But now I'm tired. (Dad, I hope you're not relying on this too much for your message in a couple weeks ;) I'm ready to be ready for bed... but I'm not. But I will be soon. I think I have to be before this post really gets started. I need to take my makeup off. And brush my teeth. Then I feel like I can finish this!
Alrighty. Wow. It's been a while since I've posted from my bedroom. On my bed. Last night I managed to stay in the living room until I was done. But tonight everyone booked it upstairs so I felt obligated to follow. I don't like having to turn all the lights off =P
OOOOOKay. Onto Romans 6:15-23 Quick refresher of yesterday's post: Dead to sin, alive to Christ. We're free and we're not under the law. We're under grace:
Romans 6:15-23 15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
So basically, you can't go crazy now that you're "not under the law." We still have to obey our master. And our master is, thankfully, God. When you become a bondservant (δοῦλος, doulos) of God, when you choose to do his will not your own, you are a slave to him. You have to obey him. When you are a slave you give up your rights.
17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
DUDE! Paul! Thanks. I'm glad you put this in terms we could understand! I was kind of worried there for a minute =P. Seriously though: Now that we're no longer slaves to sin, we're able to fully obey God's commands. We're set free (FREE. Remember the last post? Yeah. Free was kind of a theme.). We're slaves to righteousness! That's something I don't mind being a slave of! The beginning of verse 19 is kind of nice, but also kind of annoying. I mean, he had to put it in human terms because he could understand it sans human terms. Kudos to you Paul for having super Jesus insights! I don't, so thanks for writing some of those super Jesus insights down for us! We're weak. We need God to be our strength. I mean, these people were offering their bodies in a way that was not pleasing to God. Do you think we offer things to God that aren't pleasing to him, but we just don't realize it? Hmmm...
20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
We were free to do what we wanted. Which isn't really freedom at all. Because those things resulted in death. Righteousness has this control over us. It brings up this thing that's called a conscience. It can get annoying at times if you're trying to ignore God. (Ignoring God doesn't work in the long run.) But your conscience (with the help of the Holy Spirit) makes us feel guilty when we do something wrong. When we do things that result in death.
22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But now we're free from sin. We're able to serve God. We're able to get the advantages of God. Sin leads to death. God leads to eternal life. I feel like this deserves a resounding BOOMSHAKALAKA! Oh yeah. Being a slave to God is awesome! There are some awesome perks that go along with this fabulous job... like eternal life. And that's just one of the fantastic benefits you get from this servanthood!
This has basically nothing to do with this post, but it is adorable.You might recognized this song from an AT&T commercial that was on a while ago.
The letters are getting blurry. With my glasses on. That is a sure sign that it is time to go to bed. So goodnight. (she says as she basically falls asleep at her computer.) Bye you awesome people who read my blog!
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