For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14
New English Translation
Did you realize that sin is a slave driver? Once you give in, it makes sure to make it as difficult as possible for you to leave it behind. Satan convinces you that you have to continue doing it, that you have to feed into the temptation because you’re not strong enough to resist. He tells you that it’s normal, everybody does it. Sometimes he even convinces you that God gave you that thing, that you’re called to fulfill it. Then, when you finally realize you’ve been had, he does everything he can to convince you that you’re too deep in it. He tells you that there is no way out. You’re too dirty for anyone to love. You’re too lost to be found. Does any of that sound familiar?
A lot of people say that the reason they don’t believe in God is because He works against them being happy. They call Him a kill-joy, a freewill squasher. However, the real freewill squasher is sin. See, everything we went through in the first paragraph is Satan’s way of stealing your freewill. He tries to take away your ability to choose to leave the livestyle that he wants you to suffer in forever. Sin robs you of your freewill.
God, however, offers you freewill plainly, no strings attached. Why is this? He created us because He wants to be with us, yet He gives us ample access to the very freewill that gives us the opportunity to leave Him. Doesn’t make much sense to us, does it?
Yet, when you take a step back, it makes far more sense. God created us because He wanted to be with us, He wanted relationships with us. But, if He forced us to stay with Him, that wouldn’t be a real relationship. That would be slavery. Satan is more than comfortable with the idea of enslaving us, he doesn’t care what happens to us. But God cares about us so much that He gives us the opportunity to choose between being with Him or doing our own thing. God wants authentic.
So, if we can choose to give into the enslavement of sin, what does that mean for our relationship with God? Let’s look a little farther into Romans.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
New English Translation
Nothing can take us away from God’s love. He’s going to love us no matter what, but that doesn’t mean that our bad choices are ok. Think of it this way, God is our Heavenly Father. A father will always love his children no matter what they do. However, when a child makes a bad choice, a good father corrects them out of love. He doesn’t change his point of view to fit what his children are doing and make them feel good. He tells them what they are doing wrong so that they have the choice to change.
In this example of a good father, does he ever stop loving his children? No. However, love does not mean approval, justification, or support of bad behaviors. Rather, love is an unconditional care for another person that causes one to make sacrifices for the better of the one you love.
But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
New English Translation
God has always loved us, even when we’ve sinned and hurt Him. He demonstrated that by sacrificing His only son. Remember, love is caring for another to the point of making a sacrifice for the better of the one you love.
God loves you so much that He has made a way for you to be made right with Him. You see, sin damages your relationship with God. It separates you from Him. Think of this way, God is the light and sin is the darkness. Light consumes the darkness. God knows that if you were to try and be in God’s presence while living in sin, He would consume you. That’s why He gave us a way of salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection. God wants us to be with Him so much that He made sure to provide you the choice of being made right with Him so that He can not only love you but have a relationship with you.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? Romans 6:15-16
New English Translation
It is important to remember that God’s grace is not a free pass to do whatever you want. When you do whatever assuming that you can come back to God and ask for forgiveness at the last minute, that’s called abusing one’s kindness. No one likes a person who does that. You can’t ride the fence between sin and salvation because there is no fence between. The fence is 100% on the line of sin. It’s either salvation or sin. If you think that you can play both fields, then you’re living entirely in sin.
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. …” Matthew 6:24
New English Translation
You can only choose to serve one person. Who are you going to choose? You either pick the slave driver called sin or the loving master called God. One robs you of your ability to choose for yourself as best as it can, and the other allows you to have freewill.
The amazing thing is that when you are fully committed to God, though He does give you ample access to freewill, that becomes unimportant to you. When you’re authentically in love with God, 100% committed to Him, you are willing to give up your freewill because you are simply in awe of Him. Someone who is truly a Christian is not consumed with what makes them happy because they know it is more important what makes God happy. That’s an easy way to spot a fake Christian. Have one conversation with them and you will know if they care more about their own plans than God’s. Someone committed to God won’t be committed to themselves.
So, now you need to think about this. Who are you committed to? Yourself (sin) or God? Are you willing to give up your “control” (which sin already confiscated anyways) to allow God to transform your life? There is no time like the present to allow God to transform you and make you more like Him. I encourage you to take some time to make yourself right with God. He wants you to come home to Him. He wants to have a relationship with you. Do you want Him?
