Our Rescue Should Result in Obedience because We are Becoming More Like Christ...

This week, we are looking at Paul's response to a second question that the members of a first century church asked when it comes to how followers of Jesus are to live their lives in light of God’s gracious rescue from selfishness and sin. And in the Apostle Paul’s answer to this question that we discovered the timeless truth that our rescue should result in obedience. Tuesday, we discovered that our rescue should result in obedience because we are slaves of the one we obey. Yesterday, we discovered that our rescue should result in obedience because we produce the fruit of who we follow.Paul then concludes this section of his letter by producing a third reason why our rescue should result in obedience. So let’s look at it together, beginning in Romans 6:21:

Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul begins in verse 21 by asking a rhetorical question designed to expose the foolishness of the question that they had asked: “what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed?” If Paul was asking this question in the language we use today, the question would sound something like this: “What fruit were you producing when you lived a life that was at the disposal of selfishness and sin? What fruit were you producing when you lived lives that, by your own admission, you now look at with guilt, pain and shame?” Paul then answers his question by reminding the members of the church at Rome, and us here today, that the outcome of a life that serves selfishness and sin is eternal separation from God.

Paul then explains in verse 22 that because of their rescue from the domination of the destructive and evil power of selfishness and rebellion through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; because of their response to the message of the gospel that resulted in their commitment to place Jesus Christ large and in charge of their lives as Lord and Leader; the fruit and result of that commitment is sanctification and experiencing the eternal relationship with God that they were created for. And here we see Paul provide for us a third reason why our rescue should result in obedience. And that third reason is that our rescue should result in obedience because we are becoming more like Christ. As a result of their commitment to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, they were becoming more like Christ as they lived in relationship with Christ. And because they were becoming more like Christ, even the idea of rationalizing and justifying dabbling in selfishness and sin should be decreasing.

Paul then explains the reason why the fruit of our commitment to Christ is becoming more like Christ as we experience the relationship with God that we were created for in verse 23. This verse is probably one of the more familiar verses in the entire Bible. And whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, you may have heard this verse before: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul’s point here is that what we are owed as compensation for a life that is at the disposal of that is committed to serving the evil and destructive power of selfishness and sin is eternal separation from God.

That is the bad news. The bad news is that the person who rejects that claims of Christ and the message of the gospel and instead is committed to serving selfishness and sin gets what they have earned, which is eternal separation from God in Hell. The good news is that the person who responds to God’s transformational intervention and activity in the world through Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrections for selfishness and sin by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader does not receive what they have earned. Instead they receive the forgiveness of their sin and the eternal relationship with God that they were created for.

Paul is revealing for us the reality that the fact that we have been rescued by God’s activity is not the end of God’s activity in our lives. And it is God’s ongoing and transforming activity in our lives that should result in ongoing and growing obedience to Christ. Paul responded in the strongest negative response possible to the members of the church at Rome’s question because he could one even consider how they could attempt to justify or rationalize dabbling in occasional selfishness and sin as though it is no big deal in light of the good news that God does not give you what you deserve, but instead not only rescues you from selfishness and sin, but empowers you to grow more like Him. Because, our rescue should result in obedience because we are becoming more like Christ.

So do you find yourself rationalizing and justifying occasional sin in your life as no big deal? Is your life marked by dabbling in selfishness and sin?