Sunday sermon: "Whose Slave Are You?"

Many Christians will tell you that they love to read the epistle to the Romans. That is understandable, given the sheer depth and beauty of Paul;s teaching in this epistle. However, Romans asks a lot of hard questions, questions that aren't popular in our culture today. In Romans 6:12-23 we find one of these: whose slave are you? Americans pride themselves on their independence, and bristle at the thought of being anyone's slaves. Our own national history involves a great deal of argument, and ultimately a war, to free slaves. So why would we want to be anyone's slave?

That last question misses the point. The contrast Paul gives us here is not between being slaves or free. We can't be free, if by free you mean under obligation to no one. Our choice is between two masters: sin and righteousness, which is really a choice between self and God. Almost paradoxically, the desire to be in control of our own life makes us a slave to sin. As we have seen before in Romans, by nature humans are sinful, able only to seek our own good at the expense of God, others, and even of ourselves. The end result is death, not only an impending physical death but an eternal separation from God. By serving self, we are never able to be what we were created by God to be.

When we come to Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we change masters. Our new master has our own best interests at heart, unlike our old one. (Yes, I mean that we don;t even know what's best for ourselves!) Now we have the ability to focus not on our own selfish desires, but on what God desires. Our goal is to glorify God, not us. This leads us not to death, but to eternal life. Sin's control over us is broken through Jesus. We may still sin occasionally, but it is not longer the master of our life. (We'll talk about the struggle with sin in the next chapter of Romans.)

Paul draws one final contrast in verse 23. This is one of the best-known verses in Romans, if not in the whole Bible. It makes clear the difference between living under the control of sin and under the Lordship of Christ. Here we see that death is the "wages" of sin. In other words, we get what we have earned. Wages are an obligation, a "paycheck" for what we have done. We've earned our judgment. But through Jesus Christ, we receive not "wages of righteousness," but the "gift of God." Eternal life and salvation are given freely by God. We don't earn them or deserve them. They are given to us by grace through the cross of Jesus.

So whose slave are you? Do you live for yourself and your own desires, or to honor and glorify Jesus Christ? The way to be all you were meant to be is not in following the path of sin and self, but by accepting the gift of God and living for His glory.