June 18

Freed

But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. Romans 6:17 (NKJV)

Sin is no friend to anyone. It always takes more than it gives. It never leaves a person better off. It’s like saltwater to someone who is dying of thirst—it may seem pleasing at first, but really it’s dehydrating and destroying him.

Think about your own life. Consider the damage sin did to you. What may have seemed like fun at first wound up shrinking your soul. After a while, you realized sin was getting more out of you than you were getting out of it, and it was leaving you worse off than what you were. Sin seemed friendly at first, but you came to see it was really the cruelest of enemies.

To make matters worse, we were powerless against it. We may have been le to suppress certain sinful behaviors for a season, or replace them with others. But at the end of the day, we were mastered by our thirst for sin, and we drank the saltwater.

With that understanding of sin in mind, look at what we’re told in the Book of Romans: “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.”

What’s this saying? It’s telling us that in our powerlessness against sin, God stepped in and did something that we need to be thankful for. He set us free from sin’s dominance over our lives by delivering His doctrine (or truth) to us. His truth, His gospel, created a fresh spring of living water inside us, satisfying the deepest thirst of our soul.

Without this “But God” we’d still be stuck in a state of enslavement to sin. “But God” broke in and broke sin’s power over us. He set us free by His truth, and He has given us something so much more satisfying!

“He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38 NKJV)

Think About It…
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?

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