Romans 6:15-19
Father God, thank you so much for this time that we can spend reading and studying your holy word rightly divided. Thank you for teaching us Lord how that we should live unto God instead of just living for our flesh. Thank you that as believers we can read and study your word rightly divided and that it will work effectually in us. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Romans 6:15
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Again, Paul tells us that just because we are not under the law but under grace does not mean that we should just live for our flesh. Just because we can never loose our salvation NO MATTER WHAT, doesn't give us license to live a sinful lifestyle. Instead, we ought to yeild our bodies over to serve God instead.
Romans 6:16
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Romans 6:17
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
If we choose to live after our flesh as believers, we do not bring glory to God, we might spoil our testimony, we don't help others to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth and we loose rewards in heaven. It's important to understand that even as believers we will still sometimes sin. But choosing to just live a sinful lifestyle and to not care about living godly is different from having occasional sinful moments.
Paul reminds us also that before our salvation we WERE the servants of sin, but that's not who we are anymore. He says, "but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." This means that we simply believed the Gospel of the Grace of God unto salvation and now we have eternal life in Christ Jesus. When we believe the gospel unto salvation, we believe in our minds and in our hearts.
Romans 6:18
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
From the moment that we believed the Gospel, we went from being slaves to sin to being servants of righteousness. Paul says we were "made free from sin", which means that we were enslaved to the sin nature and we followed after Satan's course for this world, but now we are no longer enslaved to it.
Romans 6:19
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Our flesh doesn't like that our spirit wants to serve God now, so it will fight us tooth and nail. As we live godly we suffer persecution, which is one reason why our flesh just wants us to live worldly instead and follow after our own lusts. We also suffer because our flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.
In the past all we did was sin, and our sins only got progressively worse over time and we kept piling up wrath upon ourselves for the day of judgment. The sin nature doesn't improve with age. Sometimes people say that we naturally get wiser as we age but that's not necessarily true. People who are not saved just get more wicked as they get older, if not in their actions, then in their thoughts. Think about pop singers like Madonna. Has she gotten any wiser since she first became a famous singer? No! She's only gotten more reprobate and more sure of herself! I can think of many other unbelievers who are similar. Or what about Oprah Winfrey? She has spent years promoting newage teachings to millions of viewers around the world. She claims to be wiser now that she's older, but is she really? No way! And that would be you and I if not for the grace of God!
Paul says "ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity;" which is meaning that we were only increasingly becoming more reprobate. We had just one sin after another. But, as believers, if we will read, study and believe God's word rightly divided on a regular basis, we will mature spiritually more and more over time. We have an opportunity now as believers to allow Christ and His word to live in and through us. We have an opportunity now to grow spiritually, to share the gospel with others and teach sound grace doctrine and to earn rewards for the heavenly places. What opportunities! We ought to be THANKFUL!
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