As I was trying to figure out what I was going to speak about today, I drove by a church that said “The greatest freedom we have is freedom from sin”. That is so true, the greatest freedom we have today is not the freedom bought by the blood of soldiers overseas, that freedom is great and unbelievable, but it is no comparison to the freedom bought by the blood of the perfect and sinless Lamb of God. So today we will look at this passage, Romans 6:15-23 and we will see that we are slaves to that which we obey; either sin leading to death, or Christ and righteousness. We will also see that everyone begins their life in this slavery and most people today live their lives in this slavery, and that it is the power of God that frees us from the power and penalty of sin.
We are slaves to that which we obey. Paul says here, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness” Paul quite simply is telling us here that we are either slaves to sin or slaves to Christ. We as people are obedient to one thing or the other; if it is sin he says that it “leads to death”. Jesus also said this “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”-John 8:34 We are talking here about people living in sin. If you look at your life and it is not characterized by righteousness, but it is characterized by sin then you are a slave to sin which means you are headed for death. A person stuck in habitual sin is not a Christian they are a slave to sin and it is impossible that this person would really be a Christian. There is a practical amount of righteousness that a person lives out in their life day to day or they cannot claim to be followers of Jesus. Jesus said “Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter”.-Matthew 7:21 Who is it that Jesus says will enter the kingdom of heaven? “the one who does the will of my Father” In other words the one who obeys God is the one who will enter heaven, otherwise you will be one of the many on that day that say, Lord, Lord but do not make it into heaven. If you are not a slave to God, but are a slave to sin you should think about this, because “he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness” and if you do not repent of your sins and give your entire life to Christ you will be one of those people that Jesus turns away as they are saying “Lord, Lord.
Everyone begins their life and lives in slavery to sin until they are released from this bondage by the blood of Jesus. The Bible has much to say about our slavery to sin and the evils of the human heart, Solomon said, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”–Ecclesiastes 7:20, and Paul says the same thing this way, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”-Romans 3:23 There has not been a single person born on this earth that is not tainted with sin, and the bible even lets us know that we were that way from birth. Look at David and what he says in this beautiful Psalm of repentance. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”-Psalm 51:5 He says that he was conceived or born in sin and Solomon also speaks of the evils of a child when he said, “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.”-Ecclesiastes 9:3 Solomon said that the “hearts of the children of man are full of evil”. We are born and live our lives full of sin. There is only one human being that was the exception to this and His name was Jesus Christ. St. Augustine makes a very interesting reference to children being born evil when he says,
“It can hardly be right for a child, even at that age, to cry for everything, including things which would harm him; to work himself into a tantrum against people older than himself and not required to obey him; and try to strike and hurt others who know better than he does, including his own parents, when they do not give in to him and refuse to pander to whims which would only do him harm. This shows that, if babies are innocent, it is not for lack of will to do harm, but for lack of strength.” -St. Augustine-
St. Augustine actually made the inference that the only reason children don’t act totally evil from birth is because of a lack of strength, and let’s also consider which one of you taught you children to be selfish and disrespectful. You didn’t did you, it was totally natural and they were born that way weren’t they? We are born into slavery and sin. We are totally and utterly sinful from birth and Paul says in this passage we are ungodly and after looking at what the Bible says that would almost seem to be an understatement. We find it taken a step further in the book of Genesis as God is about to wipe out the earth, we find some very interesting statements concerning just how evil mankind is. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” –Genesis 6:5 It says that every intent of man’s heart was only evil continually. Everything that he had ever even intended to do was “only evil continually. Did God wiping mankind off the face of the earth change that? Well, after the flood subsided “The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.” –Genesis 8:21 There is no change in the amount of evil in a person’s heart. In chapter 6 before the flood, “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” and after the flood, “the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth” Every intent of any human beings heart is “only evil continually” and this makes more sense to us if we understand that even our greatest works are considered filthy rags before God. “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” –Isaiah 64:6 That word “polluted garment” has a very strong connotation. It is actually terminology for the rag a woman would use during her time of the month. Literally, our righteous deeds are like a dirty feminine product before God. The best things that we have ever done are like a dirty feminine product before God. We as human beings are deeply and completely enslaved to sin and are ourselves totally and utterly evil, and the fact is that sin leads to death and hell. “for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”- Romans 6:23
“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” We all started as slaves to sin, but those who have been redeemed have been “set free from sin and have become slaves of God” You are a slave to something either you are a slave to sin or you are a slave to God. There is no half hearted commitment to Christ. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” – Mark 8:37 This had a very deep meaning to the people that Jesus was speaking with. A man named Judas (not the traitor), years before had begun a rebellion against the Romans. The insurrection was put down and every single person that was captured was forced to carry their cross to their destination, which was along the streets of Jerusalem. Their were thousands of people crucified at that time up and down the streets, so that everyone would see them and everyone did see them. Jesus saying that we have to deny ourselves and take up our cross has a deep meaning rooted in giving everything up to God. We give our entire life to God and he takes us and makes us new. Jesus said, “truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”. To further clarify the point here we see Paul in II Corinthians 5:17 say “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” The Christian has been made a new creation. The Christian is made new when they repent and give their entire lives to Christ. No longer do they constantly desire the things of the world rather than God and the things of God. Their lives are no longer characterized by sin and evil, but by righteousness and obedience to God. This is a beautiful transaction. We give our tattered, evil, sinful life to Christ and He brings us in and makes us new, gives us the ability to follow Him; breaking our bondage with sin and giving us eternal life even though we were such an evil wretched people. John Newton understood this completely when he wrote Amazing Grace. Think of those lyrics, “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me” That word wretch in the dictionary means a person of despicable or base character. God sent His only Son down to save people of base and despicable character. He did that to save us from our sins and to also save us from the punishment of sin.
“Christ Jesus did not come in order that you might continue to sin and escape the penalty of it; he did not come to prevent the disease of being mortal, but to take the disease itself away. Many people think that when we preach salvation, we mean salvation from going to hell. We do not mean only that, but we mean a great deal more; we preach salvation from sin; we say that Christ is able to save a man; and we mean by that that he is able to save him from sin and to make him holy; to make him a new man. No person has any right to say, “I am saved,” while he continues in sin as he did before. How can you be saved from sin while you are living in it? A man that is drowning cannot say he is saved from the water while he is sinking in it; a man that is frost-bitten cannot say, with any truth that he is saved from the cold while he is stiffened in the wintry blast.”-C.H. Spurgeon-
Jesus spilled His blood on the cross, to “destroy the works of the devil” according to I John 3:8 and when we are saved the works of evil are destroyed in our lives. This does not mean that we are made sinless and perfect, but our lives will be marked by the works of God. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”-Ephesians 2:10 A Christian will be marked by good works, but we will still battle evil in our own lives. It is the difference between a camera and a camcorder.
Application
1. You are slaves to that which you serve, either slaves to righteousness and God or Sin and death.
2. Every single person who has ever lived, besides Christ, has begun their life corrupt, evil, wretched, and enslaved to sin.
3. The only way to break this bondage is by giving our lives wholly and totally to God, becoming slaves to God and then he breaks the bonds and penalty of sin.
4. Christians lives, even though they do sin, will be marked by obedience to Christ.
5. The thought of this freedom should move the Christian with so much joy that they will yearn and desire for a deeper relationship with the Savior who submitted Himself to the cross as the punishment for sin, released us from the bondage of sin and granted us eternal life.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”-Romans 8:1
Dwain Minor