The God Pause Daily Devotion - The Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Wednesday, 28 June 2017 - Romans 6:12-23
Romans 6:12 Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal bodies, so that it makes you obey its desires; 13 and do not offer any part of yourselves to sin as an instrument for wickedness. On the contrary, offer yourselves to God as people alive from the dead, and your various parts to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will not have authority over you; because you are not under legalism but under grace.
15 Therefore, what conclusion should we reach? “Let’s go on sinning, because we’re not under legalism but under grace”? Heaven forbid! 16 Don’t you know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, then, of the one whom you are obeying, you are slaves — whether of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to being made righteous? 17 By God’s grace, you, who were once slaves to sin, obeyed from your heart the pattern of teaching to which you were exposed; 18 and after you had been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 (I am using popular language because your human nature is so weak.) For just as you used to offer your various parts as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led to more lawlessness; so now offer your various parts as slaves to righteousness, which leads to being made holy, set apart for God. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relationship to righteousness; 21 but what benefit did you derive from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end result of those things was death. 22 However, now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you do get the benefit — it consists in being made holy, set apart for God, and its end result is eternal life. 23 For what one earns from sin is death; but eternal life is what one receives as a free gift from God, in union with the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.
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Scripture, especially like these words from Romans 6, can sometimes make grace-oriented Christians a bit uneasy. Under the umbrella of "grace alone," many have been encouraged to eliminate the "shoulds," and the "oughts," from their vocabulary. Granted our relationship with God, our calling in Jesus Christ, is solely a gift, total grace. Yet, to live out that calling requires--yes requires--that we "present our members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification." There are, in fact, some things to do in responsibly carrying out our vocation in Christ. One individual in our new member class recently shared: "It sounds like to become a good Lutheran, one should join the church and then do nothing." Of course, that is a mis-characterization of what it means to become a Lutheran. Yet, the gift Lutherans can offer at the table ("grace alone") can easily distort God's full counsel, if taken alone. St. Paul does say elsewhere, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling."
Remind us, O God, that the salvation we receive from you is to be expressed in our words and actions for others. May our lives before others reflect the grace and mercy we have first received from you. Amen.
John Matthews, '82
Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church, Apple Valley, Minn.
Romans 6:12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted,
18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.
22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. [New Revised Standard Version]
Scripture, especially like these words from Romans 6, can sometimes make grace-oriented Christians a bit uneasy. Under the umbrella of "grace alone," many have been encouraged to eliminate the "shoulds," and the "oughts," from their vocabulary. Granted our relationship with God, our calling in Jesus Christ, is solely a gift, total grace. Yet, to live out that calling requires--yes requires--that we "present our members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification." There are, in fact, some things to do in responsibly carrying out our vocation in Christ. One individual in our new member class recently shared: "It sounds like to become a good Lutheran, one should join the church and then do nothing." Of course, that is a mis-characterization of what it means to become a Lutheran. Yet, the gift Lutherans can offer at the table ("grace alone") can easily distort God's full counsel, if taken alone. St. Paul does say elsewhere, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling."
Remind us, O God, that the salvation we receive from you is to be expressed in our words and actions for others. May our lives before others reflect the grace and mercy we have first received from you. Amen.
John Matthews, '82
Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church, Apple Valley, Minn.
Romans 6:12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted,
18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.
22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. [New Revised Standard Version]
The Luther Seminary
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Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, United States
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