February 1: The Gift That Changes Everything
Scripture
“I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
-Romans 6:19-23 NLT
In Romans 6, Paul speaks with clarity about who we were and who we now are in Christ. He reminds us that every one of us once lived under the power of sin, offering our lives to patterns that led further and further away from God. Paul doesn’t minimize sin or soften its effects. He is honest. That old way of life wasn’t neutral, it was destructive. Even when our sin seemed small or manageable, it still carried us toward death. And it still required a Savior.
Paul then asks a sobering question: what benefit did you gain from those things you are now ashamed of? It is a question meant to wake us up, not shame us. Sin always promises freedom, but it never delivers. What once felt liberating eventually becomes burdensome. What once seemed harmless eventually leads to regret. Paul wants believers to see clearly that the path they were on had an end, and that end was death.
But then comes the turning point. “But now.” These may be two of the most hopeful words in Scripture. But now you have been set free from sin. But now you belong to God. Freedom in Christ is not just freedom from something, it is freedom for something. We are freed from sin so that we can live lives shaped by righteousness, lives that grow toward holiness. This is not about earning God’s love, but about responding to it. Grace doesn’t leave us unchanged, it invites us into a new way of living.
Paul closes with words we all know well: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” A wage is something we earn. A gift is something we receive. Jesus paid the wage we deserved so that we could receive a gift we could never earn. That gift calls for a response. As Bob Dylan once put it, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody.” The question is not if we will serve, but who or what. Having received the gift of life, may we choose each day to live for the One who gave Himself for us.
Reflection
1. When you look back on your life before Christ, what do you recognize now about where that path was ultimately leading?
2. In what area of your life might God be inviting you to leave old patterns behind and live more fully in the freedom He has given you?
3. As you consider your daily choices and habits, where do you see evidence that you are living in response to God’s grace, and where might He be calling you to realign your life more fully with Him?
Prayer
Thank God for the gift of eternal life that has been freely given to you through Jesus. Acknowledge areas where old patterns or loyalties still try to pull you back, and ask for the grace to live fully for Him. Pray for a heart that desires holiness, not out of obligation, but as a response to God’s love and grace.