April 15, 2021 PRESENTING OURSELVES
Romans 6:16-18 “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, whether of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
We will continue our discussion from the last blog, titled A CHOICE TO MAKE; the main point was that because the power of sin has been broken, when and if we sin, we do so by choice. As we read the verses above, we see that who we ‘present’ ourselves too is a critical issue for each of us. If one ‘presents’ himself to money, he becomes a slave to money-you do what you must do to get more money. The same thing could be said about presenting ourselves to be the most popular, the best dressed, the most admired, the smartest, the best—or whatever-we become slaves to that very thing. This is also true in spiritual matters. In Romans 6:19, we see that before these believers in Rome had accepted Christ as Savior, they had presented themselves to ‘impurity and lawlessness’-because that is all they knew.
But when they accepted Christ as Savior, being exposed to the gospel message through the teaching of Paul (vs 17), they became obedient from the heart and presented themselves to that message. Let us not miss the main point; as believers, we can ‘present’ ourselves to our old nature and be slaves to it and obey it, or we can present ourselves to the new creation that God has made us and become slaves of righteousness (vs 18), obeying and being led by the Spirit of God. The choice is clear. In verse 17 we see that these believers became ‘obedient from the heart’. That is important because if we are not obedient to the things of the Lord from the heart, then we are depending on our human strength and wisdom and commitment to do what only the Holy Spirit can do. I cannot explain how this happens, but when we, from our heart, present ourselves to the Lord, the Holy Spirit begins to enlighten us to the things of the Lord and gives us new understandings. In this process, we begin to discover and experience just what Paul is saying in Romans 6 and 7; we begin to understand that when we present ourselves to the Lord and to His teaching and instructions, the life we live begins to look like the life He has for us-we gladly and joyfully become ‘slaves of righteousness’ because that is what people do who have presented themselves to Him and to His ways. Actually, there is nothing better or more fulfilling in life than presenting ourselves to Him. Let us be reminded that God knows exactly what we need, He loves us and cares for us, He comforts us in the difficult times, and He has given us the Helper-the Holy Spirit. Why would we or anyone else ever hesitate in presenting ourselves fully to Him?
Romans 6:22, 7:22 “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and outcome, eternal life.” “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
Blessings,
Buddy
RSS Feed