It is time for me to focus, Father. May I set aside all that would distract me and may my eyes be fixed on You. Amen.
Romans 6:15-23 (<<click here to read the passage)
Every single time I stop to pick up or drop off a student I set the emergency (parking) brake on my school bus and put it in neutral. There is no chance of it going forward or backward of its own accord. For the sake of safety, that is what is required. With the emergency brake engaged, even if I put my bus in gear it would be unable to move.
I’m sure that you have noticed that in life there is no emergency brake. No matter how strong our desire to slow things down to prolong joy or avoid a head-on collision with sorrow, life does what life does. Only when life ceases are the brakes set.
The other thing about life, besides it not having any brakes, is the fact that there is no neutral. And from a spiritual perspective (and whether we like to admit it or not – that is really the only viable perspective), since there is no neutral the only two other options are God…or sin. And the thing is, we chose which one will be our master. No one makes us. God does not make us choose nor does the world force us to choose. That decision is ours alone to make.
Paul states that we were once slaves to sin but because of Jesus’ sacrificial gift we are now free from slavery to sin and have become slaves to righteous living.
The slavery of which Paul speaks is one of choice…our choice. We were born into sin and continued to live in it. All of us gave ourselves over to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. But the thing is, the result of that choice was eternal doom.
Now Paul exclaims that we must give ourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that we will become holy. Doing so means we are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now we do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.
…the wages of sin is death but Paul concludes with the profound statement, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. NLT
We may stumble. We may fail. We may utterly fall flat on our faces but when we do we fall, now we do so by falling into the waiting arms of our Lord and Savior for we are no longer slaves to sin. We, my friends, belong to God! And there is no better place to be!
Jan 12th, 2023, Thurs, 7:03 pm
