"Under Grace... Set Free from Sin."

May we have the grace to let go of what is holding us back from living into our true selves.  May we cease to confuse means with ends.  May we gather with open hearts around the narrative of Christ Jesus, be nourished and inspired to make the world a little more just, a little more kind, and a little more loving.


Romans 6:15-19
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.^* For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.


1) "...By no means;" "...obedience... leads to righteousness;" "...thanks be to God;" "...obedient from the heart;" "...having been set free from sin;" "...slaves of righteousness;" "...I am speaking in human terms;" "...slaves to righteousness for sanctification."


2) "by no means" again.  I wonder if it might have been helpful if Paul had asserted "I am speaking in human terms," more often as well.  Are we "obedient from the heart?"  I'm not always convinced.  Does Paul give enough credit to our "natural limitations" in this passage, or is he trying to be encouraging?  What does it look like to be slaves to "right relationship?"  Sounds like an oxymoron to me... that's the result of our "human terms."  Slave by definition is NOT a  right relationship.  But how can we serve right relationship, rather than Sin?  We should not seek sin, but should seek to serve right relationship.  Obedience is a hard word in our context.  I hear "acceptance," "responsibility," "accountability," "integrity,"  and something about "personal authority" in the notion of "obedience."  Choosing to follow Christ into right relationship, rather than being self-serving and continuing to choose according to the self important ways of the world.


3) What is the invitation in all this?  To want to serve what is right.  To want to live into right relationship.  To want to want to live into right relationship.  To want to let go of the benefits that self interest has brought us.


"Holy One, help us to find obedience in our hearts to the right things."


Breathprayer: "Under grace... set free from sin."