Slaves
To Righteousness
What then? Shall we sin
because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 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? 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. You have been set free from sin
and have become slaves to righteousness.
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. When you were
slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit
did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things
result in death! 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. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans
6:15-23
For reasons difficult to
understand, being freed is more exhilarating than being free.
For those who enjoy
freedom every day, we sometimes need to be reminded of how blessed we are. Those of us who have been Christians for a long time
often forget what it’s like to be held hostage to sin. We can become complacent
and even ungrateful. But then God sends a reminder in the form of a new
believer who gives exuberant testimony of what God has done in his life, and
once again we see the joy that is ours when we are, “free from the law of sin
and death.”
If freedom has become
boring to you, or if you tend to focus on what you can’t do, consider this: Not
only are you no longer a slave to sin, but 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, 2017