Romans 6:16-18
Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
Show me a person who is not a slave!!!!
“One is enslaved to passions, a second to profit, a third to status and everyone to fear.” Seneca, first century Roman philosopher.
What are you a slave to?
Romans 6:16-18 – All of us were ( “were”) slaves to sin for Christ saved us by the shedding of His blood on the cross when we finally got around to recognizing that we had been a slave to sin. We came as sinners to the foot of the cross and acknowledged our need of a Savior. He forgave us. Yea! Hallelujah!
There is no moral authority today – if it feels good, do it!
Proverbs 30:12 – There is a class of people who are pure in their own eyes, and yet not washed from their own filth.”
Isaiah 5:20 – Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.
Romans 12:1-2 – I urge you by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not confirmed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Some of us, still knowing we were forgiven, remained in slavery, bound to some of our sin or at least some of the beggarly elements of servitude. What should have been a radical transformation and total about-face seemed partial or non-existent.
Oh yes, we were saved but we certainly had not been really transformed in the way we thought, talked and behaved and continued to live our life.
Story is told of a young man who had an addiction to donuts, eating six or seven at a time. He was very overweight. He worked on it and lost a lot of weight. He woke up one morning craving a donut. When he arrived at work with a donut, his coworker questioned him, saying “I thought you had given up donuts.”
His response: “I prayed and told God if there was an open parking spot right in front of the donut shop when I went by, I would know it was okay for me to stop and get a donut” What he did not tell his coworker was that there was an open parking spot on his eleventh time around the block. That’s about the way we treat temptation.
We read our Bible when we thought about it and did not have anything else to do like a favorite TV program, shopping, watching a football game, watching “As the Stomach Turns”, going to Olive Garden or McDonalds or whatever else was transient gratification. (That’s a big word for “current need for self-satisfaction.”) We prayed, especially when we got into trouble.
A Christian is someone who changed – transformed – made new in His image – set free from slavery. That’s really the crux of this whole thing. We had gone through the motions of being set free, but we were still in fact enslaved. Christ had forgiven us up to that point (repeat) of our asking for forgiveness.
The Bible say “For He (Christ) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We had, so to speak, by asking forgiveness, emptied the backpack of sins on our back. Sins we had carried around, or was it a duffle bag full, or maybe it was two duffle bags full or maybe it was a wheelbarrow and a duffle bag. For me it was a dumpster – not the kind sitting out back, but the kind they drop off at a house getting a demo job. (sins)
Actually we were still enslaved, though forgiven.
Don’t misunderstand me – Christ did forgive us when we asked Him to – no more guilt from all the baggage of sin. No real change, however, we just started stacking up the whole rotten, stinking load again. We were still enslaved – saved from our sin of the past but now we are like a totally irresponsible person and our enslavement begins all over again in a life of guilt and shame.
We had prayed – maybe we shed a few crocodile tears, maybe some minor course correction but really still enslaved. If we are to be Christ-like there should be some change in our life.
The book of Jeremiah is a book of doom in so many ways; a tale of God’s wrath and judgment for man’s failure to follow Him. But hope is intermingled there. Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
That scripture is the promise of hope that even in our sin, our turning away, our rejection of Him who loves us, even in the midst of His judgment He offers hope. He offers us the best that we could ever hope to have.
That’s what Jeremiah is about….that sums it up. It’s not about simply turning from sin because it is wrong. It’s not about simply turning from sin because it means a turning back to God. God wants these things, but He wants them because, like any good father or husband, he does not want us suffering the consequences of sin. You may be forgiven from your sin but that sin put a scar on your memory that you may never forget and Satan will taunt you over it even though you are now a follower of Jesus. Believe me, I know from a personal standpoint and I’m old. He wants to provide something far more wonderful than our dreams and hopes could imagine. He wants His people to be in good marriages (remember – we are the Bride of Christ) not just because it is right, but because it is through marriage, through our relationship with Him that He can shower upon us love, security, purpose, hope. It is where He can demonstrate what the union between god and man is meant to be. Paul used marriage as a way to explain the church’s relationship with God. God wants us to avoid sin and turn to Him, because he has been planning since the foundation of the earth to give us good things.
We turn away from God’s commands out of fear, anger, rebellion, stupidity and we miss not simply heaven, but in the here and now we miss an abundant life. There is hope amidst the judgment, joy among the bitterness, grace amidst the sin. God promises in Jeremiah that “when we get serious about searching for Him and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you are not disappointed.” God is not a lover that disappoints; He is not a shady salesman or politician.
This passage of hope in Jeremiah comes after he says in the preceding verse that “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years of captivity are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home.” This promise does not negate His judgment of the consequences of sin, but God, knowing the rejection of Israel (and of us) having dealt the punishment we deserve, He gives His people a second chance. He says He has plans for them, to take care of them, to not abandon them, to give them a future, a hope. The people who so poorly treated Him are offered the keys to the kingdom, so to speak. It is proof that God’s wrath and judgment are not enough to extinguish His love or His belief in His people.
Jeremiah is a book of judgment laced with hope.
There is a consequence for sin but we have hope.
We simply were not free. We were still enslaved. We had experienced
Christ’s free gift of grace, but it was like we were – in spite of His grace – bad, bad, bad.
Romans 6:1-4 says “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may more abound. The answer – No – No – No
Romans 6:3-6 – Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
Galatians 5:24 – Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
We have been set free. Let us walk in that freedom in obedience to God.
I’m free!
Thoughts of a Retired Pastor 