Jimbo's Jots

Picking up where we left off in Romans! We are now in Romans 6. As I was looking at this verse, it reminded me of a post a ministry friend posted on his Facebook wall regarding parenting. In short, parenting breaks down like this: 0-5 years old – “I say, you do”, 5-12 years old – “I say, you do but I’ll explain why”, 12-18 years old – “I say, we can discuss and disagree but when it all comes down, I still have the final say”, and 19+ years old – “You get to choose. I hope you’ll ask my advice…but you make your own choices.”

I think chapter 6 in Romans is like this. Paul is trying to get the church there in Rome to understand what it’s like to follow God. The law given is to Moses and Israel is similar to being 0-5 years old. It was meant to tell us how to live. The prophets were sent in to let God’s people know the why we live this way. In the next stage of faith, we are encouraged to study to grow and discuss faith, God is still God and He still has final say. Then, God sends His Spirit to guide us through our life choices.

Romans 6 then is an anthem of challenging us to life for Christ, to give up our “childishness” of faith and begin to understand that we can’t live how we want. We can’t continue to not live by the rules. We can’t continue to do what we want just because we can. Paul says, because you have chosen to follow Christ, you are participants in his death and resurrection. Therefore, you don’t live for yourself, but you live for Christ.

As parents, we want this for our children. We want assurance to know our teachings when they are young will carry over in to positive life choices later in life. We want assurance to know the choices they make later in life is not just because we told them. We want them to see it’s because it’s a reflection of us as parents and them as recipients of our training. In that, there is freedom!

Be blessed and be a blessing!