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12 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. 13 Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time - remember, you've been raised from the dead! - into God's way of doing things. 14 Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God. 15 So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? 16 Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. 17 But thank God you've started listening to a new master, 18 one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom! 19 I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing - not caring about others, not caring about God - the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness? 20 As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. 21 But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end. 22 But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! 23 Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. (Romans 6:12-23 The Message Bible)
Have you ever been trapped in a place where you didn't want to be? My harrowing experience was in an elevator for not a long time, but the initial scare made up for the brevity. How about you? While most of us have not been in a physical situation like an elevator or jail, but a relationship or a habit can be equally powerful and strong. And as Paul sees it, sin can be the worst prison to be in. And sin, can lead to the death penalty, the eternal death penalty; but Paul knew the way out. Paul preached that because he believed that, and because he lived it. The seriousness of all things is that Paul says once we are free, we should stay free. Let's say your "sin" is a desire for double fudge chocolate cake. Once you have set yourself "free" from that cake, you should stay away. This modern version says, the freed person should not get chocolate cake a "vote in the way you conduct your lives." We who love chocolate cake know just how sneaky cake can be. They know us by our first name, heck, the cake knows our nickname, and with its sweet voice can call us to "vote" for it. Paul stresses in the next verse, "Don't even run little errand that are connected with that old way of life, meaning just walking by that sneaky devil of a cake can be more than we can take. Remember Eve? The first lady, when told she could eat freely of any tree in the garden, believed the serpent when he twisted the truth and asked Eve if she was not allowed to eat from any tree. Eve responded that she was not even allowed to touch the tree, meaning she had run more than one little errand by the tree, for that tree, like the cake, called to her, until that day, with the tempter's prompt, did eat, and then handed the delicious piece of fruit to her husband. Paul admonishes the believer to give themselves wholeheartedly and full-time to staying alive, because in sin they were as good as dead, now free from sin by Jesus, they have been raised from the dead! "Sin can't tell you how to live."
Sin does tell the captives how to live. The drug addict sometimes cannot hear freedom's voice when the drug is tugging, and pulling at his very being and the voice of freedom is sometimes muffled by the loudness of a drug, or a drink, or a temptation that drives the captive to weakness. The only way we can get sin to shut up is to follow Paul's urging, to "Offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits." God's voice is the loudest if we seek to hear it, and to realize that God is the new Master, not sin.
Paul reminds the believer that we should remember when we were led to obey sin and disobey God. We were led by the flesh we did whatever we felt like doing. We were ignoring God. We were not living a free life; the path to our destruction was on a fast track and had it not been for Jesus, we would still be there. Our delight should now be in the delights of knowing God. Ours is now, as Paul describes, "our whole, healed, put-together life now, with more and more of life on the way!" And Paul also shares the truth, "Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master."
The Apostle Paul loved God. The Apostle Paul loved Jesus. The Apostle Paul loved the Holy Spirit. And because he loved God, he also loved the people God called him to preach to. His entire life after his face-to-face encounter with the Risen Christ, was about his faithfulness and genuine fruitfulness, was because of the love he felt to those who were responding to the message of salvation. Paul's desire, like most preachers, pastors, and evangelists, is to help those who surrender to Christ to stay alive and in the new life which they have accepted in Christ. That same love was in the voice that led you to Jesus. Whoever told you about Jesus wanted life, the fullness of life when she or he preached that, and wants you to stay in that life. Dear one, wherever you find yourself right now, remember the love you felt when you gave your heart to Jesus, and know this, Jesus still loves you. The clergy-person who shared Jesus with you, loves you. You are a loved person and you deserve to enjoy the new life that was given to you away from sin and its destructive ways.
PRAYER: God of love and mercy, we thank You for the mercy and love shown me; let me stay free from the attraction of sin, and let me be a person who can tell others about the love that You have for all people; in christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord. YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Pray for the person who shared Jesus with you.
Receive my blessings of love and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, JR.
