Slaves - of what?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Romans 5-6; Psalm 135

TO CHEW ON: "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?" Romans 6:16.

Slaves? That sounds extreme. By using the startling analogy of slavery, Paul pictures our life choices in a very either/or, black/white way. Is he saying Christians can actually still be slaves of sin?

What I understand this passage to mean is that even as people who have accepted God's gift of salvation and are legally free, it is possible to live as slaves of our old master, sin. We humans have been born with a nature to which sinning comes naturally. How easy it is, even after we've been set free, to slip back into old habit patterns of worry, envy, pride, anger, unforgiveness etc. etc., that is, patterns of sin.

Paul urges these Roman Christians to resist old reactions and instead prove that they are slaves of Christ by living in obedience to His standards of righteousness.

But, I can hear you say, slavery has a bad connotation. I don't want my life with Christ to be characterized in such a negative way.

Even Paul acknowledges the unfortunate aspect of this metaphor: "I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh..." he says. But then he goes on to extend and explain it even further: "For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness" Romans 6:19.

But Paul is not giving a mere "just do it" message. Something real happened when we gave our lives to Jesus and began living in the realm of grace. Romans 6:23 reminds us we have been "set free from sin" and have in a real sense "become slaves of God."

So let's use this slavery picture to flesh out and affirm our freedom from sin and our enslavement to the "fruit of holiness and the end, everlasting life" (Romans 6:22).  Today when we're at a decision crossroads:
- about whether to fret about the difficult thing on today's to-do list, or place it in God's hands and refuse to worry about it any more.
- about whether to eat one more helping or push back from the table.
- about whether to react to the person who cuts us off in traffic — or not.
- or about a hundred other situations
we can ask ourselves: What would a slave of Jesus do in this situation? And then choose to do it.


PRAYER: Dear God, please show me where I am a slave to sinful tendencies and am habitually making sinful choices. Help me to enslave myself to You today. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 135


The Bible Project VIDEO: Romans - Part 2 of 2 (Read Scripture Series)



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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

My destiny: God's choice or mine?

Image: Pixabay

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Romans 9:1-18

TO CHEW ON: "As it is written, 'Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated'" - Romans 9:13

"Loved"? "Hated"? Paul is here quoting the strong words of the prophet Malachi (Malachi 1:2-3). They bring up a lot of questions.

"'Loved ... hated' are not to be understood in their normal sense. They are best understood 'chose...rejected' based on the fact that God knew Jacob would better further His will," Wayne Grudem, study notes to Romans in the  New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1564).

In today's reading we bump head-on into one of the mysteries of the Bible and Christianity: If God makes everything, knows everything, is righteous and loving, how is He fair when He rejects some (like Esau), or when He creates some for destruction (like Pharaoh - Romans 9:17)?

Paul himself acknowledges the logical difficulty:

"So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”

When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? - NLT - Romans 9:18-21.

Apparently you and I don't have any choice in the matter—or do we?

When we think it through, we realize that God's appointment of our final destiny is only the ultimate in a myriad of decisions God has made about us from the decision to give us life in the first place, to which family we belong to, country we're born in, what sex we are, whether our eyes are blue or brown, our IQ low or high, and on and on. It's impossible for us as creatures to comprehend the whys and wherefores of an all-knowing, all-powerful, all righteous, and all-loving Creator. From God's viewpoint, my life is entirely planned and set, as if it had already happened (Psalm 139:15-16).

However, from my viewpoint as a creature, I have choices and the Bible also bears that out: John 7:17; Hebrews 3:7-8; Hebrews 4:7.

H. C. Thiessen, in his Lectures in Systematic Theology, describes a way of reconciling God's sovereignty and man's choice in this bit:

"Man's part and God's part seem to be brought together in John 1:12,13: "But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe in his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Man has the grace to accept Him or to reject Him. If he accepts Christ, God gives him the right to become a child of God by regenerating him; if he rejects Christ, he remains under the wrath of God. God's grace enables man to accept Christ, but it does not constrain him to do so.


"'As they went, they were cleansed' (Luke 17:14) is a principle that applies here also. As a man shows the least willingness to obey God, He gives him repentance and faith" - H. C. Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p. 231.

I personally don't spend time worrying about whether I'm one of the chosen or rejected, from God's point of view. Rather I do what is in my seeming power and ability to do. I chose to accept His salvation when I was eight years old and daily try to make the choices that confirm Him as Lord of my life.

What about you?

PRAYER: Dear God, Your ways are beyond my comprehension. Help me to daily accept and live in the grace You extend, making choices that are in line with Your will as revealed in Your word. Amen.

MORE: Calvinism vs. Arminianism

Throughout church history Christians have tended to coalesce around two opposing viewpoints regarding the sovereignty of God and the free will of man in the matter of salvation. Calvinists emphasize God's sovereignty while Arminians focus on man's freedom of choice.

"Calvinism vs. Arminianism - which view is correct?" is a brief explanation of the position of each.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Deal with anger

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 4:1-8

TO CHEW ON: "Be angry, and do not sin.
Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still." Psalm 4:4

What makes you angry? People who cut you off in traffic? People who make you wait? Rudeness? Young people? Old people? People who have different beliefs from yours in religion, in social customs, in politics?

There are probably, in each of our lives, dozens of flash points every day—places where we get rubbed against the grain and could easily erupt into anger.

Psalm 4:4 gives us one way to deal with anger [the word used here is ragas which means to tremble, quake, quiver, be agitated, perturbed, disquieted]. It is to meditate [amar: to say, speak, utter, think, command, promise] and be still [damam: be silent, still, struck dumb].

The picture is of someone who is still shaking mad at bedtime. Perhaps it's the psalmist himself. He does seem to be talking to himself here. Instead of lashing out—what he probably feels like doing—he answers his anger, thinks twice, and reasons himself into silence and stillness.

Here are some more places Bible writers speak of dealing with anger. Let's notice the actions words:

"Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret—it only causes harm" - Psalm 37:8.

"He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty
And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city" - Proverbs 16:32.

"But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath…" Colossians 3:8.

"But then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" - James 1:19.

Do you see the common thread that runs through all these verses? There's a sense that this is something over which we have control. We can rein ourselves in. We don't have to let anger run away with us and take us to that hot speech, door banging, pot throwing place. Why? As David reminds us, anger only causes harm and God has us and our situation in hand: "…put your trust in the Lord. … For You alone, O LORD make me dwell in safety" - Psalm 4:5,8.

PRAYER: Dear God, please heighten my awareness of things that anger me. Help me to rule my spirit with Your Spirit. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.