I
just love this picture! The look on the faces of those dogs speaks
volumes. They obviously LOVE their ball and absolutely DO NOT WANT TO
GIVE IT UP! What they just don’t realize is that in order to PLAY
BALL you have to let the master HAVE the ball. There is absolutely no
substitute for giving up the ball.
We
can chuckle over their lack of understanding, but some of us may be
doing the same thing but in a different way. Are you a Christian and
have not given up practicing your old sinful ways? The apostle Paul
addresses this question in this passage from his letter to the
Romans…
Romans
6 ( World English
Bible )
[1] What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace
may abound? [2] May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we
live in it any longer? [3] Or don’t you know that all we who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were
buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so
we also might walk in newness of life. [5] For if we have become
united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of
his resurrection; [6] knowing this, that our old man was crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we
would no longer be in bondage to sin. [7] For he who has died has
been freed from sin.
[8] But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live
with him; [9] knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies
no more. Death no more has dominion over him! [10] For the death that
he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he
lives to God. [11] Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[12] Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that
you should obey it in its lusts. [13] Neither present your members to
sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God,
as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness to God. [14] For sin will not have dominion over you.
For you are not under law, but under grace.
Christ
died for our sin. When we became Christians, we had our sins washed
away in the waters of baptism and vowed to put away our sinful ways.
We lived, we died to sin and now
live for Christ. Shall we
once again practice
sin? Paul says NO. Christians
are people who have
committed our lives to God’s way of living. Therefore, we must let
go of those things God says are wrong (SIN) and live a life devoted
to God, not sin. If we hold onto our “ball of sin” we can’t in
good conscience call ourselves faithful
Christians. Well, the
question remains? Shall we continue in sin? My answer is a resounding
NO. Give up your sins and play the game God’s way.
Let go of that Ball!