This is the Baymaw Podcast with Marty Solomon. I'm his co-host, Brent Billings. Today, we let Paul teach us from the metaphor of covenants and death.

If part of us died at baptism, why would we live as if we were bound?

Yeah, Paul's still having the same conversation, even though we haven't gotten to a new chapter yet, but Paul's still having the same conversation.

He wants to use a metaphor. He wants to use a real life allegory. He wants to take something that we understand from our real life experience and use it to explain some theological reality. He's going to tell us that here in a moment.

And we stopped because he's about ready to shift gears. We stopped just short of finishing chapter. What was it, six Brent? So let's go and finish up chapter six here.

I'm using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Pretty pretty serious little slam.

Because you simple minded people. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?

I don't want to suffer at there, but what benefit did you reap at the time of the things you are now ashamed of?

If all of that will come back to that moment, those things result in death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness.

And the result is eternal life for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There's that famous verse right there. We quoted all the time for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And we'll come back to that here in just a moment.

So an idea we kind of pull out of context because something's going on here that started. If you remember Brent, I told people pay attention to that phrase of wage because it showed up earlier.

But more on that in just a second Paul realizes the limitations of his metaphor like is slavery really the best way to understand a relationship with God.

And yet he also understands the metaphors ability to speak in the context of first century Rome. We could certainly expand on this idea, but it would be beyond the scope of what we're trying to do here for today's conversation.

So if I said to say most scholars estimate that one out of every three people in the Roman Empire was under some form of slavery.

So this is a very relevant metaphor that Paul is using here.

Paul says that when we live under fear and insecurity and the constant awareness of not measuring up, it's like being a slave to a horrible task master.

He asks, what benefit did you reap at that time? Those things result in death, Paul says.

Paul continues to use this idea of working and wages. An idea that started in what chapter Brent can you remember? Where'd we say that showed up?

Three, almost chapter four of Abraham. He asked the conversation earlier. He said, what did Abraham, what wage did Abraham get?

Because if it was, like if it was just his credit, if it was because of the things that Abraham had done, well, then he would have gotten a wage, but it has nothing to do with wages. It was about trust. Paul said.

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