Slaves to Rightousness

Please remain standing now for the reading of

God's word. It is from Romans chapter 6

Romans 6:12–19

verses 12 to 19. Again, Romans chapter 6

Romans 6:12–19

verses 12 to 19.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal

body

to make you obey its passions.

Do not present your members to sin as

instruments for unrighteousness

but present yourselves to God as those who

have been brought from death to life and

your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you

since you are not under law

but under grace.

What

then? Are we to sin

because we are not under law but under

grace?

By no means.

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 were

once slaves of sin, have become obedient from

the heart

to the standard of teaching

to which you were committed.

And having been set free from sin,

have become slaves of righteousness.

I'm speaking in human terms because of your

natural limitations.

For just as you once presented your members

as slaves to impurity

and to lawlessness,

leading to more lawlessness,

so now present your members as slaves to

righteousness

leading to sanctification.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Well, last week, we looked at the first

eleven verses in Romans 6,

and we learned that there's a vital connection

between the death and resurrection of Jesus

and our own death and resurrection.

In other words, we learned that,

when Jesus was raised from the dead

that guaranteed that we also

will be raised from the dead one day.

And the reason for this

is that we are united

to Jesus

by faith.

Now we used to be united to Adam.

Every person

is united to Adam

at conception.

We are united to Adam through ordinary generation.

We come from him physically.

We're born into his household

so we legally

inherit his debt

and the cost of his debt

is death.

This is why everyone dies.

But Paul had taught us in Romans 5

that Jesus is not from Adam's household,

that Jesus

has his own household.

He comes from God.

He was conceived

by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary

and was made man as we confess

every Sunday.

And if he adopts us

by purchasing us, by purchasing

our debt, by paying for it with his

own blood, with his own death,

then we enjoy a new inheritance

because we have

become members

of a new household.

The inheritance in Adam is sin,

condemnation,

and death.

But the inheritance in Jesus

is justification

and grace

and life.

And it is because the Holy Spirit unites

us to Christ

through faith

that Christ's death and resurrection

guarantee our own

future reward.

Last

week, we learned that with his death,

Jesus paid for the guilt of our sin.

And we also learned that because we are

united to Jesus in his death,

a death that was unstained by sin,

our own corruption

was also removed.

We learned that we are like a

corrupt seed that was fused

to the incorruptible

seed of Jesus and buried or planted with

him

and that we are spiritually raised to newness

of life

because of the harvest of his resurrection.

In other words,

Jesus' physical death and resurrection

provide a spiritual

blessing

for us today.

We were spiritually dead,

corrupt in our being, and enslaved to sin

but now our spiritual corruption is gone,

which means that we can walk in newness

of life, we can obey God now.

Sin no longer has dominion

over us.

That's where we left off last week,

which allows us to properly understand

Romans 6 verses 12 to 14 in which

Romans 6:12–14

we read,

let not sin therefore reign in your mortal

body

to make you obey its passions.

Do not present your members to sin as

instruments

for unrighteousness,

but present yourselves to God

as those who have been brought from death

to life

and your members to God

as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you

since you are not under law

but under grace.

You see how this makes sense now?

If you are united to Christ,

you are no longer a slave to sin.

So if sin reigns in your body,

it is only because you allow it to.

You let it do that.

You see, when the spirit united you to

Jesus

through your faith,

your sinful nature was crucified

and buried

with Jesus.

By the way, the nursery, I made the

announcement, is in the in the kitchen area

today. So you want to take Luke over

there.

I mean, we're glad for Luke to stay.

Because

of the resurrection of Jesus,

you are spiritually

born again

and able to walk in newness of life.

Therefore,

Paul commands you

to not present your members

to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.

The word translated as instruments is commonly used

by Paul to refer to weapons used in

war.

The image is that of a battle in

which sin tries to usurp the throne in

our heart

using

our own members as weapons for that insurrection.

It is complete betrayal

and it feels that way when we sin,

doesn't it?

It feels like we have betrayed ourselves.

It feels like we have betrayed

God.

So we become discouraged

and we lose heart

and we feel like giving up,

believing that we will never be able to

overcome sin,

that that is a losing battle,

that there is no hope.

We give up on ourselves and we give

up on others and functionally,

we give up on God.

We don't believe his promises.

But Paul reminds you that you are not

under law but under grace.

And grace is not simply a declaration of

forgiveness.

It delivers with it the power

to fight against sin and have victory over

it.

Because you see, being under law means that

you have to perfectly keep the law

to merit justification.

But that's an impossible task for any fallen

human being.

Romans 3 20 states that by the works

of the law, no flesh will be justified.

So under the law,

one only obeys to avoid more wrath.

We don't hate sin. We just hate the

idea of burning.

So under the law,

we are driven by fear.

But in contrast, grace empowers us to obey

because instead of trying to merit justification,

we respond

to the free gift of justification

by faith.

In other words,

God's love

excites our own love toward him.

We don't obey God to earn his love.

We obey in response

to God's love.

Under the law,

purity

is pursued under the whip of despondency

and despair.

Under grace,

we joyfully pursue piety

under the direction of God's love.

But to succeed,

Paul says that we must surrender

our weapons

to a new commander.

In verse 13, Paul writes that you must

present yourselves to God and your members

to God as instruments or weapons

of righteousness.

So if Christ is your lord,

you can say with Paul in Galatians 2

20, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live but

Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the

flesh, I live by faith in the son

of God who loved me and gave himself

for me.

So our passage this morning

is not about our justification

but about our sanctification.

It's not about

our post resurrection life.

It's about born again life.

It's not about our future life in heaven.

It's about how we are to live on

earth today.

And the main point this morning is this,

true freedom is found in slavery to Christ.

True freedom

is found in slavery

to Christ. Now, that doesn't sound that great,

does it?

We're Americans.

We value independence.

The struggle against tyranny is part of our

nation's origin story

and so is the wickedness of slavery.

So how can we give any credence

to this proposition that true freedom is found

in slavery

to Christ? Well, that's what Paul teaches in

these verses.

He writes in verse 14 that you are

no longer under law but in the same

breath,

he says you are

under grace.

And to be under anything is to be

in subjection to it.

Look at what Paul writes in verses 15

and 16. What then?

Are we to sin because we are not

under law but under grace?

By no means.

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 presents here an inescapable dichotomy.

1 is either a slave of sin

which leads to death

or a slave of obedience

which leads to righteousness.

There's no third path.

So what path are you on?

This text invites us to ask that question.

But before we do that,

there are a couple of things I want

you to notice in these verses. 1st,

in verse 15,

the Greek tense behind the question, are we

to sin, refers not to habitual sin but

to the occasional

lapse

in sin.

Yet Paul Paul's answer is an unequivocal,

by no means.

By no means.

The reason for this is that as Jesus

says, a slave cannot serve 2 masters.

To carelessly

serve sin on occasion

is a betrayal of your new master.

This is why Paul in verse 11 had

written, you must consider yourselves

dead to sin and alive to God in

Christ Jesus.

If you are dead to sin,

you cannot occasionally

be alive to God.

One cannot be

mostly dead despite

the princess bride's best efforts to convince us

otherwise.

If you are dead to sin

you can only be alive to God in

Christ Jesus. It is to him that you

owe your allegiance.

And the discipline of your life

ought to manifest your unfailing devotion to your

Lord with growing clarity.

This is why prayer

and bible study

and service to others, especially

service to our brothers and sisters in Christ,

ought to be your regular practice.

These are the disciplines of the soldier of

Christ.

2nd, note the dichotomy

Paul presents

here is between being a slave of sin

which leads to death or a slave of

obedience which leads to righteousness.

So does Paul mean

that we become righteous through our obedience?

Did he previously write in Romans that we

are justified by faith and not by works?

The key to understand this passage is the

metaphor of slavery.

Paul writes that being a slave of obedience

leads to justification

and righteousness.

In other words,

we must not forget that all our blessings

are under the umbrella of union with Christ.

Our union with Christ is what makes us

righteous

which is the same word as justified.

It is what makes us holy.

It is what renews our body and soul

after the image of Jesus.

In other words, it is our justification,

our sanctification, and our glorification that is all

under the umbrella

of union with Christ.

Last week, Paul explained that our union with

Christ,

is

he used the metaphor of explaining our union

with Christ,

that he used the metaphor of planting being

planted with him. It was this agricultural metaphor,

if you will.

This week, we see that he is using

the metaphor of slavery to communicate the very

same thing.

What Paul is saying is that because the

Christian is united to Christ,

because Christ lives in and through the Christian,

the Christian's actions are inexorably

patterned

after Christ's actions.

Like a slave single mindedly

obeying the will of his master,

the Christian does

what Christ does.

And because it is Christ's work that justifies

us,

our obedience will manifest

his righteousness

more

and more.

Thus,

slavery to sin leads to death

because it demonstrates

who our owner is.

It shows that we come from the household

of Adam

whose inheritance is death

But slavery to obedience

leads to righteousness

because it demonstrates that our owner is Christ,

that we are members of his household.

I know that as human beings, we like

to think of ourselves as free,

as having freedom of choice, as having freedom

of the will.

And Paul will address this very,

issue with remarkable clarity, I may add, in

Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

For now, let me just state

his present implication.

He says that there is only

one truly free being

and it's not you.

God is the only being

who is truly

free.

God is the only being who is truly

free. Everyone else

is somehow contingent.

Everyone else is enslaved

to someone or to something.

Paul writes that your obedience, the ideals that

dictate the pattern of your life,

betray who your master really is.

So who is your master?

Not who is your master here but who

is your master here? Who's your master in

your heart?

Paul says that the true answer to that

question is not in your words

but in your actions, in what you do,

in the way that you live.

Do your actions lead to death?

Do your actions lead to death, to destruction,

to dissension,

to deception,

to derision?

Do these things appear to follow your life?

Or do your actions lead to righteousness,

to restoration,

to reconciliation,

to refreshment,

to rejoicing?

Remember, your good works don't save you

But your good works do give you a

diagnosis for the state of your heart.

So based on your actions, how is your

heart doing?

What report

would your spiritual cardiologist

give you today?

The health of your spiritual heart,

its vigor,

its strength,

its rhythm, is dictated by the one who

is sitting on its throne. It's dictated by

the one who rules it.

And from the moment of conception,

because we proceed from Adam, our hearts are

under the tyranny of sin.

This is why we don't have to teach

our adorable babies to sin.

They figure it out.

They're really good at it.

In fact, we have to work really hard

to teach them not to sin.

75%

of the job description for parents is sanctify

your little angel.

But Paul gives us good news here, doesn't

he? Look at verses 17 18,

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,

and having been set free from sin,

have become slaves

of righteousness.

The good news that Paul delivers for us

here is that we are no longer slaves

of sin.

However, Paul does not say that we are

now free.

He writes that we are not slaves of

sin but we are slaves of righteousness.

In other words, having been a slave of

sin,

you are now,

not your own master,

rather you now have a new master,

righteousness.

You have been purchased.

Sin no longer owns you.

Your allegiance has changed.

In fact, when Paul writes in verse 17

that you have become obedient from the heart

to the standard of teaching

to which you were committed,

the word translated as committed has the connotation

of changing allegiance.

Your allegiance,

the affections and obligations that govern the pattern

of your life

now rests upon a righteous

standard

of teaching.

Your life used to be governed by a

manual written by sin

but now your heart follows the instructions set

forth

in

this righteous standard,

in the word of God.

This is the standard which now governs

our hearts

according to what Paul writes here.

Amazingly,

though the fallen heart is wicked and corrupt,

this new allegiance that you enjoy

comes from the heart.

How is this possible?

Well, this is because the Holy Spirit has

given you a new heart

and which is precisely what God had promised

in Ezekiel 36

Ezekiel 36:26

verses 26 and 27

where he writes this,

and I, that is God, and I will

give you a new heart

and a new spirit I will put within

you,

and I will remove the heart of stone

from your flesh

and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you

and cause you to walk in my statutes

and be careful to obey

my

rules.

Does the Holy Spirit

is the chief heart surgeon

who performs a heart transplant on you

causing you to walk according to God's statutes

in complete allegiance

to the righteous standard of teaching

that Paul writes about in verse 17.

This standard of teaching

is a reference to the gospel of Jesus

Christ.

Remember that Paul's thesis statement for this letter

of Romans is found in chapter 1 verses

16 17,

which read like this,

for I am not ashamed of the gospel,

for it is the power of God for

salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew

first

and also to the Greek. For in it,

in the gospel,

the righteousness of God is revealed from faith

for faith as it is written,

the righteous

shall live

by faith.

In other words, the reason the Christian is

a slave of righteousness

is that his allegiance

is to the righteousness

that is revealed in the gospel.

And that righteousness that is revealed in the

gospel

is none other

than the person and work of Jesus Christ,

your savior

and Lord.

The Old Testament is all about the promised

Messiah who would one day come

and deliver his people

from the guilt and the curse of sin.

And the New Testament

is all about the promised Messiah who has

come

and delivered his people from the curse and

the guilt of sin.

It is the gospel that captivates

our hearts and guides our steps.

So to be a Christian

is to be a slave of obedience,

which is the same thing as being a

slave of righteousness,

which is the same thing as being a

slave of Christ who is our righteousness.

In fact, the original meaning of the word,

Christian,

is slave of Christ. That's what that word

means.

Christian means slave of Christ. And what I'm

proposing to you is that true freedom is

found in slavery to Christ.

I know this terminology can seem unsavory to

Americans in the 21st century

but don't worry, it was unsavory to Christians

during Paul's time too.

This is why Paul writes in verse 19,

I am speaking in human terms

because of your natural limitations.

For just as once you presented your members

as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness,

leading to more lawlessness,

so now present your members as slaves to

righteousness

leading to sanctification.

Paul almost apologizes

for having to use the imagery of slavery

to help us understand the unbreakable bond between

Christ and his people.

As we bring this sermon to a close

or as we begin to bring this sermon

to a close k. Let me qualify that.

So we begin to bring this sermon to

a close. Let me give you five reasons

why true freedom is found in slavery to

Christ.

1st,

slavery to Christ means that you are delivered

from the bondage of sin.

In Romans 3 verses 9 to 20,

Romans 3:9–20

Paul made it clear that no human being

is righteous. No, not one, he wrote.

That under the domain of sin, no one

does good.

That the mind is corrupt so no one

understands.

That the heart is corrupt so no one

seeks after God. That the will is corrupt

so everyone turns away from God.

That the throat,

the tongue and the lips are corrupt so

everyone sins with their speech.

That feet are corrupt so everyone is swift

to shed blood.

That everyone's actions are corrupt, so no one

walks on the path of peace.

That everyone's eyes are corrupt, blind to justice

and without fear of God. All of this

Paul wrote in Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

And such

were some of you,

Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 6:11.

But

you were washed.

You were sanctified.

You were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of

our God, Paul writes.

Yes. True freedom is found in slavery

to Christ.

The second reason you know that true freedom

is found in slavery to Christ is that

obedience to Christ leads to righteousness.

Your inheritance in the domain of sin was

death.

You were a corrupt seed

planted in cursed soil,

awaiting a harvest of misery.

But in Christ,

your inheritance is to become a tree that

yields its fruit in its season,

a tree whose leaf does not wither,

a tree that enables you and all who

take refuge under your shade

to prosper.

Yes. True freedom for you and for your

loved ones is found in slavery to Christ.

The third reason you know that true freedom

is found in slavery to

Christ is that as a member of Christ's

household,

you can enjoy assurance and rest.

Whereas sin is death's handmaiden

ever serving up her subjects

to be devoured,

Christ is a benevolent master

who invites you to enjoy a seat at

his table,

who anoints your head with oil,

who lavishes you with a cup of overflowing

blessing.

In his

care, your real needs are always met even

when there are struggles.

Your peace is always protected

even when trials come.

Your inheritance is always secure even as the

world

falls apart.

Christ has come to me, all who labor

and are heavy laden, and I will give

you rest.

Yes. True freedom is found in slavery to

Christ.

The 4th reason you know that true freedom

is found in slavery to Christ is that

obedience to Christ leads to spiritual maturity.

God made you to be conformed to the

image of God in Jesus Christ.

But under the domain of sin,

you resemble your master, the devil.

That's what Jesus told the Pharisees and the

scribes.

In the house of sin,

your actions are characterized by sexual immorality,

by impurity,

by idolatry,

by superstition,

by strife,

by jealousy,

by fits of anger.

To be enslaved to sin is to be

in chains to death.

But in the house of Jesus,

as you live for him and as he

lives through you,

your actions will increasingly be characterized

by love

and joy

and peace

and patience

and kindness

and goodness

and faithfulness,

and gentleness,

and self control.

In the house of Jesus, prayer will become

your daily practice.

Scripture will become your daily bread.

And worship will become your joy

and your anchor. Yes. True freedom is found

in slavery to Christ.

The 5th reason you know that true freedom

is found in slavery to Christ

is that in Christ, your hopes rest

on eternal promises,

not on fleeting, worldly passions.

In the domain of sin,

success is measured in material possessions

that decay

or in accomplishments that are forgotten

or in prestige

that fades

or in opinions that are fickle,

or in popularity

popularity that is prone to treachery.

To live for these things is to build

a house

on a foundation of sand

and to close on a mortgage whose interest

is measured in anxiety,

and to pay for a house

whose value always depreciates.

But in the domain of Christ, your inheritance

is imperishable,

undefiled,

and unfading.

And it is kept in heaven for you

by God himself

who, together with Christ and with the Holy

Spirit, hold you, seal you.

And nothing and no one can snatch you

away from that safe place.

Yes, true freedom is found in slavery to

Christ. This is why Paul urges you, in

verse 19, to present your members as slaves

of righteousness,

leading to sanctification

because to be united with Christ is to

become like him

and to experience fullness of joy.

Perhaps the idea of being, of freedom being

found in slavery to Christ is repulsive to

your senses.

But when you realize that Jesus is the

source of life,

of pleasure,

of peace, and of joy,

then the offense will begin to fade away

and you want to be bound

to that Lord.

This is how Paul understood things. In fact,

this is how Paul viewed his own identity.

Look at how Paul introduces himself in verse

1 of his letter to the Romans.

He writes, Paul,

a servant, that is to say, a slave,

same word Paul, a slave

of Christ Jesus,

called to be an apostle, set apart for

the gospel of God.

Saul of Tarsus,

as Paul was primarily known before coming to

Christ,

enjoyed all the freedoms and privileges

of being a citizen of Rome.

He was a brilliant rabbinical student,

enjoying the prestige of learning under the renowned

1st century rabbi, Gamaliel.

He was a zealous man, zealous for God's

law as he understood it anyway,

proudly persecuting Christians

and even presiding over the stoning of Stephen,

the first Christian martyr.

He was proud of this.

As a Hebrew of Hebrews

from the tribe of Benjamin,

Saul of Tarsus considered himself to be free,

a slave to no one.

But his cloak of righteousness

hid a slave to sin.

He was then chased to death

whose inheritance

he would experience and taste soon, if he

was not delivered.

That is,

until he met his Lord Jesus Christ. So

rather, until Christ sovereignly

met him.

Changed his heart.

Changed his mission. And yes, change his Lord.

Under Paul's new call, Paul tells us in

2nd Corinthians 11

that he endured numerous hardships

including imprisonments,

beatings,

being near death multiple times as a result

of these beatings,

receiving the Jewish punishment of 39 lashes

on 5 occasions,

Being beaten with rods 3 times,

stoned once,

shipwrecked

3 times,

spending a day night adrift at sea,

facing dangers from rivers,

from robbers,

from his own people,

from Gentiles.

Facing dangers in the city, in the wilderness,

at sea.

He also mentions enduring toil,

hardship,

sleepless nights,

hunger,

thirst,

cold, and exposure alongside the daily

pressure and worries

of pastoral care for God's people.

Ultimately,

Paul will use his freedom

as a Roman citizen to demand a trial

before Caesar in Rome.

And the reason he does this is because

he longs for the opportunity to preach the

gospel in Rome. So even if he has

to be taken in chains, he will do

that. He demands it.

That's what he uses his citizenship

for.

And in Rome, Paul will preach the gospel.

He preaches Christ and presents his members as

instruments of righteousness,

as weapons

in in the spiritual battle that Christ, our

general, is calling us to engage in.

So when Paul was beheaded by the sword,

he received a crown of glory

whose radiance still shines before us.

Don't fear the chains of Christ.

They lead to life eternal.

In those chains, God took Paul to Rome

proving that

Rome

and this world did not own him.

In those chains, Paul and countless others have

found true freedom

because the chains that bind us to Christ

are forged

in the ever burning fire

of God's love.

Let's pray.