Romans 6:12-23 (NRSV)
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Verse 12Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Verse 13No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. Verse 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. Verse 15What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Verse 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? Verse 17But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, Verse 18and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. Verse 19I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. Verse 20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Verse 21So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. Verse 22But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. Verse 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Devotion
Scripture, especially like these words from Romans 6, can sometimes make grace-oriented Christians a bit uneasy. Under the umbrella of "grace alone," many have been encouraged to eliminate the "shoulds," and the "oughts," from their vocabulary. Granted our relationship with God, our calling in Jesus Christ, is solely a gift, total grace. Yet, to live out that calling requires—yes requires—that we "present our members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification." There are, in fact, some things to do in responsibly carrying out our vocation in Christ. One individual in our new member class recently shared: "It sounds like to become a good Lutheran, one should join the church and then do nothing." Of course, that is a mis-characterization of what it means to become a Lutheran. Yet, the gift Lutherans can offer at the table ("grace alone") can easily distort God's full counsel, if taken alone. St. Paul does say elsewhere, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling."
Prayer
Remind us, O God, that the salvation we receive from you is to be expressed in our words and actions for others. May our lives before others reflect the grace and mercy we have first received from you. Amen.