"Saved to Sin? NO!" August 15 Readings: Job 41-42, Romans 6, Psalm 94:20–23, Proverbs 20:14–15

Today's Readings - Job 41-42, Romans 6, Psalm 94:20–23, Proverbs 20:14–15

Devotional 

I've been saved by grace so it really doesn't matter if I sin, right?
Forgiving my sin brings glory to God, so I might as well sin so that he can be glorified in forgiving me, right?
We aren't under the Old Testament Law anymore, right? So I can live any way that I please!

It is amazing how many ways people have found through the years to distort and pervert the teaching of the greatest truth ever - salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In Romans 6, Paul begins of his teaching on "righteousness by faith" that would continue through chapter 7, dealing with the common objections to the teaching and excuses people might give for living shoddy lives after receiving God's grace.

His basic premise, in Romans 6:1-14, is that the idea of sinning as a result of grace is just ridiculous when you examine the life that God saved us for. He summarizes that in the verse I quote every time I do a baptism, verse 4.

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

I wasn't saved just so I could go to heaven one day when I die. I wasn't saved simply to forgive me of my wins and wipe them away. I was saved for these reasons, but also for more. Jesus died on the cross that I might die with him to my life of sin and be raised with him to a new life that is lived by new standards. A new life in Christ.

Since this is true, verses 12 and 13 explain clearly how we ought to live.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

Those who have been given a free salvation, won by Christ's work and not our own works, ought not to use that as an excuse to sin. We ought never allow sin to reign over us - Christ has broken its grip, its mastery over us - but instead, we ought to offer ourselves completely to God and every part of our existence to him for his use.

It is the only fitting response to so great a salvation as ours.

Father, may I never treat your grace as an excuse to sin or an authorization for a spiritually sloppy life. Your son died and rose so that I could live a new life. May I see that more every day. 

Think and Pray

Do you ever use the grace of God and your security in Christ as an excuse for sin, for careless Christian living?
Meditate on this passage and what Paul asserted here about our freedom from sin.