6/19

Romans 6:19

¹⁹I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

Paul has to address us in language we can relate to and understand. I believe he is saying that the word slaves is not perfectly fitting but still communicates the thought he wants us to understand. We presented our mind, eyes, mouth, and limbs as slaves of impurity. The more we indulged in impurity, the more we desired to serve it. Paul describes it as lawlessness, for we were eager to ignore the laws of God. We thought that in serving those things we would somehow be fulfilled, just as Eve thought when she saw that the fruit looked good to eat and would make her wise (Genesis 3:6).

In the same way that we increasingly indulged in lawlessness, looking to it to satisfy our soul and somehow fill our emptiness, so now we should increasingly surrender ourselves as slaves to righteousness. We should spend more and more time in prayer and the Word. We should be hungry to indulge in fellowship and worship. We should crave time focused on filling ourselves with the good things of God, abandoning ourselves to Him.

That increasing surrender to the will of God and His service and worship is the process by which He sanctifies us in this life. The eternal view is that the work of sanctification is accomplished because of Jesus' sacrifice, but right here and now we are working it out in our daily life. Presenting our mind, mouth, eyes, ears and limbs as slaves to righteousness is our daily participation with His work in us.

Consider: Stop right now and commit your entire being to the service and worship of God.