As I get deeper into Romans I can’t help but be somewhat disheartened with how casual a view I have so often taken of sin. How often have I forgotten that sin is the second most severe, most powerful, most tenacious force at work in the world, a great and unceasing riptide ever grasping for more prey to drag into the heart of the abyss. But thank you, God, that where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. Thank you, God, that grace is more tenacious, more powerful, and more severe than sin. Thank you for sending Jesus to ocean floor to inhale the sea of death that has swallowed up human life. Thank you that we don’t have to make it to the shore to be rescued, because you meet us in the belly of the abyss; indeed, you swim down to our lifeless bodies after the murky waters have already filled our lungs to give us breath. But now, having been filled with your life, keep us from returning to the sea from which we have emerged, to the slavery from which we have been freed. Keep us from deceiving ourselves into thinking that we are safe in the shallow end, where we dabble about with the masses in shark infested waters of status quo, floating on the thin rafts of presumption and cheap grace, where grace is our public pal but sin is our secret lover. Remove from us the false security of this realm of uncertain salvation, where the Church meets the world in unholy matrimony. Lord of the Church, call your people to the shore. ~Rom. 6