Slaves to Righteousness

Okay, we're going to wrap up 6 after 9, this is the 9th week, so it's been good. So open up to chapter 6 if you're not already there. And I'd like to read, I'm going to read 15 all the way down through 23 this morning. What then, shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? May it never be.

Do you not know that when you present yourselves as someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. Verse 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed?

For the outcome of those things is death. But now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Okay, I want to go back a little bit as we start off our class this morning. First of all, I'd like to look at the review here of Let's see, oh, turn it on.

Review of this idea of presenting. Remember we talked about it last week and then how, and then Rachel brought up a great point of just clarification, the idea here of presenting, what's going on when we talk about that presenting. I thought it was worth, important enough for us to go back and to revisit. So 19 was talking about presenting. Let's read it again there.

So now present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification. So what we talked about last week is that the body is neutral. The body isn't in and of itself good. The body isn't in and of itself evil. The body is neutral. So what it's saying there is to present your members or present your body as slaves of righteousness.

So I thought that was really worth pointing out. So, when we look at the negative, you presented your members slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, and there were the results. We've seen this slide several different times, but there's a few adjustments to it this morning. But now, in this verse, we see present your members as slaves of righteousness, and then here's the results. There's going to be results and sanctification specifically brought out in this verse 19 here this morning.

When it talks about presenting, we need to understand again, just for clarification, that our body is neutral. The Lord is saying, through the scriptures, to present our bodies as slaves of righteousness, or to present our bodies to the life of Christ, to the new nature. We're not presenting the new nature, but we're presenting our bodies to the life of Christ, to the new nature. Therefore, as it happens, Christ will be living his life in and through us. The other option, which Christ says, through the word, don't do, would be to present our bodies as slaves of sin.

Don't be done doing that, and go this direction. Is that pretty clear? That was worth clarification from last week. Any questions about that? Yeah. As you did it before, so now, is it some kind of willingness on their part? You mean in verse 19? Yeah,

19. Was there some kind of willingness on their part to present their bodies to sin in the past? Just like you, this was your attitude towards that kind of stuff in the past? Do it this way now? Absolutely. I think so, yes.

Because he says in the first phrase there, because of the weakness of your flesh. So, last week we brought out that it appears that these folks are saved, they're believers, but they're struggling with walking in the flesh. They're already believers, yet they're struggling because of the weakness of your flesh. So because of the weakness of your flesh, you were presenting your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, which resulted in further lawlessness. So yeah, as you were doing this previously, because of the leakiness of your flesh, now let's be doing this. How is that possible?

It's by resting in the cross, by knowing of the identification truths, by reckoning on them to be so, as we talked about extensively in verse 11. Therefore, we're knowing that to be so, we're believing in those facts, we're counting on those facts to be so, and therefore, in a sense, here's the coming across of the imperative I present, here's the step, boom, this is what I want you to do. As you were doing this, because of the weakness of your flesh, be doing this, because of your position in Christ. But that's the practical step. to actually be presenting ourselves as to the life of Christ.

Does that answer your question? Any other questions? I was talking with a few folks this morning. These are wonderful truths. We've been ninth weekend of this morning, but if we don't know how to put the shoes on and walk down the road in these things, They just kind of stay in the theoretical, wonderful, fabulous positional truths. But we can't put our shoes on and walk in these things with our neighbors, with our families, with our co-workers. This is where it gets to the practical, this whole presenting.

Any thoughts? Also, the other point would be, even though the body is neutral, you're either in one of those two camps. You're not somewhere in between. That's right. You're either presenting as slaves of righteousness or presenting as slaves of security. You're in one of those two camps. That's right. Can't be in both. Can't be in between. You're walking in flesh because you presented your body as a slave of sin, or you're walking in spirit because you presented your members as slaves of righteousness. You presented your members to the life of Christ.

Now it's all done by faith. We're not talking about some effort of man independent of God. This is all done in dependence upon God. But it is our part that we need to be. I'm not going to go home this afternoon and hang out 50% in the flesh and 50% in the spirit and hope Rachel is okay with that. It's not going to work that way. It's either all in one or all in the other. Any other questions?

Again, I want to revisit 17 and 18 because I think it's going to play into verses 20 through 23. So why do we want to revisit these verses? Let's note the similarities of these with 20 and 22. So note the similarities of verses 17 and 18 with verses 20 and 22. Look at verses 17 and 18 now. Bob taught these two weeks ago now.

So, but thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. So look at what we're going to look at this morning in verses 20 through 23, specifically 20 and 22 here. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness, but now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome is eternal life.

We see a lot of very identical phrases here. And if you look at the phrase, you were slaves of sin, in verse 17, you were slaves of sin in verse 20, exact same phrase. I mean, exactly the same Greek, exactly the same words, it's identical phrase here. Having been freed from sin, again exact same phrase, exact same words. There is no change to them at all. Became slaves of righteousness and enslaved to God. Obviously different words there but very much the same idea is coming across.

I was talking to Hal on the phone this week about some different things and he said, hey, how are you looking at verses 20 through 23? So I began to give him some of my initial observations and things and we're just starting to get into really looking at it in detail. What do you think about some of these questions? What do you think it's going to wind up leading to? It was great. It was great insight and perspective into these verses. So let's walk through some of these questions. Is Paul here?

I'm talking about verses 17 and 18. We've already gone through these a couple of weeks ago, but I want to revisit them. If it's the same here, it's going to impact verses 20 through 23. So we've got to ask a few more questions about 17 and 18 than maybe we asked a couple weeks ago.

So is Paul referring here to pre-salvation or a post-salvation? What are your thoughts about that? Pre-salvation. Anybody agree post-salvation or disagree and say post-salvation? Let's walk through this. And that's the way it came across a couple of weeks ago. It was a pre-salvation, this is talking about here, and it's salvation, trust in the Lord, salvation time right there. That's how it came across. Let's just ask a few more questions. I think it's worth doing that.

So we see this phrase here, We're slaves of sin, in verses 17, it comes across as a continual action in the past, because of the imperfect tense. That's just a fact of looking at the Greek. We're slaves of sin is a continual action in the past. So, the question is, is this referring to the continual action of sin before they were saved? Before they trusted the Lord their Savior, they were continually walking in the action of sin? Or is it referring to the continual action of sin? Because once saved, they were struggling with walking in the flesh. Do we as believers struggle with the continual action of sin in our lives?

Yeah, I think so. So which is this passage referring to? That's where the question is going. Is it possible for a believer to be a slave of sin? How about that question? What do you guys think? Is it possible for a believer to be a slave of sin? Good question. Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, the sin nature. Yeah, the sin. The sin nature. Good question. Thank you. What's that? Okay, I'm going to go back and ask all the questions again.

In this one, you have to say, don't you have to say, or ask, are you talking about, I guess you can be a conditional slave to sin after you're a believer. Yes, that's right. But, essentially, once you're a believer, you're not a slave to sin. Yeah, that's exactly right, Dave. Good point. Yeah, is it conditionally possible for believers to be a slave to sin? Yeah, exactly.

And John says for those, whoever sins is a slave to sin. And in 16, we talked about four weeks ago now, if we're going to present ourselves, whoever presents himself with something, therefore he is a slave of what it is that he presents himself to. So, I'm a believer. and I'm going to walk in the flesh, therefore I'm presenting myself to sin, therefore I'm a slave to what it is I present myself to. So, yeah, it's definitely possible in my condition for me to fall into the slave of sin. Not positionally, no, we're positionally separated from the sin nature. Who is the context of Romans 6? Is it believers or unbelievers? Talk about the whole chapter of Romans 6. Ninth week here, talking to believers, talking to unbelievers. Believers, yeah. Clear. No questions about that. What does that form of teaching mean? In verse 17. Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.

Does it mean the gospel? Does it mean something else? Could it mean the identification truths of Romans chapter 6? What does that form of teaching mean? Any thoughts about that? Grace doctrine? You're just saying that as a whole? So not necessarily the gospel, not necessarily sanctification truths, not necessarily... You're just saying the whole, the doctrine as a whole. Any other thoughts? That form of doctrine, that form of teaching? I have delivered instead of committed. to that form of teaching to which you were delivered?

Is that what you have? Yeah. It seems to get a little bit of a spin on it. Yeah. Sounds like it's the previous beliefs. Okay. So how does your, which version are you reading out of? A little bit of both. I've never heard that. It's hard to make English out of that as a sentence. So it puts in there, delivered, for the word of committed. Any other thoughts? Let me throw this out.

If Paul meant the gospel, why did he not use the word gospel as he did in other parts of Romans? It's just a simple question. If you look at the bottom of that page there, he uses the word gospel a lot in the book of Romans. You know, for I am not ashamed of the gospel.

We're going to get that in another context here later on in this class. But if he was referring to this specific gospel of the form of teaching of trusting in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins, I think he would have used the word gospel. Because he uses it so many other times in the rest of the book. Numerous times. Taking the context of Romans, of chapter 6, and it's written to believers, I think that possibly a better interpretation for this would be to say that he's writing this to believers, a post-salvation point in their life.

You were slaves of sin. Even though you were saved, you were struggling in the flesh with walking in the sin nature. Therefore, conditionally a slave to sin. But you became obedient to that form of teaching. You knew of the identification truths. you understood the identification truths.

Because remember when we went through chapter 6 earlier on, chapter verse 3 down through verse 10, we talked about how these were truths that they knew. They knew these truths to be true. Therefore, in a sense, he's reminding them of these things. Don't you know this? And by the way, you do know this. Remember how we looked at that word know there several different times? knowing this, oh and by the way you do know this.

So they did understand this form of teaching. And if we wanted to look at the doctrine of grace and then get a little more specific to the specific doctrine, form of teaching of the identification, of our death, burial and resurrection with Christ, freeing us from the power of sin in our lives, define that as a form of teaching, I think that holds true to the context of being specific to Romans and chapter 6, and therefore helps to make clear sense for verse 20-23.

That's why I was looking at this thing and I was kind of doing a head-scratcher as I was looking at 20-23 because I saw look at verse 20, I'm saying, okay, for when you were slaves of sin, well that's referring right back up to verse 17, slaves of sin.

So I was kind of doing a little bit of a head-scratcher. And as I was scratching my head, that's honestly when Hal calls and says, hey, how are you looking at these things? What are you seeing in this stuff? And so it was helpful to have some way to kind of bounce these things around with. Thoughts or questions?

Does that make sense? muddy the waters, does it clarify the waters of the mountains are pretty clear this morning? I think, I don't want to take a lot of time on this, but we have to keep in mind, some of us were raised Armenian in theology, okay, in the time of Versailles. These verses have a totally different meaning to me I guess, and there are probably a lot of people who from the time they were saved have been taught the difference in position and condition. And it's a real issue when I deal with my family about verses such as this who are Armenian theology that actually, you know, these verses are verses of comfort to us. They're verses of condemnation to an Armenian person who was raised to believe he can move to salvation.

And we look at the top of my Bible saying the inner conflict. I think of it as a youth, pre-teen and teenager, reading verses like this and shuddering because I knew that I was a slave to sin. It was being taught that if I'm a slave to sin, there's something wrong with my salvation, not something wrong with my position versus condition. And I was taught that death here means you're going to go to hell. So we read verses like this comforting verses. I can't help but remember back when you asked these questions to my training as a youth in these verses.

And like I said, we have to deal with, we talked earlier before Sunday school, we have to deal with family and friends who are believers. And that's why when you said gospel, I thought, no, not gospel, because James and Calvin is hopefully the same gospel. with the training of this whole issue of positional truth. The Armenians don't have the comfort of believing in positional truth. And that's why we kept harboring last week about position and our position and our condition and then today you started asking questions and you were kind of forcing us to lump condition and position together to answer your questions and depending on what you're thinking of is a different answer to the question. I'm just saying these are very important critical verses, and especially this issue of teaching, you just have to realize that there are believers out there that, sadly to say, have been taught a totally different concept of these verses.

And it wasn't until I began looking at these in the original text that it actually started making sense to me. Which is why it's so important to look at the words and find out, like, when there's a definite article in front of sin, you're talking about the old sin nature and not why you get and then doing word studies of the verbs and looking at what the tense and mood are. Because I've been taught all these as a young person with a totally different frame of reference. It wasn't until I got older that I began to sort some of these things out.

It just amazes me, I've been studying Romans 6 now for the last 9 weeks, how this has gone from my evolution through the last 50 years. of how this has gone from a chapter that used to scare me to the bottom of my feet, to a chapter of comfort and peace.

Yeah, yes. That's great. It's great to hear how God brings it to work in our lives, especially to bring about peace and hear how people are processing God's word. I don't want to sit up here and lecture. I've taught five out of the nine weeks. I don't want to lecture on Romans for five weeks and everybody just goes, oh, that's good to know how people are interacting with the texts and interacting with the classes. That's what it's, you know.

Well, what I am, and I was talking with guys at home last Sunday, is that, you know, we read all these facts and we study others' theory. Yeah. But we haven't spent a lot of time about the practical application of those, you know, from a practical point of view. We're not going to delve into how each one of us practices these verses, but this is nice in theory and I understand the difference in position and position.

But how often do it every day when we're, like you said, with the shoes on, we have to practice. That's right, that's right. If something happens in our life, a circumstance comes in, what happens? What's the faith look like? What's the thought process in the mind of us in this class in light of the past nine weeks?

Rachel and I have batted that around a lot and we should flesh that out more. I think it would do us justice to do that. I agree. We'll put that to Hal and see if he wants to give us a week to do that or not. I think it makes more sense contextually to see the form of teaching as the identification truths, the grace doctrine, and it flows better with the rest of the chapter.

That's why I went back on these verses. Okay, so, therefore we need to adjust the chart a little bit. This is the chart I put up last week. So, 19 we had there as a conditional verse last week. 20 we had as a positional verse last week. And then 21 came down to the condition. Then 22 through 23 was back up to the position, but I think in light of what we're talking about, it makes much more sense to see 19 through 23 on the conditional side of this passage.

So I, you know, adjust this chart a little bit and go back to your notes from last week, too, and please adjust this chart in light of what we're... And so... Last week, and I thought that your block was important, but last week, the fact that some of those verses actually didn't take you Yeah, yeah. And it's true. You can take a phrase to go, sure, we talked about it this morning.

Is this positional or is it conditional? Sometimes it can be both. It's a positional truth, but God tends to be walking it in a conditional way as well. I think it's just interesting to me, if you put on your positional truth hat and read the verses, and answer the questions, and then turn your hat around and put on your traditional dress, and you'll answer totally differently. That's not wrong, I think it's just a matter of how you're looking at the particular subject. And that was my mindset when I saw your rectangle. I mean, related to historian, why aren't 17 and 18 traditional? Good question. I probably should have moved those two. The thing about, Romans 6 is that, so often times, it's referred to as, what wonderful positional truths in Romans 6.

You guys heard that? I have a lot. And that's a true statement, across the board. These are such foundational truths for growing in our relationship with the Lord, for sanctification, conformity to the image of Christ, freedom from the power of sin in our life.

This is where it has to begin. But I think also there's a conditional side of Romans chapter 6 that has to be looked at. And not that we're looking at it from a conditional point like what you're saying, where it's one of condemnation, where now I'm, boy, questioning am I losing my salvation because of all that the conditional statements of chapter 6 are saying.

But I think, boy, let's look at the positional truths that are there. Wonderful stuff. Incredible stuff. But, let's put on the conditional hat, and let's look at the conditional passages in light of the position, and see how those are also instructing us. That's looking at a healthy, balanced look at chapter 6. Okay, so now with five minutes left, we'll get to verse 20. Make it ten weeks. Okay, so verse 20.

When you are slaves in sin, you are free in regard to righteousness. Also, it said the same thing in verse 17 as we've already pointed out. Presented oneself to sin, therefore you're a slave to sin. I think that's what he's talking about in verse 17. Okay, we've established we're talking about this as a believer. So I'm going to present myself, walk in the flesh, present myself to sin, I'm going to end up being a slave to sin. So when you were slaves of sin, continual action in the past, as a believer, what was the result?

You were free. in regard to righteousness. So, is this talking about Christ's righteousness or our own righteousness? When you were slain to sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Whose righteousness is he talking about here? Exactly. We're free in regard to Christ's righteousness. Because if I'm walking, if I'm a slave of sin, whose righteousness am I walking in? Mine. I'm going to be self-righteous, I'm going to be self-righteous, I'm going to be manifesting self-righteousness because I am keeping up this law.

That's right. It's either going to be self-righteousness that I'm going to be walking in, or I'm going to be walking in Christ's righteousness. Is that what you're saying? That's right. So if I'm in the flesh, I'm free in regards to Christ's righteousness. Yeah, I think that's what he's getting at here.

So last week we said that righteousness is only found in Christ. And slaves of righteousness was defined as slaves to the character and life of Christ, because as we're walking by faith, Christ is living his life in and through us, therefore we are slaves to righteousness. That's how we defined that.

So, as a slave of sin, if I'm walking in the flesh, I'm free from that righteousness being manifested in my life. I'm not walking by faith. Christ isn't living His life in and through me, therefore I'm free to that righteousness. So free in regard to righteousness is free from Christ living His life in and through us, which means that conditionally we are free from and not walking in Christ's righteousness, making the distinction there of the condition and the position.

So, verse 21, therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. Okay, so what benefit were you then, when walking as slaves of sin, what benefit were you deriving? KJV reads, what fruit did you have then? Then, meaning when you were walking as a slave of sin. So what fruit did you have when you were walking as slaves of sin?

None. No fruit in regards to righteousness. Now, I was having the deeds of the flesh. That's going to be the manifestation of the flesh. That's what the flesh is going to be bringing forth and producing. But certainly, there is none, no fruit in regards to the righteousness of Christ. Deeds of the flesh mentioned in Galatians chapter 5.

Now, the things of which you are now ashamed. Interesting word here, this word, ashamed, used 11 times in the New Testament. Five times it's used, ashamed. Six times it's used, not ashamed. I mentioned it earlier, used in Romans 1, 16, where Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And there's lots of other times where Paul has used this word, ashamed.

So, here we're seeing that you are ashamed. We receive shame because of what we've done. It's in the passive voice. We are receiving shame. So, as we reflect back, On times when we're in the flesh, we're usually ashamed of our conduct, whether it be in word or whether it be in deed. I'm walking in the flesh, I respond to Rachel in some way that it's a deed of the flesh, it's anger or whatever might come out. It's not love. As I reflect back, boy, I'm ashamed that I did that. Now, let's make a note here of this idea of shame. It does not mean guilt. I think we need to make a distinction about that.

But it simply means that we're ashamed of what we did or what we said. Because we know that in Romans 8, chapter 1, we'll get to it probably in six, nine months down the road, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So there's not that idea of, boy, man, I was in the flesh and I responded to Rachel in this way, oh man, and I walk in condemnation, or I walk in guilt, and I beat myself up over it. No, that's not the idea, because we know that we're free in Christ, and as soon as the Holy Spirit shows us we're walking in the flesh, we can agree with God about that, and we can move on, because we're in our position in Christ. There is coming across here that the things that we did then, we were ashamed of. I haven't given much thought to the idea of shame until coming to this verse. It's mentioned 11 times. It's easy first to associate being ashamed with guilt.

I don't think that's what Paul intends here. Any other thoughts? about that, to keep that idea there in perspective. Hal, you got any thoughts on that? I was thinking that you were going to use the example of Henry when he's doing something that is not per your nature.

I don't think he feels guilt, but he's ashamed of it. of the fact that it's not of you, it's not of Rachel, and we're ashamed because it's not of Christ. Yes, yes. So how we responded, what we said, whether in word or deed, it wasn't of Christ, but it was of us. And therefore, there's simply, we're ashamed of that. And you come to that realization that that's not Him. Yes. So that's not us and Christ. So the outcome of these things is going to be death. Excellent point brought up by Larry. What's being talked about here? What kind of death are we talking about? In what sense? Loss of fellowship. Exactly right. You got it. Separation of fellowship from God and the Holy Spirit's grief.

We're not talking about loss of salvation in any sense here. But now comes to verse 22. We have this strong contrast here. This was taking place, but now let's have this be taking place. Having been freed from sin. We saw this in verse 18. An action done to us in the past by God. It's a passive voice. And a slave to God. Also in verse 18. Action done to us in the past by God. Passive voice.

We spent a lot of time talking about that. How we've been freed from sin. That's, you know, Romans chapter 6. It talks about being free from the power of sin. When Christ died, we died. When he was buried, we were buried. When he was raised to walk a newness of life, so were we. We're separated positionally from the sin nature. We have a new nature. We present ourselves to Christ, present ourselves to the life of Christ, free from the power of sin, and enslaved to God. Hopefully we're getting a bit of an understanding of that after these weeks here.

So, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification. And the KJV reads, you have your fruit unto holiness. A similar idea here came across last week in verse 19. 19 says, present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification.

So therefore, before, there was no benefit in regard to righteousness. When I'm walking as a slave to sin, there was no benefit in relation to righteousness. I was ashamed of what was going on. But now, being enslaved to God, and walking by faith in that truth, there is a benefit. Enjoying the very life of Christ, resulting in sanctification. through the Spirit is being manifested in our lives. Love and joy and peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control.

And the result is going to be that we're going to be conditionally sanctified. We talked about that a little bit last week. There's a positional aspect to sanctification and also a conditional aspect of sanctification. And as this is going on in our lives, we're going to be conditionally sanctified, being set apart to God, set apart from the world, the flesh, and Satan, and set apart unto God. Remember, sanctification means set apart from something, but unto something. It's not just this idea of being set apart with no away from, and to.

It's very specific. Set apart from this in nature, also the world and Satan, and set apart unto God. Thoughts are there? Okay. The outcome of this is going to be eternal life. Now, for believers, when does eternal life begin? Roger chuckles. Why do you chuckle? What's that? A loaded question. And you wanted me to be specific, conditional or positional? No? Okay.

Moment of salvation. Moment of salvation, that's right. And that's something that's important for us to understand. Many folks think that eternal life is going to begin once I'm with the Lord. Well, that's not the case. Eternal life began for us in Israel already in the past. Because we've put our personal faith and trust in Christ and the Lord. Okay?

So eternal life certainly has that element that, hey, there's a time in the future, we don't know when, but we're going to be with the Lord in His very presence. There's that aspect of eternal life that is there for us and we eagerly await the coming of the Lord.

The Bible talks about that. But also John chapter 17 and verse 3 says that this is eternal life, that we would know Him. That's something that's for the here and now. That we would know Him and our life with Him. So the outcome is eternal life. I think when we're looking at this verse here, that's part of the benefit. In our condition, walking by faith and dependency upon God, we're going to be conditionally sanctified and we're going to be enjoying eternal life. growing in our knowledge of the Lord, getting to know Him on a very intimate and a very personal basis in our new life with Him. Here and now. Not something that we're waiting to do in the future. And so many people are waiting for that. And that's something that God intends for us to be conformed into the image of His Son. That's something for the here and now.

The final verse for the wages of sin is death. This verse is so often presented for salvation. It's part of the Roman's road. Presented in the gospel. I'm not saying don't use it. It's a verse that I think communicates truths along those lines that are helpful. But when you're taking it a little more involved and seeing what it actually means in its context, I think it's speaking to believers.

When we're walking as believers, when we're walking in sin, it's death. A slave to the sin nature earns us what? Death, which Larry mentioned earlier, is earning us a loss of fellowship, or broken fellowship, not loss of salvation. Death always means separation, in this context, separation from fellowship with God. So as believers, the wages of sin is a loss of fellowship with God.

The free gift of God is eternal life. When walking in the Spirit, where we enjoy that eternal life, as previously defined, which began at the moment we were saved, we didn't do anything to earn it. That's why I said it's a free gift. As we're walking in the Spirit, the free gift of God is that we can enjoy eternal life. which is getting to know Christ, enjoying our relationship with Him, getting to know our new life that we have with Him.

And when is this? This is for the here and now, not something to take place in the future. All this is in Christ Jesus, or through Him. It's all possible through Christ because we have been placed into Him. That's how it's possible that we can enjoy that.

Any thoughts? Okay, let's pray. Lord, thank you for this morning, thanks for our time, and thanks for your Holy Spirit who, we're just very thankful that you've said will lead us and guide us into all truth, and will bring these things to our remembrance. And Lord, we pray, as was mentioned, that there's opportunities that we have to share with people. whether it's Larry with his family and Lindsay with her roommates. I know that all of us have people that we come in contact with that we can share your truths with. And so thankful that as we're walking by faith in you and we're trusting you because we know that you're living your life in and through us, that your Holy Spirit's going to bring these things to our remembrance and not only teach us, but we can share them with others. So just thank you for that, the work you're doing in our lives and also being able to be a light to others that are around us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.