, are you all slaves to the one you
obey: either sin into death or obedience into righteousness? And thanks be to God that you all were a
slave to sin but you all obeyed out of the heart into the model of teaching to
which you were being handed over. And
after being set free from sin, you all were being enslaved to righteousness.
Thoughts for Today
First Thought:
Paul returns again to a question that he opened a few verses
ago. Is it alright to sin because we are
covered by God’s grace? He answers it
quickly: no! This same logic is like a
child who goes to the refrigerator and eats everything he can while saying, “My
parents will just buy me more food.”
While that is no doubt true – assuming the money is there, the reality
is that that style of living is just not healthy for the child. A child who eats everything in sight will
learn bad habits and likely grow fat and weak.
Children need to learn discipline.
The same is true with us. Can God
forgive our sin? Absolutely! But that doesn’t mean that living a life of
sin is healthy for us in any way.
Where in your life is your sin leading you into
unhealthiness? Is there any place in
your life where you can do a better job of being obedient to God?
Second Thought:
Paul reminds us quite clearly that there is only one option
for humanity: slavery. We are either a
slave to sin or a slave to God. We love
to think that we are free; but we are not.
At best, we are free to choose which master we will serve. We can either serve God and His ways or we
can serve the passions of our flesh and do what feels good or what seems right
for our self-centered mind. But that is
not true freedom. We are either slaves
to our sinful nature or slaves to God.
Those are the options before us.
Why do we like to convince ourselves that we are free? Why is it difficult to accept that we aren’t
truly free but merely free to choose the master we will serve? How can this help us understand the
rebellious streak that is within al of us?
Third Thought:
Paul reiterates his point.
After being set free from sin, we were enslaved to righteousness. Here we get at a deeper understand of the
slavery to which Paul speaks. It is not
only a choice between being a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. There is also a matter of being set
free. The unsaved person is set free
from righteousness because they are a slave to sin. The saved person is set free from sin because
they are a slave to righteousness. This
is the choice before us all. Follow your
own desires and you are free from behaving righteously – yet ultimately
condemned in your sin. Follow God and
you are free from behaving in sin – yet ultimately saved in righteousness.
What does it mean to you to think of the person in sin as
being free from righteousness? Why is
this a bad thing? What does it mean to
you to be enslaved to righteousness? Why
is this a good thing?
Passage for Tomorrow: Romans 6:19-20
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