READ: Romans 6:22-23

“But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.”

A Few Thoughts

Some people don’t like the idea of God telling them what’s right and wrong. The alternative is for each person to decide what’s right or wrong for themselves. What an incredible burden! God is perfect, we are not.  God loves us even more than we love ourselves. The Bible tells us directly that He has made plans to bless us, not to harm us. He is so much more qualified to know right from wrong. You can trust Him even more than you can trust your own heart or conscience. You can trust His word so much more than you can trust the voices of our culture.

Questions We Should Ask

If real life is God’s gift, what is fake life?

Some people think sinning is easy and salvation is hard work.  What does this text say about that?

“God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust.” — AW Tozer

Why does Paul say it is a “surprise” to find out that listening to God is a delight?

READ: Romans 6:15-23.

Paul makes an interesting point. Everyone is controlled by something other than themselves. This kind of flies in the face of culture.  The idea that no one can tell me what to do, or that I should always only do what’s best for me….it’s a false premise. The reality is, I was born with a sin-distorted view of the world and my best efforts to satisfy myself will only bring more harm into my own life.  Reality check. I am born enslaved to sin, and my only alternative is to give myself fully to righteousness. Whose righteousness?  The righteousness of Christ. How is this possible? He took my burden of sin upon Himself, willingly paying my consequence, so that I could be covered by His perfect righteousness.   He did the work.  Your move? Yield & trust. 

Take some time to pray this morning.  Has sin brought an unnecessary burden into your life?  Have you been trying to work for righteousness apart from Jesus?  Let the essence of your prayer this morning revolve around one idea:  “I surrender all”.