Who Are You Surrendered To?
One of the most amazing things about the Word of God is that you can read it year after year, and each time you read it, you get something new. It is truly a living document that continues to expand in our hearts. The other good thing about this present age is that we can look at different versions of the Bible. In times past, Bible scholars had to be well versed in the Hebrew and Greek to be able to rightly understand certain texts – and it was a privilege that the common man did not have access to. In this age, we have access to multiple translations where scholars have spend countless years studying over ancient texts and translated them into easily digested passages.
The book of Romans is a familiar book, for in it are the salvation scriptures we often quote to bring people to Christ. This year I have been reading The Passion Translation and I was able to take a new look at some scriptures I have read for years. While reading Romans 6, I came upon this:
14 Remember this: sin will not conquer you, for God already has! You are not governed by law but governed by the reign of the grace of God.
15 What are we to do, then? Should we sin to our hearts’ content since there’s no law to condemn us anymore? What a terrible thought! 16 Don’t you realize that grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully, for you surrender yourself to become a servant—bound to the one you choose to obey. If you choose to love sin, it will become your master, and it will own you and reward you with death. But if you choose to love and obey God, he will lead you into perfect righteousness.Romans 6:14-16 (TPT)
This sets a whole new stage! Reading the words, "grace frees you to choose your own", turns the light on to a common argument about sin and right living. Grace gives us the right to choose our own master! While this should be no revelation, the wording puts it out there so clear – the devil can’t make you do it – you choose because of the grace of God that is on your life! I love how it then says, "choose carefully", for you become a servant to the "one you choose to obey". For those of us who have slavery in our history, this should really be a red light!. Why would we knowingly enslave ourselves to that which is evil? Why would we having been set free, put ourselves back into a bondage that can only lead to death? Yet, that is what we do when we choose to surrender ourselves to sin!
What love is this that gives us the opportunity to determine what kind of life we want to live, even if that life is in opposition to everything that the giver of that life stands for? Who willingly frees a servant to serve another master? And then gives that servant all the air to breathe and the resources to carry out their every whim?
What kind of God is this, what kind of grace is this that has the whole world in HIs Hands and yet only wants us to surrender to His love, that He might abundantly pour upon us more love, more peace, more. joy, more righteousness, even unto everlasting life?
Maria