Tuesday January 17th, 2023
Meditate on: Romans 6:23GWT
« The payment for sin is death, but the gift that God freely gives is everlasting life found in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
To read: Romans 6:12-23 GOD’S WORD® Translation
12 Therefore, never let sin rule your physical body so that you obey its desires.
13 Never offer any part of your body to sin’s power. No part of your body should ever be used to do any ungodly thing. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have come back from death and are now alive. Offer all the parts of your body to God. Use them to do everything that God approves of.
14 Certainly, sin shouldn’t have power over you because you’re not controlled by God’s laws, but by God’s favor.
15 Then what is the implication? Should we sin because we are not controlled by God’s laws but by God’s favor? That’s unthinkable!
16 Don’t you know that if you offer to be someone’s slave, you must obey that master? Either your master is sin, or your master is obedience. Letting sin be your master leads to death. Letting obedience be your master leads to God’s approval.
17 You were slaves to sin. But I thank God that you have become wholeheartedly obedient to the teachings which you were given.
18 Freed from sin, you were made slaves who do what God approves of.
19 I’m speaking in a human way because of the weakness of your corrupt nature. Clearly, you once offered all the parts of your body as slaves to sexual perversion and disobedience. This led you to live disobedient lives. Now, in the same way, offer all the parts of your body as slaves that do what God approves of. This leads you to live holy lives.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from doing what God approves of.
21 What did you gain by doing those things? You’re ashamed of what you used to do because it ended in death.
22 Now you have been freed from sin and have become God’s slaves. This results in a holy life and, finally, in everlasting life.
23 The payment for sin is death, but the gift that God freely gives is everlasting life found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Understand:
« The LORD protects everyone who follows Him, but the wicked follow a road that leads to ruin. » Psalm 1 : 6 CEV
These days, sin is not considered to be as untouchable as it was when I became born again. Back then, people feared God greatly.
Now however, many Christians explain sin away.
Some will even twist facts and say “God understands.”
Whatever the circumstance, the wages of sin is still death; as a result, sinners are open to all kinds of death.
Many times Jesus healed the sick; He simply forgave their sins and asked them to rise. An example is the man Jesus healed at the pool of Bethseda (John 5:14). This man had been sick for thirty-eight years, and here was Jesus saying that if he went back into sin, then a worse predicament would come upon him.
Sin opens you up to dangerous sickness. It is too risky to be toyed with.
« The godly are rescued from trouble, and it falls on the wicked instead. » – Proverbs 11:8NLT.
When trouble or death knocks, God can use a sinner as an alternative for the righteous.
Daniel was thrown into the den of lions, but they could not eat him (Daniel 6). He was released the following day and those who threw him in were used to replace him.
« Even though they teamed up together, all crooks will be punished, but God’s people be delivered. » Proverbs 11 :21CP.
For every righteous person delivered, there will surely be a substitute.
This is why it pays to live a righteous life rather than a sinful one.
A sinner will not go unpunished, and as we read in our memory verse of today, the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
Practice: Run away from sin; it is a killer.
Author: Pst E. A. Adeboye.
Edited by Naomie
Freely you received, freely you must give (Math 10:8) , kindly share this devotion, and the Lord will bless you for it ♥
