Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

CLAIMED

September 28, 2011

We use a radar detector when driving because we know we are under the law, yet we do not want to obey the law. That's obedience out of obligation, and the detector can free us from such obedience and law.

But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.
--Romans 6:17 TNIV

Paul announces a new basis for obedience, not law-obeying, but in the grace of faith in Christ, God claims us as his own. Now, obedience springs from a new source, not obligation, not fear of the penalty of law, but out of the gratitude that comes from a life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ due to the forgiveness showered upon us...you know that "amazing grace" stuff!

Our allegiance is claimed not by obligation, but by gratitude. It creates in us the longing, the desire to obey, to be the people Christ fashioned us to be in the first place.

Joyfully,

Dale Patterson