Friday 20 September, 2013
Romans 6:15-23
15 What should we say then? Should we sin because we are not ruled by law but by God’s grace? Not at all! 16 Don’t you know that when you give yourselves to obey someone you become that person’s slave? You can be slaves of sin. Then you will die. Or you can be slaves who obey God. Then you will live a godly life. 17 You used to be slaves of sin. But thank God that with your whole heart you obeyed the teachings you were given! 18 You have been set free from sin. You have become slaves to right living. 19 Because you are human, you find this hard to understand. So I have said it in a way that will help you understand it. You used to give the parts of your body to be slaves to unclean living. You were becoming more and more evil. Now give your bodies to be slaves to right living. Then you will become holy. 20 Once you were slaves of sin. At that time right living did not control you. 21 What benefit did you gain from doing the things you are now ashamed of? Those things lead to death! 22 You have been set free from sin. God has made you his slaves. The benefit you gain leads to holy living. And the end result is eternal life. 23 When you sin, the pay you get is death. But God gives you the gift of eternal life because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done.
What is true freedom? A lot has been written about Freedom – people have lived & died for it – we all have our own definition of what freedom is & what it looks like to us – Paul sets it out here.
There’s a choice in the way we live – ignore God live our own way, choose sin – leading to things we are ashamed of & ultimately death OR choose God – His ways, leading to holiness & eternal life – & get a “whole, healed, put together life right now” (Msg).
When it’s that simple I know my choice is a no-brainer … V23 (Msg) Work hard for sin your whole life & your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.
Thank you Father, I choose your gift.
Written by Suzie Hodgson
zp8497586rq
To add to what you have said it is important to understand what ‘sin’ actually is.
———
The original new testament meaning of the word ‘sin’ is simply ‘to miss the mark’ as in ‘an archer who shoots an arrow and completely misses the target’.
I believe this also implies using an object for a purpose that it was never intended for, as in using a hammer instead of a key to unlock a door. Now this sounds arbitrary until you realise that most of the biblical warnings ‘not to sin’ are framed in the context that Man was designed by God for a purpose. For example people were not designed to have many sexual partners (1 Tim3:2) because it damages the bonding process amongst other things. In the same way people where not designed to get ‘drunk’ (Eph 5:18) because it lead to a loss of sound judgement amongst other things.
———
That being said, ‘sin’ definitely has a reward, if it didn’t people wouldn’t choose that path. (Heb 11:24) says that Moses chose to be with his people rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
Finally if you were to study the bible to identify the gravest of sins you will discover they all have one common element and that is a very powerful ability to deceive you (warp your perception) into thinking that you will not ‘reap what you sow’.
Thanks Suzie, that’s a tough topic.