WHO'S SLAVE ARE YOU?

Romans 6:15-23
Bob Bonner
February 19, 1995

Freedom---it is something we all want. Each of us has something inside us that yearns to be able to call our own shots. There's an old expression that describes this yearning. Some say, "I want to be or I am as free as a bird." But is that really true? Are we as free as a bird? Can we be as free as a bird? Are birds even really free?

A. W. Tozer, a wonderful man of God in days past, somewhat answered those questions for us when he said this: "The naturalist knows that the supposedly free bird actually lives its entire life in a cage made of fears, hungers, and instincts; it is limited by weather conditions, varying air pressures, the local food supply, predatory beasts, and that strangest of all bonds, the irresistible compulsion to stay within the small plot of land and air assigned it by the birdland comity. The freest bird is, along with every other created thing, held in constant check by a net of necessity. Only God is free." [A.W. Tozer, THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (New York, NY: Harper and Row, publishers, 1961), pp. 115-116.

Only God exists without rival and only God possesses the right and authority to do whatever He wishes. Only He is sovereign and can do absolutely whatever He pleases. 

Many of us mistakenly believe that we possess or can possess that same kind of freedom which God alone possesses, when we can't. The following true incident involving a Protestant theology professor who was invited to speak at a Catholic high school, illustrates that we cannot possess the kind of freedom which only belongs to God. 

After having completed his talk, this protestant theology professor had a question and answer time. A rather athletic-looking, streetwise student raised his hand and asked, "Do you have a lot of don'ts in your church?" Recognizing that the student was really asking a deeper question, this professor skipped the surface question and went to the heart of the issue. He said, "What you really want to know is whether or not in my church if we have any freedom, right?" 

And the student nodded. The professor went to say, "Sure, I'm free to do whatever I want to do. I'm free to rob a bank. But I'm mature enough to realize that I would be in bondage to that act for the rest of my life. I'd have to cover up my crime, go into hiding, or eventually pay for what I did. I'm also free to tell a lie. But if I do, I have to keep telling it, and I have to remember who I told it to and how I told it or I will get caught. I'm free to do drugs, abuse alcohol, and live a sexually immoral lifestyle. All of those `freedoms' lead to bondage. I'm free to make those choices, but considering the consequences, would I really be free?" The answer to that is obviously "no." Where we suffer the consequences of our wrong choices, a sovereign God never does. Hence, what appears to be freedom to some people isn't really freedom, but a return to bondage. 

God does offer the Christian freedom, but it is a different type of freedom. It is not the freedom to choose to do just whatever you want, but the freedom to choose to do what you know is right and the ability to pull it off. For instance: Let's say you are hooked on gambling, it has become an addiction. You know it's wrong to be risking what little income you may have on a bet, but when someone challenges you with a $100 wager as to who will win a game, you just can't help yourself. You make the bet and maybe lose, feel guilty because you knew better. Freedom is the ability to stop betting because you know that it is wrong for you, because you have been addicted to it. 

Freedom is the ability to live responsibly, while every other voice in your world cries out that you need to live selfishly, look out for number one, take the path of least resistance or do what you know is wrong. When Jesus Christ enters one's life and changes our nature, He gives us His very life, His very power and enablement to refrain from doing those things we know are harmful, but previously we could not stop doing. We don't ever have to allow sin to control our lives again. And that was the very point of what the Spirit of God has been teaching us through Paul's letter to the Romans, and in particular, that was the subject matter of what we have been looking at for the past three weeks in Romans 6:1-14.

According to those verses, no longer do wrong attitudes or rebellious sinful acts have to run our lives. We are new creations in Christ. Furthermore, if we as Christians continue to practice a sinful lifestyle, thinking that it is okay, because God has already accepted us, one of two things must be true of us. Either we are ignorant of what God has done for us, or we were never saved in the first place. It is one thing to wrestle with wrong or sinful habits. But it is quite another thing to continually sin as a lifestyle, with no desire to stop.

Now, when we come to the last half of Romans, Romans 6:15-23, the apostle Paul asks another very appropriate question. He asks, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!" At first, this may seem like the very same question Paul asked back in verse 1, but it is not. There, Paul was asking can a believer go on living a sinful lifestyle without changing. Here, Paul is asking the next very practical question. He is asking, “Can't I sin just this one time, if I don't allow it to become a habit?"

"You know, this person has really ticked me off. I know I am not supposed to hate this person or kill them, but can't I just smack 'em one, just this once? I mean, just one quick, "BAM!" to the jaw? It would make me feel so good!" Or, I know that it is wrong to lust after women, but my wife and I have been on the outs or we have been apart from each other for the past month, due to circumstances beyond our control, can't I just go and see one adult movie or rent or purchase one pornographic video or magazine? Can't I just do it this one time? I mean what's the harm?"

Those are the questions that Paul wants to address in the last half of this chapter. Basically, Paul says, "No, you shouldn't do that." In verse 16 he warns us of the danger of choosing the momentary pleasure of sin for just this one time, and begins to explain why it is dangerous for us in the long run. First he gives us a standard principle that is true about life, no matter what. Then in verses 17-23, he explains the two options that face us as believers when opportunities to sin come our way. If we choose to sin, he will show us in verses 17-21 what the "benefits" or dangers are of taking that option. In verses 22-23, he will show us what the benefits are if we choose to do what is right and not sin.

Let's begin with verse 16 and looking at a basic principle of life. In this verse, Paul asks a rhetorical question, a question that should have an obvious answer. It is so obvious, that he expects us to already know what he is about to say. He says, "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone {as} slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin [that is obeying the call to sin] resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” 

The key word upon which Paul's argument in this chapter and the principle of this verse rests, is the word "slave". It is used eight times in these six verses. Paul's point is that as human beings, we were created by God to be a slave to someone. We were created to be mastered by someone. Everyone of us find ourselves being ruled by some other authority in life. We cannot avoid it. We are created to serve somebody. 

This was more obvious to Paul's readers in his day, even though they lived in a democracy like we do today, than it is obvious to many of us today. Today, we have bought into this misunderstanding of freedom that says that freedom is the ability to do whatever we wish, no holds barred. But in Paul's day, they knew that that concept of freedom was pure foolishness. 

Several years ago Bob Dylan wrote these words to a song that was on an album called, SLOW TRAIN COMING:

You've got to serve somebody.

You may be an ambassador to England or an ambassador to France,

You might like to gamble, you might like to dance.

You might be the heavyweight champion of the world.

You might be a socialite with a long string of pearls.

But, you've got to serve somebody.

You may be a preacher preaching spiritual pride,

Might be a city councilman taking bribes on the side.

You may be working in a barber shop, you may know how to cut hair.

You may be somebody's mistress, you may be somebody's heir.

But, you've got to serve somebody.

Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk.

Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk.

Might like to eat caviar, might like to eat bread.

You might be sleeping on the floor, or sleeping in a king-size bed.

But, you're going to have to serve somebody.

Yes, indeed, you're going to have to serve somebody.

It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord.

You're going to have to serve somebody.

That's exactly what Paul is driving at, in this verse. We have never been totally free agents. We have been moved and controlled by forces beyond our power. In addition, Paul adds something else to this principle that we were made to be mastered. He is telling us here that not only are we created to serve somebody or be somebody else's slave, but we Christians have the freedom, as Christians to choose whom we want to serve. I have the freedom to choose who I will serve. Before we came to Christ, we did not have a choice as to whom we would serve. Now, we do.

As Colossians 1:13 tells us, until we put our trust in Jesus Christ as our deliverer, our savior and Lord, we could not escape the kingdom of darkness nor the serving of Satan and his purposes. We may not have realized that we were serving Satan, and we may not have wanted to serve Satan, but in effect, God's word says we were. That doesn't mean that before we became Christians that we couldn't do some things right. But it means that when life gets tough, only those with the power of God controlling their lives can fight off the master of sin. It was only when Jesus took us out of the realm of darkness and He placed us into the kingdom of light did we now possess the total freedom to choose whom we would serve. Now, we can serve the Lord, and obey him; or we can serve Satan and obey sin. It's either one or the other. You can't serve two masters.

And those two options of choosing whom we wish to serve, sin or obedience to God, are the options that Paul wants to talk about in the rest of this chapter.

In verses 17-21, Paul's major focus is on what happens to the believer who chooses to serve sin. He says, "But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, [notice the past tense: this is who you were before you came to Christ. But thanks be to God, because He is the one who has changed our lives through Jesus Christ] you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching [meaning the basics about knowing and living for Jesus Christ] to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms [meaning his reference to slavery] because of the weakness of your flesh."

In our being there is this weakness of moral fiber, called the "flesh". This is the first time Paul uses this expression this way in the book of Romans. He will explain what he means by the "flesh" in the next chapter. But basically, because we have in our being this weakness toward doing evil, this thing called the flesh, Paul has been encouraging us to choose not to follow after this evil prompting, the flesh, but to choose to let right living be our master.

He continues, "For just as you presented [past tense = before you committed your life to Christ] your members {as} slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in {further} lawlessness, so now present your members {as} slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification."

Paul is giving us here a very important principle to remember. It's what I call the, "I bet you can't eat just one..." principle. You remember that potato chip commercial that has one person challenging another that they can't eat just one of brand x's potato chip, and then the person tries to eat just one and ends up eating the whole bag? That's sort of what Paul is saying here. Somehow we have picked up the following wrong idea: temptation comes our way and we start thinking things like, "Who will ever know? I'm absolutely safe. Furthermore, I'll only do this thing just this one time. This is as far as I'll go...period."

Wrong! Paul is saying here that if you choose to sin one time, it won't stop there. You will become a slave to that sin. That sin will carry you farther down the road than you had planned to travel. You just "can't eat one!" 

For instance: Let's say that you have had a bad day. Someone has treated you unfairly and you are not just hurt, you are angry inside. You are resentful. Rather than recalling that you are a saint and choosing by faith, to appropriate Christ power and forgive that person, you choose to wallow in your bitterness toward that person. You choose to sin. 

Pretty soon, the results of the enslavement to that sin of bitterness will begin to reveal itself in different ways in your life. Your physical countenance will begin to change. When people see you, there won't be that bright cheerful look about you. Instead, you will have that vinegar-like expression. If allowed to continue, your day starts looking a little darker or less joyful to you. Understand, you didn't want your countenance to change or the day to appear darker to you, but sin has already taken you further down hill than you wanted to go. 

Then your bitter attitude toward this one person will carry over to other relationships around you. Maybe you start barking at fellow employees, customers and when you get home, family members. Now, you never wanted to hurt your family members when you got home. You didn't wake up that morning and decide, "When I get home, I am going to make my kids or spouse or roommates miserable." You never planned on doing that, but it happened. When you deliberately choose to sin, like remaining bitter and resentful, your sin will always take you further than you want to go. This master called sin takes over and you become enslaved to its consequences. 

Jesus put it this way, in John 8:34. He said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin." And that includes everyone, Christian and non-Christian. 

"But," you may be wondering, "If I deliberately choose to sin as a Christian, does that mean I am hopeless enslaved to that sin, never able to get free from my addiction? Am I doomed to be enslaved to that sin forever?" No, not if you are a Christian. As a child of God, God has provided you with a simple way of escape. 1 John 1:9 tells us that all we need to do is confess that sin or agree with God that it is wrong and not part of our new identity in Christ, turn away from that sin, and you will immediately be put back onto the path of freedom in righteousness. However, there will be some consequences of that sin. There always is. God promises us that there are always consequences to sin. Galatians 6:7-8 tells us "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life."

That corruption could be a weakness in our life to that particular sinful habit. It could mean the loss of finances because maybe you have disobeyed God's principles of finances. It could mean an unplanned child or the destruction of a home if the sin was that of immorality. We can be freed from the enslavement of sin, but there will be consequences, sometimes consequences that will stick with us for the rest of our lives. Sin always takes us farther than we planned to go. It is a cruel master.

That's why Paul exhorts us to do something different with our "members" or our bodies or our lives. He says "present [or more literally, keep on presenting every day] your members as slaves of righteousness."

Paul's point is well illustrated with that old story of how they use to catch monkeys in New Guinea. You remember...they would cut a tiny hole in a hollow gourd, put some seeds in it, tie the gourd to a fixed object and then wait for some little monkey to reach inside for the seeds. Naturally, when he grasps the seeds, then he cannot get his fist out. All he has to do to gain his freedom is to let go the seeds; but he will not do that. He insists upon clutching the seeds.

The same is true of sin. All you have to do to experience freedom from sin, is to let go of it through confession and choose to grab hold of the Lord and serve Him. If we don't let go of the sinful practice, it will hold us.

In verse 20, Paul sets us up for the next "benefit" or consequence to the Christian who chooses to obey the voice of sin. Paul states, "For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness." In other words, before you were saved, you were free to do wrong and you wouldn't really know what you were missing. You would receive temporary satisfaction along with the negative consequences of reaping what you sowed, except you did not necessarily recognize the correlation between what you had done wrong and the negative consequences of your sin. 

But that is no longer true, now that you have committed your life to Christ and been given a new identity. For Paul goes on to say, in verse 21, that there are two more negative consequences for the believer who deliberately chooses to obey the voice of sin. Paul says, "Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death."

Next to becoming a slave to sin when we choose to obey its temptation, Paul says that we will feel a sense of deep shame. What is "shame." Shame is the awareness or painful feeling of unworthy actions. When we misbehave and do things that we know don't go along with who we are in Christ, we are embarrassed. Shame is different than guilt or conviction. Guilt and conviction are more of an intellectual awareness rather than a deep feeling of embarrassment. When the Christian sins, there's this thought, "What in the world am I doing this for? This isn't why I was saved. I know better than this. And I am ashamed that after all that Jesus has done for me, I have treated Him this way."

Have you ever noticed that when you choose to disregard God's directions, you don't feel shame while you are practicing sin, because of sin's momentary pleasure? It's only after we sin that we feel shame. One of the attributes of sin is that we don't see what we are doing. Sin deceives us. That's why Paul asks, "What benefit did you reap?" None, except momentary pleasure. And as Hebrews 11:25, teaches us, that sin is only pleasurable "for a season." Shame, on the other hand, lasts longer than the momentary pleasure. This sense of shame is part of what Paul meant in Galatians 6, where he said "you will reap corruption" in your self when you deliberately sin.

The exciting thing is that God's spirit will not let His chosen people to continue on in sin. He loves us too much for that. He will continue working away on you. Slavery and shame, a sense of worthlessness are all forms of a loving God's discipline to bring us back. When we are tired of being miserable, we will turn back to Him, obey Him and experience the joy of living that He and we really want in our lives. 

The third consequence for the Christian who deliberately chooses to obey the voice of the master called sin is death. And by "death", we are not talking about spiritual death in the sense that one can lose his salvation. "Death", here, refers to what is happening in the soul of the individual right now as a believer or child of God. It refers to a person's out look on life based upon the consequences of that person's actions. 

Verse 23, is equally talking about the same thing. Although this verse is quoted often in evangelism, this verse was written with the believer in mind. Paul says in verse 23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." "Wages" is a specific term used of the daily food ration [literally "fish ration"] given to a Roman soldier for his service. In other words, this death is not some large payment that comes at the end of one's life, but rather something that is measured out to the person on a daily basis.

The wages of sin, then, is daily death. It is the opposite of really living. It is the absence of living life right now. It would be characterized by hostility, anger, frustration, depression, emptiness, barrenness, worthlessness, hatred, self-hatred, boredom, banality or mere existence due to the mundaneness of life, despair, defeat.

When a believer experiences this kind of death due to failure to obey His new Lord; there is the loss of that close communion with God; the loss of that sense of His blessing in your life. In addition, there is that sense that one's spiritual growth has stopped. Everyone around you may be looking at the same scriptures you are and discovering exciting new insights and new meanings, but you see nothing spectacular. It's as though the light of scripture has temporarily gone out. Furthermore, one's life seems powerless. God doesn't seem to be answering your prayers anymore. His promises seem to be true for others, but not for you. Others may be effectively reaching out to people for Christ, but your effectiveness seems to be so limited.

As I said earlier, it is only when we confess our sin and foolishness, and turn away from sin, that "life" returns to us. But in the meantime, what we get is "death."

What's really sad is that all of this death, shame and enslavement to sin is so unnecessary for the believer. Three times Paul stresses that the believer has been "set free" from sin. We don't have to return to sin. So with these negative consequences, why should we continue to do so?

Our second option, which is to present ourselves to God and refuse to obey sin's voice provides us much greater benefits. Let's consider them as Paul spells those out to us in verse 22. "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life." Paul highlights two big benefits for refusing to obey the voice of sin and instead, following the call of righteousness.

The first is sanctification. And by that, Paul is referring to spiritual growth or maturity in one's life. We get to know God better. Our intimacy and realization of Him grows deeper. Changes we have wished would take place in our lives, start taking place. Old habits begin to disappear almost as if by magic. Those self-centered tendencies you have had all of your life---you know, those idiosyncrasies that have driven your kids, parents, spouses and friends away from you---those things begin to change.

The second benefit is that we get to experience life, right now. Rather than fear, we have confidence. Rather than anxiety, we have peace, regardless of our circumstances. Rather than depression, joy. Rather than bitterness, forgiveness. Rather than defeat and despair, hope. Rather than existence or mundaneness, a sense of purpose and direction. We feel alive, because we know God is alive and He hears our prayers, speaks to us through His word and is using our lives to positively affect others around us for His sake.

Christians have the greatest potential to get the most out of this life than any other persons alive. Similarly, there is no one more miserable on the face of this earth, not even the lost individual without Christ, than the Christian who is deliberately living in sin, because the Christian knows what he is missing. Like the prodigal son who was eating pig slop, due to his sinful rebellion and foolish when he could have been eating well at the table of his father. It was only when he came to his senses, and returned home to his father, that his life made sense again.

Paul, in Galatians 5:1, pleads with the believer, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." It is your choice Christian. Joshua probably said it best when he stood before the nation of Israel and said, "Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve:...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 

Let's pray: Our Father, we pray that there may be among us today, young and old alike, men and women who will dare to respond to the challenge of your word, to be what we are capable of being in Christ. To choose to serve you, our savior, rather than sin as our task master. And if there are any here today, who are tired of living with the consequences of having ignored you or of having kept you at arms length that they might bow their knees before you in humility, seeking your forgiveness and would take your free gift of Jesus to come into their lives, to be their loving Lord and savior. Father, if there are any here today, who are just now asking Jesus to become their savior and Lord, move them to share that great decision with a friend, before today is out. In Jesus name, amen.

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