Both a Slave and Free
GOOD MORNING. Words can be a problem. They don’t always convey exactly what you are thinking, and that’s one reason Jesus uses parables to teach concepts and ideas rather than just saying words. Not only does it stick better, but it conveys feeling that goes beyond the words you can say.
Paul identifies this very importantly in verse 19 of our Epistle lesson:
19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations.
His warning to the Romans is just as much needed today as it was then, because he is talking about something that gets people up in arms. Slavery.
We’re not actually talking about people or child slavery, but our bondage to sin, and our redemption by being purchased by Christ’s Blood. But even here, there are limitations on how you talk about it. Nobody likes slavery except
A lot of modern translations don’t like to even use the word slavery, and use servant instead, because the word is such a distraction to the modern mind. And I get it. When I’m teaching, I don’t want you focused on the words I choose or how I pronounce or mispronounce something, it’s a rabbit trail. I have a hard enough time keeping attention with all this behind me.
We like to believe we are in control of our own souls, but we are fooling ourselves if we do. We are slaves. Interestingly, this is one of the founding principles of our Addiction groups, that “I am powerless over the sin that controls me, and I need God to restore me to sanity.” Paul taught that 1900 years ago in today’s epistle lesson. Sin is such a strong master you can’t free yourself without God purchasing you and if He does, you belong to God, you’re not your own.
Sin is the most degenerating power in the world. It impacts every single aspect of our lives, tainting our thoughts and desires, warping good things into evil. We need to eat. Sin twists it into Gluttony. So many sins are just a warping of something that is good and important.
Because of this warping, sin makes us unable to do anything pleasing for God. We may think we are free, but a slave who thinks he’s free is the most enslaved of all because we have no power or desire to leave our master of sin.
So, how do we know who our master is? Paul gives us 3 questions to ask ourselves: Who do I obey? What fruit am I producing? And what are my wages?”
First, who do you obey? The apostle John says this to shake us up:
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God…
Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
This doesn’t mean a Christian never sins; it means that sin is no longer the characteristic direction of our life. We have a new North! We still struggle and fall. But our lives should be marked by a striving for obedience to God, often very contrary to our fleshly desires.
The direction of a Christian’s life is toward obedience. v.18
you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness.
Because we have the ability to obey, this means, with God’s help, we actually have the ability to produce godly fruit, our 2nd examination.
Our faith in Christ completely changes us, not just our ultimate destination, but how we live here and now. It’s not just Fire Insurance as we talked about…
There’s a story of an atheist debater challenging a Christian preacher. The atheist wanted the preacher to debate him on the merits of Christianity’s morality.
The preacher agreed, “But,” he said, “When we debate, as a demonstration, I want you to bring just 1 person who’s life of sin and misery has been helped and changed by your atheistic teaching, because I can bring 100 people who used to be slaves to sin but now have been radically changed by God’s grace.”
Now that we have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, Paul says in verse 22 the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. God’s purpose in redeeming us is not to give us a license to do as we please, but to give us the freedom to live as we were created to live: righteously.
This brings us to our new Master. He is not a cruel taskmaster like Sin. He is the one who loved us and sent His Son to redeem us. And the great paradox of our faith is that slavery to God is true freedom. Understanding this true Freedom doesn’t mean doing anything we want, like have pet tigers hanging around the house to use Comic Sans Font when other fonts are available. It is the freedom to actually use the things God gives us the way God intended it to be used to produce good fruit in keeping with the Holy Spirit.
Paul gives a summary of this in Galatians 5 as the fruit of the Spirit when he says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This fruit is the evidence of our new life. The process of being made into a tree that produces good fruit is called sanctification—the process of every Christian becoming holy.
And like a gardener tending a plant, we must put in the work. A garden must be watered and fertilized to bear fruit, and so must the Christian life.
We need the water of the Holy Spirit and the food of God’s Word and Sacrament to grow. Jesus himself said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”
This brings us to the third part of our journey: our wages, or the nourishment for this new life. In today’s Gospel lesson, we find Jesus preaching to 4,000 people for three days. They are “desert famished.” His disciples again complain that they have no bread to feed the crowd, but Jesus takes the little they have—seven rolls—He gives thanks, breaks the bread, and distributes it until everyone is full.
He does the same for us today. If you are famished, low in faith, and hounded by the sin in your flesh, Jesus invites you to the feast. The food He offers is not just bread, but our gracious Master serves us Himself.
In the end, as Paul says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). No one deserves it, that’s why it’s a gift, a free gift, a gift given when we receive Christ Jesus as Lord.
We are no longer slaves to sin. We are a new creation in Christ. We are now slaves to obedience, to righteousness, to a Master who loves us and freely gives us eternal life. And in this blessed slavery, we find our truest and most profound freedom.
