No Longer A Slave Series

Because it is possible for them to resist sin and to live righteously, believers should now present their members as slaves to righteousness. And just as the life of sin leads to further sin, so the life of righteousness leads to further righteousness, whose ultimate end is complete sanctification. Committing ourselves as slaves to doing what is right before God (“righteousness”) results in living that is increasingly God-centered and world-renouncing. (Moo, D. J. (1996). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 405). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)

Quote: The late Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “As you go on living this righteous life, and practicing it with all your might and energy, and all your time … you will find that the process that went on before, in which you went on from bad to worse and became viler and viler, is entirely reversed. You will become cleaner and cleaner, and purer and purer, and holier and holier, and more and more conformed unto the image of the Son of God” (Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Romans: An Exposition of Chapter Six [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972], pp. 268–69).

No one stands still morally and spiritually. Just as unbelievers regress from sinfulness to greater sinfulness, a believer who is not growing in righteousness, though never falling back altogether out of righteousness, will slip further and further back into sin. God’s purpose in redeeming people from sin is not to give them freedom to do as they please but freedom to do as God pleases, which is to live righteously. When God commanded Pharaoh to let His people go, He also made clear His purpose for their deliverance: “that they may serve Me in the wilderness” (Ex. 7:16). God delivers people from enslavement to sin for the sole purpose of their becoming enslaved to Him and to His righteousness.

Finally, a person is a slave either to sin and Satan or free though righteousness to God through:

3) Their Promise (Romans 6:20–22)

Romans 6:20-22 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. (ESV)

Unsaved persons, who are slaves of sin, are free in regard to righteousness. That is, they have no connection to righteousness; it can make no demands on them since they possess neither the desire nor the ability to meet its requirements. They are controlled and ruled by sin, the master whom they are bound to serve. In that sense, they have no responsibility to righteousness, because they are powerless to meet its standards and demands. That is why it is foolish to preach moralistic reformation to sinners. They cannot reform their living until God transforms their lives. The answer to the problem of sin is not simply determination, discipline, reformation, legislation, or any other human endeavor. Victory comes through crucifixion and resurrection (Wiersbe, W. W. (1992). Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the New Testament (p. 384). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.).