Happy Friday to all!  I want you to know that I worked hard on that alliteration in the naming of today’s message…  Today we’re wrapping up chapter 6 of Romans.  It has been very impactful to me personally, and my hope, prayer, and eager expectation is that it will be an encouragement and means of growth for your own faith.

Romans 6:20-23 – “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I love this section of scripture.  Many people are familiar with Romans 6:23, that the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Many would think that out of the four verses we’re covering today, that would be my focus, but it’s not.  That verse is the bow on the top of the real present to us – a message from God that includes an explanation of who we were, the futility of sin, and who we are now in Christ. 

Every person is born a sinner.  It’s not simply that they sin, it’s a condition – it is who they are.  In Genesis 6:5 we see a vivid explanation of the natural condition of man – “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  That condition was not simply true of that generation, but is true of every one of us from birth.  We are given a very similar description in the New Testament in Ephesians 2:1-4 – “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

How great a need we have of a savior!  Sometimes I wonder if the reason that we see so little joy in salvation from Christians, is that they forget how desperate their condition apart from Christ truly is.  It’s not simply that we do bad from time to time and sin… that’s what we convince ourselves into believing, but the truth of God paints a far darker, more bleak picture.  We do not simply sin every once in a while, we are sinners with every thought and breath and inclination of our heart.  Sin permeates our being thoroughly.  Not only do we sin, we are enslaved to sin.  We pursue it with our lives, thereby submitting ourselves to the prince of the power of the air, satan, as well.  Once enslaved, which we are from birth, there is no hope for freedom. 

The irony is that in such a bleak situation, sinners are actually convinced that their sin is good.  We convince ourselves that they way to happiness is through sinning more and more.  Back in Romans 1:24-25 where it says “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”  (bolded by me for emphasis), the “lie” is that we can find joy pursuing our own sinful desires, instead of worshipping God, where true joy is found.  Just before that, God calls these people “fools”.  I agree, but sadly each of us has been foolish in this way.