Saturday, November 3 - by Pamela

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Mark 11, John 12

Today's scripture focus is Romans 6:15-18

Slaves to Righteousness

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

What is sin? According to this commentary, sin is:

"Sin is a debt, a burden, a thief, a sickness, a leprosy, a plague, a poison, a serpent, a sting. Everything that man hates, sin is. A load of curses and calamities beneath his crushing intolerable pressure, the whole creation groans."

Sin is what separates us from God. Sin is what clouds our judgement, hurts us, and makes us human. Sin is why Jesus came.

We read in Romans 3:23:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

For *ALL* have sinned. Not just a few of us, not just most of us, but all of us. This commentary adds:

Jesus said in John 8:34, "Whosoever commits sin is the slave of sin." All men who live a life of committing sin are slaves to that sin. In fact, every person who comes into this world is under the tyranny of sin. It controls their thoughts, it controls their words, it controls their actions. To put in the terminology of Romans 6, verse 17, "Ye were the slaves of sin." Verse 20, "Ye were," again "the slaves of sin." Twice in that passage. He says you used to be slaves, doulos, bondslaves to sin. And the ultimate end of being a slave to sin we found in verse 21 at the end, "For the end of those things is death." And verse 23, the beginning of the verse, "For the wages of sin is death..." To be a slave of sin is to die. Sin ultimately kills.

So... "whosoever commits sin" (all of us) is the slave to sin". We are all slaves to sin. According to the dictionary, to be a slave means:

slave noun /slāv/  slaves, plural A person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them A person who works very hard without proper remuneration or appreciation - by the time I was ten, I had become her slave, doing all the housework A person who is excessively dependent upon or controlled by something - the poorest people of the world are slaves to the banks - she was no slave to fashion A device, or part of one, directly controlled by another - a slave cassette deck An ant captured in its pupal state by an ant of another species, for which it becomes a worker

Today's passage says:
¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

We are "slaves to the one whom you obey". We have a choice to be a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. We do not have to be a slave to sin because God gave us an alternative. The Bible says in Romans 5:8:

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We have been redeemed as slaves to sin. Our "shackles" have been removed and we no longer have to be bound to the crippling effects of sin or the end result of being a slave to sin. We are free to choose to become a slave to obedience in the one that set us free and to choose righteousness-the gift of God's forgiveness and payment for our sins.

This passage makes me remember a story I had once heard and I found it online:

A Cherokee Legend-An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

We have a choice. We will become slaves to something in our lives because we are imperfect humans. We will be a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. What will our choice be?

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 6:19-23

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Matt 22; Mark 12