by Luke Kincaid
This past Saturday, Cammie, Seth and I went to an animal sanctuary. It was amazing to walk around and see these beautiful animals who had been saved. I was really enjoying myself while observing and learning about the various animals. Everything was going well until we got to the cheetah enclosure. I watched as a lone cheetah walked around and upon reading the informational sign was reminded that this incredible creature can get up to speeds over 90km/h. And then I realized that this creature would not be able to reach this potential in the enclosure in which it resided.
Now I understand that we were at a sanctuary and this cheetah was here for its own safety and well looked after, but I couldn’t shake the idea that this creature would never reach it’s God given potential as the world’s fastest land mammal. While thinking this through I made the connection between this cheetah’s situation and Romans 6:15-18:
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not! 16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, 18 and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.
Before repenting and believing in Jesus we were enslaved to sin. While we still bared the image of God, we were unable to reach our potential because we were in sin and headed for death. But even after coming to faith in Jesus we can fall into our old patterns of sin and in a way enslave ourselves to it once again.
When we do this, we are effectively limiting our God given potential and caging ourselves in patterns of sin instead of living out our identity as a righteous one saved by the blood of Jesus. So instead of giving into our old master, let’s push forward in faith and obedience to Jesus as we live out our lives that are no longer enslaved to sin but one that is defined by His righteousness.
Much love,
Luke