Daily Devotions

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. … For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:12-18, 20-23)

Think of a slave market. Who is walking around and making choices? The masters, that’s who. The slaves have to stay in one place and put up with whatever the masters decide to do. They have no options.

But Paul gives us a different picture—a market where it’s the slaves who are choosing their masters! And their lives will be completely different, depending on which master they choose.

The first master is one that we all know very well, from our own lived experience. It’s sin—the force inside us that drives us to do what is bad and wrong and unhealthy, even when we know better. And of course, if we decide to serve that master, it’s going to end up in death. How could it not?

But the other master is one that we can only serve because Jesus Christ has set us free to do so. That master is righteousness—or maybe we could call it God Himself. Jesus set us free from the power of sin through His own suffering, death, and resurrection. And now we belong to Him, to love Him and do what is good in God’s eyes—not out of fear or obligation, but out of free love and thankfulness. How could we not want to serve the One who saved us at the cost of His own life?

WE PRAY: Dear Jesus, Your service is real freedom. Keep me Yours forever. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Reflection Questions:

1. If you can remember a time before you belonged to Jesus, what would you say He has set you free from?
2. If you cannot remember that time, look at the non-Christians around you. How does your life differ from theirs because of Jesus?
3. Why would Jesus buy you to be His own at the cost of His own life? What does that price tell you about how He feels about you?

Today's Readings:

Proverbs 19-21
Acts 3

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