The ball by Gary Rose

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!