Two pathways to follow in...
Illustration
Two pathways to follow in life are contrasted in our passage. Paul says we can be slaves to sin or sons and daughters of Christ. One road leads to bondage and death. The other pathway leads us to life in the Spirit of Christ, guiding us ever onward to the Kingdom of God.
After King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette had been executed by guillotine during the reign of terror during the French Revolution, their son was held as a prisoner by the Revolutionary Tribunal which had ordered the murder of his mother and father. The lad was placed under the "care" of an insensate shoemaker noted for his brutality. The shoemaker, whose name was Simon, tried to force the heir to the Bourban throne to forget his royal lineage and indulge in a life of loose moral standards. Several reports note that when challenged to lower his religious and moral convictions, the son of the King and Queen replied in dudgeon, "I cannot do that, for I am the son of a king."
We Christians, proclaims Paul in his great letter to the Romans, should ever be mindful of our lineage as children of God. As heirs of the Lord God we are also co-heirs with Christ of eternal life. In a world which is often subtly hostile to the gospel, let us remember we are members of a royal priesthood whose Great High Priest is the Lord Jesus Christ. -- Mills
After King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette had been executed by guillotine during the reign of terror during the French Revolution, their son was held as a prisoner by the Revolutionary Tribunal which had ordered the murder of his mother and father. The lad was placed under the "care" of an insensate shoemaker noted for his brutality. The shoemaker, whose name was Simon, tried to force the heir to the Bourban throne to forget his royal lineage and indulge in a life of loose moral standards. Several reports note that when challenged to lower his religious and moral convictions, the son of the King and Queen replied in dudgeon, "I cannot do that, for I am the son of a king."
We Christians, proclaims Paul in his great letter to the Romans, should ever be mindful of our lineage as children of God. As heirs of the Lord God we are also co-heirs with Christ of eternal life. In a world which is often subtly hostile to the gospel, let us remember we are members of a royal priesthood whose Great High Priest is the Lord Jesus Christ. -- Mills
