Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 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? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
—Romans 6:13-18 (TNIV)
Here Paul deals with the issue of sanctification, the slow, arduous process of acquiring God’s holiness and becoming like Jesus through the help and Power of the Holy Spirit. In the previous chapter, Paul has talked about how we are found not guilty (justified) in God’s sight by the blood of Christ. Does this mean that we are now free to do anything we want? Are you out of your mind, says Paul? To the contrary, when you understand the great gift that has been given you in Christ Jesus, a gift none of us is worthy to receive, your faith will naturally lead you to obedience. Just as you want to please others who have done a great thing for you or given you a wonderful gift, so you will want to please God, says Paul. You’ll want to give yourself to Christ rather than follow your natural sinful desires to be your own boss and do your own thing. This, of course, takes a lifetime to accomplish and we don’t do it on our own. We have God’s help but we have to do our part; we can’t just sit back and wait for the Spirit to do all the work in changing us into Christ’s likeness. We have to make the effort and be intentional.
If you are struggling in this area, ask the Lord to show you if you really have Good News or if you are just paying it lip service and going through the motions. It may be that some of your difficulty stems from the fact that you really don’t see a reason why you need to work this hard (or why you would even want to become like Jesus!).
Wouldn’t you also say that the direction in which we wish to go is important (end of first para.)? Perhaps if we are struggling, and/or when we backslide, we can examine and re-focus in the right direction.