Simple lessons from Romans – part 7
Free to decide
When a slave is freed, it means that he/she can decide what to do with his/her live. Those that have been freed by Jesus must decide if they want to dedicate their lives to serve Christ, or if they want to turn back to slavery. There is no middle ground: we are either slaves to sin or servants of God.
We should use our bodies according to our decision: as instruments of wickedness or as instruments or righteousness.
Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master – Romans 6:13-14
A new Master
As Christ followers we have a new master: God.
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? 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. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. – Romans 6:16-18
Paul’s comments might seem a little harsh, but they go right to the point. Nobody likes to be referred to as “slave”. In ancient history people could sell themselves as slaves. In this case, slavery was an exchange (for debts, food and shelter, etc.). So using this case as an example, we can compare employment as a form of slavery. So we enslave ourselves in exchange for money. While we are employed, we must submit ourselves to a master (boss, supervisor, etc.). However, if the conditions of the employment are not satisfactory to us, and we don’t like were it is leading us, we can decide to submit ourselves to another master (find another job) that offers better conditions and benefits. So God is our new master, to whom we have wholeheartedly submitted in exchange for his everlasting love. This is a whole new meaning to the word slave. We are not ashamed to be called slaves to God.
I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. 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. 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! 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. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:19-23
When we were slaves to sin, the things we were used to do were leading us to death. Paul encourages us to use that same energy, but as slaves of righteousness, and with a total different result: eternal life.
At war
We were freed from sin, but while we are in this earth we will still struggle with our sinful nature. With our hearts and our minds we want to please God, but we have found that we are at war against ourselves.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. – Romans 7:15-20
This is not a license to sin, but a warning against our nature.
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. – Romans 7:21-23
This doesn’t look very promising. Even Paul said “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). But, as the old proverb says “Forewarned is forearmed”. We know that we will be at war, so we need to prepare to face the enemy. We need to know their weakness and use the proper weapons.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. – Hebrews 4:15
Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:55-57
If we were to face this war alone, we would stand no chance. But with Jesus in our side, victory is secured.
Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! – Romans 7:25
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