Romans 6:20-23 says,...

Today's verses are Romans 6:20-23 which read,

20 - For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 
21 - Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the outcome of those things is death. 
22 - But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 
23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  
A famous last verse that has some pretty cool verses that come before it that build it up to have that "punch" for the end of the chapter.  I think it might be good to make this into some type of chart as Paul is comparing two ways of life.  "Let's put these two side by side and see what your conclusion is" could be Paul's thought here.

Condition:  slave to sin (bondage to)
Freedom:  don't have to do what God says is right
Benefit:  ashamed of what you are doing
Result:  death

Condition:  enslaved to God (bondage to)
Freedom:  to not sin (God's help and protection and example)
Benefit:  sanctification (continual cleansing by God of you)
Result:  eternal life

One is focused all on me and the other is focused on God.  When you put them side by side, the decision seems like it should be so easy.  Can't you see it?  I guess the pull of sin is greater than just recognizing it and seeing it in black and white.  You see we can't do it by ourselves.  Just knowing it should lead to see that we need something or Someone beyond our knowledge to "save" us from sin.  We need to be "delivered" from this condition.

God sent His Son Jesus to this earth (we call it Christmas) to save us, sinners, and gave us the greatest gift of all.  Later in Romans we are instructed that in light of what God did, that we are to live our lives as "living sacrifices" for Him in response to that gift.

Kneel before that manger scene and thank Jesus for coming into your life this Christmas.  He gave you and is continuing to give you more than you could ever give Him back so you have a whole life to live back saying "Thanks!"
Pastor Adam
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlie...
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course e...
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
Read more