Romans was a letter written by the apostle Paul to Christians living in Rome.   It is loaded with theological insight and has inspired Christian thinkers from Augustine in the 300’s to Martin Luther in the 1500’s to pastors like Eugene Peterson in the 21st century.   According to Peterson, who prepared The Message translation of the Bible, Romans is the premier document of Christian theology.  It takes the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and thinks through the implications of how to live a Christian life.  The awesome thing about Romans is that you don’t have to be some big shot theologian to understand its many insights.   Today’s verses, for example, shine some wisdom on the concept of sin. 

Sin is basically any deviation from God’s holy standard.  God is not a loveless authority figure who has arbitrary rules with no reason.  He is a loving Father, and His ways are meant for the good of creation and all living beings in it, including humans.  Many people dislike the standards that God calls us to live by and want to be ‘free’ to sin.   

In these verses, Paul points out that when you engage in sinful behaviors you are not free but are instead enslaved to those behaviors!  God has set standards for the things we do with our body and the things we put into our body.   If you violate those standards, you harm both yourself and the community in which you live.   People who abuse alcohol or drugs can cause tremendous damage to themselves and their families and cost their communities in terms of crime and traffic deaths.  People who abuse sex can cause unwanted pregnancies, neglected children, disease, broken marriages, and sex trafficking.   People who abuse money can cause corruption, swindling, and all kinds of oppression.   

Can’t find your sin in the list above?  The list is endless, and we all are guilty of sinful behavior.  And that behavior eventually leads to death.  The good news is that Jesus takes all those sins on Himself.   All we have to do is turn to Him and accept Him as Lord of our life.