Monday Devotional: June 26, 2023

Bible Reading: Romans 6:15-23 (NRSVUE)

¹⁵ What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that, if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that you who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted ¹⁸ and that you, having been set free from sin, have become enslaved to righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of your limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. ²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ So what fruit did you then gain from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John Newton, writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” was converted as a slave trader. While at sea in the middle of a violent storm, he prayed for God’s mercy. The storm calmed and he reached port. Newton then began reading the Bible and avoided drinking, gambling, and profanity. In time, he realized the slave trade was evil and gave up his participation in it. He was eventually ordained a priest in the Church of England.

While explaining the concept of “grace” to the Romans, Paul posed the question: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!”

In Greek, the word for grace is charis, which means a gracious favor or benefit. The law came through Moses, and grace and truth came through Christ (see John 1:17), and this grace and truth show us that the sum and substance of the law is love.

When an expert in the law asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest, Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…. And ….’Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39, NIV).

Through reading scriptures such as this, Newton must have realized he could not continue to trade slaves. While the law of the land did not prohibit slavery, the law of love, which Jesus taught, did not allow it. How can you enslave someone whom you love? In time, Newton disavowed his association with the demonic slave trade and became an abolitionist. In appreciation for God’s grace and firmly holding to the promise that no sin is too great to be forgiven, Newton changed his life. So can we.

Prayer

Dear God, point out to me anything that makes you sad, so I may honor you with my life. In Christ’s name. Amen.

By Shirley Brosius, The Upper Room Disciplines 2023, page 221.