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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. (Romans 6:19-23)
As a boy I loved the journey from our home in Kingsville to our church, El Buen Pastor UMC. We were a one-car family, dad used the car, so Mom and my grandmother would walk us wherever we needed to go. The mid-point of the journey was to reach the railroad tracks and walk along them until we reached the street of the church, and then we would use the street to reach the church. The tracks were the most exciting part of the trip. I had played on the tracks since I had permission to leave the house. I had placed pennies on the track or small nails, waited for the next train and then there was a squashed penny or smashed nail. My mother warned me of me being on the track when a train came by. Paul speaks to us about the journey of faith. Until we met Christ, we were pretty much led by our natural desires and passions. We gave no serious thought to consequences, and as Paul describes it, it's pretty much true, we were "slaves to impurity." But that part of the journey ended when Christ changed our lives, entered our hearts and became our Lord and King. Now, Paul says, we should be "slaves to righteousness for sanctification." Sanctification should be the name of our journey. Wesley says while we were lost, God's previenent grace was wooing us, seeking that right relationship with us; when we accepted God's offer through Christ, we were participants in justification, being made acceptable while unacceptable through Jesus. And from that moment on, we walked with Christ on the sanctification journey; each day seeking to be closer to God than the day before, our goal being to be made perfect in love in this life through the help of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We should know better than to play on the tracks when the train is coming; in the same way, Christ helps us stay away from that which can bring us shame and death; that's our advantage, we get sanctification. With it, "the end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is enteral life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
So, journey well my friend, holding on to Christ for He knows the way and we know Him.
PRAYER: Loving God, thank You for all You have done for and through us, in Jesus Christ. We want to journey with You on this path of sanctification. Let us be a blessing to You and Yours. This we pray in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Stay off the "tracks!"
Eradio Valverde
