All of us were born as slaves to sin. But when we were born again, God freed us from sin and transferred us into His kingdom. We are now His slaves, but experience joy, peace, and happiness as His willing servants.
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Slaves Of God
Romans 6:15-23
This morning we continue in Romans 6 as we discuss how we can be freed from sin. In Romans 6:7 Paul writes, “for he who has died is freed from sin.” We have already seen that we are freed from sinning by knowing, considering, and presenting. We know the truth that we have died to sin with Christ and risen with Him. Then we consider that truth and believe it in the moment of battle. Then we go further to take the members of our body and present them to God as instruments of righteousness. Well, the second half of Romans 6 gives us one more important piece of the puzzle. It tells us that our freedom from sin is a direct result of being enslaved to God. The passage of Scripture we come to this morning focuses on the word “slaves”. This word appears 8 times in this paragraph. Paul seems a little hesitant to use the language of slavery for Christians. He says in verse 19, “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.” We need pictures and illustrations of deep spiritual truth, and so Paul takes up the imagery of slavery to help us “get it.” However, he knows that it is not a perfect analogy, and it breaks down at certain points. Being enslaved to God is nothing like the demeaning and wicked practice of slavery that we experienced for 300 years here in the United States. Slavery to God is the most beautiful, blessed, and sweetest slavery in existence. It carries none of the sinful elements of human slavery like degrading others, using others for your own ends, manipulation, selfishness, and exploitation. Instead this kind of slavery lets us know that we are the property of God and have been bought by Him to do His will, which is perfect freedom.
“Slaves of sin” appears in verses 16, 17, and 20. He also speaks of slaves of impurity and lawlessness in verse 19. That makes sense because impurity and lawlessness are just expressions of sin.
Then Paul speaks of slaves of obedience in verse 16, slaves of righteousness in verse 18 and 19. Then he speaks of being slaves to God in verse 22. Since God’s will is that we be obedient and live righteously, being a slave of God includes obedience and righteous living.
So, there are only two kinds of slaves – slaves of God and slaves of sin. And brothers and sisters, every person in the world is either one or the other. As Bob Dylan used to say in the song he wrote in 1979, “It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody!”
All of us are born into this world as slaves of sin. Then, at some point, God freed you from that old Master, and bought you, and brought you into His own kingdom. You were transferred from the dominion of Sin to the dominion of Grace.
Last Sunday we saw that when we were born again, we discovered that we died to sin and rose to newness of life. Because of our vital spiritual union with Christ we have inherited His history. His death is our death and His resurrection is our resurrection. Sanctification begins when we know this, consider this, and act on this. The key words in Romans 6:1-14 are “know”, “consider” and “present.” Actually, 6:15-23 is a continuation of Paul’s exhortation to present the members of our body to God that he gave in 6:13. Notice how he continues to speak about us presenting our members in 6:16 and 6:19.
Romans 6:16, “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 resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”
Romans 6:19, “For just as you presented 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’s conclusion to the last section is found in verse 14, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.” Now, that is not a command or an exhortation. That is a statement of truth. It is a promise! You need to believe this promise. If you are in Christ, sin shall not be master over you! Why? Because you are not under law. You are no longer seeking to be justified by your law-keeping. Instead, you are under grace. God’s favor rests upon you because of Christ’s law-keeping, not yours! The ground of your justification is Christ’s perfect righteousness, not your own righteousness. You are “under” the reign of grace, and 5:2 says that you “stand” in this grace.
Just as Paul did in Romans 6:1-14, so he follows the same pattern in 6:15-23.
1) He introduces an objection to something he has said he thinks might be misunderstood.
2) He answers the objection with “May it never be!”
3) He then goes on to give a detailed explanation of why it may never be.
Paul follows this pattern in 6:1; 6:15; 7:7; 7:13; 9:14 and 11:1. By observing this pattern, you may find it very helpful in interpreting a very difficult passage in Romans 7:13-25, but I’ll leave that for another time!
In 6:15 Paul brings up a 2nd objection: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” Paul preached a gospel of free grace, which proclaims that sinners can be justified apart from obeying God’s law, based only on Jesus’ perfect obedience and righteousness. When Paul preached that free gospel, certain people said, “O.K., if my standing with God has nothing to do with my obedience to God’s law, then I think I’ll just go ahead and keep on sinning! I’ll enjoy God’s grace and I’ll also enjoy my sinning.” Now, how does Paul answer that question? “May it never be!” Paul recoils in horror at the very thought of it.
Now, notice how the 2 questions from 6:1 and 6:15 compare with each other:
6:1 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?”
6:15 “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?”
The first question is basically, “Shall we continue in sin in order that grace might increase? The 2nd question is, “Shall we sin because grace has increased?” The first question is about continuing in sin. It suggests a habitual continuous lifestyle. The 2nd question is about occasional acts of sin. Because of our union to Christ we can’t go on living like we did before we were saved. But can we go ahead and sin occasionally and get away with it. The first question is “Shall we continue in sin?” The second question is “Shall we continue to sin?”
Perhaps you are thinking that since you became a Christian your life has changed. You’re not living the same sinful life you used to live. You’re not abusing drugs and alcohol, you’re not involved in sexual immorality, and not using God’s name as a curse word any more. Well, isn’t that good enough? No. Not only is God calling us to forsake the more gross and offensive kinds of sin. He is also calling us to forsake every sin. He’s calling every believer to a life of personal holiness in every area of life. He’s not content that we have given up our major outward sins. He wants us to seek a life of holiness in every area of our lives.
So the answer to the 1st question was, “No, you can’t continue to live in sin like you did before you were saved, because through union with Christ, you died to sin.” The answer to the 2nd question was, “No, you can’t agree to go ahead and sin occasionally because you are no longer slaves of sin; now you are slaves of God.
This morning, in order to understand Paul’s teaching on personal holiness, let’s look first at our old master – Sin, and then look at our new master – God. I’m going to ask 3 questions about each kind of slavery: when did it begin, what does it result in, and how will it end?
1. Our Old Master: SIN!
When Did Our Old Slavery Begin? Another way of asking that question is, “When was I united to Adam?” If I can answer that question I’ll know when my slavery to sin began, because through my union with Adam sin reigned over my life, bringing forth death. I was united to Adam at birth. To be more specific I was united to Adam at the moment of conception. As soon as I began to exist as a member of Adam’s race, I came under the dominion of sin. Does the Bible actually teach this anywhere?
Look at Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” Now some believe that this verse is teaching that David was conceived as a result of his mother’s sexual immorality. However, that would make no sense. David is not interested in exposing his parent’s sins. He is confessing and bewailing his own sins. He was guilty of adultery and murder. These sins were primarily against God (vs.4). Then in 51:5 David says that those individual sins were the product of a corrupt nature. The spring and fountain of all his acts is depraved. Since his very conception he inherited a sinful nature. Let me paraphrase David in Psalm 51:5, “When I was born, it was in iniquity, when my mother conceived me I was in sin.” So, to answer our question, our slavery to sin began at the moment of conception. A tiny little infant is not innocent. That sweet little baby has inherited a corrupt sinful nature from his parents who have inherited it ultimately from Adam! If infants were innocent there is no reason they should ever die, for the wages of sin is death. But infants die because they are not innocent, but are conceived and born in original sin.
Psalm 58:3 says, “The wicked are estranged from the womb; these who speak lies go astray from birth.” Again David emphasizes our estrangement from the womb and birth. In Ephesians 2:3 Paul says, “we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” What does Paul mean “by nature”? He means by physical birth. All people coming into this world are at birth under the wrath of God. The Bible does not teach that people are born innocent. I remember my friend Howard getting a card in the mail congratulating him as the father of a new, sweet, innocent little baby. Howard told me, “They should have said, Congratulations, you are the father of a new little sinner!”
From the moment of our conception we are slaves to sin, born under the dominating power of sin and corruption.
What Did Our Old Slavery Result In? 6:19 says, “For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness.” This passage teaches that slavery to sin caused us to go deeper and deeper into sin. Because we were slaves of sin we presented our members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness. What was the result? Even further lawlessness. When you go about breaking God’s law what will it lead to? Greater and more serious law-breaking. You may begin by just smoking a little weed now and then. Over time your innocent pot smoking results in a desire for more powerful highs and so you “graduate” from pot to LSD or cocaine, and perhaps eventually to heroine. The more drugs you take, and the longer you take them, the greater your bondage will be to them in your life, until eventually you may become hopelessly addicted living in terribly misery. The same principle holds true for those who end up addicted to alcohol or pornography. A little impurity and lawlessness, if indulged, will lead to further and greater impurity and lawlessness.
It’s so true that one sin leads to another. Shoplifting may lead to lying. Lust may lead to fornication or adultery. Anger may lead to physical violence. Drug abuse may lead to stealing. In fact, once we give in to impurity and lawlessness, our lives can become just a vicious circle, spiraling downward more and more. Sin produces more sin, which produces more sin. We are born slaves to sin, and the more we participate in sin, the more serious and crippling our sins become. Unless God supernaturally breaks into our lives to stop this vicious cycle, our sin will kill us.
How Does The Old Slavery End? Paul answers this question 3 times in 6:16,21,23. Every time he says the result or outcome is death. Notice how he puts it in verse 21, “Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.” What real benefit do people derive from their sin? At best, it is a little momentary pleasure. But what else comes along with it? Guilt, shame, condemnation, broken relationships, divorce, broken families, hangovers, drug addiction, alcoholism, poverty, and sexually transmitted diseases for starters. And then when sin has brought all of that misery into your life, what is the outcome? Death! And Paul is not just talking about physical death. How do I know? Look at 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In that verse Paul is contrasting the result of sin and the result of grace. The result of grace is eternal life. Therefore, the result of sin must be eternal death. So, what is eternal death? Physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body. Eternal death is the separation of the soul from God’s loving presence in hell.
Now, let’s sum up what we have seen about our old slavery to sin. It began at the moment of conception. It resulted in more and more impurity and lawlessness, misery and bondage. Then it ultimately ends in physical death and everlasting death in hell. So, do you still want to serve sin? Let me just ask any of you who are still not saved. Do you really want to go on serving sin? Sin is a hard master, and pays really lousy wages! No, I know in your better moments, you know that you don’t want to serve sin any more. However, you are a slave to it, and can’t free yourself from sin’s tyranny and reign in your life. What then can be done? That leads us to consider our new master.
2. Our New Master: GOD!
When Did Our New Slavery Begin? Verse 17-18 gives us a hint, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” You say, “It was when I became obedient from the heart to the gospel.” That is very true, and it would be a correct answer. But let me take it a step further. Was there anything that caused you to become obedient from the heart to the teaching of the gospel? Notice that Paul is thanking God that they became obedient from the heart to his teaching. Why is Paul thanking God? It must be because God had something to do with them obeying the gospel, right? Whenever you find Paul writing “thanks be to God” it is always because God has done something wonderful that we should thank Him for! We find it five other times in Paul’s writings. So, what has God done that we should thank Him for that has caused people to obey the gospel from their heart? Well, the answer comes to us in verse 18. We were freed from sin, and enslaved to righteousness. In the original, both verbs are passive. God did these things for us. He freed us from sin and enslaved us to righteousness. That’s why we should thank Him for the fact that we have obeyed the gospel from the heart. We obeyed the gospel as a result of God freeing us from sin and enslaving us to righteousness.
Remember from last week that sin’s dominion over our lives was broken when we were united to Christ. The Spirit baptized us into Christ and His body at the moment of our New Birth. So the answer to the question, “When did our new slavery begin?” is “at the moment of our new birth.” Paul says it a little differently in Colossians 1:13, “For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Notice that this is something God did all by Himself. Notice also that He delivered us from the “domain of darkness.” That’s just another way of saying that He delivered us from the dominion of sin. That is exactly what Paul told us here in Romans 6:18 – “we were freed from sin.”
So, let’s put all this together. You became a slave of sin at birth. You became a slave of God at your New Birth. At the moment of regeneration you were united to Christ in His death and resurrection, which freed you from sin and enslaved you to righteousness, transferring you out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of God’s Son. As a result of all of that, you became obedient from the heart to the Biblical teaching concerning the gospel. So, what does it mean to become obedient from the heart to the gospel? It means that you repented of sin from your heart, and you trusted in Christ from your heart.
What Does Our New Slavery Result In? Paul gives us the same answer twice, in verse 19 and 22. Our new slavery to God results in our sanctification! Now, let’s talk a little bit about sanctification. What is it? The word literally means “to be set apart” or “to be holy.” Paul is speaking about our progressive sanctification in this passage. Progressive sanctification is the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer so that he progressively sets himself apart from sin to God. It begins the moment he is born again, and continues the rest of his life. Notice I called it “progressive” sanctification. I do not believe the Bible teaches the doctrine of Perfectionism. Some Christians teach that the believer can come to the point in his life where he doesn’t sin any more. Yes, it is blessedly true that we can make progress in holiness, and put to death the sinful deeds of the body. But I do not believe we will ever get to the point in our Christian lives where we will eradicate all sin until we are glorified.
Notice how Paul speaks of our sanctification in verse 19. There he compares and contrasts it with the result of slavery to sin. Slavery to sin leads to more and more impurity and lawlessness. It leads to greater bondage. It leads to greater misery. So, what does slavery to God lead to? It leads to less and less sin in our lives. It leads to greater freedom from sin. It leads to greater blessing and joy and life.
Notice how Paul speaks of sanctification in verse 22, “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification.” In verse 21 Paul said that there was no benefit from being enslaved to sin. Now he says there is great benefit from being enslaved to God. Sanctification, according to the Bible, is a tremendous benefit to us. Do you think of your sanctification as something that benefits you? Instead of dragging you down, your sanctification lifts you up. Instead of bringing you into misery, sickness, guilt, depression, broken families, divorce, and death, sanctification brings you into joy, happiness, health, peace of conscience, healthy relationships and families, and finally eternal life! Let me just ask all of you who were at one time were slaves of sin. Is your life now better or worse that you have been saved? Do you have more or less joy? Would you trade what you have as a Christian for what you used to have as a lost sinner? I know you wouldn’t!
How Will Our New Slavery End? Paul tells us in verse 22 and 23, that the final outcome of our slavery to God is eternal life. Eternal life is something that you receive the moment you are saved. “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1Jn.5:11-12). The moment you have Jesus, you have eternal life. Why? Because eternal life is simply the life of Jesus. It is the life that Jesus has always possessed. When you were united to Jesus, you received His life coursing through your soul. So, eternal life begins at the moment we receive Jesus by faith, but eternal life never ends. That is what we would expect from eternal life, right? If it ended, it wasn’t eternal.
So, what will heaven be like? I don’t know all of what it will be like, but I do know that it will be sharing in this life that I have in common with Jesus. When a man receives the very life of God, He enjoys and delights in God. He loves to worship God, exalt God, meditate upon God and please God. That is what heaven will be about. Friends if you don’t enjoy God, delight in God, love worshiping Him, exalting Him, meditating upon Him, and pleasing Him, you won’t want to go to heaven – because that’s what we’re going to be doing there! You see our sanctification is preparing us for heaven by weaning us from worldly delights and enjoyments, and giving us a greater longing for heavenly enjoyments.
Application:
So, who is your master? You are a slave of someone. Who is it? Is it sin? If so, the wages of your service to him are misery, death and Hell. Would you like to be freed from Sin’s slavery? If so, you need to do what the Roman Christians did. They obeyed from the heart the form of teaching that was delivered to them. So what is that form of teaching? It’s what Paul has taught in Romans 1-5. We are unrighteous, without excuse, under the wrath of God, headed toward judgment. But God has provided a righteousness by which we may find acceptance with Him. He lived a perfect life for you, and then died bearing God’s wrath against you. If you will come as a humble, broken sinner, trusting in Jesus Christ, God will pronounce you righteous in His sight. The only way for you to be freed from sin’s dominion is to embrace the gospel with your whole heart. Repent of your sin from your heart! Believe in your heart that Christ died for sins and rose from the dead. If you will do this you will find that the Spirit has united you to Christ, and that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God!
Is God your master? Are you “under grace”? If so, rejoice! You have a good, kind, loving Master! Obey Him! Present yourself and your members to Him for obedience. Experience the blessing of sanctification as you continue to obey Him day by day. What sin are you struggling with right now? Do you think that God commands you to turn from that sin because He wants to make your life miserable?! Of course not. He has your best interests at heart. He proved it by sending His Son to die in your place. You can trust Him when it comes to your sanctification. Yield to Him, and look forward to the eternal life you will share with Him.
Are you a slave? Of course you are! Everyone is. The real question is, “who is your master?” I pray it is God. If it is, then serve Him more fervently than any earthly slave ever served his earthly master. There is no more blessed slavery, than slavery to God!
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