Bible Application for Reading, Teaching, or Discussion Groups

Submitted by Beebe on Sun, 10/11/2015 - 3:30pm

Refusing to Sin

Sometimes refusing to sin becomes very difficult, especially if the sin is a well-established pattern of attitude, thinking, speaking, or behavior. It feels like a kind of slavery. Romans Chapter 6 reminds us of our reality as Christians, and exhorts us to break free of the habits of sin and to replace them with the practices that are consistent with a heartfelt devotion to God.

Romans Ch. 6 Live no longer as a slave of sin, but as a “slave” of righteousness and of God.
(slave – not acting independently of something or someone)

v.1-2 Sin is not a reality that believers should persist in.

v.3-7 Being baptized into Christ’s death to sin (His separation from sin), has freed us from being slaves to sin.

v.8-11 Reckon yourselves to be like Christ who died for you—dead to sin, and alive to God.

v.12-14a Don’t let sin and its lusts reign in your life, but devote yourselves to God.

v.14b-15 Don’t use the grace of God as a license to sin.

v.16-19 We believers were once slaves to sin (not acting independently of its appetites and enticements); let us now live as slaves of righteousness (obeying its precepts and observing its boundaries).
Other Application: You are that one’s slave whom you obey (v.16).
Note: slave – “a person who is completely dominated by some influence, habit, person, etc.”¹

v.20-23 Slavery to sin ends in paying the wages of death, but slavery to God produces holiness and results in possessing the gift of eternal life.

1. Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th ed. (Cleveland, Ohio: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2008), 1347.