Slaves to Sin or Righteousness

 

Romans 6:16-17, 20-22
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? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 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.

What wonderful verses, but also convicting and kind of scary verses. We’re going to be slaves to one or the other – to sin or to the Lord and righteousness. The concept makes sense – you're a slave to the one you obey. It doesn’t matter much what label or name you ascribe as your master, the one you claim is most important and in charge of your life. It’s who you obey.

That choice of who we serve is going to yield a certain type of fruit, we’re told. And my question to you is this – it's so easy for our desire to meet our own needs and wants to be the thing that drives us.  For you, it could be any number of things. For me it is often selfishness or laziness or a desire to be loved and appreciated, or to have the material things that I want. And when we choose to serve those, which we’ve all done this week, then we have a question that Paul asks us, and that I ask you today, which is, how is that going? You’ve been serving this master, which is yourself; how’s that working out? 

Is it good? Is it a good master? Are you serving a master who’s giving you a sense of rich blessing and happiness? Or has it actually been a hard master, one we follow because the orders seem right and we obey, but the fruit that we get is death, is pain, to ourselves and pain to the people around us.

Now this is certainly true if you don’t believe in Christ, are not a follower of Jesus – these verses say you are free with regard to righteousness and you are stuck serving yourself and there’s no escaping it. And how is that working out? It’s hard, isn’t it? It’s not all that it promises, it never is. Maybe for a few seconds it seems to be the right choice, but your only hope is to be saved by the good news that you don’t have to remain a slave to yourself and your wants and to sin, but instead you can switch masters. Because you’ve been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, paying for every bad thing you’ve ever done and you’re free then, from sin, to serve the Lord and righteousness. 

For those of you who have made this decision and have been living as a believer, look back over your life. What kind of fruit do you see when you serve the Lord and serve righteousness and give up the throne that you like to sit on. Those are hard things to do, it’s hard to get off the throne and get to work. But are you sorry? Has it led to things that you regret and wish you could get back? Of course, the answer as you look back, is “No. I have no regrets each time that I put myself aside and serve the Lord. Instead, I regret when I foolishly put myself back on the throne, though I serve a wonderful master, with hard requests but that lead to eternal life. It’s when I once again serve the wrong master – who I’ve been freed from – that's when I find that my obedience to sin leads to sorrow and death. 

I don’t know where you’re at today on the spectrum.  Maybe it’s been the best week ever - then rejoice with me that you’ve been set free and that you are living the life that only comes from dying to self.

Maybe it’s been the opposite, maybe as you look back your week has been filled with thoughts of self and serving self. I don’t want you to despair, this concept should give you hope, this truth should set you free. If you are a believer in Jesus, then you have been set free indeed by him and you can put that away, you can get off the throne of your heart right now and get to work serving your master for the rest of this week. 

We are promised, not just by Paul, certainly not just by me, but by the word of God itself, that this leads to life, to eternal life. So, maybe that’s a hard sell, but I’ll just remind you again – what does the evidence show you when you choose to serve yourself? Is it coming through on its promises? And if not, then why not give the Lord a try this week? See, as costly as it may be, as difficult in the moment as that may be, what sort of life comes from it. Maybe, just maybe, you can trust him and be led to real life and not the empty shell that you’ve been living.

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