The Christian Slave

There are a great many terms that we love and appreciate when talking about our relationship with the Lord. We are children, we are sons, we are Christians, and we may even use the term servant from time to time. But did you know that none of these are actually the most often used term to describe someone who follows Jesus? In fact, the term that is most often used is one that English speakers have appreciated so little that we find English translations generally softening the term. It is a term that conjures up pictures that quite often can run in the opposite direction that we generally picture our Christian life going. That term is used eight times in today’s passage, and then several more times in next week’s passage. The term?

Slave.

I don’t know anyone who would, apart from a work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, be excited about being called a slave. And yet, this concept is so key to the understanding of what a Christian is that it is used 124 times in the New Testament. In these next three sermons, here at the end of Romans 6, we are going to see that Paul addresses a primary objection to the Gospel of grace; namely, that since we are, as David taught us last week, not under law but under grace we can continue to live however we want without having to worry with obedience. Paul’s response is intended to be as shocking as it is helpful: Christians are slaves to God.

The Question: Romans 6:15

The question: Romans 6:15

Romans 6:15 ESV

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

A rephrasing of this question that may help us make sense of it: what is the Christian’s motivation for obedience? Why bother to learn, or to follow, God’s Word if we are saved by grace? If God will not cast us off for moral failure, then why bother with obedience at all? After all, obedience is definitely a harder road on this earth most of the time. Paul has a clear, gut-punch of an answer: because you are a slave to God, and slaves obey! Through this passage, we will see four distinguishing characteristics of a slave to righteousness that demonstrate how understanding the Christian as a slave is the pathway to joyful obedience.

1 - The Slave Presents Himself to a Master

Romans 6:16 ESV

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?

Now, before we go any further, we need to look down at verse 19 to see a key to this whole passage. We don’t use maps as much anymore, but when you did, you always needed to look at the map key first in order to know how to read the map. the beginning of verse 19 is like a map key for us here.

Paul recognizes that all this talk about being a slave can be confusing, and it isn’t a perfect parallel, because a sinful human institution could never perfectly display a spiritual reality. I mean, even in the New Testament, slavery was not looked at in a positive light; it was accepted as a reality of culture, but never given the stamp of approval. So, he acknowledges this at the beginning of verse 19 with the statement:

“I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.” In other words, there are limitations to our understanding of language and thought that make this a hard idea to illustrate, but it needs illustrating nonetheless.

The Roman Empire was approximately 1/3 slaves by the time Paul writes this letter. In all likelihood, a great many of those in the church of Rome either were slaves or had been enslaved at some point. Slavery in the Roman Empire had some similarities to what happened here in the west, in that there were some slaves who had been captured, sometimes even Rome’s enemies were made into slaves, but that wasn’t exclusive. There was a process of voluntary slavery as well. When someone had debts they couldn’t pay, or they couldn’t find a way to scrape out a living, they could go to someone and present themselves as a voluntary slave, where they would be taken in and become the property of the one to whom they had presented themselves. Even more of those who were slaves were simply born into slavery. So, when Paul says “do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves,” this is the process he is talking about. Sin is absolutely our Master before we are in Christ, but it is voluntary slavery. We are slaves to sin because we are in Adam, and our hearts seek a Master. Paul is using the institution of voluntary slavery and reminding the people that in these conditions, there was one expectation of the person who was entering into voluntary slavery: obedience.

So, he is asking, don’t you realize that all slaves have one thing asked of them, and that is obedience?

Being saved doesn’t mean we no longer have a master; it means we have a different one. Stott: “conversion is an act of self-surrender; self-surrender leads inevitably to slavery; and slavery demands a total, radical, exclusive obedience.” Remember we said that all humanity lives in one of two people: we are either in Adam, and so slaves to sin, or we are in Christ, and so slaves to righteousness.

The implication of this: no one is free. We have been dancing around this idea, so let’s just punch the elephant in the face: according to the Bible, every will is in bondage. Everyone is under something.

Think about it this way: everyone lives for something. We all offer ourselves as living sacrifices to someone or something. (illustrate this) “Whatever controls us is our lord. The person who seeks power is controlled by power. The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by acceptance. We do not control ourselves. We are controlled by the lord of our lives.” Today, as you sit here in worship, you sit next to a slave. It is simply a matter of what they are enslaved to.

Some are slaves to Sin - the unconverted man is not free; he is bound to slavery, under the yoke of sin, compelled to rebellion and disobedience.

Some of these are enslaved to possessions: the frantic desire to own things has resulted in the things owning them.

Some are enslaved to habits and addictions: the lie that binding their soul to the fleeting pleasure of indulging a godless habit has put an unbearable yoke of slavery around their neck.

Some are enslaved to their tempers: they are not only enslaved by a strong desire to be in control, they strive to enslave others under the desire for control.

Some are enslaved to rules and expectations: they must check the boxes and follow the rules. They must get it all right, and perform according to the expectations they have set for themselves, and others must also live according to these standards.

Some are enslaved to the opinions and approval of others: I become so desperate for your approval that I am crushed when someone doesn’t like me, or doesn’t agree with me. Or, even still, I talk a good game and say I don’t care, but my perceived opinion of you causes me to do things that are totally contrary to your expectations. In both cases, your perception of me has affected the way I make decisions, and I become enslaved to them.

The list could go on, but the principle remains: all of us either are, or we were, slaves to sin. Jesus speaks of this in John 8: 34

John 8:34 ESV

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

But the most enslaved are typically those who argue the most vehemently that they are not enslaved at all! They are, as the Rolling Stones sang in 1965, “free, to do what I want, any old time.” The mystery of iniquity doesn’t argue that this is true - they are doing precisely what they want, and what they want is to obey their master. The will of the unconverted man is in total bondage to sin. And even when he wants to change, he wants to be free from the consequences of sin, but he doesn’ t want to be free from the sin itself.

This is the first type of slavery. But praise be to God, Paul does not stop here. There is a whole different type of slavery.

Christians are slaves to obedience - The Christian has been set free from the yoke of slavery to sin, and is now bound to righteousness, under the yoke of Christ, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, and is now compelled to do righteousness.

2 - A Good Slave Progresses in His Obedience

Romans 6:16 ESV

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?

Now that Paul has given us this reality, that we are either slaves to sin or slaves to obedience, now he begins to show what happens when we serve the master of our choosing: we get better at serving them. Sin will invariably lead to death. We will see this in Romans 6:23, right? The wages of sin is death. But see what Paul is saying here: we will not only be slaves, we will improve at being slaves. We see this in our children. If we allow them to progress in sin, we allow them to become more crafty sinners!

Nothing was harder for me than to discipline my son, or any of the foster parents we had, when they were really small. In fact, we had one little girl that knew just how to pull on my heart, and was incredibly skilled, even at less than 2 years old, at playing me in order to avoid punishment. Fortunately, my beloved wife was quite skilled in sniffing out infantile female manipulation, and she was having none of it. But I needed her to actually point out what was going on! In reality, however, if I in that situation were to allow her to continue to manipulate me, all I am doing is allowing her to become a more skillful manipulator!

When we allow sin to continue on as our master, we eventually become more skillful slaves to it. We get better and better at lies, or manipulation, or deceitfulness, or craftiness. We get better at conforming our life to the image of our sin. We improve at wickedness. And, for what it’s worth, this is why discipline is such an essential component to parenting. If we do not discipline our children, we allow them to go on become more skillful sinners.

It also helps us understand why God disciplines His children. Why does the Scripture speak of God Himself saying “those whom I love, I discipline?” Because God wants us to be skillful not in sin, but in righteousness!

But, when we obey God, when we submit to being a slave to God, we grow in grace and godliness, and we become more skilled in obedience. Illustration: my temper - moments when I can see that I didn’t respond as used to! This means I am growing as a slave to obedience, which leads to righteousness! We are called to grow in righteousness, and when we submit ourselves to the Master, we progress in obedience. Just as when we submit to sin we become more skillful sinners, so when we submit to God, we become more skillful Christians! That is the work of sanctification: growing in grace and maturity, and progressing in our ability to obey!

But here is the bottom line: we are slaves to the one we obey! We have been emancipated from the tyranny of sin and put under grace. So, Paul is helping us to understand exactly what he means by “not under law but under grace.”

Under law: we were bound to obey the law, and yet our Master sin prevented us from doing precisely that. And so the weight of the law on our shoulders, of never being able to measure up, laid heavy on us, and was compounded by our actual guilt before God. We were under the law.

Under grace: but the old slave master is gone; we were emancipated from sin, which no longer reigns over us, and we were put under a new Master, Jesus. John Chrysostom, an early church preacher, calls this slavery better than any freedom, and he is totally right. Why? It allows humanity to do what we are actually created by God to do: to worship and work for the glory of God forever! And as the Christian slave progresses in his obedience to God, he then positions himself for a life of obedience.

3 - The Slave Positions Himself for a Life of Obedience

Romans 6:17–18 ESV

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.

I think that this verses 17 and 18 give us one of the very best descriptions of what Christian maturity is. Being a mature Christian is, at its core, being a more skillful, more committed slave. Again, remember verse 19 - we are speaking in human terms because of our natural limitations. But what a slavery it is! This is precisely why Paul could begin this passage with “thanks be to God!” It’s the best slavery we could imagine; it so eclipses our so called “freedom to sin” that there is simply no comparing the two! Paul is describing for us the sanctification that occurs after justification happens, and in doing so is describing Christian maturity.

A person who is justified is a changed person: “you were” - past tense. Christian, something happened in you, and you are completely different than you were. You have been moved from the kingdom of darkness and into His marvelous light! Remember our illustration about the two fields, with a great chasm between them? You were moved from the field of Adam and into the field of Christ. And from that moment, everything changed. The power of sin was broken in our lives, and we were emancipated from the old master, sin.

And so, we now have a new master: you were once slaves to sin, but are now slaves to righteousness.

And so, there is now a changed course: you are going in a different direction than you were! This is the very definition of repentance: a changing of direction. You were going left, now you are going right. You were going down, but now you are going up. You were living for yourself, now you are putting yourself to death! You are on a whole different course of life! The old man died with Christ; the new man is raised! And so, a life of obedience follows. You were slaves to sin, but now look at what happened:

“You have become obedient from the heart” - you obey God, and pursue righteousness, but not to check off boxes! Rather, you do it out of love for the Father, out of thankfulness for His great grace!

Simple obedience is not the goal. Obedience motivated by love is the goal! Parents, this is always a good reminder for us. Every Monday I pray for every parent in this church, and every child, and I pray the exact same thing: that parents would not exasperate their children, but to bring them up in the encouragement and admonition of the Lord, and that children would not simply follow rules out of fear of consequences, but that they would obey their parents out of love for their parents. Love is the starting point, and the goal!

The same is true for all Christians. God’s salvation was not intended for us to simply be able to follow rules without heart change. The Gospel did not reconcile us to a series of propositions, or to a code of laws. The Gospel has reconciled us to a good Father, who desires to give good gifts for His children. And for His children, one of the good gifts of God is the gift of obedience and righteousness! We can obey from the heart!

When we were slaves to sin, we were totally obedient to our heart, which was deceitfully wicked above all else. But a Christian is a person with a changed course. Everything is different, and now we obey with new hearts!

“To the standard of teaching” - these new hearts are directed by the Word of God. We aren’t left to fumble around in the dark trying to discern what God would have us do; He has written it in His book! We can know what God expects of us, because we have the standard of teaching. And when we read His Word, our heart should become more and more enflamed, as we read the very words of God, given to us for our instruction, so that we who love God can obey God!

When we were slaves to sin, we were directed by the teaching of the world, the flesh and the devil, and we were tossed about, to and fro, carried by every wind of doctrine. But a Christian is a person who has a standard of teaching: God’s Word!

“to which you were committed” - Eugene Peterson called the Christian life “A long obedience in the same direction.” I love this. There is, in the Christian life, commitment. We commit ourselves to Him, to His Word, to His people. In a low-commitment world, nothing is so counter-cultural as this, and yet nothing is so very biblical.

The only commitment that the world applauds is the one spoken by Pelonius in Hamlet, act one, scene three: “To thine own self be true.” When sin was our master, this was our best thinking - my greatest goal in life was to love myself more!

But now, there is a new master: grace. And when grace has gripped us, commitment follows. And we are obedient from the heart, following the teachings of Jesus, even when they are inconvenient. We follow the teachings of the Bible, and we do it for the rest of our lives! This is the real teaching of assurance: those who persevere to the end will be saved!

This, Paul says is what a Christian is. A person with a changed heart, a changed Master, and a changed course! And if this is the case, if we have a new master, we can’t have two masters! Jesus says as much, doesn’t he? “No man can serve two masters!” There has been a glorious liberation of the will, and the will now lives in glorious bondage. And what can we say in response to all this? “thanks be to God.”

And this leads us to the fourth characteristic of the Christian slave, which will serve as the application for our text: The Christian slave pursues righteousness with vigor!

4 - The Slave Pursues Righteousness With Vigor!

Romans 6:19 ESV

I am 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.

In other words,

What is Romans 6:15-19 Telling Me to do?

To present your mind, your body, and your soul to God to be used as a weapon for righteousness with just as much zeal, vigor and passion as you used to pursue sin.

The song we sang last week “but as I ran my hell bound race, indifferent to the cost.” Yes! This is exactly what you did! Now, slave of righteousness, run your heaven-bound race, indifferent to the cost!

There is nothing more tragic than to see a person who used to wholeheartedly pursue sin only half-heartedly pursue God. Do you even understand what happened to you? Do you know the freedom that has been purchased for you? Do you not know that you are bought with a price? This is what Paul is encouraging us to do in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

1 Corinthians 9:24–27 ESV

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

It is precisely what Hebrews 12:1 tells us to do:

Hebrews 12:1 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

As we transition to the Lord’s Table, and we consider the great work of Christ who has reconciled us to God through His death, consider your life friend. What do you truly put the weight of your energy into? Is it running after Jesus, or is it running after other things? The great danger of the Christian life is often chasing what is good, not what is best. Would you today, Christian, commit to pursuing this Jesus with your whole heart?

A few instructions as we prepare to observe the Lord’s Supper:

Benediction: Titus 3:3-7

Titus 3:3–7 ESV

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.