Life in grace

DEVOTION

ROMANS

LIFE IN GRACE

Rom 6:5-14

5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

NIV

It boils down to either being under the law or under grace. It might be that Paul is discussing the law which was handed down through Moses, but that law was expanded to such a degree it was more than the law. The Pharisees had made so many rules and regulations out of the law it didn’t even resemble the law God gave to Moses. Nevertheless as believers in Christ we are not under that law, but under grace. However being under grace does not mean we can do anything we want. Just as Christ died, our old self has died. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, we have been raised from the dead. Now we are a new person, a new creation brought about by death and resurrection into a new life in Christ. Sin is not our master, Jesus is. Yet it seems we people, we believers just need to have rules to live by. Over the years the rules change and that should raise a red flag. Forty years ago, we were given rules about no smoking, no drinking, no movies, no dancing, no rolling rinks, no mixed bathing, no cussing or swearing, no laughing, no fun. Well maybe the last two we added to make a point. The rules were all about the “No’s” and not anything about the “Yes’s”. We were a clustered community of “Us four and no more” attitude. It was all about coming out from the world, being separate. It is not that we are not different than those of the world, but we cannot live by rules and regulations which are our form the law, when we are under grace. True we should not offer our bodies to sin, and we live a life that is different than others. The rules have changed now to some other form of faith. Some still insist they have never been to the movies, but they watch television which has movies. Some insist they follow the no smoking and drinking rule, but overeat becoming a glutton. What is this rule thing all about? Aren’t we dead to sin? Are we not alive in Christ? Was Jesus all about following the rules? Do the gospels record all the law that he kept? What we find in the gospels is Jesus living among the people teaching them about grace, healing them, bringing them life instead of death. He taught the people about God, and his love for them. He rebuked the false or fake religion of the Pharisees. He pointed out the hypocrisy of their rule following, but refusing to see him for who he is, who the very scriptures they were so proud about knowing, pointed right to Jesus. We have to be careful about the same thing. It is possible we can get so catch up in the intellectual side of scripture we lose sight of the grace of God. We can spend too much time dissecting each word, each sentence, each parable or prophecy that we lose sight of the message God is speaking to us about his grace. We try so hard to find all the rules, all the what we should be doing, how we should be living we forget to see what Jesus said about the greatest of all commands that all the law, rules, and all the prophets are wrapped up in. Love the Lord our God with all our heart, our mind, our spirit and our strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. If we did just that we would not have to worry about any rules and regulations set up by people, or a denomination. If we could just live under grace and love God and love people we would do just fine. It is not about the don’ts. But about the do’s. That is a life in grace.