GONE FISHING

Romans 6: 15 – 23

When I go fishing, which has been many years by the way, I go for the relaxation of it all. I love the meditative aspect of sitting by the waters edge and waiting to see what happens on the end of the line. Now let me say that although there have been times when I have eaten what I have caught, I have usually practiced the catch and release method. I catch the fish, remove the hook as gently as possible, and let the fish go. I have no interest in taking the fishes life for my pleasure, and I really don't like torturing the helpless creature.
It would be wonderful is Satan practiced catch and release, but he doesn't. Once he hooks you, he won't let you go without a fight.
We may think we can deliberately sin in a limited way for a short period of time and then get ourselves free. But as Jesus teaches us, even “little” sins lead to greater and greater unrighteousness. Sin becomes the consequence of sin. We find ourselves entrapped and enslaved, and like a luckless trout, we cannot wriggle free.
I used to live my life that way, thinking that I was okay with my little sins that never hurt anybody. I was caught, hooked straight through the lip, and could not admit my fate. I was a slave to my sin.
Sin enslaves us. But when we yield ourselves in obedience to Christ and call upon Him for the strength to do His will, we are “released.”

16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey— whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.
18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

To paraphrase the book of John; those whom the Son has set free, are free indeed.
As we approach a holiday dedicated to giving thanks to God for what He has done in our lives, I am thankful that I have been set free from the sin that almost destroyed me.

Christ releases us from sin’s slavery into salvation’s liberty.