Romans 6:16-23

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.  For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Slave – no rights/required to obey/death imminent

Romans 12:1 – I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Genesis 2:17 – but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

• Welder – dollars/wages
• Waitress – dollars/wages
• Lawyer – dollars/wages
• Doctor – dollars/wages
• Farmer – dollars/wages
• Sin – Death

1 Corinthians 9:7 – Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?

• Who goes to war at his own expense?  Somebody has to pay the cost.
• While we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly! – Christ’s expense!

• E – Every
• V – Vile      
• I – Indecent
• L – Liability

• S – Selfishness
• I – Indifference
• N – Negligence

• G – God’s
• R– Riches
• A – At
• C – Christ’s
• E – Expense

He paid a debt He did not owe. I owed a debt I could not pay. I needed someone to wash my sins away. But now I sing a brand new song, Amazing Grace – all day long. Christ Jesus paid a debt I could not pay.

• Whatever you sow you shall also reap.  God’s justice is under obligation to give sinners their wages.

Galatians 6:7-8 – Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸ For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. I owed a debt I could not pay.

Hosea 10:12 – Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.

• A free gift  = eternal life
• Grace – charisma – a blessing of salvation upon sinners

1 Peter 3:4 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,