Read: Romans 6:15-23 - STEP Bible, Bible Gateway
Well then, if we are no longer under any kind of Law – if our salvation is not won by how we behave, but rather by how Jesus behaved – shouldn’t we just stop getting concerned about sin at all?
It sounds like such a silly question when put that way, but Christians throughout the ages have asked it. It was one of the ideas St Paul wrote to the Corinthians to combat, and there have been various ‘chill out! Stop worrying about behaviour!’ movements in the church ever since.
There is a genuine tension between the freedom of a Christian on the one hand – we rely on Christ’s goodness, not ours (and that is profoundly liberating and means we must never beat ourselves up for our failures) – and the responsibility to live in ways that please God on the other. But however tense we might feel about it, Paul is concerned that we remember that what we do shapes who we are: if we act like we are controlled by sin, pretty soon we will be slaves to it; whereas if we act like we are controlled by God, pretty soon we will be slaves of righteousness.
(In any case, says Paul – we’ve all tried sin. Did it help? No. Best learn from that!)
Paul’s argument about enslavement forces us to face up to the damage our actions might be doing to our souls, and to ask ourselves this question: what are the things do we do, the ways we behave, that might be conditioning our souls to become more – rather than less – sinful?
These devotions were originally written for the parish of All Saints, Ascot and we are grateful for permission to republish them on Fulcrum.
Patrick is curate of All Saints’, Ascot in Berkshire. A musicologist by training, he is married to Lydia, a university lecturer, and dad to Madeleine. He writes (sporadically) at benedixisti.wordpress.com and tweets (even more sporadically) as @patrickgilday.