Moses told the Israelites in the desert: today two ways lie before you, one leads to life, the other to death. This doctrine of "two ways" continues into the New Testament and throughout the history of Christian spirituality in different forms. In our reading from Romans today, Paul speaks paradoxically about a "slavery of sin, which leads to death" and a slavery of "obedience that leads to justice" Apart from the startling connection between slavery and obedience, it is interesting that Paul should contrast death and justice as opposites. From this text, it is obvious that Paul considers justice to be the equivalent of life. We could summarize much of Paul's teaching about life as: "Christ is our life". Then Christ is our justice, for in speaking of justice, Paul is never concerned with merely human, social or political justice, though these will often be the fruit of that higher notion of justice which he seeks to proclaim, namely the justice of God which saves us and makes us holy, since God is holy.