Paschal Pleasures

Once the passions of my flesh held me captive. According to my desires, I presented my members to sin--unaware that all the things I loved were killing me. I boasted that I was free from the clutches of righteousness, unaware that I was obedient unto death (that is, to sin). My only freedom was the freedom to die.

So sin, seizing an opportunity through the law, produced in me all kinds of evil. Impurity bred impurity; lawlessness bred lawlessness. I was willfully blind to the downward spiral in my upward ambition. I believed each lie from the mouths of my idols--man, self, pleasure. And I set up systems by which to buffet my body into obedience. I carried around in my flesh the penalty of my sin--the mark of death--and each sip of pleasure was tainted with the bitterness of death. Would I, could I, must I drink this cup?

Like creation itself, I was subjected to futility in order that I might be freed from bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.But while I was still weak, at the right time, Christ died for ungodly me--drinking the cup of God's wrath that was placed before me. And if while I was an enemy I was reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that I am reconciled, shall I be saved by his life! I was buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, I too might walk in newness of life. Now I consider myself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. My old body of sin has been brought to nothing that I might not be a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness leading to sanctification. I am released from the law, having died to that which held me captive so that I might serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the spirit.