Trading Up

Romans 6:1-23

Do you know what it’s like to look back on part of your life and be ashamed of the things you used to do? As I reflect on my life as a middle school and high school student, sometimes it’s hard for me to admit that person was me. It’s not the same kind of shame Paul is describing here, but, for me, it’s a fairly good picture. I think back to the way I related to people, the stress and anxiety I felt, and I shudder. It’s embarrassing. And it’s incredible that Jesus took that broken little kid, worked to put him together again, and brought him to this place.

Paul says that, as believers in Jesus Christ, our identity is distinctly different now than it was before we trusted Jesus. So much so, that as we look back at what characterized our lives, what we were living for, and what we did, we’ll be ashamed that it was all leading to destruction. But now, through faith in Jesus, we are freed from the power of sin and can be slaves of God, rather than slaves of sin.

In verse 23, Paul says the wages – the just payment for our sin - is death. However, he declares, the gift is eternal life. It’s an incredible truth that the debt we owed was paid by Jesus on the Cross for us. We are not only acquitted of our wrong-doing, but Christ’s perfection and goodness is credited to us, as we trust in Him as our Savior. The wages is death, but the gift is life.

In Jesus, by God's grace, received through faith, we are no longer slaves to sin but are slaves to God. We have a new Master, who changes our way of life. Before our life was destined for doom and destruction. But now, by the power and redemption of God in us, the life we live leads to eternity with God.