Title: Slaves
I. Examine Your Work
v15 “Certainly not!” Again we see Paul’s use of the Greek phrase, “Me Ginomai” which, as we remember from two weeks ago, literally translates as, “May God forbid it to be so.”
In his final use of rhetoric for this argument, Paul is about to bring together his closing arguments for his stressing the idea that we, as believers are dead to sin, and alive to God.
V16 (read) What Paul states here is that we present our efforts, our bodies of work, our life’s ambitions at one of two altars. Either we live our lives for sin, lay our work at sin’s altar and are tied to sin as our master, or we lay our lives in obedience to God, and live in righteousness.
Paul’s point: You cannot separate your work from the point of your work. You can’t live a life of sin, and claim to be righteous before God. On the other hand, you can’t live a life of righteousness and obedience and claim to be of the world.
You are bound to that which you work for.
So then, it should be fairly easy to look at your own life, look at the things you’ve done, the things your accomplished, and ask yourself: At who’s altar did I lay this work? For whom was I working. For myself? For my family? For honor? For country? Friends, a great many sins are committed by people because they justify the sinful things they do because they are doing these things for seemingly noble reasons.
A businessman is less than ethical with his customers to get a premium price so he can pocket a few thousand more dollars and take his family on a better vacation. Besides, if a question is brought up, I’ll re-negotiate the price.
A woman shopping, who knows that something has been mis-priced says nothing when she reaches the checkout counter b/c in her mind it’s the store’s mistake and her fortune. Besides, they mark up the prices to a ridiculous amount anyway. If they catch the error at the counter I’ll just play dumb and admit I can’t really afford ti.
A young man or woman home for the summer from college takes a job which pays under the table because, “The government takes too much in taxes and then misuses the money anyway. Besides, that what audits are for.”
When traveling on the freeway you set the speedometer to 72 instead of 65 because, “They never pull any one over at that speed anyway. Besides, if I get pulled over, I’ll pay the fine.”
All of these scenarios are most likely familiar to you, and seem to be complex, with a lot of gray areas. But Paul tells us they are not. Either you act as a slave to sin, and the work you do reflects your slavery to unrighteousness, or you act as a slave to God, and when you are tempted to cheat or do something half way, or semi-dishonest, you can’t live with yourself.
II. How then did we arrive at righteousness?
V17 (read) One of the deepest and most thought provoking verses in scripture. But its beauty is subtle, not obvious.
Paul speaks here of the toil and tension between flesh and spirit. We were slaves to sin. We could not help but sin, because we were slaves to it. If we had decided to be righteous it would have ended in sin. We could not choose to not sin. We must have sinned. We were slave to it. And one thing saved us. That we obeyed from the heart the truth that we were delivered to.
Hear that very, very carefully. We do not obey that which we delivered ourselves to. We did not wake up one day and proclaim, “I no longer wish to sin. I no longer wish be a slave to sin. Today I make up my mind to seek righteousness, to find righteousness, to obey righteousness and to make myself a slave to righteousness.”
This is not what happened. Paul says we were delivered to righteousness, were brought to its doorstep, learned the true doctrine, and then and only then did we obey.
Remember what Paul told us earlier about those who think they sought out righteousness and found it on their own. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands; There is no who seeks after God. (3:10-11)
So then, we did not choose to seek after righteousness, find it, obey it, and make ourselves slaves to it. On the contrary, what Paul tell us is that while we were in the midst of being slaves to sin, God Himself delivered us from unrighteousness by His grace. And by what method? “From the heart.”
God, while we were not seeking him, not desiring Him, changed something in our hearts. Opened our hearts to the truth, presented that truth to us, and our obedience to that truth is what chains us to righteousness.
And the result is found in verse 18: We became slaves to righteousness.
III. Can we be comfortable with being slaves to anyone?
V19 (read) Paul explains to his original audience that he is using an imperfect metaphor to explain his point. “Slavery” in Paul times especially had a negative connotation b/c it implied abuse and lack of choice. Maybe that’s why it’s a good example. Before being saved you are abused and you don’t have a choice, your nature dictates that you must sin.
How then is it a good thing to be tied in slavery to righteousness? Does this mean that as believers we can’t possibly sin b/c we are slaves to being righteous. Raise your hand if you haven’t sinned this week?
This is why Paul explains this isn’t a perfect metaphor, but his point is abundantly clear in verse 19: Sin begets sin. Therefore, abstain from sin, seek righteousness, seek to be tied to holy living.
One final observation: One of the main difficulties, especially with American History, in regards to the concept of slavery, is that this country’s foundational ideals is that each man has his own inalienable rights, and that no man can be a master to another man.
But I want a master. I want a righteous, holy, perfect master, one which I will obey at all times and beg him to punish me when I don’t obey him so that I will obey him even more. The difference between my scenario and human slavery? My master loves me. And he knows the greatest thing he can give me is more of himself. The worst thing he can do to me is to withdraw from me. What is Hell? The absence of the Grace of God.
What is heaven? Perfect communion with God, without the roadblock of sin. That is something I want to be chained to.