Year 8, Day 29: Romans 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I’ve always thought that America was uniquely prone to missing the point of Romans 6.  Notice that in Romans 6 Paul doesn’t give us the option that we think he does.  We hear Paul say that we should no longer be slaves to sin.  We assume that Paul therefore says that we are free.  In one sense of the word, we are.  We are freed from bondage to sin.

However, look at the conclusion that Paul reaches.  If we are no longer slaves to sin, then we are slaves to righteousness.  We are slaves to God’s ways.  We voluntarily put ourselves in a position to see God’s ways as worth pursuing and we submit to them.  Christ frees us from sin, but He does it so that we can follow Him.

I think that this is a very important point.  If I consider myself free from sin and the seek to pursue what I desire, I am really just putting myself back into being a slave to sin.  My nature is sin; my flesh corrupt.  Where true freedom is found is recognizing that I need to follow something other than the sinfulness within.  I need to follow Him and His ways.  I need to listen to the calling that He has set for me and my life and find my identity in Him.  True freedom comes in embracing the identity that God has set before me and living into that.

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