Daily Devotion - January 23, 2023

Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Rom. 6:17-18)

There is a math of the mind that reasons, “If God will forgive all my sin, and substitute Christ’s good work for my bad behavior, then I might as well keep sinning!” But that’s not the only way our thoughts can function? 

The Apostle Paul counters the shady math of such thinking with a leading question: “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means!”

Why? Because, as Paul explains, no one wants to be “enslaved to sin.” Does anyone who has been “set free” from slavery really want to go back to it? 

Paul makes clear the enslaving power of sin in our lives to caution us against any mental math that would try to take advantage of God’s grace to subject our lives and loved ones to sin’s ravages. 

The Apostle never waters down the gospel of God’s grace to turn us away from the horrors of sin. Nothing could be clearer than him saying, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). But as a preacher said long ago, “Grace is not sweet, if sin is not bitter.” So, Paul makes us face the reality of enslavement to the guilt and power of sin, so that we will treasure our freedom from its chains and embrace the life secured by the grace of Christ.

Prayer: Father, thank you for freeing me from the slavery of sin and making me a servant of righteousness. May I never presume on your grace but rather respond in gratitude and obedience to the life without chains secured by your grace.