Week 4 - Romans 6:15-23
Romans 6:15-23 (NIV)
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How Then Should We Live?
So how then shall we live this life of faith? How do we relate to our new master, the Lord Jesus Christ? We offer Him our full allegiance. Once sold out to sin, we are now sold out to Him. Our lives become a thank you note to The One who died for us while we were still drowning in sin. As Paul states, we become obedient slaves to God’s rule and reign. Either way, all of humanity is a slave to some master. It’s either sin or righteousness. There is no middle ground. We all make our choice and then our choice makes us. Choosing Jesus through faith allows us to live in the power of the Holy Spirit with great awareness of our new identity. We get to partner with God in putting the world back to rights. His grace propels our obedience, even when we don’t feel like it. His gift of repentance allows us to fall right back into our freedom when we choose otherwise. A kite is free to fly only when it is a “slave” to the string. We too have maximum freedom when we are tethered to Christ, living in His sovereign narrative.
Questions
How does your church community help you live out your allegiance to Christ?
Think of an area of your life that needs to be in further surrender to God’s rule and reign. Will you pray about trusting God with this area?