5. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello Everyone:

It’s Mother’s Day week at the spa and it is very busy for us but I managed to get away for a sec so I thought I would post today.  Sorry about yesterday, but I warned you early on… lol..

Our text for today is as follows:

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey–whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of ? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In today’s text, Paul comments again on the danger of taking advantage of grace because we are no longer under the law.

Paul uses the analogy of a slave to their master.   He states that  when you offer yourself to someone to obey him as slaves then if that master is sin, you will be a slave to sin which leads to death but if that master is obedience then it will lead to righteousness.

Paul makes a powerful statement here comparing the lifestyle of sin and holiness.  He says that when we were slaves to sin, what benefits did we reap from the things that we no longer do but are now ashamed of?  Wow.   The point that Paul is making is that there is absolutely no benefit to sin.  NONE.   As a matter, it is from this context that a well quoted scripture in the life of the church has its origin.  That scripture is how Paul closes out this chapter by saying that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This scripture has its development in the context of Paul warning believers that grace should not be taken advantage of. 

Now, on the other hand,   I think we all can testify about the gift of living holy.  Not only are there earthly benefits but it leads to eternal life.      We have to ask ourselves knowing what the outcomes are for sin and righteousness, why do we often choose to live in sin even if it’s just for a season.  That one incident can have consequences that can last a lifetime and even beyond to another generation.

Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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3. May 2011 by Bernice Davis.

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Welcome back from the weekend.   For those of you that follow me, you know I own a Day Spa and this is Mother’s Day week so I was really busy yesterday and was not able to post.  I actually will be busy all week but I’ll try to do my posts in advance at night so we can continue our study.  Today is my off day so this has been my first opportunity to get to the computer.

Our lessons thus far have been on the grace given; not through works or the law but as a gift from God.  Because of this grace, God has declared us righteous before him through the completed work of the cross and our responsibility is to accept that grace by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior and accepting God’s word as our standard of living.

With the grace message, always comes the abuse of grace issue and Paul opens up chapter six with dealing with this problem.

Here is our text:

Romans 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin– 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.Paul encourages us that we no longer have to let sin reigned in our mortal body.  We have the power to walk away and to say No.  Paul also teaches us that when we were baptized into Christ, we were also baptized into his death.   Just as Christ was raised from the dead we too are raised from baptism into a new life.  We are to embrace the wonderful life that Christ died that we may have.  That life is filled with joy, peace, contentment, happiness, and abundance.    Jesus stated that he came to give us life and that more abundantly…   While this relationship does not exclude us from pain and suffering it does guarantee peace while we’re going through and hope.  In one of our lessons last week, Paul said that we should rejoice in suffering because it builds character and hope and Hope in God does not disappoint.

He closes this passage by saying that we are to offer our bodies to Christ as an instrument of righteousness.     Wow, I love the way that sounds…   “an instrument of righteousness.”  Yes, God, that’s what I want to be; “an instrument of righteousness.”

Stay encouraged everyone and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

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