Romans 6:15-23
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is a saying from a man named John Chrysostom that goes like this, “It is absurd…for those who are called to reign with Christ to choose to be captives to sin, as if one should throw down the crown from off his head and choose to be the slave of a hysterical woman who comes begging and covered in rags…How is it that sin can reign in you? It is not from any power of its own but only from your laziness.”
So here is a question for you. Do you think God has given you free will? There is no such thing as absolute freedom for anyone. There is only one being in this universe that is totally free and that is God. Free to do whatever He wants. All of us are at the least limited in our freedom and at the most completely enslaved by one of two things. We are either enslaved to sin, or enslaved to righteousness. So the real question is who are you a slave to?
As I said last week if we as Christians have been joined to Christ there is no looking back for us, the only way for us is to go forward, forward in righteousness.
Paul gives us here five reasons why we shouldn’t be slaves to sin.
Sin is slavery – The first reason why Christians should not return to sin, even though they are not under law but under grace, is that sin is actually slavery, and it would be foolish to be delivered from slavery only to return to it again.
I talked last week about the inmate that was released and how foolish it would be for him to want to go back to prison. Imagine maybe he was on death row for murder and maybe they found some new evidence that was able to get him released. Then what does he do, he goes to the bar that night to celebrate and gets drunk and kills someone while driving home.
We as humans find this difficult to understand sometimes, especially living in the United States. We think that being able to do whatever we want is actually freedom not slavery. But the truth is that was the lie that Satan told Eve in the garden. That sin would set her free. We know that once sin gets a good grasp on us that it is very difficult to break free from it. We for sure become a slave to it.
Sin leads to death – The second reason why we must not sin, even though we are under grace, is that sin leads to death. We know that Adams sin brought us both physical death and spiritual death, and once we accept Christ our spiritual self is then saved from the death of Hell and now made alive with a guarantee of life forever in Heaven.
Paul says this several times in these verses: “sin, which leads to death” (v-16), “Those things result in death!” (v-21), and “For the wages of sin is death” (v-23).
Don’t let the Devil trick you. God told Adam and Eve if they sinned “You will die.” The Devil told Eve “You will not surely die.” Who was right? God was both Adam and Eve died! First there spirits died and then their bodies died.
Trust in God who tells you that sin is death and that righteousness is life.
Christians have been delivered from sin’s slavery – The third reason Christians are not to continue in sin, even though they are not under the law but under grace, is that they have been delivered by Jesus from sins tyranny if they are truly Christians. Paul gives praise to God here when he says “17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness”.
Jesus Christ paid the price for sins for all those who would come to Him in faith. He was our Redeemer. He paid the price with His body and with His blood. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says this “18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect”.
This is the very reason for the work of Christ. How then can those who have been redeemed return to sinful living? To do so would be to repudiate Christ, to turn from everything He stands for. It would be apostasy, turning from the truth of Christ. No true Christian can do it.
Let me be clear we are all sinners and no one is perfect except Christ himself. But we can not live our lives for sin, enslaved to sin and let it master over us. You need to fight back with the power that God has given you through the Holy Spirit.
The same work that has delivered Christians from sin’s slavery has also made them slaves of God, which is true freedom – The fourth of Paul’s arguments for why Christians cannot continue in sin, even though they are not under law but under grace, is, that the same act of Christ that has delivered us from sin has also made us “slaves of God” (v-22). By His act of redemption, Jesus has purchased men and woman for Himself, that is, to serve Him.
Some would say. What is that to go from being a slave to one then going right to being a slave to another? What gain is in that?
Well I would say is it better to be a slave to someone whose sole intent is to bring us harm, misery and torment throughout all eternity, or to be a willing slave to the One who brings love, kindness and eternal joy. It doesn’t sound like a hard choice does it. But the truth is every one of us has a natural tendency to veer away from the love of God and lean towards the evil of Satan. We are not always willing participants with God are we? I know I can do much better.
The result of being a slave to God is in the end it leads to righteousness – Paul’s last point, the fifth reason why Christians must not continue in sin, even though they have been freed from law and are under grace, is that at the end of this desirable slavery to God and Jesus is righteousness. Christianity must inevitably lead to what God desires, which is righteousness.
Verse 17 states But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. Paul states here that as a Christian you will wholeheartedly obey what God asks of you. Not in perfection but we should and will put our all in it. Obedience is the very essence of believing. It is what belief is about.
When teaching about faith and what faith looks like there are three elements that we should look at:
1) There is an intellectual element (we must believe in something; this is the gospel).
2) There is an emotional element (the content of that gospel must touch us deeply).
3) There is commitment (we must give ourselves to Jesus in personal and often costly discipleship).
When any one of these elements is missing faith becomes either very weak or non existent.
Some of you may remember the story I have told before about the tight rope walker who laid his tight rope across Niagara Falls. As people watched him go back and forth across the tight rope pushing a wheel barrel people looked at him with amazement.
When he asked if everyone thought he could do it again everyone said yes, yes we know you can. But when he asked for someone to get into the wheel barrel not one person would get in it. Not a very good example of the faith they all had in him.
God asks us to all get in to His wheel barrel. It at times may be a scary ride, it may be a rough ride, and maybe we may even get a little wet but God will not let us fall. He will always make sure that He gets us safely to the other side, the other side being heaven.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said this “You have already received all things that pertain unto a life of godliness. You do not need another experience. You do not need some new gift. You have been given everything in Christ; you are ‘in Him’ from the beginning of your Christian life. You are just a slacker and a cad, just lazy and indolent, indeed ‘a liar’, if you are not living this Christian life.
Are you living the life God and Christ have called you to? Are you selling yourself short by not doing all that you can? Are you just being lazy? Are you even a Christian?
God shows us through His word what we should look like if we are truly a Christian. He gives us examples of true warriors for His cause. Do you see yourself in any of this people?
The Bible is not a book of men and woman of the past. It is an evidence of God and what we are all called to be today, tomorrow and for the rest of our lives. The Bible is an example for us of what we should all strive to be. It is an example of what we all have the power to be through God. Remember it isn’t us but God who directs us anyway. We are just a tool to be used to bring Him glory. So don’t say I can’t do it, because it isn’t you but God working through you and He can do anything.
If God decided to one day add to His word, would there be a story in here about your faith, and the great things God had accomplished through you. That is what we need to strive for, putting every ounce of our God given ability to use for His glory.
The Bible is not stories of Gods power in the past, but it is a book of truths and examples of what we will see until the return of Christ.
Romans verse 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As you continue through this week keep these questions in mind: Am I a willing slave for God? Am I giving Him my all to bring Him glory in the building of His kingdom?
Don’t be content by going through life knowing that you really didn’t do as much as you could have for God. God can do great things through every one of you here. Get in to His wheel barrel. Put your faith out there on that tight rope and know and trust that God is there to see you through to the end.
