Thursday, September 25, 2008

Romans 6:15-23

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 when you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A pretty familiar passage but what an awesome reminder of God's grace. "Thank you Lord for setting me free from my bondage of sin and thank you even more for helping me accept that freedom more and more as I grow." I love the part that says "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life." Sometimes it is easy to look at holiness more as a responsibility or sacrifice we have to achieve but holiness is a BLESSING, a benefit that our good and gracious Lord wants us to experience and live in. God is so good.

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