Freed To Be A Slave! Series

“FREED TO BE A SLAVE” Romans 6:20-23

FBCF – 9/28/25

Jon Daniels

INTRO – When is last time you used an oxymoron? Def: “a figure of speech in which two contradictory words are put side by side to form a phrase.” Some words just don’t seem to go together:

- Jumbo shrimp

- Organized chaos

- Clearly misunderstood

- Sort of pregnant

- Awful good

- Devout atheist

Biblical oxymorons:

- Virgin birth

- Galatians 2:20 - "I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live"

The title of this sermon has an oxymoronic feel to it: “Freed to Be a Slave.” Don’t often see the words “freed” & “slave” used together very often. Slaves don’t see themselves as free, & free people don’t see themselves as slaves.

When we think of the words “slave” or “slavery”, images of the Transatlantic slave trade of the 15th through 19th centuries come to mind. The 1939 movie, “Gone with the Wind” comes to mind. Plantation homes come to mind.

Sadly today, there are approx. 50 million slaves in the world right now. Human trafficking, sex trafficking, forced marriages, forced labor – all are parts of the slavery issues in our world today. Maybe the saddest of all the issues is that 12 million children are enslaved in our world today w/ a great number of them being trafficked, some being forced into marriage, & some forced to fight in wars.

So, it may be hard for us to unhitch those images from our minds & see slavery in a positive way. But let’s dive into the Word & see what it means for us to be “Freed to Be a Slave.”

EXPLANATION – Romans 6:20-23

The theme of freedom & redemption runs throughout the W of G, from the OT to the NT. God is serious about setting His people free & releasing them from bondage. This is a prevalent theme throughout the Bible. And it’s the very reason that He sent Jesus to be our Savior & Redeemer.

Our need for freedom surfaces in the very first pages of the Bible in the Garden of Eden. Once Adam & Eve gave into temptation & sinned, the drama of redemption was set in motion. God’s plan to set us free from the power & slavery of sin is then seen on nearly every page of the OT leading right up to the birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, & ascension of Jesus Christ. God made that abundantly clear there in the Garden when He spoke to the serpent, Satan, & said, “I will put enmity [Heb means “profound hatred & hostility”] between you & the woman, & between your offspring & hers; He will crush your head & you will strike His heel.” (Genesis 3:15). This declaration, known as the protoevangelium, or “first Gospel,” culminated w/ Jesus’ final cry from the cross, “It is finished!”

From that moment in the Garden of Eden, the promise of freedom & redemption was seen throughout the OT:

- Every lamb that was sacrificed in the OT pointed toward the ultimate sacrifice of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” on the cross.

- The blood on the doorposts when the death angel passed over Egypt in Ex. 12, sparing the lives of God’s people, pointed toward the blood that would pour out of Jesus’ body & down that cruel cross.

- When the Red Sea opened up, it was a picture of Jesus opening the way to freedom that God gives to us.

- When Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace, Jesus met them there & delivered them from the flames – a foreshadowing of the deliverance from death & hell that He would offer to us by His GRACE.

- The kinsman-redeemer, seen in the book of Ruth, was a person who acted to buy back a family member or property that was lost or sold due to debt or injustice. What a beautiful illustration of Jesus as our Redeemer who bought us from sin & death, paying the price w/ His own blood.

- Think about the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 – Isaiah 53:6 – “All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, everyone, to our own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” That prophecy would be fulfilled in Jesus. J th B – “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

- Malachi 4:2 – “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy, like calves let out to pasture.” (NLT) – A beautiful prophecy that points toward the Day when Jesus returns for His people & we romp & stomp in the freedom He gives to us by His GRACE!