Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | July 25, 2011

“you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching”

Today’s devotion comes from Romans 6:15-23.
 
“15  What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
 
16  Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
 
17  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,
 
18  and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
 
19  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.
                               

20  For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

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.

22  But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

23  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:15-23. 

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It is easy to slip back into being under the law.  When we read:  “you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness”, it is easy to only trust our knowledge of the law and our willpower to obey the law as the only way to produce that “obedience resulting in righteousness”.

But, we worked too hard to learn, remember, and trust that we “are not under law but under grace.”  Romans 6:14.  We will not fall back.  Rather, through God’s grace, we became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which we were committed.

What was “that form of teaching”?

That form of teaching was the doctrines of grace a/k/a the Five Points of Calvinism a/k/a The Canons of Dordt a/k/a “TULIP”.  “TULIP” emphasizes and embraces the sovereignty of God in salvation. 

For example, when we truly believe “Irresistible Grace”, the “I” of “TULIP”, we believe and eagerly embrace that we are “slaves of righteousness”.  We believe and eagerly embrace that “we are enslaved to God”.  Through God’s grace, we present our members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.    

When we truly believe the doctrines of grace a/k/a the Five Points of Calvinism a/k/a The Canons of Dordt a/k/a “TULIP”, we believe and eagerly embrace that “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

On the other hand, if we still cling to Arminianism, we only trust our alleged “free will” to produce that “obedience resulting in righteousness”.  We don’t really believe that we are a “slave of righteousness”;  after all, we have “free will”.  We don’t really believe that we are “enslaved to God””;  after all, we have “free will”.  We believe that we can resist grace.  We believe that we can fall from grace.  In summary, we don’t really believe that eternal life is a free gift of God;  after all, we earned some credit through either our “free will” obedience or at least our “free will” faith, until the very end.  

But thanks be to God, you became obedient from the heart to the doctrines of grace a/k/a the Five Points of Calvinism a/k/a The Canons of Dordt a/k/a “TULIP”.

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