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Oh To Be Wise Meditations
Fruit of Holiness. In Christ, we can begin to live life the way God intended from the beginning. God, praise His name forever, has a solution to the problem. He has provided a way for us to meet the standard. God made Jesus Christ, who never sinned and was perfectly holy, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right and holy before God through Him (II Corinthians 5:21). But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. That is how it is with you, my friends. You are now part of the body of Christ and are dead to the power of the Law. You are free to belong to Christ, who was raised to life so we could serve God. But the Law no longer rules over us. We are like dead people, and it cannot have any power over us. Now we can serve God in a new way by obeying his Spirit, and not in the old way by obeying the written Law. But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. Before I knew about the Law, I was alive. But as soon as I heard that command, sin came to life, and I died. The very command that was supposed to bring life to me, instead brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, He did this, so that we would do what the Law commands by obeying the Spirit instead of our own desires.
People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. So Christ died only once to take away the sins of many people. But when he comes again, it will not be to take away sin. He will come to save everyone who is waiting for him.
Meditate Romans 6:22
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