A New Master
Alive in Christ • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro:
There is a scene near the end of Braveheart that almost everybody knows—even if you haven't seen the movie.
William Wallace has been captured. He's been tortured. His enemies are trying to break him. They can take his strength. They can take his body. Eventually, they can even take his life.
But they cannot make him surrender.
And with the little strength he has left, Wallace cries out one word:
“Freedom!”
There's something about that moment that resonates with us.
Because nobody wants to be a slave.
Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, “You know what I would really like? I would like something to control my life.”
We want freedom.
We want to make our own decisions.
We want to choose what we do with our bodies, our money, our relationships, our time.
We want to be able to say, “Nobody owns me.”
And yet Romans 6 confronts us with a disturbing possibility:
What if nobody has to take our freedom from us because we keep giving it away?
Paul says in verse 16:
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey?”
Do you see what He is suggesting here?
You present yourselves.
That's what makes sin so deceptive.
Most of the things that eventually enslave us don't arrive looking like masters.
They arrive looking like freedom.
Nobody decides, “I want alcohol to control my life.”
It starts with, “This helps me relax.”
Nobody decides, “I want pornography to reshape the way I see people.”
It starts with, “It's just something I look at.”
Nobody decides, “I want money to determine whether I feel secure.”
It starts with, “I just want enough that I don't have to worry.”
And it doesn't have to be alcohol or pornography or money.
It can be
Success, Comfort, Control, Relationships, Approval, Your career.
Even your family.
Even ministry.
Because the fallen human heart has this incredible ability to take something God created, put it in a place God never intended it to occupy, and then slowly begin organizing our lives around it.
And somewhere along the way, the thing we thought we were controlling begins controlling us.
Rather than exercising freedom, we were actually surrendering ourselves over time.
That's the problem Paul is addressing in Romans 6.
Paul is going to help us ask three questions that expose what's really happening in our hearts:
What am I serving?
What is it turning me into?
And where is it taking me?
Because here's what we're going to discover:
Everyone has a master.
Your master shapes who you become.
And your master determines where you're going.
But are you ready for good news? Romans 6 Shows us also, how the Gospel changes everything.
Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
R.C. Sproul: Here's the beautiful paradox in this passage:
Jesus sets us free from a master who destroys us, and then brings us under the lordship of a Master who loves us.
Division 1 — Everyone Has a Master
What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not! Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?
Explanation
Paul begins verse 15 with a question that sounds a lot like the question he asked at the beginning of the chapter:
“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?”
In other words, If grace really is grace—
if my acceptance before God isn't based on my ability to keep the law—
then it shouldn’t really matter how I live, right?
Paul responds, “Absolutely not!”
But this time his explanation is different.
In the first half of Romans 6, Paul talked about our union with Christ.
We died with Christ.
We were raised with Christ.
We are alive to God in Christ.
Here Paul changes the picture.
Now he talks about mastery.
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey?”
Paul is challenging something we deeply want to believe about ourselves:
That we are autonomous.
We like to think, Nobody owns me. Nobody controls me. I'm my own person.
Paul says spiritually, that's not an option.
Jesus said in
“No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
And in John 8:34
Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
Paul's point is that we give ourselves to something. And whatever continually receives our obedience eventually exercises mastery over us.
So the question isn't simply:
“Am I free?”
It's:
“What has mastery over me?”
Tim Keller quoted Rebecca Manley Pippert in a sermon, quote
“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.”
When we hear slavery, my mind goes right to addictions.
But our masters can be much more respectable than that.
Approval can master you.
If you have to have everybody's approval, you’re not free.
You have to manage what everybody thinks about me.
Success can master you.
If your worth depends on succeeding, you can't simply work faithfully.
You have to win.
Control can master you.
If everything has to happen according to your plan before you can have peace,
circumstances have become your master.
Even ministry can master us.
If a pastor needs the church to grow or people to recognize his effectiveness in order to feel valuable, something is quietly taking the place in their heart that is to solely belong to Jesus.
Whatever gets your obedience eventually gains mastery.
Jacko Willink: Disciplines equals Freedom
And here is where our fallen condition becomes visible.
Ever since Genesis 3, humanity has believed the lie that freedom means getting out from underneath God's authority.
But every time we run from God's authority, we don't become masterless.
We just change masters.
That's the deception of sin.
Sin introduces itself as freedom and eventually reveals itself as mastery.
It says, Do whatever you want.
Then eventually you discover that you have to do what you want.
You thought you were choosing the anger;
now the anger chooses for you.
You thought you were choosing the approval of people;
now you can't bear their rejection.
You thought you were choosing the habit;
now you can't imagine living without it.
That's why Jesus doesn't simply come to give us better rules.
Jesus comes to set slaves free.
So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.
Application
“What has mastery over you?”
What can you not imagine being okay without?
What do you continually run to for comfort?
What are you terrified of losing?
And maybe most revealing:
What gets your yes even when Jesus is saying no?
Obedience has a way of revealing our master.
Freedom is not the absence of a master; freedom is belonging to the right Master.
Now in Part 2, Paul shows us that your master doesn't just control what you do.
Your master shapes who you become.
Division 2 — Your Master Shapes Who You Become
But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.
Beginning in verse 17 Paul gets personal:
“But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart…”
Notice the first words:
“Thanks be to God.”
Pauls not congratulating his readers for finally getting their lives together.
In other words, Something has happened to them.
They were slaves of sin.
They became obedient from the heart.
They were set free from sin.
They became slaves of righteousness.
That's grace.
Grace doesn't just change our destination someday.
Grace begins changing our allegiance.
Notice where that change happens:
“You became obedient from the heart.”
This isn't behavioral modification.
The gospel reaches down into what we love, desire, and treasure—and reveals God’s holiness and truth about those things we hold dear
That new knowldge begins to reshape our desire, love and passion for those things.
From that changed heart comes changed obedience.
Paul says they became obedient:
“to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.”
That word pattern carries the idea of a Standard which you hold.
According to John MacArthur: The truth of the gospel isn't merely information we learn; it becomes the pattern that begins reshaping our lives.
That's why Jesus prays in John 17:17
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
The truth doesn't just inform us. God uses His truth to form us.
Then Paul puts it into laymen terms in verse 19:
For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.
Your body. Your mind. Your mouth. Your hands. Your sexuality. Your time.
The same life you once handed over to sin, intentionally hand over to God.
And notice the direction:
Lawlessness led to more lawlessness.
Righteousness leads to sanctification.
What masters your heart eventually shapes your life.
Illustration
Think about learning an instrument.
The first time you pick up a guitar, nothing feels natural.
You're thinking about where every finger goes. You're trying to remember the chord. Your fingers hurt. Changing chords takes concentration.
But you keep presenting those same fingers to the same movements.
Again and again.
Eventually, your hands begin going where they've been trained to go.
What once required enormous concentration becomes increasingly natural.
In a much deeper spiritual sense, Paul says we are always presenting ourselves to something.
Every time I feed bitterness, I'm training my heart toward bitterness.
Every time I surrender my eyes to lust, I'm strengthening that pattern.
Every time I manipulate circumstances because I have to be in control, I'm teaching my heart where to run.
Sin doesn't leave us where it found us.
But the opposite is also true.
Every time I surrender my anger to Jesus…
Every time I choose truth over the lie…
Every time I forgive when my flesh wants revenge…
I'm presenting myself again to the Master who is shaping me toward holiness.
Argumentation
Now, we have to be careful.
We could hear Paul and think:
“Practice being good long enough and eventually you'll become good.”
That's not Paul's gospel.
Verse 17 doesn't say:
You obeyed until God finally freed you from sin.
God acted, and now you have been set free.
That's why Paul says:
“Thanks be to God.”
Our obedience is the fruit of grace, not the purchase price of grace.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.
In other words, the grace of God that brings salvation,
also trains us to renounce ungodliness and to live godly lives.
Grace pardons us, and then grace begins training us.
What are you presenting to your Master?
Sometimes we want Jesus to transform an area of our lives that we continually keep presenting to something else.
We want peace but we present our minds to anxiety.
We want purity but present our eyes to temptation.
We want contentment but present ourselves to comparison.
Paul says:
Present yourself differently.
Not because you're trying to become God's child.
Because you are God's child.
Maybe instead of asking, “Jesus, why haven't You changed me?” we need to ask:
“Jesus, what am I continually presenting to something other than You?”
What masters your heart eventually shapes your life.
That raises Paul's final question:
Where is that master ultimately taking you?
Division 3 — Your Master Determines Where You're Going
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul says in verse 20:
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.”
That's an interesting kind of freedom.
Sin says, You don't have to answer to God. You're free.
And Paul says, Okay. Let's examine what that freedom actually produced.
Verse 21:
“But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?”
Paul tells them to look backward.
What did sin actually give you?
Not what did it promise you.
What did it produce?
Sin promises satisfaction. Freedom. Happiness. Control.
But Paul says:
Look at the fruit.
Some of those things that once looked like freedom, you now look back on with shame.
“The outcome of those things is death.”
But then verse 22:
“But now…” You were slaves of sin.
But now you've been set free.
You were headed toward death.
But now you belong to God.
And belonging to God produces entirely different fruit:
“The fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”
Here's Paul's progression:
Sin → shame → death.
God → holiness → life.
Every master is taking you somewhere.
Illustration
It's like getting on a road and ignoring the destination signs.
You can enjoy the scenery. Turn up the music. Tell yourself you're free to drive wherever you want.
But eventually the road takes you where the road goes.
You can't drive north for five hours Get to Atlanta and then be offended because you didn't end up near Miami.
Your Direction always determines destination.
And that's Paul's warning about sin.
We have this crazy ability to separate the decision we're making right now from where that decision is taking us.
It's only this once.
It's just a little compromise.
I can stop whenever I want.
But Paul asks:
“Where is this road going end?”
There is a way that seems right to a person,
but its end is the way to death.
So before you give something your obedience, ask:
Where is this master taking me?
Verse 23 brings the whole argument home:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Notice Paul does not make this an argument for equal wages.
He doesn't say:
The wages of sin are death,
and the wages of righteousness are eternal life.
Because then Christianity would just be choosing the better employer.
Sin pays death.
God pays heaven.
Work harder for God.
That's not the gospel.
Paul deliberately changes the language.
Sin pays wages.
God gives a gift.
Wages are what you've earned.
A gift is something you receive never earn.
Sin gives us what we've earned. Jesus took what we earned.
The wages of sin are death—
and Jesus went to the cross and died.
Not for His sin.
For ours.
He took the wages that belonged to us so God could give us the gift we could never earn.
And don't miss the last words:
“eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Life is found in Jesus.
So after an entire passage about obedience, righteousness, and sanctification,
Paul lands us right back at grace.
The Christian life begins by grace. It’s sustained by grace. And it ends in the gift of eternal life.
“Where is what I'm doing taking me?”
Where does uncontrolled anger eventually take a marriage?
Where does secret lust eventually take your heart?
Where does bitterness eventually take your relationships?
Don't just look at what your master is promising you today.
Look where that master is taking you tomorrow.
And then look at Jesus.
Jesus isn't promising that following Him will always be easy.
He is promising life.
Holiness isn't God taking life away from you.
Holiness is God increasingly restoring you to the life you were created to live.
Why would you keep following a master whose destination you already know?
Sin has shown us where it goes.
Jesus has shown us where He goes.
One ends in death.
The other ends in eternal life.
And that isn't something we earn.
Every master makes promises, but the destination reveals whether those promises are true
Closing
Who Gets Your Life?
Paul’s summary.
Everyone has a master.
Your master shapes who you become.
And your master determines where you're going.
Which means the question this morning isn't whether you're going to give your life to something.
You already are.
The question is:
Who gets your life?
Who gets your thoughts?
Who gets your body?
Who gets your money?
Who gets your time?
Who gets your yes?
Because whatever you continually present yourself to will begin exercising mastery over you.
And maybe today Jesus dragging something up in the forefront of your mind saying:
“That was never meant to be your master.”
Just like that scene in Braveheart where Wallace’s enemies tried to take everything from him, but he refused to surrender his freedom.
Romans 6 gives us an even more sobering picture that often we surrender our freedom willingly.
Little by little by the decisions we make
Eventually something that promised freedom begins telling us what to do.
But here's the good news.
Jesus didn't come merely to tell slaves they should make better decisions.
He came to set slaves free.
“The wages of sin is death…”
That's what our old master pays.
But Paul doesn't say, “The wages of righteousness are eternal life.”
Because you cannot work your way out of slavery.
Instead: “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Sin pays wages.
God gives a gift.
And Jesus made that gift possible by taking our wages upon Himself.
The death our sin deserved, Jesus died.
The judgment our rebellion deserved, Jesus carried.
And then He walked out of the grave victorious over sin and death.
Jesus doesn't stand outside the prison of your sin shouting instructions about how you might escape.
He has broken the power of the master who held you.
And now He’s saying:
Come belong to Me.
Real freedom isn't saying:
“Nobody owns me.”
Real freedom is being able to say:
“Sin doesn't own me anymore because I belong to Jesus.”
So one final question: — Worship Team Up Heads Bowed
Who gets your life?
Maybe you're a Christian and there's an area you've been presenting to an old master.
You belong to Jesus, but you've been handing your eyes somewhere else.
Your thoughts somewhere else.
Your sexuality somewhere else.
Your money somewhere else.
Your anger somewhere else.
Then don't just promise Jesus you'll try harder.
Present yourself to Him again.
“Jesus, this belongs to You.”
“My body belongs to You.”
“My marriage belongs to You.”
“My future belongs to You.”
“My whole life belongs to You.”
Maybe for someone else, today isn't about presenting one area of your life to Jesus.
It's about giving Him your life.
You've spent your life trying to be your own master, and you've discovered that sin always leaves you ashamed and enslaved.
Jesus is offering you something you could never earn.
Life.
Turn from your sin.
Trust in Jesus Christ.
Receive the gift.
And surrender your life to the only Master whose lordship actually sets you free.
Because freedom isn't having no master.
Freedom is belonging to the right Master.
And His name is Jesus.
Worthy of it all
