Romans 6:19 English Standard Version (ESV) I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

Speaking in human terms because of our natural limitations is a tricky thing to do. It admits that humans do not always get it right, even if they are comfortable in their understanding. This issue is a comparative of the past and the present. How we reconcile these issues is going to be different for some of us and it is not always easy to understand why.

When listening to a pastor on YouTube preach on Saving Faith he did a good job describing the things that Christ does in us if we place our faith in Christ. The important part was Christ does things for us that we cannot do for ourselves. It was a good talk until he came to the issue of sanctification and that is where there was some doubt to his meaning.

Perhaps that is because of my human limitations or his. Knowing what is right when it comes to some of these issues requires a self-check of our understanding. So I studied the issue this morning to see what God had to say.

Paul tells us that we are to present ourselves as slaves to righteousness. Presenting ourselves invokes the issue of effort on our part. Then the issue comes to the forefront in the declaration that it leads us to sanctification, as if it is a state to be found by human effort. That is not something that happens to us but is a result of our efforts.

Perhaps the message would have been better if he had not included sanctification, but he did.

Now we are left with this self-check effort to clarify our beliefs.