Beethoven may have poisoned himself – inadvertently. That’s what William Walsh, a scientist from Illinois, suggested after studying strands of hair from the body of famous classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Walsh discovered that Beethoven’s body had one hundred times the normal amount of lead. He concluded that Beethoven’s untimely death at the age of fifty-seven was due to lead poisoning.

Beethoven’s lead poisoning may have been due to the mineral spa he went to for relaxation. The very thing he thought was bringing him relief was slowly poisoning him to death.

Spiritual poison is like that. As people engage in practices and embrace ideas that are spiritually poisonous, they think they’re becoming more spiritual. But in reality, they’re gradually being poisoned to eternal death.

Paul encourages the Christians in Rome to leave their sinful lifestyle behind them and “obey from the heart” the pattern of Gospel teaching so that they can be sanctified.

DO NOT LET SIN REIGN IN YOUR MORTAL BODY – 6:12-14:

Verse 12 shows us that it is possible for us to allow sin to reign in our physical bodies. Even if we become Christians, it is still possible for us to live in sin. But Paul says we should not! Verse 13 has a command: “do not present your members of your body for the purpose of sinning, as tools for unrighteousness.”

So instead of grace giving us a license to sin or to live in sin, actually being saved by grace is a motivation to not live in sin!

YOU BECAME OBEDIENT FROM THE HEART – 6:15-19:

Paul speaks from their everyday experiences: when you present yourself as a slave for obedience, it stands to reason that you are a slave of the one whom you obey. So if you are a slave of sin (ver. 16), your life will result in death. If you are a slave of obedience to God, your life will result in righteousness!

But, Paul writes in excitement in verse 17, by the grace of God they have been presented the Gospel of Christ, which brings salvation (1:16) and they have been obedient to it! So that at one time, they were slaves of sin, but they obeyed – notice where it starts: in the heart – from the heart the forms or pattern of teaching to which they had committed themselves – the pattern of the Gospel message. This is a reference back to 6:3-4 and to everything that is involved in becoming a Christian.

So Paul gives us another command in verse 19: Present your members as slaves to righteousness. Serve God in righteousness; live a righteous life. The result will be that you are separated from a sinful world, even as you live in a sinful world, but you will be in the kingdom of God’s beloved Son!

ENSLAVED TO GOD, YOU DERIVE YOUR BENEFIT: ETERNAL LIFE – 6:20-23:

A person who is not a Christian is shackled to sin; he or she is not shackled to Christ (ver. 20).

So Paul asks them this sobering question in verse 21: What benefit did you get from practicing things that you are now ashamed of? Why can’t we live in sin so that grace can about? Because the sinful lifestyle bring shame, that’s why!

The payment or reward or outcome of a sinful lifestyle is death – eternal separation from God. The payment or reward or outcome of living a righteous life in Jesus Christ, which is God’s gracious gift to us, is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Master.

Don’t live in sin; continue obeying from the heart so that your reward will be eternal life.

Paul Holland