It turns out that Bob Dylan was right.
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
So it's not sin we have as our master. That's the way of death, and our baptism into Christ signifies not just burial, but bath and new birth. Christians are under new management. Our new kind of existence is about becoming increasingly holy. But what if we long for the "free" cucumbers of Egypt?
That's the trouble: the freedom of our new identity is not forced on us, because that is not what God is like. He wants obedient sons who recognise the goodness of His way and follow it because of who He is, out of love.
Now, if the prospect of life-and-not-death is insufficiently attractive - then consider life in the light of the gospel. Paul calls the gospel "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes".
Why is it the power? In this good news, God has revealed his own righteousness - that is why it is powerful. The gospel is powerful because of the great goodness, justice, grace and love that are in God. The good news that God has given us Jesus in flesh and in spirit to atone for our sins and to offer newness of life is powerful indeed in lives which receive the news with gratitude. How could I want anything else? How can I give my life to serve anything or anyone else after I have seen what this God has done, what this God is like?
He has condemned sin in Jesus' body, taking the punishment due to me on himself! He has lived-out a life of perfect compassion, perfect love, perfect grace, perfect wisdom and perfect goodness. And he offers that kind of life to me, imputing to me His own perfection in the face of my failures. This is too amazing to neglect or to reject - I have to fix my life on the God who would do such a thing because He considers me worth doing it for. What a verdict! How could anything else compete with this news? If you don't know it's true, isn't there a part of you that wants it to be?
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