Christ brought abolition of slavery against sin!
15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:15-23
Abolition – the action or an act of abolishing a system, practice, or institution.
We all learned about abolition in our history classes. It was a turning point for our country. Slaves were given freedom. Did you know that we are given freedom through Christ Jesus? He came to set us free from sin which had held us in slavery since the first man Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden. Abolition is the act of getting rid of a system, practice or institution. For those who believe in Jesus Christ, the practice we are getting rid of is the practice of sin! Friends, this is truth that we need to get settled deep in our hearts. We no longer walk in sin which leads to guilt, shame and regret.
We walk in boldness, confidence and truth.
All because of one man – Jesus. The sooner we understand this, the sooner we can start spreading this good news to others so that they, too, can be set free.
In the first 6 chapters of Romans that we’ve been studying, Paul repeats this truth 17 times! We know from school that repetition is very important to learning. Jesus knew this and repeated lessons over and over in His teaching and Paul followed in His footsteps. When things are repeated in Scripture numerous times, pay attention! God does it for a reason.He does it for our good. These things that are repeated are things we must know to obtain freedom.
I’m going to repeat this wonderful truth as well.
Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
Romans 6:18
We are set free from the slavery to sin which led to death – and not because of anything that we did. It was all because of what Jesus did for us that one day when He took our place on the cross. This is a powerful key to being set free. Satan wants us to not understand this piece of Scripture. He wants us to stay locked in our guilt and shame over past sins that we committed. He wants us to stay in bondage of sin today. But Jesus tells us to stop! We no longer have to bow down to the weak human nature because we were given the divine nature – the Holy Spirit – to dwell within to make us strong. It is not by our force or strength but the power of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us to turn from sin.
Then he said to me, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: “It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Zechariah 4:6
It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we have the ability to do what is right.
Only by His power that we can live righteously. We will never be able to live righteously in our own strength. We are 100% dependent upon Jesus Christ. We are nothing without Him and everything with Him. His precious Spirit gives birth to our spirit to wake us up from death. His Spirit breaks us free from those chains of bondage of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. Look closely at this list. This is what each of us are without Christ. This list is ugly and scary. These are things in my past, not my present or my future! Praise goes to God and God alone for saving us from the dead! Praise goes to God for the abolition of slavery to sin.
May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give us grace and peace.
Stay in the Light and the Love Always,
Eva
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