In God's Forgiveness...That Is Where Our Hope Lies!
Romans 6:15-23 New International Version
Slaves to Righteousness 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one 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 have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thursday - May 20
Luther: “Sin is so powerful and has such dominion because the Law has dominion. Sin is the sting or power of death, through which death is powerful and holds dominion …He who fears death more than Christ and loves his life more than Christ does not yet possess Christ through true faith. For sin has dominion over him, and he is still under the Law …[However] God has arranged to remove through Christ whatever the devil brought in through Adam. And it was the devil who brought in sin and death. Therefore God brought about the death of death and the sin of sin, the poison of poison, the captivity of captivity. (Pastor Matt: The resurrection of Jesus is the “death of death”! In his forgiveness our captivity is captivated!)