The scripture for today, June 21 (6/21), is Romans 6:21ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to 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.”
Sometimes we do things we are ashamed of, and decide God would be too ashamed of us to accept us as his child. But God can get rid of the shame, for he can forgive so completely that it is as though we never did those things.
Some people bristle from the phrase “slaves to God” or even slavery at all. But we’re all slaves to something ~ a big car, high position, beauty, a hobby, chasing after the opposite gender, reading, eating, music, sports, etc.
From the beginning of time, sin has always resulted in death. Death means “separation” , and in the case of sin, it means separation from God. God allowed us in Old Testament times to kill a perfect animal in our place, but we had to keep doing it throughout life. Then Jesus came as our perfect Lamb of God, and allowed himself to be killed in our place.
The wages were paid through Jesus; so by believing this is true and following Jesus, we are no longer in debt.