Hobson’s choice
Romans 6.15-23
Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity … so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.
Prepare
If someone were spying on your life – what you think and say, how you spend your time (and money), what you do when no one else is watching – what would they conclude about how important Jesus is to you?
Read
Explore
Since the age of 8 I have answered ‘Liverpool’ to the question, ‘Which football team do you support?’ Yet I’ve never been to Anfield. I do not own a Liverpool shirt. I could not name the whole team. Do I support Liverpool, or not? Paul uses a different human example: slavery (v 19). Neither really fits what he’s trying to get at, but both give some insight.
His point is: before Jesus, our lives were ruled by sin, which leads to death (vs 17,23). Jesus sets his people free and gives us a choice: will we offer ourselves back to sin and ‘ever-increasing wickedness’, or will we offer ourselves to God and ‘righteousness leading to holiness’ and life (vs 19,23)?
In other words, does your life match up to who you are? The question is important because if I don’t look and act like a Liverpool fan, I’m probably not really one; and if I don’t look and act like someone who has been delivered from sin, and given a new life in Jesus…
Respond
Who would you describe as a holy man or woman of God? What is it about them that is ‘holy’? How can you be more like them? Choose one thing that will help you grow in holiness, and commit to doing it.