Romans 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
Life is about choices and change. The old saying that change is the one constant in life has a ring of truth. But there are other unchangeables in life as well. As humans, the choices we make have consequences. That is also true, unchangeably true.
There has been a lot of talk in society about the causes of cultural difficulties, there there has been precious little talk of personal responsibility. There are some choices that groups of people have made in response to the choices that the government has made that gravely affect the welfare of segments of our population. Welfare has created and incentivized the opportunity for single mother parenting that has devastated segments of our people. Baby daddies are now the norm.
Each day we make choices that can have longterm consequences in our lives. Select this career, take this job, marry this person, have a child, go on that vacation, buy this car. The consequences may not be great in the moment, but they do have ripple effects. Take the money from the vacation and invest it for 40 years. It grows!
Our spiritual choices make a difference. When we become Jesus-followers, we choose to not do certain things and do certain other things. We learn what God expects of us, and we choose to pick up those expectations and live them out. These are our choices.
There has been an exchange in our lives; we have chosen to give up the tyranny of sin’s ownership of us and become God’s slaves. God is a loving, caring Master, unlike sin, whose one job is to continue to enslave us, spiraling us into every greater sin and rebellion. But the goal of God’s rule over our lives is holiness and eternal life.
These very different outcomes are tied to two very different choices. Both require us to become someone’s slave. To think that sin is freedom is a deception of grave proportions. In the moment it may seem that sin is freedom, we are after all getting to do what we want. Or at least that is what we convince ourselves in the moment.
But choosing sin is really yielding to an urge that we don’t often even identify, let alone recognize in the moment. That urge calls our name and moves deep within us. Sin pushes those human urges beyond healthy boundaries because of the pleasure factor. Endorphins are a powerful, God-given, natural substance that make us feel good, produced by the brain during pleasurable activities.
But when seeking the endorphins becomes the end in life, then it is out of bounds. When other important things fall to the side in this pursuit, then sin happens. And the result is the rejection of life, eternal life, and all that is really important.
So the choices we make today do help shape our tomorrow. The outcomes of sin and holiness are very different, and we get the privilege of participating with the Creator in this endeavor. He asks us to make choices that lead to life and not to death. He wants uninhibited relationship with the crown of His creation. That is us!
So obedience leads to life, it doesn’t earn life. Only Jesus life, death and resurrection can do that. But we are invited to participate in this life with Him. And the choices we make after beginning that life with Him determine the quality of our life for all eternity. So, we had better be conscious of this fact as we make our choices.
The Arnold Journey 