Today’s reading is Romans 5:1-6:23.

What a great reminder I received today:

“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. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:12-14). 

Paul goes on to ask if we should sin because we are under grace and the answer is “By no means.” 

Paul gives a great reminder. I’m under grace now, but that doesn’t mean I can keep submitting myself to sin. Sadly, some become Christians and act as if that means any sins we commit are just wiped clean. They forget the power of sin. Sin destroys and dominates. If we have been set free from sin by Jesus Christ, let us not willingly surrender ourselves to sin again. If we think we can control and enjoy sin now that we are Christians, we are very much mistaken.

Today, instead of presenting my members to sin to obey its lead, I must submit myself to righteousness to obey its command. Since I am under God’s grace, I can actually accomplish this. Apparently, if I’m just under law, presenting myself to righteousness doesn’t work quite as well. However, since I am under grace I can live in such a way that sin won’t have dominion over me. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ who delivers me from the enslavement to sin that I so willingly walked into throughout my life.

But again, that freedom doesn’t mean sitting on my thumbs and just waiting for God to take my sins away. It means surrendering to His righteousness (that comes by faith in Jesus Christ). That’s what I’ll be working on today–surrendering to Jesus’ righteousness.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get from today’s reading?