Morning Musing: Romans 6:21-22

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“So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life!” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When Dr. Phil was doing his regular, daytime talk show, one of the lines he became famous for was a simple question: How’s that working for you? People would come to him with complaints about their lives, and he would lead them to tell him about the things they were doing. What were their patterns? What kind of choices were they making? Then he would ask his question: How’s that working for you? His point was that the outcomes we experience in life are the result of the choices we make. The path we are walking determines the destination to which we are heading. Paul would seem to agree. Let’s look at what he says next.

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Morning Musing: Romans 6:20

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“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the truth claims of the Christian worldview is that God is the only source of goodness in the universe. Everything that is good comes from God. Apart from Him, there is only evil. Moral evil is any word, thought, or action that does not flow out of the character of God. This idea can lead to confusion when we set it against our own experience of meeting and interacting with people from other religions or even unbelievers who seem to us to be not only good people, but people who share many of our moral convictions. Or, to put that another way, should all non-Christians be insufferable jerks? Of course not! Paul here gives us a reason why.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 6:19

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“I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Welcome back! I know there was a post yesterday, but I wrote that one almost two weeks ago. Today we’re back to our normal, day-of-posting writing. It was a good week away, but I’m glad to be back with you digging into the Scriptures together. Trying to get our minds around what it looks like to live the new life in Christ isn’t easy. What Paul offers here is a bit of an explanation. It’s about not doing one thing, and committing ourselves actively to do another. Let’s explore what he has to say as we continue our Romans journey today.

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Practicing for the Real Thing

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Growing is hard. Sometimes it hurts. It means things won’t or even can’t be the same as they were before. But growing is also necessary. Things that aren’t growing are slowly dying. This is true about our bodies. It’s true about organizations. It’s true about the church. When the church is growing, we often experience growing pains. This week and next we are talking about a couple of key foundation points that can help us navigate those challenges should they come.

Practicing for the Real Thing

Do you remember having growing pains when you were a kid? Those were awful. I remember weeks when my legs would just hurt. I hadn’t done anything. There was nothing that I could do to stop it. It didn’t really keep me from doing anything. But they hurt. I’m not sure about a precise medical reason for growing pains, but I can offer a layman’s explanation that seems to make a lot of sense. When you are getting taller, everything has to stretch. Skin gets pulled tighter as it expands. Bones get longer. Blood vessels are lengthening to match. Lung capacity is expanding to push oxygen to all the new boundaries of your body. Everything is getting yanked and pulled and stretched out. I don’t know about you, but I feel that kind of discomfort when I try to touch my toes. Now, imagine a period of several months where your whole body is doing that whether you want it to or not. But instead of the stretch ending after a few seconds, it just keeps going. 

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The Reason Why

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It all comes down to this. The whole of the Christian faith hangs on a single peg: the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Today, as we celebrate our risen Savior and wrap up our series, All Signs Point to Jesus, we are talking about the resurrection, what it means, and why it matters so much. Let’s dive right in!

The Reason Why

When you live in a houseful of boys (including the turtle), you build stuff. It’s just what you do. I’ve long since lost count of the number of Lego sets that have been built in my house, but that is far from the only construction medium our boys have used. We went through a season when they were really into Keva blocks. The name sounds fancy, but they’re basically over-sized Jenga blocks that you can use to build all sorts of things. Because of their shape and size, though, while you can build some pretty elaborate creations, most of them wind up sitting on a really tiny foundation point. In fact, for most of the coolest things we built, there was usually a single block or maybe two that was holding up the whole thing. If you were to take out that one point, the whole structure would noisily collapse in a great heap. Well, while Christianity is a bit sturdier of a structure than anything we ever built with Keva blocks, it nonetheless rests on a single foundation point. This morning, I want to talk with you about what that is and why it matters. 

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