The Free Gift Of God Is Eternal Life In Christ Jesus Our Lord

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 6:16-23

We may think we can deliberately sin in a limited way for a short period of time and then get ourselves free. Sin of any form leads to greater and greater unrighteousness. Sin becomes the consequence of sin. We find ourselves entrapped and enslaved, and we cannot get free.

Sin enslaves us. But when we yield ourselves in obedience and call upon Him for the strength to do His will, we are released from our sin. The result is increasing righteousness. Jesus is the only who can free us, but when He does we are truly free.

Christ releases us from sin’s slavery into salvation’s liberty.

Our Daily Bread – November 26, 2008