DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- SLAVES

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – SLAVES

"But how having been set free from sin , and having become slaves of God, you have our fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life." (Romans 6:22)

The Apostle Paul sets a contrast here in this chapter. We are under bondage – either as slaves of sin, or slaves of righteousness, or as the Apostles put it – bondservants of Christ. We think we are free, but no one is truly free.

The sinner is not free to not sin. If a person has not come under the Lordship of Christ, he is under the lordship of Satan. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves to obey, whether of sin leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness?" (vs. 16).

Christ has set us free from the bondage of sin. We do not have to sin. If we sin, we do it by choice. In the first part of this chapter, Paul asks the question, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue to live in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer under it?" (vss. 1-2). But "having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness" (vs. 18).

The believer has the choice that the unbeliever does not have. Paul urges the believer, "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace" (vss. 12-14). Implicit in this admonition is the choice that we have to sin or not to sin.

The choice is mine. I make the decision whether to submit myself to God's righteousness or to the temptation to sin. This is a no-brainer because I know that "the wages of sin is death" (vs. 23). Why would I want to live under that condemnation instead of the freedom of Christ? There might be some enjoyment, satisfaction or reward for sin, but it does not compare to the freedom to be found in Jesus Christ and the gift of eternal life.

Love, Dad