REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE
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Opening Prayer
As I open my Bible today, Lord, help me to lay hold of and apply what you say to me. Have your Word make a difference in me today.
Read ROMANS 6:15—23
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Romans
Romans 6
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!
16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.
18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.
21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
22 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.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Reflect
‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.’1
If you are a follower of Christ, something remarkable has taken place in your life. Paul uses the image of Roman slavery. You were a slave to sin, a pattern of living that leads to death. Now, you have a new master. You have been set free from death row and set on the path of life by the gift of God’s grace. Here is the glorious truth. How will you respond?
We may know this truth well and be familiar with discussions about the basis of our salvation, but does the odd compromise with today’s secular culture matter so much in the context of God’s grace (v. 15)? Paul counsels us: we need to remember who we are (vv. 15—18).2 Now, under God’s rule, we are ‘slaves to righteousness’ (v. 18). We discover that there is a constant, quiet voice in our ear saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’3 It doesn’t take long, as we watch, listen, and read the news or spend an evening watching TV, to get a glimpse of the ‘impurity’ and ‘ever-increasing wickedness’ of our world (v. 19). But we have accepted God’s gift of grace—we have a new master. So now let’s take decisive, purposeful action. Let’s offer ourselves afresh as ‘slaves to righteousness’—the path that leads to holiness (v. 19).
Sin is deceitful. It tricks us into thinking that going its way is the way of freedom; we discover too late that it entangles us in a struggle with shame and death (v. 21). Why would we not turn from such behavior? Remember, we have been set free from sin’s rule and set on the path of holy living, which leads to eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (v. 23). Remember who you are.
Apply
How might you help your community of faith remember who it is in Christ? What differences might this bring to the wider community in which you live?
Closing prayer
Jesus, with determination and without compromise, you accomplished the mission your Father gave you. Help me to reflect your image as I live out the new life you have given me.
1 Gal 5:1 2 See John Stott, The Message of Romans (IVP, 1994), 187, 188 3 Isa 30:21.
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