Romans 6:16 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?
We can’t serve two
masters. God wants us to serve Him alone, not the things of the world. If we
are slaves to sin how would we be able to be effective for the kingdom of God?
Verses 6-11 say,
Romans 6:6
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin
might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Romans 6:7
For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Romans 6:8
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Romans 6:9
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no
longer has dominion over him.
Romans 6:10
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he
lives to God.
Romans 6:11
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ
Jesus.
Jesus died for our sins
and our old self died with Him on that cross. Our life of unrepentant sin and
of being a slave to sin is over. Not only does our old life of sin die, but we
should now be living a new life for and with Christ. Not only did we die with
Him, but also raised with Him as a new creation as 2nd
Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold,
the new has come.” Verse 14 says, Romans 6:14
“For sin will have no dominion over you,
since you are not under law but under grace.” We have grace and forgiveness
from our sins, because there is no way that we can just stop sinning now that
we are saved, but this doesn’t mean that we should just sin as much as we want
since we are forgiven. We should strive to live a life pleasing to the Lord. Being a slave to sin leads to death,
but being a slave to God leads to eternal life. There was no fruit from our
lives of sin, but now in our new life our fruit leads to sanctification. Like
verse 21 says, “But what fruit were you
getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end
of those things is death.” Living a life that is obedient to the Lord leads
to righteousness. We are only righteous through Jesus and Him cleansing us.
Application
Today I will pray for my brother who is a slave to sin
and a life of drugs. I will pray that he would be set free from the bondage of
that life and turn to the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment