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Freed for Joyful Obedience and Service to God
From Romans 6:12-23: Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The impact and power of Christ's resurrection continues daily our lives. Our freedom to choose not to sin, is a fruit of that resurrection. Yet, Paul knew that if we are not careful, we continue to choose to sin, and so urges us to make the choice to not sin. We, as children of the Resurrection, are spiritual people not carnal one. We are children of righteousness, not wickedness; and our path should be the one that leads to the fullness of life and eternal life. Sin no longer has the same power it once did because we have surrendered ourselves to Christ Jesus. And that is part of the "joyful obedience" that we say every time we confess immediately prior to receiving Holy Communion. We are no longer slaves to sin, but we should be "slaves to righteousness." All part of our journey of sanctification, being made perfect in love in this lifetime. Our question should be, Am I living better today in God's eyes than I was yesterday? Have my choices reflected righteousness or am I living like everyone else?
Life is not an easy journey at times, but with the power and presence of God's Holy Spirit it becomes a fulfilling one. The other road we were on led straight to death, proving what Paul declares in the last verse, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
PRAYER: Awesome God, help me to make the choices of righteousness in my life. Let my life bless You and Yours. Make me an example of a life lived seeking fullness of life and the reward of eternal life. Truly free me for joyful obedience. This I pray in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
