Daily Scripture Reading Romans 6:19 - 7:13

A frequent criticism of Christianity is that our religion is just a bunch of dos and don’ts that take the fun out of life. In response, many Christians have downplayed our rules, in an effort to make Christianity more palatable to non-Christians. As a result, today many people don’t see any difference between the lifestyle of Christians and non-Christians.

Today’s passage will teach us that we should not shy away from observing and teaching the moral standards of Christianity. Part of becoming a Christian is making a change in our loyalties and behavior.

In chapter 6 Paul wrote that since Jesus conquered death, Christians are dead to sin. Therefore, we should not let sin rein in our lives or present our bodies as slaves to sin. Instead, we are slaves of righteousness.

Rom. 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

Look at the switch that this verse demands. Before salvation, people are slaves to impurity and lawlessness. After salvation, Christians are slaves to righteousness. This is a demand that Christians live differently than they lived before salvation.

One of the problems we have in the modern church is that many people outside the church look at Christianity, and they don’t see any difference between the church and the world. Sex outside of marriage, divorce, remarriage, pornography, greed, dishonesty, and other sins are almost as prevalent in the church as they are outside the church. Some Christians, or so-called Christians, consume just as much immoral, secular entertainment as non-Christians.

One cause of this is the world has relentlessly criticized Christianity for being a bunch of dos and don’ts. The church has put so much effort into downplaying its rules in order to dispel that notion, that now too many people inside the church ignore the rules of Christianity. There is nothing wrong with trying to persuade people that Christianity is more than just a bunch of rules that prevent fun, but at the same time we can’t ignore the rules because God wants obedience. Christians must live differently than the world.

Rom. 6:20 ¶ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

The world accuses Christianity of having a bunch of rules that enslave people and prevent fun. However, the world is not free. They are slaves to sin.

Rom. 6:21 Therefore what benefit were you then having from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

Rom. 6:22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit, leading to sanctification, and the end, eternal life.

The world thinks they are free from the rules of Christianity, but they are not free, they are enslaved to sin, and that results in death. Christians are free from sin and slaves of God, and that results in eternal life.

Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Some Christians try to evangelize by only talking about positive things. Thus, they do not talk about hell. However, the concept in Romans 6:23 must be part of our evangelistic efforts. Every person is a sinner and deserves eternal death. They will go to hell unless they accept from God the gift of eternal life.

Rom. 7:1 ¶ Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is master over a person as long as he lives?

Rom. 7:2 For the married woman has been bound by law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

Rom. 7:3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

Rom. 7:4 ¶ So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

Rom. 7:5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

Rom. 7:6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

Think about the contrast in this verse between serving in “newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter”. The Mosaic Law required a very strict and regimented life. It was specific about what was right and wrong in regards to being clean, eating food, washing hands, and presenting gifts to God. The New Testament, on the other hand, while it contains some specific rules, more often requires broad principles such as love God, love your neighbor, be sexually pure, don’t conform to the world, and do to others as you would have them do to you.

Rom. 7:7 ¶ What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! Rather, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law. For I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”

The contrast between the newness of the Spirit and the oldness of the Law does not mean the law was bad. The Law was a teacher.

Rom. 7:8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the Law sin is dead.

Rom. 7:9 Now I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died;

Rom. 7:10 and this commandment, which was to lead to life, was found to lead to death for me.

Rom. 7:11 For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

Rom. 7:12 So, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Rom. 7:13 ¶ Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by working out my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

One of the problems we have in the modern church is that many people outside the church look at Christianity, and they don’t see any difference between the church and the world. One cause of this is the church has put so much effort into downplaying its rules in order to dispel the notion that Christianity is just a bunch of dos and don’ts, that now too many people inside the church ignore the rules of Christianity. There is nothing wrong with trying to persuade people that Christianity is more than just a bunch of rules that prevent fun, but at the same time we can’t ignore the rules because God wants obedience. Christians must live differently than the world.

What are some ways that modern Christians have adopted the values, priorities, and behaviors of the world?

What do Christians need to start doing so that the world recognizes that we are free from sin and slaves of righteousness?

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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”