You are doing a fantastic job studying Romans 6, and we're making progress weekly (well, sometimes, every other week!).
Paul has addressed our death, life, reconciliation, habits of freedom, and what to do with the "occasional" sin. Now we'll learn how to not go back from where we came from (being enslaved by sin).
One of my sweet friends just cracked open the book of Exodus this week in her verse-by-verse study. What happened in the Old Testament physically we can apply spiritually in the New Testament. The story of the Israelites leaving Egypt and going into the Promised Land is a physical example of how we spiritually leave sin (Egypt) when we accept Christ and have eternal life in Him (the Promised Land).
As we continue through Romans 6, we'll talk this week about how not to go back to Egypt (sin). While our salvation is sure (John 10:28) when we choose to follow Christ, our flesh still wants to wander back to Egypt.
Like you, I am "prone to wander" (as the old hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, reads). But, how do we prevent that wandering? Let's find out from Romans 6:19-23:
I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul is talking to us: humans with mental limitations. Because Paul experienced a divine encounter with God and direct revelation from Him (Galatians 1:11-20), it had to have been difficult to explain the divine revelation that completely altered his life. So, he used a common analogy, just as Christ did when He was on the earth.
While Paul isn't condoning slavery, society in this period could relate to the concept. In New Testament times, slavery was more tied to economics than nationality or skin color. People who couldn't repay their debts or provide for their families would offer themselves as enslaved people (this is why portions of Ephesians and Colossians speak about how to treat enslaved people). I recognize and acknowledge that over the last few centuries, in many parts of the world (including our own), slavery played out significantly differently and carried horrific consequences on God's creation of people.
As we read these verses, Paul encourages us not to "offer up" ourselves to sin. He knows that the tiny fire of wickedness will not relent when it's entertained. So don't even blow on it! If we offer ourselves up to anything, it may be righteousness.
I am not in the full habit of doing this, but on many mornings I try to let my first prayer be, "Lord, I offer up this day to You to do as You desire." Whether we are consciously doing it or not, we are giving ourselves up to something in each moment. Sometimes we're giving ourselves up to frustration; other times to patience. Sometimes it's to quarreling and fussing; other times to enduring in love. Sometimes it's to the "zombie scroll" of social media; other times to reading His Word.
We are prone to wander back to Egypt, but 2 Corinthians 5:15 encourages us with this:
"And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
Live for Christ, moment by moment. You may fear and say, "I can't maintain this holiness; I will stumble." But, friend, your holiness is not yours to maintain. You are not that powerful. Holiness is Christ's work in and through You, and He promises He will do it. It is an assurance that rules, traditions, and regulations cannot bring us further or closer to our God. When Christ finished His work on the cross, He provided a perpetual shavat (Hebrew meaning of "to rest" or "cease").
His death allowed you to reap holiness. Righteousness. Fruit. He provided a fountain of living water for you, and "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness" (2 Peter 1:3). That was His word to us, and we can count on it coming to pass.
Take a moment and ask God to allow His shavat (rest) to take root in your heart more and more. Ask Him to increase your faith in these truths we've learned together today. Then, take a few moments to read a portion of the lyrics from Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and prayerfully listen to the song in worship.
Come, Thou fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount-I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
O to grace how great a debtor,
Daily I'm constrained to be.
Let Thy goodness like a fetter,
Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Amen.