Lent Day Sixteen
“Resisting Temptation as Devotion”
Romans 6:1-2, 5-7, 12-14 The Passion Translation
1 So what do we do then? Do we persist in sin so that God’s kindness and grace will increase?
2 What a terrible thought! We have passed away from sin once and for all as a dead man passes away from this life. So how could we live under sin’s rule a moment longer?
5 For if we are permanently grafted into him to experience a death like his, then we are permanently grafted into him to experience a resurrection like his and the new life that it imparts.
6 Could it be any clearer that our former identity is forever deprived of its power? For we were co-crucified with him to dismantle the stronghold of sin within us, so that we would not continue to live one moment longer submitted to sin’s power.
7 Obviously, a dead person is incapable of sinning.
12 Sin is a dethroned monarch and must no longer continue its rule over your life; controlling how you live and compelling you to obey its desires and cravings!
13 So then, refuse to answer its call to surrender your body as a tool for wickedness. Instead passionately answer God’s call to present your body to him, for you were once dead, but now you’ve experienced resurrection life! You live now for his pleasure, ready to be used for his noble purpose.
14 Remember this: sin will not conquer you, for God already has! You are not governed by law but governed by the reign of the grace of God!
While attending a theological college in Didsbury, England, a friend and I rode the bus to Manchester. We were shopping for student essentials—I’ll let you imagine what those might have been. We stopped in front of a store with a large window display. I opened the door to go in, but my friend just stood there.
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘There must be something useful in here.’
No answer. No movement.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked.
‘I’m not going in there,’ he told me.
‘Why?’
‘Because Jesus is much too precious to me.’
His words caught me off guard. Curious, I glanced inside and noticed what he meant—lewd posters covered the walls. I hadn’t even noticed them at first, but for him, it was a simple line he wouldn’t cross. He didn’t want to awaken an old vice that once enslaved him. For him, it was an unnecessary lure—why risk spiritual compromise for a few practical items?
Was this the making of a veritable saint? I don’t know, but what impressed me wasn’t his fortitude, but the motivation behind it. His decision to avoid temptation stemmed from love, not fear, rules, or duty; it was an act of devotion to the one who had freed him.
Romans 6:12 says, ‘Sin is a dethroned monarch; so you must no longer give it an opportunity to rule over your life, controlling how you live and compelling you to obey its desires and cravings.’
We are dead to sin, and alive to Christ, but like my friend, I don’t want to step into another graveyard to test how resurrected I am.
This Lent, we are invited once more to reflect on areas of our lives that may draw us back to old habits or temptations. Are there places, practices, or ‘graveyards’ we need to avoid in order to honour Christ? Let’s resist, not out of obligation or even the fear of reprisal, but out of love and devotion for the one who has given us new life in the Holy Spirit.
Why not elevate this Lenten season from a singular event to a holy lifestyle? Let’s make his love our own and reflect it back to him as a daily act of worship—an act that continues far beyond these forty days. After all, didn’t Jesus model this way of life when he left the wilderness?
Richard Porter
Richard Porter has taught Old Testament and Biblical Background subjects at Nazarene Theological College and Belfast Bible College. He is now Pastor Emeritus at his local church in Northern Ireland.