Verse: Romans 6:20-23
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.
Devotion:
Buckle in and stay with me here. We get an almost sarcastic tone from Paul to start as he drives home a hard point, but then we get to the profound hope at the end.
He starts with almost an oxymoron stating that when we were slaves to sin, we were free…free from righteousness. We were free to live our own way, separated from God. His rhetorical question is this—where did that get us? What benefit was there to living in a free-for-all without any regard to God? Living that way only produces one thing: death. It produces death and an eternal separation from God. One commentary I read (Enduring Word), says this, “In a time of temptation, these truths can seem unreal – so we must rely on God’s Word. When we are tempted, faith reminds us of the bitter fruit of sin when our feelings may forget that bitter fruit”. There is no other outcome to our sin, no matter how the world paints it and presents it to us. Temptation is hard, friend. I know we don’t always win against it. God’s abundant grace covers the multitude of our weakness and sin. But, don’t forget the reality that sin only produces death. More importantly, we’re not alone in fighting temptation. Don’t rely on yourself to “make the right choice”. Rely on God, cling to Him. Lean into His strength because it is enough to fight the worldly temptations we are surrounded by.
By His blood, we are set free from the slavery to sin. As Paul says, now we belong to God. We have a new owner. Instead of our wages (pay, result, outcome), being death in eternal separation, our benefit is holiness and eternity with Him. In the terms Paul is speaking in, we can choose wages now, or the best benefit package later. When we come to know Him, we turn away from sin producing death. We turn to God and set our sights on Him. He changes our hearts to make us more and more like Him. One day, we will live in perfect peace, eternally with Him.
Friend, keep your sights set on Him. We are in a world with sin screaming in our faces and temptation around every corner. As believers, this world is the closest we will ever get to hell. Fight the good fight. Cling to He who is able to move mountains, who will walk every single step with us. Keep your hope in Jesus and your eyes on the big kingdom picture.
Prayer:
God, thank you for reminders of Your big kingdom picture. This world is hard and temptation presses in constantly. Lord, remind me to rely on Your strength. Help me to remember that I am not supposed to do it all on my own. Thank you for trading your son for the wages I deserve. Thank you for the hope I have in knowing one day I will be in perfect peace with you. Until that day, help me to fight the good fight. I love you Lord. Amen
Author: Becca Artymenko
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