Romans 6:17-7:6
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.
7 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Sean Blomquist
Shelter Covenant Church – Concord
Observation: I see Paul giving thanks for the freedom we now have in Christ from being a slave to sin. This happens, he says, through our hearts being claimed by another allegiance.
Action: This week my prayer will be, “Lord, I offer my heart in allegiance to You alone. I desire to obey Your pattern and way of life for myself.”
Wendell Pfohl
Pompey Community Church – Pompey, New York
Observation: Father I am reminded of how easy it seems to run back into the captivity of sin and the destruction if brings. There is nothing that compares to the life and freedom that you have provided those who have chose to obey you and to seek after that which brings life. But the pull of the old system can be so alluring and so strong. I also know with 100% certainty that I am totally free and capable of saying no because of what you did on the cross for me. I have been set free and with that freedom comes the blessing of eternal life.
Action: Today I will review the captivity and chaos that my sinful living and sinful choices made for me and for those in my life. I will also review the blessings and freedom that Jesus made possible for me so that I can now be obedient and make choices to live a righteous life. I will spend time truly thanking my Heavenly Father for making it all possible.
Observation: Father i notice your clear vision/vantage point and purpose for me. Sin does not actually lead to life (no matter what it seems to offer). You gave me life so that i could bear fruit for you.
Action: Today i will consciously remind myself of the reality of sin when tempted. I will chose to find a way to bear good fruit instead. I will consciously do this three times.
Observation: We are being urged to think, look, evaluate. What do I see in my life? There is fruit. What kind is it and where does it come from?
Action: I will evaluate the fruit in my life and will especially be on the alert for the “fruit for death” that rots and stinks. It could be mixed in the bag with some good looking fruit, but it will pollute the whole bag eventually.
Observation: 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.
Action: Thank You! Thank You!! Thank You Jesus!!!