Alba 9-26-2021
WHOSE SLAVE ARE YOU?
Romans 6:15-23
Slavery! That is a word that does not have a good connotation. It brings to mind a lot of things. It could refer to a person slaving over a hot stove to fix a meal for a large group of people.
But it also refers to the terrible practice of one person owning another person and making them do whatever work needs to be done.
Our country has a history of people having slaves. For all of the mistakes our nation made concerning slavery, we are not at all the first nation to have it.
We are also a nation that went to war with itself over it, and paid with the lives of over 600,000 men and boys to settle the issue.
Slavery is not a black and white issue. The history of the world records countless stories where generation upon generation dealt with the issues of slavery.
Tragically, the history of human kind includes a history of people enslaving other people. You only need to go back to the Bible to see that one of the earliest accounts addressed slavery nearly 4,000 years ago.
In Genesis 15:13 it says, “Then the Lord said to Abram, 'You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.'” (NLT)
The word 'slave' is terrible word with a horrible meaning. But slavery hasn't gone away. According to the U.S. Department of State, there are still 167 countries that openly allow slavery.
From the combined total of all these countries it is estimated that at least 48 million people are in bondage around the world. Today we don't use the word slavery as much as we use the word trafficking.
Human trafficking or “modern slavery” is “the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.”
The reports of the illegal migrants entering our country on our southern border indicate that there are many who fit the description of being trafficked by cartels or others.
Migrants who cross the southern border are particularly vulnerable to the criminal traffickers and smugglers who take advantage of their desire to come to the United States.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, although many people think of the sex trade when they think of human trafficking, this crime also occurs in such labor situations as:
Domestic servitude, Labor in a prison-like factory and Migrant agricultural work.
Even in New Testament times the practice of slavery was common in the Roman empire. So while Paul's letter to the Romans speaking of slavery does not sit too well with our sense of what is right or wrong these days, it would have been familiar enough to his earliest readers.
It was a common practice for a person at that time to sell themselves into slavery in order to get themselves out of debt. It has been estimated that 85%-90% of all Roman citizens were slaves.
While slavery was not as desirable as freedom, it was more desirable than prison.
Slavery is not a term that sets a positive tone, nor does it bring with it empowering or comfortable ideas. That is why Romans 6:15-19 might make us uncomfortable. Lets turn there and read. (NKJV)
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
We have all heard of Christians being referred to as servants, as sheep, as sons, as the bride of Christ, and as the body of Christ, but now we are told that we are slaves?
By the way, in most English translations of the New Testament there has been a mistranslation of an important word.
That word is the Greek word, “doulos” (doo-loss) which means “slave”. This word, doulos, appears over 130 times in the original Greek text of the New Testament.
But in many places it is not translated as “slave” in the English versions. In fact the King James Version of the New Testament uses the word slave only once.
Instead of translating doulos as slave, which is its true meaning, the English versions translate it as servant.
For example, look at Matthew 25:21. Most of us are pretty familiar with this passage. “Well done, good and faithful servant!” That’s not an accurate translation. It should read, “Well done, good and faithful slave.”
Colossians 3:24 reads, “You serve the Lord Christ.” The more accurate translation is, “It is the Lord Christ to whom you are enslaved.”
Likely, for most of us, if someone were to have told us that the Christian life is a life of slavery, we might never have made the decision to accept Christ in the first place.
And yet, that is what a Christian is.
Being a Christian means being a slave to Christ Jesus.
Now the idea of slavery may not be a very pleasant one, but if you have to be a slave, wouldn’t you want to be a slave to one who was always treating you well and looking out for your best interest?
Wouldn't you want to be a slave to a Master who was even willing to die for you? That’s exactly what our Lord Jesus did on that cross. And because He did, and we accepted His sacrifice, that means we are now His slaves.
In Christ we are those who's debt has been paid by Jesus Christ. When we become Christians we do not belong to ourselves anymore. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says that we were bought with a price, and that we are not our own anymore.
We literally belong to Christ. When He paid our sin debt, He purchased us from condemnation. While we cannot repay that debt, we will be forever in His debt. We are His slaves.
Of course there is an alternative. We do not have to yield ourselves to Jesus. But that does not free us from slavery. In fact it means our condition is much worse.
As Bob Dylan said it correctly in his song, “You're gonna have to serve somebody.” There are only two options, it will either be the Lord or the devil. The alternative to Jesus is not a good one.
Satan wants no less than to destroy you. Have you read the scripture where a demon-possessed man lived in the tombs, gashing himself with rocks, crying out night and day?
Have you read about the boy, possessed by a demon that would throw him into water or fire, trying to destroy him? Satan wants you destroyed!
It is the devil who encourages all of the sins listed in Galatians chapter five. "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness."
From just these come broken homes, disease, human sex slavery, human trafficking, children sexually molested, emotional pain and anguish, children growing up in broken homes.
God has designed us for better things. Yet, when sin is added to any God-given virtue, gift or achievement it spells grief, misery and suffering and ultimately, death.
For example: A gun plus sin will produce violence and murder. Success plus sin will produce arrogance and pride. Money plus sin will produce greed, blackmail and bribery. Love plus sin turns into lust.
Such sins can be linked to all kinds of misery. And God knows this. He knows that this kind of behavior leads to a bondage or slavery with unwelcome consequences.
There is an ugly slave driver out there. If you knew ahead of time what the devil would do to you, would you stay under his control? Would you hang around with him?
When you know the danger of a powerful taskmaster in your life, why would you stay around? God said to stay away from idols and warns us to run away from sexual sins, to put aside the deeds of darkness, and put off falsehood.
There is a choice to make. Either sin is our master, or God is our Master. We either yield to sin, or we yield to God. Whatever we yield ourselves to we end up being its slave: whether to “sin” which leads to death; or to “obedience” which leads to righteousness.
Someone who is a slave to God's righteousness does not pick and choose through God's law and obey only what is convenient and easy to obey. Slaves of righteousness will be obedient to the Lord in all things.
In the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:7, God warns Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
If sin lies at the door, you know that it is going to try to pry it open.
And once sin gets in and takes charge, bad things happen. Cain killed his brother.
Our problem most of the time isn’t that we don’t know what God wants us to do, but that we don’t want to do it. We don’t want to obey because it is difficult or uncomfortable or painful, etc.
But if we have truly given our lives to Christ as His slaves, we don’t have any say in the matter. What the Master commands we obey.
Romans 6:20-21 warn us of the consquences of allowing sin to be our master. It says, 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
The fruit of sin is not good; there is nothing good about it. The fruit of sin is death. Sin corrupts, destroys, and dooms all who seek its fruits. Psalm 44:15 describes how it feels. “My dishonor is continually before me, And the shame of my face has covered me.”
If you are a slave to sin, that means that certain things are true. It means that you will obey sin. You will give in to sin and do what sin tempts you to do. And it means that that kind of life leads to spiritual death.
Remember the Law of sin and death? The soul who sins is the soul that will die. Sin is a harsh task mater, but to be mastered by righteousness—that’s a good thing.
If you are a slave of righteousness, that also means that certain things are true. Look at Romans 6:22, But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
When we do things God's way, life is better. Because God has a remedy for war. He has a remedy for burglary. He has the solution for bigotry, hate, and for the death of innocent unborn children.
He has the cure for sexually transmitted diseases. If every man and woman on this earth has one partner for life as God directed, STD's would disappear from the face of the earth in a single generation.
God has the answer the world is looking for. The world is looking for freedom in all the wrong places. God knows where true freedom is really found. True freedom is found only through bondage to His law of love.
Verse 16 states that you are that one’s slaves whom you obey. Then it gives a choice, sin or obedience.
If any of us were asked the question, “Whose slave are you?” How would we answer? And what evidence would we have to show that that is true?
May this be true about each of us:
That though we were slaves of sin, yet we obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which we were delivered.
And having been set free from sin, we became slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:16-17)
CONCLUSION:
Sherm Nichols, formerly a minister at Villa Heights Christian Church in Joplin, told the following story:
“Carrie and I sat in a theater, watching the movie “Lincoln” a couple of years ago. It focuses especially on the effort that Lincoln made to pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution - the one making slavery illegal in the United States.
“The whole movie centers around it, and, in a dramatic climax, it is narrowly voted into Law by the Senate, April 8th, 1864.
“One year and six days later, Lincoln was assassinated. We knew that was coming, but it’s always a sobering scene to recall it. Lincoln’s self-sacrifice helped to hold the nation together at one of its most critical moments.
The movie closed with words from Lincoln’s second inaugural address. The credits rolled. The lights came back up, and everyone began to stir to leave. A lady seated behind us turned to her friend and said, 'So, did it pass or not?'”
(“Hey, When Did We Become Slaves” by Sherm Nichols Mar 31, 2021 Sermon Central)
Of course it passed. And our freedom from sin and death was signed by Jesus' blood spilled on that cross. Yet some people seem as clueless as that lady. They continue to live in a way that keeps them slaves to sin.
All the while, our Lord is saying, “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy, my burden is light.”
