Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

May 23, 2019

by Pastor Hawtree

BIBLE READING: ROMANS 6

20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

“FREE FROM RIGHTEOUSNESS”
What does this really mean? So, when we were servants to sin, which means before we were saved, we were not in bondage to righteousness. You may say, “I did not even know you could be in bondage to righteousness”. This simply means that now the Holy Spirit lives inside of you if you have been saved. This means now when we sin, it should bother us. The Holy Spirit inside of us is grieved when sin enters into our life. That’s what it means to be in bondage. It means you can run from church, run from your devotions, and run from other Christians, but you cannot run from the Holy Spirit. Once you have truly been saved by the grace of God, it does not mean we will no longer sin, but it means we can no longer sin is and feel no guilt. The Lord does not make us do anything. The Lord does not make us live a righteous life. But the Lord lives inside of us now, and He is not comfortable coexisting with sin.

Now you may think that doesn’t sound so wonderful. Maybe you are saying that that ruins all the fun you wanted to have in life. Well verse 21 deals with that. It teaches that the life you and I had when we were in bondage to sin and free from righteousness, it only produced shame and death. That does not sound so great. You see, it may agitate some Christians that the Holy Spirit will not leave them alone when they’re living a guilty distance away from God, but what is far worse than that, is to live a life far from God and feel no conviction at all. How horrible would it be if the Holy Spirit left you alone? It would probably be a sign that the Holy Spirit doesn’t live inside of you at all.

Here is my point. Before we were saved, we were in bondage to sin and free from righteousness. If you have been saved by the grace of God, you are now free from sin, and in bondage to righteousness. So, what does it mean to be in bondage? It simply means that you cannot be separated from the object that you are in bondage to. Hallelujah! How wonderful to know when I am saved I cannot be separated from the love of God.