But Thanks Be To God (From We, Beneficiaries of Love's Great Sacrifice)

Romans 6:15-23NIVWhat then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves,you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death,or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin,you have come to obey from your heartthe pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations.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.20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?Those things result in death!22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God,the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Don't you love how a familiar passage of scripturecan impact us anew with profound wonder?!!Such is the case, as the above passage inspired today's Thanksgiving Hymn Love transforms perspective ... ...until nothing is ordinary ... and everything is sacred! ‘But great thanks be to God’ from we, once sorry slaves to sinFrom we who benefit from He who paid the debt we owedFrom we, washed clean and purged of guilt’s vile residue withinFrom we once without hope and God, till He, his grace bestowed ‘But glad thanks be to God’ from we, now slaves to righteousnessFrom we who have believed and obey, not through force, but loveFrom we who are awed heirs of God’s unfailing promisesWhere sin no longer reigns that we obey its lusts thereof ‘But meek thanks be to God’ from we who are saved from sin’s wageBy love’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our LordThe Hand, once pierced with nails will part death’s sea where demons rageAnd lead us through on dry ground to faith’s infinite reward ‘But sweet thanks be to God’ who spares us from hell’s dreadful rueBecause He did not spare Himself to suffer pardon’s priceBut purchased our redemption as sin’s curse He overthrewSo we could reap the benefit of Love’s Great Sacrifice © Janet Martin When we believe in God we obey, perhaps, through a sense of pious obligation.But oh! when we love God we, as v. 17 describes it;'we come to obey from our heartsthe pattern of teaching that has claimed our allegiance!'(because )v. 18. 'we have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness'May this be our prayer, that we would ever yearn to love our Saviour more!