Book of Romans
Lesson # 15
Romans 6:15- 6:23
By Rev. James May
In the lesson last time we were drawn by Paul to take notice that even though we are under Grace, and no longer under the Law, that the Grace of God was not to be taken for granted, and that we are not to presume upon God’s grace by continuing in sin.
Sin cannot reign over, control or defeat a Born Again Child of God, unless we allow it to happen intentionally, because we are now dead to sin. We should live according to the Spirit of God, in obedience to his Holy Word and under the leadership of the Holy Ghost. A life that is dead in Christ, buried in Christ and risen with Christ is a life that is no longer under sin for Christ has paid the debt of sin and we are free in him.
Romans 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Since we are not under the condemnation of the law of God anymore, but have been set free by the blood of Jesus and have been given the wonderful grace of God, does that give us the right to live in sin; or to commit sin on a habitual level and still expect God’s grace to cleanse us? Paul emphatically states, “God forbid that we should think in such a manner.” Those who are redeemed of the law should never want to go back under that law, but when we leave the presence of the Lord, presuming upon his grace, and decide to live a life of sin, then we are once again come under the curse of the law, and only judgment awaits.
Romans 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Paul continues to answer his own question from verse 15. In doing so, he makes an example that comes from the relationship of a servant to his master. It is a given that any servant must be obedient to his master or face some serious consequences. No doubt, every one of those saints in Rome would fully understand his analogy. After all, the Romans were known for making slaves and servants of every conquered foe. And the Jews had a long history of not only being slaves and servants, but having other people as their own slaves and servants. No matter which side of this picture you saw, the analogy was easily understood.
Paul says that it is the duty and command of servant to obey those over them, and to refuse to do so would often mean harsh imprisonment or death. They were at the beck and call of their masters and nothing else mattered. It didn’t matter if they felt like it, or they were already busy, or they were tired, or they had made other plans – whatever the master wanted done was to done immediately. The servant’s whole reason for living and breathing was to fulfill every wish of his master.
Of course it follows that if you were a servant to a master, then you were to be absolutely yielded to whoever owned you. There was no other choice!
Paul goes on to say that when a servant is owned by a master, then he has no freedom and no ability to be involved with anything or anyone that would take away from being always available at the master’s call.
A servant could not serve his own god’s, because he had a master, and that master was his “god” and would tolerate him serving no other. It is impossible to be a good servant, always available for two masters. A servant, or a slave, can only serve one master at a time. It just isn’t possible to serve more than one!
In the beginning we served the devil and he was our master. We did whatever he wanted; and it resulted in the sin and breaking of the law of God. The service we gave to the devil was good in our eyes, but in God’s eyes it was sin. We were in a plate of contempt for God, hatred for all that he stood for and we were in allegiance with the arch enemy of God. What a terrible condition to be in, even if you are a slave! Regardless of how we thought about it, we were servants to the devil and he was our master, leading us down a path of unrighteousness, and into eternal punishment.
But now, because of Christ, we are set free for being a servant to Satan; and now we have a choice to make. God pays the full price of our redemption, and then gives us full freedom of choice on which way will go from there. But there is a catch because there are only two ways to choose from. We can choose to serve the Lord, or we can choose to go back and serve the devil. It will be one or the other, and even if we say that we refuse to choose, then by default, we choose the devil.
Do you remember what sin is? It is rejection of Jesus Christ and rebellion against the Word of God! So, whether you say that you choose to serve the devil or not, doesn’t matter. What matters is, Are you going to choose to serve Jesus? If we choose not to serve the Lord, then rebellion is within us and we have rejected Christ, and now we are back where we began, serving the devil.
Serving Jesus brings us under grace and leads us to eternal life through the righteousness of Christ. That’s the choice we make in living for the Lord!
There are a lot of people in the church today who are riding the fence between serving the Lord and serving the devil. I wonder which side they will “fall off on”? You must know that you will never “fall off the fence” and fall into the Kingdom of God. You’ll always “fall off the fence” and land in the world where Satan reigns. How do I know that? It’s simple – you must make the choice to serve the Lord. It won’t happen by accident! Satan will accept you no matter whether you choose him or not. In fact, he designs every trap around you to make it seem like you’re making the right choice, but it’s all smoke and mirrors, and any choice other than serving Jesus with all your heart, will end in eternal punishment!
Romans 6:17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
We should ever give thanks unto the Lord for delivering us from the miry pits of sin. We were all like sheep who had gone astray and become trapped in the mud pits of hell. But Jesus found us, loved us while were covered in the stench and muck of the pigsty. He picked us up, redeemed us by his blood and cleansed us from all sin. he gave us robes of pure white through his own righteousness, and declared us to be free indeed.
That all happened because we heard the word of the gospel of Jesus Christ, fell down before him in repentance, believed upon him and asked him into our hearts. Jesus never refuses a truly repentant heart! Thank God for the day that the doctrine of salvation through Christ came to your house!
How did it come to you? How did you first hear the gospel message? Did it come from a friend who knew Jesus and kept leading you to come to Christ? Did it come through a teacher at church who kept telling you about Jesus? Did it come from the message of preacher behind the pulpit? Did it come through a gospel song that touched your heart? Did it come while you were at the altar of prayer? Did Jesus come to you in your car, lying in your bed, or in your moment of greatest despair? However he came, you heard the message, believed upon Jesus and received your salvation and deliverance!
In Hearing the Word and obeying the Word, you were made free and became servants of Christ.
That’s what Paul says in Romans 6:18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Romans 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Paul spoke to the saints at Rome and it appears that they had a lot of weaknesses of the flesh. They had yielded themselves to doing that which was unclean in God’s eyes, bringing sin into their midst, as they serving Satan as their master.
Paul says that it’s now time to do away with that old life of sin and that they should yield themselves to becoming the servants of righteousness instead. They must make the choice to allow Jesus to reign in them and choose him as their master. Just as freely and willingly as they had served the devil, they must freely and willingly, with absolute commitment, serve the Lord as their new master.
That’s the same choice that each of us has to make every day. Will you today; and will you tomorrow, choose to serve the Lord? Who will gain the upper hand in your life? Will it be “self”, which is constantly coercing you to fulfill the needs and desires of the flesh regardless of the cost to any other part of your life. Flesh says “eat, drink and be merry”; but the Spirit says, “sanctify a fast and call a solemn assembly, and let us draw closer to the Lord”. Will your flesh rule you, or will the spirit? Flesh is a part of Satan’s kingdom, corrupted by the sin that is in the world; but Spirit is righteous and just when the Lord lives in your heart!
Romans 6:20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Serving the devil, living in the world, gave you a freedom, but it was a freedom from all that is right, good and holy. You were free from the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit. You were free from the convicting power of the Spirit. You were free from the requirements of living righteously. In fact, you were free from all things pertaining to godliness and righteousness.
But your freedom from the things of God and the move of God in your life also meant that you were servants unto the sin that had you bound; and you were destined to pay for those sins in the end.
Romans 6:21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
In that life of sin, serving the devil, there is very little of eternal value that can come of it. Though you may not have been ashamed of it then; we certainly are now, since we have come to know the truth.
What profit, pleasure, satisfaction, or comfort, could you find in committing sin? It’s like the scripture says, “What shall it profit a man if gains the whole world, yet loses his soul?” No matter how hard you might try, there is no way to win when serving Satan.
Everything we could do, all we could learn and all we could give of ourselves when we were sinners, couldn’t buy one second of time in that place called Heaven. And, at the same time, everything that we thought we were really going to have and enjoy in this world came to nothing. It was all an illusion, a lie from the devil himself, who kept telling you that everything is going to be all right in the end. Sooner or later, there was a price to be paid for the life of sin that we lived, and that price was death.
Hardened sinners seem to be unashamed of anything they say or do. There was a time when people would even be ashamed to curse or say something off color in front of a Christian. But the day is upon us now when men feel no shame for anything anymore. And if a Christian seems to be uncomfortable around it, their only choice is to walk away because to try to change it would only give place for those around you to call you intolerant and mean spirited or judgmental.
The said thing about all of this is that even in the church, Christians have forgotten how to blush, or be ashamed of their sin. We bite and devour one another, say mean, hateful things to one another sometimes; and we even grieve the Holy Spirit by our attitudes, yet there is no blushing for sin.
There was a time when the House of God was reverenced as a place of worship or a House of Prayer, but now the church has become more like a playground or a sports arena.
Worship has to be real; not just a show of the flesh for God to honor it or dwell in the midst of it. Where is our blushing for imitating true worship? Where is our blush, or our shame, for not worshipping God in spirit and in truth? Where is our shame for not presenting the message of the gospel?
The fact is that all things that are not done as true service to the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Word of God, will require a penalty of death for sin. This is no game we are playing. It’s not my way, or your way, or his way, or the highway – IT’S ONLY GOD’S WAY!
Romans 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Thank God, we are free from the power of sin. Because we now serve the Lord, the first thing that our life will produce is the fruit of holiness. We are made holy by the blood of the Lamb, and we are given the power to live holy by the Holy Ghost; and we will be counted as holy before the Father in Heaven because we have accepted the price that his Son, Jesus paid on the cross.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
There is a payday coming for all those who serve the devil, and the wages that they will receive will be eternally paid, in torment in the Lake of Fire! First there is death to this body of flesh that sin has already chained us to. Then there is eternal death in the eternity to come. Sin is a product of rebellion against God and therefore is an enemy of God, and in the end, every enemy of God is crushed forever, defeated and cast in the fiery pits.
Thank God there is hope for the sinner, if they will come to Christ. We don’t have to live for the devil and earn the “right to die” as payment for our sin. We have the privilege of accepting the free gift of Life Eternal from Jesus Christ our Lord! Thank God for that great gift of life; given by grace; and giving us the right to choose to serve the Lord!
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! I like his wages a lot better!
