Living a Holy Lifestyle
Under New Management. Have you seen the sign before? Based on the sign, we can assume one big, overlying thing: changes are coming. And, too often, change is uncomfortable. So the big question is this: how do you respond to the change?
Romans 6:12-23 shows a contrast between sin and righteousness; between unrighteousness and holiness. As the book of Romans teaches us, man lived a lifestyle of unrighteousness (Rom. 1), but just as one man’s (Adam’s) trespass brought death into the world, much more would one man’s obedience bring righteousness to the world (Rom. 5:15).
Now what? Well, chapter 6 says that if we have died to sin, we no longer live in it because we have been united with Christ in death and raised to walk a new life in Him. Our lives are now under new management.
How do we respond to that change? Do we accept the change, giving our lives over to Him, or do we continue to live our lives for ourselves, living lives of unrighteousness and of personal desires?
Rom. 6:12-14 says, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
2 Corinthians 5:20 says that we are ambassadors of Christ. If we are representatives of Him, we are to act as He would. As instruments of righteousness, we are to live as ones whose lives have been saved. Let’s think in physical terms: if you were ever in a life or death situation, and somebody provided the way of escape, saving your life, how would you act? We would act by being eternally grateful to the person who did the saving.
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The last four verses of Romans 6 are great motivation. The first two verses refer to our past lives of sin “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We have been purchased by God’s grace, made free from sin to become slaves of God. So, what must we do? Live as workers for God, producing good fruits. Romans 12:1 says, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Paul tells us to live lifestyles of devotion to God. Let Christ, not sin, reign in your life. If God alone is holy, God must dwell in our lives for us to be holy and to live a holy lifestyle; a life devoted to God, a life that is SET ASIDE for God.
So, let’s live lives set aside, holy and sanctified, for Him!
