There is only One God but exists in three persons!
What is the Title we give to God the Father? We say Heavenly Father don’t we? What is the title we give to God the Spirit? We appropriately say Holy Spirit!
What is the Title we give to Jesus Christ the Son of God??
We call Jesus Christ, the Lord! Of course the Bible states many times that Jesus Christ is Lord. As a matter of fact, we read in Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
And so, if you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead for you and you confess that He is Lord, you are saved from the eternal judgment of God!
Now, what does it mean to say that someone or something is Lord?
Lord is someone or something has authority, control, and power; a master or ruler over someone.
Lord is same as master isn’t it? And another way to look at it is this: You are a slave to your master. This might be difficult to follow but this is the truth: Jesus Christ is our Lord and so we who truly believes in Him are slaves to who He is.
Let us learn more from the Letter to the Romans which is form God and is also a letter to us Christians today! Please open your Bibles to Romans Chapter 6. And again, before reading God’s Word, let us pray our commitment to it; let us pray together………… Romans 6:14 – 7:6……..
There are so many things that we can talk about from this passage. We will focus on the main points of the passage then we can elaborate on them and of course conclude with applications to our daily lives.
And so, what are the main points of the passage?
As Christians:
Sin shall not be our master, we are under grace! (v14)
We are slaves to righteousness! (v18)
Before we learn more about these truths and how we personally have to deal with them, let us note what our Christian faith brings us.
As we live our Christian faith, as we take action on our Christian beliefs, the following will result:
Rom 6:22-23……….
Christians living their faith become more and more holy and are assured of eternal life!
Rom 7:4………
Christians living their faith bear fruit for God!
What are fruit good for??
Fruit provides nutrition, pleasure, beauty, and reproduction!
What kind of fruit are we to the world? Look at v5 of 7…
What kind of fruit does God want us to be?
Let’s take a moment, in the Name of Jesus Christ, let us quietly ask for forgiveness for the dead fruit we have brought to the world…….
Thank you Jesus for dying for our sins, Amen.
God’s plan is for us to be good fruit!! How does it happen?
Let’s go back to the main points of the passage.
Sin shall not be our master, we are under grace!
Sin is disobedience to God, right? And how do we know if we are disobeying? We know we are disobeying God because we disobey His Law!
Can anyone on this earth completely obey God’s Law??
There is no one on earth who could love God with all their hearts, with all their soul, with all their minds, and with all their strength! Obeying God completely is an impossibility for human beings because we all have inherited sin and we all have a bent to sin. The solution for our problem of course is Jesus Christ graciously given to us to forgive us of our sins! What are we going to allow to master our lives: Sin which we can never defeat on our own or God’s love which is freely available to us? Until we are completely changed by God, glorified by God, we must daily choose who our master will be. If we allow sin master our lives, we will be defeated! If we allow God’s love master our lives, we will be victorious!
The second point of the passage is of course related to the first. If Christians do not to allow sin be their master, then they are slaves to righteousness. God through the apostle Paul, gives a commentary to this truth in our passage.
Look again at verse 16. It tells us that we are slaves to the one we obey. And so, if we are to be slaves to righteousness, we are to obey righteousness not sin.
Look again at verse 19….
Being a slave to righteousness is both an attitude and taking action. We are to tell ourselves, as Christians, we are meant for righteousness not sin, therefore offer our bodies to righteousness.
And Romans 7:1-6 tells us to think about our Christian faith to being married to Jesus Christ. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and God, we were divorced from sin. As Christians we are released from the bond of slavery to sin and we are now bound to righteousness. Sinning for a Christian is adultery to Jesus Christ!
How do we apply these truths in our lives today?
May I suggest that we simply make a decision a daily basis. As we daily live our lives, let us ask ourselves often, “Who is the master of my life?”
If we choose sin to be the master of our lives, then we will produce dead fruit!
If we choose Jesus Christ the master of our lives, we will bear godly fruit (beauty, nourishment, pleasure, and expansion of God’s Kingdom)!
Choosing who or what will master your life will result
with the appropriate fruit. What kind of fruit do you desire to bear in your life, dead fruit or godly fruit?
