Romans 6:13 (New American Standard Bible)
13and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
As some of you may have deduced, I am working through a Bible Study in Romans;)
We were asked what the use of the word “instruments” suggested to us. And something a little different popped out to me. The use of the word instrument talks about our bodies as a tool or something used to help accomplish something. So that implies that neither sin nor righteousness is actually a part of us but something we allow to use us.
That is both a refreshing and humbling. I am a person who is good at guilt. Even though I am forgiven of my sins, I tend to hold onto the guilt because that wrong must be part of me. That situation where you have been forgiven but you worry that that past sin defines your personality. So it is hard to move on sometimes. So it is refreshing to think that I was a tool that sin used instead of it being a defining character trait.
But it is also humbling because that also means that the righteousness I do is not intrinsic to me. That righteousness is working through me.
Of course, I know what I want to be a tool for but it isn’t by my strength but through Christ alone.
That is my contribution to Theology Thursday. If you have written anything this week that has anything to do with your theology, please link up! It can be straight from scripture or just an inspired thought that has to do with your relationship with God and Jesus Christ! Make sure that you link to your specific piece and not your blog, or the link will be removed. Also, please only submit a piece that fits this subject or it will be removed. And please link back here so that everyone else knows where the fun is!
I appreciated how you defined “instrument” as a tool. It gives a different word picture in my brain for Romans 6:13 and it does help us understand how sin “uses” us. Of course, righteousness shows us the other side of being used–by God. Maybe that answers the age old question of “Why doesn’t God use me more?” Thanks!