Whose Slave are You? (Rom. 6:15-23)

Whose Slave are You?

(Rom. 6:15-23)

The other day, I read an article on the Civil War. I was surprised and bewildered by what I read. It said that there were slaves who fought on the Confederate side during the war. I could not fathom how slaves willingly fought with their masters against the Union Army. They fought against the very people who were trying to emancipate them (to set them free from their slavery). I then began to think about how sinners in the world today fight against Christ, the One who can set them free from their sins. This sinful world is at war against God and against His Gospel that can set them free and emancipate them from their slavery to sin and their master Satan. Today, we are going to study this passage in Romans 6:15-23 and see that Paul is going to use the image of slavery to determine who your Master is and just who is Lord of your life. Today's sermon is “Whose slave are you?”.

I. Freed from sin not free to sin (v. 15 - “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!”).

We have earlier studied about the devastating and destructive power of sin. Sin is the reason for our human condition today of sickness, evil, and death; the fallen condition of this world. Sin is rebellious and hateful towards God and anything that is of God. Sin cannot be cured or overcome by any of man's effort or power. Mankind is enslaved by sin and that brings about satanic control. Sin serves the purpose of Satan and makes a sinner a spiritual child of the devil. It sends unredeemed men to Hell. It controls the sinner's mind, thoughts, and actions. Sin is humanly inescapable. Mankind cannot by ourselves escape from sin or the guilt of sin (even if we genuinely desire to do so). Sin stains and mars everything that we are and do. It is like the growth of an incurable cancer that grows blackly in our hearts till it finally destroys us. That is the hopelessness of sin and without the intervention of God we cannot overcome sin and its deadly effects. Because of sin we cannot have a relationship with God because sin cannot come into the presence of our holy God (Hab. 1:13 - “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity”). It is from this wretched state of slavery to sin that God has provided freedom through the greatest gift God could ever give mankind. That very gift of freedom from sin is the gift of salvation He offers through His Son, Jesus Christ. When we are saved through faith in Christ, Jesus frees us from the power of sin. This is because we have died in Christ to sin and risen with Him in righteousness (Rom. 6:11 - “also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord”); that was our last study in Romans. If we through Christ have died to sin then we are no longer under the lordship of sin (Rom. 6:6 - “our old man (sinful nature) was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin”). The relationship of the believer has changed towards God and our relationship to sin has changed also. This means we have a new Lord and we are under the lordship of righteousness (but more on that later). Because of this new relationship to God and towards sin, Paul asks a question and answers it in verse 15, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”. Paul is dealing with those who thinks “if I'm free from the power and penalty of sin then I can sin and do as perfectly as I please”. Paul is showing them that Jesus has freed them from their sins and not given them a license to sin. It's the wrong idea about eternal security from those who think they have “fire insurance”; those who see God's amazing grace as cheap grace, believing that since they have prayed the sinner's prayer that they can go out and live how they want to and not reap the consequences. From this verse we can understand that this is not the intention of God's grace at all. God's purpose of His grace is to free man of sin. God's grace through Christ justifies a life and also transforms that life (2 Cor. 5:17 - “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”). If there is no evidence of a life that is changed morally and spiritually, transformed through salvation in Christ, then that person is most likely not saved. Christ has freed us from sin, not freed us to sin. Sin can never glorify God, it can never be a product of grace. The grace of God has freed us to give us the ability to not live sinfully and the ability to began to live life righteously for Him. That is the work of sanctification in the believers life, less like the sinner we once were and more like Christ, who we need to be. Salvation in Christ transforms your life and if there is no evidence of transformation then there is no salvation.

II. Who's your Master (v. 16-18 - “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness”).

Paul uses the picture of slavery to see who our allegiance is to. Paul's picture is of someone who is a slave that has willingly given their life in total obedience to their master. He says that we can be slaves of sin which leads to death or become obedient to God which leads to righteousness. If our pattern of living is sinful then we are sin's slaves but if we live our lives for God's glory then we are being obedient to His will and we are God's slaves. Our lives will reflect who is lord of our lives. Slavery to sin brings about physical and spiritual death while slavery to God brings about righteousness, the earmark of eternal life. There is a lie that we can be master of our own life and destiny, but that is just a delusion. We need to understand we are never really free. Either we are mastered by sin under the lordship of Satan or we are mastered by righteousness under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Those are the only two influences that determine our lives. Our habitually sinful life needs to be in the past and buried while the new life in Christ needs to be our present and future, alive and maturing. I think it needs to be reiterated that we will never be without sin in this body but we are as Christians need to be growing and maturing spiritually. We will never be sinless till we are glorified but as we walk in sanctification we sin less, we allow the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ. But how is it that we have come to the place of being under the Lordship of Christ and slaves of righteousness? Evidently it has nothing to do with human determination or knowledge or wisdom or effort but only because of the gospel message of Jesus Christ that has saved us from the slavery of sin. Through Christ we have become the children of God, we are God's very own. When we saved, we are positionally placed in Christ's righteousness because that's what makes us acceptable to God and in a right relationship with Him. It is solely through the person and work of Christ that we are saved us and it sets us free from sin. But when we are saved God's grace changes us and we are enabled to begin to live out a righteous life. Let's look at verses 19-22 to see how we are enabled to live.

III. Living for the Master (v. 19-22 - “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life”).

When we are saved, we are eternally saved. Our spirit (inner man) has been eternally redeemed and it is no longer subject to the power of sin. But our outer man, our flesh, is subject to defilement by sin. It will always be a struggle and a place of battle as long as we are living in this temporary body of flesh. As I have just stated that we are positionally placed in Christ's righteousness but because of our position in Christ we know are enabled to live out a practical righteousness. We are to first dedicate ourselves daily to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Paul said in Romans 12:1 that we are to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”; so now let us present (give willingly and obediently) our bodies (or like it says here in verse 19) presents the members of your body in obedience of God's word to His work and will. It simply means to daily give yourself and your life over to the righteousness of God, to live out practical righteousness. Don't allow yourself to give place to sin (don't... give place to the devil – Eph. 4:27) but keep your heart and mind on Christ and His Word then by the power of the Holy Spirit you can live righteously. When we were sinners, we could not help but to sin (when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness), that means we were nowhere near righteousness. We were on that slippery slope of destruction but thanks to God, He chose to reveal His love to us through Jesus Christ. Through the enabling power of Christ, it is now possible for us live righteously and we should present our members as slaves of righteousness. When we were sinners, our sinful lives lead to more sin, but when we became saints, our lives as slaves to righteousness should lead to even further righteousness. The practice of righteousness (that's a good way to say it), will lead us into deeper walks of righteousness and holiness. A child of God, if he is growing in this grace walk, will be maturing more and more into righteousness. But if a believer, is not growing or progressing, although they will fall back altogether out of righteousness, will slip back further into sin. We need to keep the eyes of our heart fixed on Christ so that we will not lessen in our commitment to our Lord and Master. Let's commit to being His slave, obedient to His will which is His Word.

I want to finish this sermon with this verse, verse 23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”, an unrepentant heart that is still enslaved to sin will find that the end of that sinful life is a judgment of condemnation. The result of sin, the payment (wages) for the life of sin is death, both physically and spiritually. Hell's down payment is the knee that will never bow in faith and repentance to Jesus Christ. God's gift of salvation through Christ is freely offered today. Come to know Christ as your savior and Lord today.