The passage I read
was Romans 6:15-23
You can find that passage here:
The verse that most
stood out to me:
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?
As I reflect:
So during this time
and still applicable to many today, there were those who claimed to be followers
of Christ and yet they continued living exactly as they did before receiving
this eternal salvation and freedom offered in Christ. That’s a huge problem. If one is truly saved than the Holy Spirit is
actively working in your life. You’ll
know this has occurred by the conviction and guidance the Holy Spirit
brings. If you are convicted of sins,
that’s evidence of salvation. If you are
convicted to grow and be fruitful and share the word, that’s evidence of
salvation. If however, you lack
conviction to take up your cross, that is evidence that you were in fact never
saved to begin with. Here, Paul speaks
of those who heard the message of grace and then without truly repenting of
sin, they began excusing their sins with a sort of backwards logic saying, “if
by my sin the Holy Spirit has opportunity to show grace in forgiving me, than
my sin is mandated as a form of showing others the grace of God on me.” Yea… Pretty backwards logic. So Paul corrects them with a great point similar
to phrases of today like, “you are what you eat”.
You act like who you
want to be like. You reflect what you
value. If you are a fan of America, then
you likely don’t behave like a terrorist.
If you are someone who honors your mom, then you don’t chose to
disrespect and act in ways that are dishonorable to her. If you love your spouse, than there is no
room for any other in your eyes, heart, or bed.
These are all similar to the
statement Paul makes here: “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? “ He is saying your
actions convey who it is you are following.
Your actions and how you think convey who you are obedient to. So these Romans claiming salvation by grace
but continuing to live in complete sin were conveying that they were still
slaves to sin and had not actually been set free by any saving grace. They were making an active choice to not follow
after God, by not actively choosing to put off the old self and follow. They were in fact “slaves to sin”, being, “free
from the control of righteousness.”
Now Paul has never
been one to point out someone’s fault without offering a way of repairing that fault
or at least of seeing what is correct, right, and true. And he does that here as an admonishment to
those at fault for living a false salvation, and also offering a confirmation
of those who are truly in Christ. He said,
“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.” This was speaking
to those who were not just saying they were saved, but living in; acting in
accordance with that title; being lead by their obedience to the Lord. Now those who were present for this letter
that were not saved but simply using the title, could hear this message plainly
and it was their choice to receive correction and become obedient unto the Lord
as an evidence of a true inner work being done in them. Paul also said, “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.” As
slaves of God, His children, followers, believers, servants; we are called to
righteousness and by His Holy Spirit alone we can respond in
righteousness. Despite our wretchedness,
Paul is here making it clear that our actions still reap an accountability as
evidence of salvation. We cannot excuse
our sins before God by saying, “oh well.
I guess I’m just giving you more reason to display your mercy and grace.” No!
Paul says, “By no means!” We are
to be slaves to righteousness and not to sin.
Daily, we do not make choices to accept any sin in our life, but to
struggle and wage war against sin in our lives that we may be molded and
changed daily empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve our King.
My response to the
Lord:
Holy Father, My King and God, I know that I am no better
than others and it is only by your grace that I am even aloud to kneel at your
throne. I thank you for that opportunity
and I hope and pray that daily my actions don’t betray the name you have given
me. You have called me yours; named me a
child of God. May my actions portray as
much. Father, I pray you empower me,
guide me, increase my will power daily by your Holy Spirit that my actions show
I am a slave to righteousness and not to sin.
May my testimony of your great work in my life be evidenced by the
change that others can see from who I was, to who I am. In Jesus’ holy name. amen.
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