Wednesday
But now that 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. Vs 22.
We are no longer slaves – we are set free.
The answer is simply put… when we swore our allegiance to Christ, we became like Christ. Paul compares our connection to Christ through baptism. When we were baptized in His name, we put sin to death in our lives. I think there is great beauty in looking at baptism as a cleansing from sin and death, and being made new in the resurrection.
Paul tells us that we will be slaves, it is just a matter of whom we will serve? In our country there is a misconception that it is possible to be totally free. The reality is, we are always bound to something. We were created to worship something. But what we worship is a choice. You will either worship the one true God, or you will create a god of your own making and worship it. (This could very well be ourselves that we worship… but whatever your “god” might look like, if it is not God Almighty… then it is not where we should place our allegiance.)
The truth is that when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, there should be a desire in us to no longer want to continue sinning. We should not be looking back at those things we did before as something to hold on to. Something to continue doing.
To sin more, just so that Jesus can forgive us more – seems pretty ludicrous, to say the least. Instead we should put our wicked ways behind us and only desire to live a life that leads to holiness. The church word is sanctification. We are not only challenged to live a holy life, it is expected. But before you start saying that’s impossible, remember with Christ ALL things are possible. We don’t have to go it alone… we have the Power of the Holy Spirit guiding and directing us. Sanctification is not a human achievement it is the gift that comes from a new relationship with God.
Grace and Peace
Pastor Kathy