‘You’re living in the freedom of God.’

Romans 6:14 MSG

If you want to grow roses, you must declare war on weeds; otherwise, they will run amok in your garden. In other words, you must beware of weeds! There is a spiritual parallel at work here, and it’s this: unless you deal decisively with sin, it will take over your life. The Message paraphrases Paul’s words like this: ‘Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life – no longer captive to sin’s demands! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God.…That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time – remember, you’ve been raised from the dead! – into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God’ (vv. 6-14 MSG). So, the word for today is – say no to sin!