Day 23 - Romans 6:15 - 6:23

15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Tori's Comments:

To sum up, why would you even WANT to keep sinning?

Temporary pleasures?

Bleck.

My human nature is definitely weak, so I appreciate the illustration.

Terrie's Comments:

I immediately think of the Old Testament with this passage.  God is begging us to choose righteousness, holiness, to be pure and to live for him wholeheartedly!!  He is begging us to do this because he knows both sides.  

It is like there is two prize doors... door A and door B... you have a choice to make but you are only given a small glimse behind each door.  Behind door A there are a tonne of prizes... you win a mansion, luxury car, motorhome, lifetime supply of chocolate, endless supply of money and all the friends you could ask for (genuine of course).  Behind door B there is a pile of baked beans... a lifetime supply mind you but that is all you are allowed to eat for the rest of your life.  Both are made to sound awesome before you choose.  The host of the show is REALLY begging you to choose A... will you choose A or B... either way your life will change.  

God really wants us to live whole heartedly for him because he wants what is best for us, he loves us, he wants a relationship with us.  His motivation is not to have a bunch of slaves for himself.

 

"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!" Deuteronomy 30:19

Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!

Day 22 - Romans 6:5 - 6:14

5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.

Terrie's Comments:

Wow there are some pretty powerful concepts in this passage.  Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin... Give yourselves completely to God  

The concept that we are always serving someone... either God or Sin... we can't be in both camps at once.  

I don't know where I heard this story from but it seems appropriate to share...

I believe it was a dream someone told me about.  I don't remember all of the details but I do remember this... they were on a fence not really deciding which side to be on (God's or Satan's)  Then the end came and Satan came to collect them because he owned the fence. (that was a really sad attempt at remembering that story but I think the image is clear enough)

If you aren't living for God then you are working against him and living your life serving sin.  

Tori's Comments:

My campers are only asleep for a little while longer so I apologize if this is short and sweet.
I am curious exactly about what it means to be free from slavery of sin. Because we still get tempted.
Is it referring to how we are made righteous and are free from the guilt of sin?
Or is it talking about how when we give ourselves completely to Jesus temptations and things kind of just fade away?

Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!

Day 21 - Romans 6:1 - 6:4

6 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Tori's Comments:

Haha, I hope Terrie puts her metaphor for this passage in here. Terrie, if you're reading this before you post, put that metaphor in because I like it.

Okay, thanks.

I have always thought of sin as chains. They weigh me down and make my life more miserable, and Jesus freed me from that. Would it glorify him more to keep getting trapped so he can free me again, or to live for him? When a prisoner is freed from jail, would it be more creditable to the law if he learned his lesson and lived an abundant life after or if he went back to jail?

Obviously, our judicial system would be applauded more if the prisoner went on to live a better life.

And yes, there are flaws with that, but it makes sense to me :)

Terrie's Comments:

I absolutely LOVE this imagery of what happens in baptism.  We identify fully with Jesus Christ by being buried with Him and then rise with Him to new life.  And the same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead also lives in us to give us power to live this new life in Jesus Christ,  It is all very cool.

TORI - If you want to read the metephor that you are refering to it is found on Day 10 of our Romans Challenge.  It went like this.... I am now going to quote a quote from myself... "I believe the reason that this portion of scripture is mind boggling is because it is describing a part of how we justify our sin to God.  It doesn't make sense.  It is like a child breaking a rule and then telling the parents that by breaking the rule they just proved that the parents were awesome and that the rule was a great idea.  So therefore the more they break the rule it just proves that the parents are really truly awesome!  So why should the child be punished if he is just proving how awesome the parents are??

So really you can see how this logic is truly stupid :-)" 

Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!