15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don'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? 17But 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. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But 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. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.(NIV)
Main Points and Discussion Questions
1. The purpose of grace is purity. (vv.15-16)
Discussion Question 1: If we view God’s grace as something that simply takes care of our sin problem and nothing more, how can our Christian living become confused and unbalanced?
2. Belief in Christ involves all of our human faculties. (vv. 17-18)
Discussion Question 2: What happens to our view and practice of the Christian life once we start ignoring or de-emphasizing A) the mind? B) the heart? C) the will?
3. Sin brings no benefit. (vv. 19-21)
Discussion Question 3: When we think of the shame and misery we feel whenever we fall back into patterns of our old sin-life, why is it still so easy for us to do so?
4. Holiness means life. (vv. 22-23)
Discussion Question #4: Read Eph 5:15-20; Php 4:6-7, 2 Ti 3:14-16, and Heb 10:24-25.
a) According to these passages, how do we grow in holiness?
b) Can you give examples of how the LORD has used these means to help you grow and mature in Christ?
