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No Longer Slaves
“But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:22-23
“Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” – Romans 6:11-13
I gave my life to Christ when I was fourteen years old under a tent on a football field in my neighborhood in St. Andrew, Jamaica. A crusade, they called it. I ‘walked the aisle,’ weeping, having never heard the gospel ever presented in that way before. The next morning, the tent was gone and I had no place to turn. No discipleship, no leadership, no church. I had so many questions. I floundered for a year. I had no Bible. Wouldn’t even know where to start if I did. The following year, near my fifteenth birthday, my mother’s co-worker invited her to a crusade at her church. Hope Gospel Assembly. A tall man with kind eyes and power in his voice spoke of the love of God, the sacrifice and cruel death of God’s beloved son, the sins of the human race, MY sin and my destiny without Christ. I ‘walked the aisle’ again. I was so drawn to this Jesus that I had heard about for so many years and now, I never wanted to leave His side. This time, a youth leader got a hold of me and my biggest question for him was, “How can I stop sinning and offending this loving God?” The question was pressing in on me!
For years, I had heard people say when they did something terrible, “Well, I’m only human” and shrug it off. I had heard even Christians say it. I said it myself. Even in the scriptures, it clearly states that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We live in a sinful, fallen creation. Plunged into sin and rebellion from Eden. How were we supposed to avoid it? We are only human, right? Sin is our natural state, right? Yes and no!
In Psalm 51:5, the Word says that we were born in sin and shaped in iniquity. We couldn’t get away from it! We were soaked in it, tied to it, a slave to it. But God had a plan, a strategy for our freedom.
You see, He is the thrice Holy God who cannot tolerate sin and sin has a cost, a price and a wage. All has to be paid. Sin could not be bypassed. Someone had to pay! When Christ cried out on that cross, “It is finished,” that payment was made in full. The chains of sin were broken. Man would be set free from this bondage. The slavery to sin was over. Freedom finally came. WE can choose this freedom, by saying yes to Christ and His sacrificial work, a work in which He drank from the cup of His Father’s wrath down to the very dregs, or we can say no and drink that cup ourselves. The latter will prove eternally fatal. There is no returning from that decision. No redemption in the grave. A life forever without the presence of God. Imagine every single evil thing that turns your stomach here on earth, eternally with you…forever. And flames which cannot be quenched. Dying a new death every single day, yet you cannot die…forever. The wrath of a Holy God poured out upon you because you chose to drink that cup yourself!
You know, I’ve read through the book of Romans so many times since I gave my life to Christ. I’ve read Romans 6 countless number of times and just never really came face to face with its truth. What is the truth? The truth is that if we accept the work of Christ on the cross and freely surrender our life to Him, we are no longer slaves to sin!
“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace…Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” – Romans 6:14-16. So, here’s the thing: You are a slave to the thing you obey! Before you are saved, you can’t help but sin! Why? Because you were a slave to it! You couldn’t get away from it! You were chained to it.
However, when the Blood of Christ set you free, smashed those chains, kicked down the door of your slave quarters and walked out with you, it declared, “YOU ARE NO LONGER A SLAVE. YOU ARE FREE!”
So NOW, when you sin, you are CHOOSING to sin. You don’t HAVE TO sin. You are making a conscious choice. Sin is now a self-inflicted wound!
If you read on in Romans 6 and verse 18, it says, “…and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” You see, if you are not bound to righteousness, you choose to remain a slave to sin! You must bind yourself to RIGHTEOUSNESS and become its slave.
The problem is, most of us don’t know we’re free. We haven’t realized it.
As a teen growing up in Jamaica during violent political times, my father had guard dogs for our home. We had beautiful, very large Alsatians (called German Shepherds in the U.S.) to guard the property. They were trained guard dogs, but one in particular, Lassie, was prone to biting. One day, my little brother’s friend came in through our gate unaccompanied and Lassie sneaked up behind her and bit her on the back of her thigh. To my father, that was unacceptable. Lassie was chained to a tree during training and until she learned the rules (back then, I'm not sure trainers knew better). Her training was loving, but intense and long, so she became accustomed to being chained. When her training was complete, the chain was removed and she was free to roam about as she wished again. But you know what? Lassie stayed by that tree and wouldn’t leave it. She simply didn’t know she was free. We called her, offered her treats, coaxed her to come to us, tried everything, but Lassie wouldn’t move. This is a picture of most of us Christians, so we say things like, “I fell into sin,” and “I sinned because I’m only human and I can’t help it.” Lies of the enemy! You didn’t “fall” into sin! You chose to step into sin…consciously! This is us. This is what we do.
So today, REALIZE your freedom. Stand in it. Look in the face of your new Master, Righteousness, and make that choice because YOU are no longer a slave.
