The Free Gift

Of God

Is Eternal Life

What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:15-23

There is a certain feeling of being free, and the act of being freed is more exhilarating than being free.

Sometimes we forget how blessed we really are. This is also true spiritually. Those of us who have been Christians for a long time often forget what it is like to be held hostage by sin. We can become complacent and even ungrateful. But then God sends a reminder in the form of a new believer who gives an exuberant testimony of what God has done in his or her life, and once again we see the joy that is ours when we are really free.

If freedom has become boring to you, or if you tend to focus on what you can’t do, consider that you are no longer a slave to sin, and you are freed to be holy and to enjoy eternal life with Christ Jesus.

Celebrate your freedom in Christ by taking the time to thank God for the things you are able and free to do as His servant.

Living for Christ brings true freedom.

Our Daily Bread – July 4, 2007