Romans 6:15-23
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost - 2 October 2016
Rev. John Derme
Present-day Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of slavery. We live in a society where all people are supposed to be free, and taking away their freedom is considered unacceptable. You and I can't imagine what it was like to live under a human slave master. One thing we do know is that we wouldn't like it.
Two thousand years ago, Romans were comfortable with the idea of slavery. They saw slaves every day. It was normal to them. Roman citizens had no interest in living under a human slave master, though. They were only happy with slavery if they could be the slave masters.
It must have been surprising, then, when the Christians in Rome read Paul's letter to them. In the Second Lesson for today from Romans 6, Paul told them that they were slaves! The language that Paul uses gets our attention, too. Even though we live in a land where slavery is illegal, we have always been slaves. We haven't always had the same slave master, though. Our old slave master took away our freedom, and brought us death. Our new slave master has given us freedom and life. Apparently, this is a different kind of slavery than we're accustomed to talking about. You'll love your new slave master!
In the first five chapters of Romans, Paul explained the basic truths of the Christian faith. He demonstrated clearly that all people have sinned and deserve God's punishment. He also showed that God has forgiven sinners through faith in Jesus. He described the peace and joy that belong to all who believe in Jesus their Savior.
In chapter 6, though, Paul had to deal with a couple of questions about the gospel that he proclaimed. The first was that, if God is gracious and forgives our sin, shouldn't we keep on sinning so that God may be even more gracious? To that he answered, "No way! If you lived under the law, then sinning is all you would do. But you live under grace!"
The second question comes at the beginning of today's Second Lesson: "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?" In other words, "Since God's law is not what motivates us any more, then we can do whatever we want, right?"
Again Paul's answer is, "By no means! No way! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" If you are obedient to sin, then sin is your master. If you are a slave to obedience – and this is an unusual way of talking about having faith in Jesus – then Jesus' righteousness is yours.
The Roman Christians had all been, at one time, slaves to sin. So were you and I. "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted." Although at first it may sound like Paul is talking about obedience in our actions, he is actually still talking about faith. To obey the teaching, which is the gospel, means to believe it. Through faith, "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Sin no longer controls you. The righteousness that Jesus won for you has taken its place. Because you trust in Jesus, who lived a holy life for you and died to pay for all of the sins that you have committed, you are now righteous in God's sight!
It may still be difficult for Roman Christians and American Christians to understand what a good thing it is to be slaves of righteousness. When we think of slavery, we think of captivity, misery, sadness and pain. And all of these are part of slavery to sin. But none of these are part of slavery to righteousness. That is why Paul says, "I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves." It is hard for us to understand what a change has taken place in our lives now that we are no longer slaves to sin. We have a completely different master. But none of the bad things that we usually associate with slavery are true of slavery to righteousness. This slavery is a very good thing!
Because we are no longer slaves to sin, we can no longer live like those who are slaves to sin. "Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness." The Romans to whom Paul wrote had done impure and wicked things with their bodies before they came to faith, when they worshipped false gods. Some of us remember doing wicked things in our past, too. Many of us came to faith as children, before we had the chance to live so lawlessly. Nevertheless, we were still God's enemies until God changed our hearts. And those of us who have been Christians most of our lives still have to admit that there have been times when we did impure things or wished that we didn't have to live such upright lives. This, too, is wickedness, even when it stays in the heart and mind.
Now that God has made us righteous, though, we see that living under the control of sin wasn't the great freedom that people make it out to be. It is actually embarrassing. "When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!" Those actions that we committed before we were Christians weren't good. We were putting ourselves in danger of eternal death by engaging in them. And those of us who didn't get a chance to live lawlessly before we came to faith, we ought to be even more ashamed of the actions that we did or wished we could have committed. Those desires make us worthy of eternal death, too.
"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." Thanks to Jesus, we will not suffer eternal death. Because he suffered our death for us, and because he has brought us to faith by his Holy Spirit, we have eternal life. And now, through faith in him, we are blessed to have the opportunity to live our lives to thank and please him.
No matter how long we were unbelievers, and no matter how many sins we've committed before or after coming to faith, we all deserve death now and in hell. But we do not get what we deserve. We get the free gift of eternal life instead, because of what Jesus has done. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Jesus has set you free from slavery to sin. He has rescued you from the wages of sin. He has given you eternal life for free. Why would you want to go on sinning? You don't! You want to do what he wants you to do, because that is the way to thank him for what he has done. Why would you want to be a slave to sin anymore? You had no freedom under sin! Now that you are free, you want to be a slave to the righteousness that Jesus has given to you. You want to live in obedience to him. Jesus doesn't force you into slavery. We want to live a holy life for him, because of his grace to us!
You probably never thought you'd hear the words, "You'll love your new slave master!" We don't like being called slaves! And we certainly don't like slave masters! But when you realize what God gives you, then you do want him to be your master! You want to be his slave! You want to obey him always! You love him, because he loves you!