Roman’s 6:19-23

You know…it would be one thing if we had to work for our righteousness, and many are still operating under the mindset that we must do just that. Yet Paul clearly tells us that eternal life is a free gift through Christ Jesus. He even makes the comparison using the terms “wages” and “free gift.” They are not the same. Sin pays us exactly what we have earned, but God gives us what we could never earn!

Why is this so hard for us to grasp? Maybe our pride gets in the way. It is humbling to admit that we need help, and for some, there is a reluctance to be indebted to someone else. We might even wonder, “What’s the catch?”

There is no catch! Salvation is a gift that must be received by faith. And through Christ, we have been given the power to live holy lives. Eternal life or eternal damnation? It shouldn't be a hard choice.

We all serve something or someone. Notice that Paul is not presenting freedom as the absence of a master, but rather as a change of masters. Are we going to continue serving sin, which leads to death, or are we going to change course and serve God, which leads to holiness?

Understand that freedom from righteousness is basically the freedom to destroy ourselves without restraint, packaged with a pretty bow. Sin begets more sin. It is progressive, leading us further and further into bondage and producing more and more death in our lives. Sin always promises more than it can deliver and ultimately costs more than we ever intended to pay.

Paul is asking us to evaluate sin not by its immediate pleasure, but by its eventual outcome.

And then Paul makes this statement:

"But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life." (Romans 6:22 NLT)

Notice that Paul says we have already been set free from sin's power. He is not telling us to earn that freedom through righteous behavior. He is telling us to live in the freedom Christ has already provided.

As we have been discussing, this distinction is essential to understanding Romans.

We do not become righteous through our good works. We are made righteous through faith in Christ, and that new relationship should produce the fruit of holiness.

Holiness is not the price we pay for salvation; it is the fruit of a life surrendered to God.

Grace doesn't eliminate the importance of our choices. It gives us the ability to make different ones.

What’s our responsibility? We have been set free from the dominion of sin, but we must choose to walk in that freedom. God has provided everything we need to live a godly life, but He will not make those choices for us.

The question is no longer whether we have the power to live differently, but whether we are willing to yield ourselves to the One who has set us free.

Grace was never intended to make us comfortable with sin. It was given to free us from its dominion so that we could live for God.