Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul ends chapter 6 using the same idea as he ended chapter 5, just reframing the context.

Romans 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is the week before Easter and while other webpages and applications are focusing on preparing souls to see exactly what Jesus did for us on the Cross, our YouVersion study is slogging thru some rather wordy repetitive issues dealing with sin. The reason is because Paul is dealing with the mind, the mental aspects, in trying to make believers understand what is not obvious to them yet.

If God abides in your heart, sin cannot.

Paul is attempting to explain to the mind what the heart already knows. Young Christians are not experienced in listening to God speaking to them from their hearts. The mind still needs convincing. Chapter 7 isn’t going to get any better. Some of the most difficult and confusing discussions happen in chapter 7. Hopefully by the time we get to that wonderful chapter 8 some better understanding will occur. Sadly it isn’t until even later in 12:2 where Paul directly addresses this issue by saying “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”.

The principles of God’s Holiness dwelling in your hearts by faith is already at work cleaning house. You might not understand it and in your mind you haven’t grasped what is being done in you, for you, by God.

Ephesians 3:16-19 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Romans 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

As I said yesterday, the YouVersion Deeper in Scripture – Romans study left out the last verse of chapter five. I had moved on with my next devotional and then this morning the Lord convicted me of doing the very same thing.

I will often stop short of quoting the next verse of scriptures in my writing, or skip a line or two because I consider them a distraction from the point I am trying to make. He called it spiritual dodgeball. I intentionally avoided being hit with something I wasn’t prepared to address. Was this YouVersion’s intentions? I do not know. Not for me to say but I have to answer for myself.

Our God does not avoid the hard truths. Every ugly truth about man’s inhumanity to man is called into play. He covers all the bases, not leaving any of us untouched. Duck and dodge as you might, you are going to get hit with your own ugly truth sooner or later. How can He help us with restoration if we are not willing to talk about those things that need correcting?

This verse that was left out speaks to an ugly truth that frankly scares me. While sin has no power over me, I still sin. It is not sin that stings me, it is my conscience. Even when I know better, I sometimes still make the wrong choices. I will justify it in my own mind but that does not ease my conscience.

I have written and do believe that the conscience is a reflection of one’s heart condition. If the heart is good the conscience serves us well to remind us of who we are in truth. When the conscience stings me, it is doing the will of God to bring me to my senses. Ignore it and you risk hardening of the heart.