September 27, 2024

Romans 6:15-23 (HCSB)
From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! 16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred to, 18 and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from allegiance to righteousness. 21 So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the end is eternal life! 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Katlyn Hardin
When we choose to allow sin to reign in our lives as believers, yes, there is most certainly grace and forgiveness in Christ, but sin always separates. Paul is saying here that though as believers we are not under condemnation anymore, we are to live as those who have actually been saved from condemnation (v. 17-18) Other people should look at our lives and know something is different than everything else they are seeing in the culture. When we present our lives, bodies, jobs, finances, etc. as “slaves of righteousness” the benefit is sanctification, and the result is eternal life (v. 22). Does this mean we will not still sin daily? No. But we can be encouraged that we are no longer slaves to sin, and at the end of the day, the gift of God which we have in Christ is eternal life  (v. 23). Thanks be to God!