Slavery

Read Romans 6.15-23

So I've been slacking on this blog for a while now, I know. To be honest Romans tends to get difficult to write about at times because it's so thick. I've also had time slipping away from me as well, which is my own fault. But if you could please forgive me, I'll get started and we'll get back into Romans.

The first part of Romans 6 is about how we have died to sin, and come alive in Christ, really good stuff. Now Paul continues in this train of thought and writes about our slavery.

Christians love to talk about "the freedom we have in Christ." We have a number of worship songs and hymns about freedom. We always hear sermons on freedom surrounding the Fourth of July, Veteran's Day, and Memorial Day. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful and respect the men and women who have served our country on behalf of our freedom. My girlfriend's dad being one of them. But even if they didn't answer the call to fight the Nazi's, communists, or terrorists, and the US was taken over by a power other than our own government, I would still be saved by Christ, my true hero, my true savior, the one who gave me true freedom. I may make some people upset with these statements, and as I said I have nothing but respect for the men and women who served this country, but Jesus is my true savior. I could continue to go on a rant about how I'm a Christian before I'm an American, and how the Christian flag should be to the right of a preacher and above the American flag, but maybe I'll save that for a holiday. What truly matters is, I am a child of God, saved by his son from the death that is my sin. And that goes before all else in my life. That there is freedom in Christ from sin.

But there is not only freedom, but also slavery. Which is ironic because slavery is the opposite of freedom right? But this slavery leads to life, not death.

Before we were saved we were dead in our sin and could not help by sin because of the broken nature of man. Paul writes that we are all slaves, either slaves to sin or slaves to God, to righteousness. One is disobedience, the other obedience. Can you guess which is which? But as Paul writes, "Thanks be to God" that even though we were once slaves to sin, we have died to sin and come alive in Jesus, becoming slaves to righteousness. Now why is Paul writing that we need to thank God for going from one slavery to another?

Because our new slavery leads to life. Someone had saved us from an awful, brutal, dehumanizing slavery. And now he asks if we want to work for him. No wages, but the work is easy, and is a natural response from accepting his invitation. Jesus delivered us from the evil one, bringing us into his house, feeding us, clothing us, making sure that, while times get rough, we are still cared for, loved, and taken care of. We may not get everything that we want, but HE WILL TAKE CARE OF US. Not only that, but he brought us back to life. We were dead and he brought us back to life. How can we not work for him?

In verse 19 we see Paul write, "I am speaking to you in human terms, because of your natural imitations." Now he's not calling the Romans stupid here, he's writing that this is difficult stuff to understand, and the best way he can help us understand it is by writing about it like this. And I'm trying to clarify it even more. To sum up the idea of being a slave to righteousness, we are to present our members, our bodies as slaves to righteousness which leads to sanctification, or the process of being made holy, separate from the world. And this is the very thing that Jesus prayed for us in his prayer in John 17, that we would be in the world not of it, that we would be holy, sanctified, slaves to righteousness, not sin.

In Matthew 6 we see Jesus talk about laying treasures in heaven, and how man cannot serve both God and money, but can only choose one. Switch money with sin, though we can say they're one in the same. If all you care about is money, then you're not bound by the laws of God, and he doesn't matter to you. If your primary focus is, "I have to make money" then God means nothing to you nor do his riches. In short, if you're going to be a pagan then be a pagan and don't try to coin yourself off as anything else. But that road leads to death. You have been set free from that road and have become a child of God and there will be fruit from your labors, and you will be rewarded in the end with eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life with him.