Top X June 7, 2025 Devotional
June 07, 2025
ROMANS 6:17-18, 22-23 | 17 But thanks be to God that you who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted 18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become enslaved to righteousness.
22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
True freedom involves more, however, than the political, legal, social, and economic capacity to make choices, and to exercise our individual wills. True freedom requires more than legal guarantees and the absence of controlling authoritarian regimes. This is because many of our choices lead to unfreedom and to many forms of oppression. The radical part of commandment one is the Divine insistence on sole allegiance. True freedom requires spiritual commitment, engaging partnership and submission to God’s gracious will. This may seem contradictory until you examine the moral, spiritual, and psychological struggles that come from misguided uses of human freedom.
There is a real slavery people experience in relation to drugs, alcohol, sexuality, success, power, prestige, and popularity. Genuine freedom was not achieved at the moment of the Red Sea, when the Egyptian army was vanquished. True freedom requires self-mastery, and that is impossible without God’s grace.
Have your free choices narrowed or enhanced your freedom?
Gracious God,
Show me the connection between freedom and submission, liberty and obedience. Partner with me to overcome the oppressions in my life. Amen.
