I've
been reading Leviticus, and I asked God what the purpose of the book
was, cause far as I've read through it, it's just repeating the same,
long, descriptions of how to sacrifice things, which is useless to us
these days right? Well then He told me that it's to show His character,
how strict He is. That's what I was going to write a blog about, and
when I was writing it that lead me to Romans 6, and then while reading
through there to see what verse to use, I read 15-18, which is:
15 What then? Shall we sin because we
are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16
Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient
slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to
sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to
righteousness? 17 But
thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have
come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now
claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
And
that showed me a great way to describe it: we are either slaves to sin,
or slaves to obedience and righteousness. Notice Paul doesn't say we're
"friends" or "buddies" to righteousness...we're slaves to it. In Bible
times, slaves were actually mostly anybody who couldn't pay off their
debt, so they sold themselves into slavery(OHMYGOSH look at that! We
can't pay off our debt, so we become SLAVES to righteousness! We can't
pay off our sin, so we become slaves to the one who can save us, Jesus!
oooooooooooooooo!) so slaves weren't the same as slaves how we think of
them today. They probably weren't treated nearly as poorly as we think
of it. It was actually more of just a job that you had to do and didn't
get money for it.
So anyhow, back to my
point, since that's what slaves were like back then, it's not a bad
thing to be slaves to righteousness. And like I said we aren't buddies
with righteousness, righteousness has rules for us, work for us, etc.
and if we're slaves to it, then we need to do what it says. If we don't,
then I think it's clear we're not slaves to it. Sin lets you do
whatever you want, and in the end takes everything you have,
righteousness on the other hand requires things of you in this life,
then later on pays you back with your freedom and so much more.
People,
"Christians" don't realize what being a slave to righteousness means.
They're still slaves to sin, because they're not obeying righteousness.
God is still that strict judge He was back in Leviticus, He never
changes! Just cause Jesus died for us and now we don't have to do
sacrifices and etc., God is still strict about His rules for living. And
if we're going to be slaves to Him, we
must obey His rules. Why do people think that you can FOLLOW and OBEY God when you aren't actually FOLLOWING AND OBEYING HIM???? There's a reason it's called following and obeying Him! Guess what it is! FOLLOWING AND OBEYING HIM!!!
What
do people think, that they can go to church on sunday and pray every
day and read their bible every day and say they're following Him and all
that crap, when really they aren't being SLAVES to Him!? You can't
follow and obey God unless you're dying DAILY to yourself, being ready
to die DAILY, for Him. God has rules - clear, rules that He has stated
in His word. Anybody who has slaves has rules for them - same with God.
Only difference is that God will let his slaves go if they want to, but
they'll just end up being slaves to sin if they aren't slaves to
Him. We gotta be SLAVES and follow the rules that God set down for His
slaves to follow.
