What analogy best describes the Christian life? In his sermon, Greg Ho examines the analogy used by Paul in Romans 6:15-23: slavery to Jesus Christ and His grace. From the passage, Greg Ho explains four characteristics of every slave of God: an eager obedience to God’s Word, aggressiveness in good works, a motivation to attain a well-lived life, and a view toward eternal reward. Do these characteristics show up in your life?
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from your holy book the word the book that you inspired Lord the book that you wrote through the hands of your Apostles Lord I pray that you would give us understanding I pray that you would give us Clarity of mind I pray Lord that we would be attentive and Lord we would be able to derive from your word Lord what it is you want us to do what your command is to us as your servants and as your slaves in Christ’s name we pray amen no sound this thing is not on oh there we go all right okay is that okay sorry about that I think that was my fault all right so what’s it like to be a Christian have you ever tried to explain to someone what it’s like imagine that you’ve just given the gospel to someone and they say you know before I make the leap I just want to make sure I know what I’m getting into so what kind of Life can I expect as a Christian what would you tell them well if you look in the Bible you’ll get a few ideas for example the Christian is described in uh Second Timothy second Timothy 2:3 as a good soldier as a hardworking farmer in 2 Timothy 2:6 and as a Precision boxer in 1 Corinthians 9:26 and you’ll also find the Christian described as an endurance Runner a Wandering Nomad even a newborn babe longing for milk and there are more of course and all these word pictures reveal something unique about the Christian life but you know the Bible uses one picture far more than any of the others in fact this word appears more than 120 times in the New Testament and what’s that word it’s the word slave slave to be a Christian is to be a slave now if you’re wondering why you may not see the word slave in your Bible 120 times that’s for because for reasons we don’t really have time to get into the Greek word for slave Duos is very often mistranslated in your Bibles to the word servant or bonder servant when really the meaning is slave now realize there’s a big difference between a servant and a slave right a servant works because the terms of his employment suits him whenever ever he decides that that’s no longer the case he’s free to pick up and leave right and in the end the servant is his own man but a slave is not employed he is owned he has property he is not free to leave or to quit and a slave doesn’t get to live to please himself right he gets to live to please his master a slave doesn’t get to serve his own ambition he serves the Ambitions of what his master that’s what it’s like to be a slave it’s a total emptying of yourself for your master and if you start looking you’ll see this word slave or do loss everywhere in the New Testament for example if you just look at the introductions of the New Testament letters second Peter 1:1 Peter a dlos a slave James 1:1 James A Slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ Paul also calls himself a slave in the beginning of for instance Romans and Philippians and at the end of Galatians there’s a fascinating little bit where he refers to the scars he’s accumulated over many years of being persecuted as the brand marks of Jesus that’s probably a reference to the mark a slave war that identified his master so I need to point out though the Bible doesn’t condone or promote slavery in any sense and unfortunately we don’t have time to look at the verses today it’s a fascinating study if you ever get the opportunity the Bible condemns for instance slave traders in 1 Timothy 1:10 and Paul tells slaves in First Corinthians 7:21 that if they can they should obtain their freedom but within the church the apostles consistently made it clear there was no division between slave or free but rather everybody would be treated equally that’s in Colossians 3:11 so while being against human slavery the Bible takes advantage of this picture from everyday life that all at the time of this writing would have been familiar with and it takes this picture to describe the Christian experience so why then why does the bible so consistently use the term slaves to describe Christians well to answer that let me tell you a story actually this is your story the story of your lives according to the Bible here it is Once Upon a Time you were sold into slavery you were sold into slavery by your father Adam your father Adam incurred a debt that he could not pay we saw that few months ago in Romans 5 and then by breaking he he incurred that by breaking God’s law in the Garden of Eden and this debt that he incurred was transferred inherited by us all col Colossians 2:14 refers to this as the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and because of this debt Adam and all his children that means all of you were sold into slavery you’re sold into slavery and your master’s name is sin we saw that few months ago a few weeks ago in Romans 66 and we find that sin is a cruel and evil Master he’s cruel and he’s evil he works you to the Bone all hours of the day and night without rest he puts you in Chains and makes you carry heavy burdens he makes you do things that hurt yourself and the people around you that you care about worst of all he lies to you your master sin tells you that if you follow him he will give you some type of reward some satisfaction in exchange for serving him but it’s a lie because all you get is shame and regret and then after a lifetime of faithful service to your master when he’s done with you he will kill you without a second thought and then you will spend eternity in Hell forever now that’s everyone in the world everyone but your story if you’re a Believer is a little different because one day someone comes to that house and this man who comes to the house he looks right at you when he says that one I’ll buy that one and that one and that one and imagine your disbelief as this man straight up pays for your debt in full that you owe and to your astonishment you discover not only did he pay for the debt that you owe today he also puts down more than enough to cover any debt you could possibly incur in the future this man looks straight at you and says now you belong to me that’s in 1 Corinthians 3:23 and just like that the shackles and chains that were so heavy on you drop to the floor and you follow your new master home listen the day he took you home you immediately stopped being a slave to sin and you started being a slave to your new master now your new master you quickly find is the polar opposite of your old master your new master is a kind master he’s not only full of grace and mercy he loves you with a great love it’s in Ephesians 2:4 he gives you the best of everything and lavishes you with his riches that’s in Ephesians 1:7 and when your new master asks you to do something it always turns out in the end to actually have been for your good Romans 8:28 unlike your old Master this new master always delivers on his promises to you and actually you find that the rewards you get are far greater than your meager service could possibly deserve we saw that actually last week in in Dave’s sermon and wow you know what kind of Master this is this is unbelievable one day this master comes and pulls out a chair for you and he invites you to sit at his table the very table that he serves his honored guests at and your master he GS up his loins like a slave would and then he starts to wait on you your master serves you that’s in Luke 12:37 he blows open the doors of his Storehouse and you dying like a king that’s the kind of Master he is well the name of your new master the one who came to purchase you from the slave market of sin his name name is Jesus Christ and the price that he paid to buy your way out of slavery was his own blood he gave his own life to sin to pay for yours look you don’t deserve this I don’t deserve this as a slave this is beyond your wildest imagination that any Master would treat his slaves this way this is insane but here you know what your new master may be a good Master but don’t forget he is still your lord and you are still his slave and he bought you from that slave market make no mistake he is very much entitled to your obedience he’s entitled to it that’s why it says in 1 Corinthians 6 19 and 20 you are not your what own for you have been bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body see you belong to Jesus now you are his property and your whole life is no longer about pleasing yourself it is about pleasing your master that’s what it means to be a slave of Christ now I think this picture instantly clarifies so many things about the Christian life doesn’t it it’s pretty much the opposite of what we see in American Christianity here in American Christianity it’s all about our lives it’s all about our Pleasures our careers our Hobbies our Recreation our fulfillment our ambition and you know Jesus is just like some personal trainer that we call upon whenever we need just a little bit of a boost in those Pursuits isn’t he it’s about help him helping you get what you want you know help me get this job help me get this girl help me do well in school help me be happier help me be richer and if that sounds like your brand of Christianity you have to ask yourself at what point does it stop being about you and your interests and start being about Jesus and his interests that’s what a true slave of Christ is concerned about and if you’re not that then you you got to listen up if you’re a if you’re not a true slave of Christ then you are still a slave to sin and you have never been genuinely saved in the first place but don’t take that from me let’s take that from the Apostle Paul so let’s go to the text let’s open up our Bibles to Romans chapter 6 Romans chapter 6 and of course Dwayne was good enough to read for us our passage so I don’t have to do that now but let me give you a little bit of background in the previous chapters Paul had outlined for us the concept of salvation by faith right that is you were purchased by Jesus Christ from the slave market of sin into his household by grace alone grace alone nothing you did caused him to choose you this was a completely an UNM merited and free salvation and the grace manifested then in you a faith a faith in Jesus Christ as the sinless Son of God whose death paid the price for your sins that’s the faith that it generated in you and when you believed your Eternal Destiny was then instantly changed from eternal hell to eternal life but that raised a question didn’t it if you remember after being saved then what is to stop you from indulging a life of sin after all Grace covered all your sin right even in the future so why not just keep on sinning and then there’ll just be more and more grace well that’s the Paul that’s the question Paul asks and answered in Romans 6 verse one if you remember from few month a few weeks ago let’s just read it are we to continue in sin so that Grace may increase and Paul’s answer we looked at last time from the first half of Romans six is that that is utterly impossible it’s impossible because when you became a Christian you were not merely saved from the penalty of your sin you were utterly transformed in your nature that’s part of being saved you were United with Jesus Christ himself you were united we saw that in verses four and five of this chapter and the point is this someone who is United to Jesus Christ can’t possi emerge unchanged right it’s impossible Jesus is the most powerful and terrifying force in the entire universe brighter and hotter than any sun and to be joined with him and to be unchanged it’s impossible it’s at this point in the passage that we started seeing the language of slavery begin from last week or from last month someone United with Christ verse 6 tells us is no longer a slave to what sin no longer a slave to sin he is no longer a slave to sin because he has died he who has died is what free from sin verse seven right so it doesn’t mean that you don’t sin anymore but it means that sin is no longer your master you have now the power and the right to resist sin that you didn’t have before but now for for this morning that raises another question and the question is this what then about the law of God what about the law that God gave to Moses you see this would fly in the face of conventional thinking the conventional thinking back then was that it was the law with its penalties of Disobedience and its promises for obedience that was what restrained sin makes sense right if you’re saying that we’re free from the law then what’s to restrain us from sin after all the thinking goes Grace couldn’t restrain sin Grace applies no penalty for Disobedience so maybe we need Grace and law right maybe that’s the solution you need to take Grace and then add to it the requirements for obedience and Disobedience to keep that Grace Grace just needs a little bit of help and by the way that’s exactly the kind of system of course that man would come up with wouldn’t it I mean doesn’t that make perfect sense to you by the way that’s exactly what the Catholic Church believes well what does Paul say to that look in verse 14 with me this is a a verse we looked at last time and but there’s something interesting in there that we didn’t really talk about last time and I want to bring it up to you this morning verse 14 says this for sin shall not be mastered for over you full or you are not under law but under grace isn’t that interesting Paul’s saying this sin will not be your master precisely because you are now under grace and not law the opposite of what you might think so how does that make any sense that’s the question that Paul sets up in answers in our text today in fact look at verse 15 verse 15 says this what then Paul asks shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace there’s the question so what’s Paul’s answer let’s say it together may it never be now the gra the grace plus Laing is such a dangerous potential error that Paul is going to take actually the next two chapters to talk about this question and his answer overall will have two parts the first part of his answer will be that Grace does constrain sin and it’s the only thing that can that’s the part we’ll look at today the second part of the answer in chapter 7 will be that the law does not constrain sin and never did so if you put that together you get the answer to your question Grace does constrain sin and law does not exactly the opposite of what you might think so how does that work How does Grace constrain sin and this is how listen I’ll tell you the the point of the passage really in you know one sentence right now and then then we’ll we’ll talk about it more so this is the point don’t miss it Grace enslaves you to Christ that’s it Grace enslaves you you are not only saved by grace you are enslaved by grace in other words true Saving Grace listen is always also enslaving Grace that’s how gra Grace restrains You by enslaving you look at verse 16 let’s hear it from Paul verse 16 says this do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience you are slaves of the one whom you obey either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness now notice how many options are there in this text how many options there are two options right there are only ever two options you are either a Slave of sin or In this passage a slave of obedience which is another way of saying slaves to God see the question is not whether you are enslaved or not right the question is who you are enslaved to so how can you tell by looking at someone who their Master is it’s a simple simple answer to that question you simply look at who they are obeying right everybody would know that who lived in that time that’s all no slave can serve two masters so the one that you are obeying must then be your master that’s why Paul is saying in the beginning of the verse do you not know this is an obvious thing for people who are familiar with slaves at the time everyone knows this so Paul’s point is this you are showing whose slave You Are by whom you obey it’s it’s that simple if you are obeying sin then obviously you are a slave to sin and if you’re obeying God then obviously you are a slave to God and if your actions show you to be a slave of sin then guess what your fate is your fate is death spiritual and physical death but on the other hand if you are shown to be continually obeying God then your path will be the one that leads to righteousness it says in the passage you will see righteousness in your life righteous Behavior righteous character righteous living your righteousness will be plain for all to see now really Paul could have just stopped there with the answer to that question but he’s going to give us a little more information because he doesn’t want to leave any room for confusion for us okay he wants to make totally sure that when you see a slave of God you will recognize him as a slave of God he will recognize the one when you see one so in the remaining verses of this chapter Paul is going to describe in more detail what it looks like to be a slave of God over and against being a slave to sin he’s going to use the slave slavery to sin as a contrast for us to understand what it means to be a slave of God so this is the outline for the for the rest of the passage we’ll see four characteristics that are true of every slave of God four characteristics that are true of every slave of God we find the firsta characteristic in verse 17 let’s read that first verse 17 but thanks to be but thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed see you were formerly a slave to sin but your master changed as we said once Jesus bought you and by the way look at the verse that’s no thanks to you it’s thanks to who God thanks be to God he gets the credit for that you had nothing to do with it it was all by grace and then Paul says you were a slave of sin so let’s just talk about that for a minute you know you may not have felt like a slave of sin but you were this is how Titus 33 puts it describing unbeliever he said you were enslaved to various lust and pleasures spending your life in Malice and envy hateful hating one another I mean just look at our world today what does it look like you see rampant adultery rampant homosexuality that’s celebrated pornography and lewdness on every magazine and billboard on every TV channel there is no restraint and if you want to talk about envy and hatefulness that’s just the norm if you just look at the internet for seconds you’ll be exposed to hatefulness across political lines hatefulness across racial lines hatefulness across economic lines hatefulness across religious lines you see Envy arrogance anger slander greed just sitting out there and you know there’s so much of this stuff that to our shame we’re not even horrified by it anymore are we it’s just normal to us you see that is what it looks like when an entire world is enslaved to sin as a slave of sin you were utterly depraved it says in the Bible every intent of the thoughts of your heart were only Wicked continually that’s used to describe the world pre flood but it’s not better after the flood Romans 8:7 says that every thought in your mind was hostile to God every thought and you were utterly unable to please God in any way as a slave of sin listen you did sin’s bidding 24 hours a day 7 days a week that is true slavery Jesus even says in John 8:34 truly truly I say to you everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin sin is slavery it’s the worst kind of slavery because you often don’t even know you’re enslaved that’s only because you so willingly present yourself to your master for obedience but if you could see your sin and then try to stop you will find that you can’t stop you’re chained to it but for a believer that is all in the past look back in verse 17 what happened you became obedient what from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed and that brings us to the first of the four characteristics of every slave of God number one is this every slave of God is characterized by an eager obedience to God’s word every slave of God is characterized by an eager obedience to God’s word there’s a progression in this verse that I want you to see first it says your obedience is now from the heart this is an eager obedience if you’re a slave of God obedience isn’t some tasteful chore to you it’s a joy you desperately want to obey God with every fiber of your being and what are you obedient to in the verse look at verse 17 it says you’re obedient to the what the form of teaching to which you were committed now this word for form is really speaking of a mold that you would pour molten metal into and make tools or weapons it’s a mold it’s a mold that shapes something the form of teaching then is referring to God’s word the Bible into which you are poured and molded and shaped it reshapes you and this wasn’t your decision look you were committed to it right that’s what the verse says you were committed to it by somebody outside of you it was God God was the one who poured you to mold you and shape you into the shape of his word and now look at Verse 18 this is the consequence of that having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness see in response to having been shaped by God’s word you start to do righteousness experiencing righteousness in your lives the same way in verse 18 that you were once enslaved to sin and compelled to sin you are now enslaved to to righteousness and compelled to righteousness see that’s the progression of a True Believer first you have from your heart a desire to obey you are then committed by God to be molded and shaped under his word right and then finally this molding results in development of righteous character that flushes out in righteous actions in your life that’s the progression that’s the progression of every true slave of God and this is all a joy to you this is a labor of Joy so let’s just pause here and ask does this look like you do you love the word of God do you love to come to church to hear the word of God preached and do you take every opportunity to be shaped and molded by it do you hide it in your heart and let it transform your thinking and then after hearing it learning what your master wants you to do do you then find yourself obeying it if not then I want you to think that about the possibility you might not be a slave to God at all you might still be a slave to sin so then a slave of God is characterized by an obedience to God’s word now in the next verse Paul says something a bit strange that uh look at briefly look at verse 19 he says this I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh now why did did Paul say that well Paul just wants to clarify see he’s using the language of slavery right but he also wants to make sure the Romans don’t misunderstand and wrongly associate with God all of the negative connotations of human slavery like the abuse the cruelty the unfairness the degradation or the fear none of that is in view here the weakness of the flesh that that term just means that Paul is using an Earthly analogy from their everyday life so that they can understand a relationship between a Believer and God a Heavenly reality but this analogy is not a Perfect Analogy in reality there is much more to your relationship to God than slavery I just want you to make sure that you understand that there is also citizenship there is also sunship right as the pictures in Romans 8 but you know I think Paul and the in fact the rest of the New Testament writers use the word slavery because let’s face it we need that picture sometimes don’t we sometimes obedience is just not the naturalist or the most natural thing to us not all the time and in those times when it’s hard to obey I think this picture of slavery really helps us when when delight and your passion Fail You When sin seems enticing you are to remember that you are a slave of Christ you are not your own you are bought with a price you are Christ slave and really in fact your duty is to obey I think we need that as Sinners sometimes we need sometimes to just know that it’s our duty and we need to do it in fact Luke 17:10 Jesus says this he says so you too when you do all the things which are commanded you say we are unworthy slaves we have done only which we ought to have done we’ve just done our duty as your slaves Jesus nothing more more and sometimes we do need that all right so so far Paul has described to us what a slave looks like someone who is obedient from the heart from to to the word of God who is a slave of righteousness but in the next verse God Paul now goes from description to command this is actually the only command in our passage today so you better pay attention to it he says this you’re a slave of righteousness right so go and act like one here it is verse 19 for for just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness resulting in further lawlessness here’s the command so now present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in what sanctification all right and so here we find the second characteristic of every true slave of God it is this every slave of God obeys the command to be aggressive in Good Works every slave of God obeys the command to be aggressive in Good Works we’re commanded as slaves to be aggressive in our good works but first Paul says this he describes your life just as comparison as when you were a slave when you were a slave to sin you presented the members of your body to impurity and there’s no way to avoid this that word impurity is an explicit reference to sexual immorality that’s what that is in fact the same word Paul uses to describe lustful passion in 1 Corinthians 4:3 I’m sorry 1 Thessalonians 4:3 and it’s the same word that Paul uses in Romans 1:24 where he says that God gave them over in the lust of their heart to impurity so that their bodies would be Dishonored among them 1 Corinthians 6 gives us a list of what this might look like verse 9 says or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither fornicators no nor idolators nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals those won’t inherit the kingdom of God sex before marriage sex outside of marriage homosexual activity these things are these sins are especially offensive to God because they sin against the body that God gave you 1 Corinthians 6:18 explains this every other sin that a man commits is outside the body but the immoral man sins what against his own body there is something especially abominable to God about polluting your body that God created for you and gave to you and entrusted to you and told you to handle and honor to pollute your body is to take God’s stewardship to you and to throw it back in his face right yet slaves of sin the Bible says pursue these things with greed greedily that’s what it says in Ephesians and then in the back in Romans 6 it after it says impurity it says lawlessness right that’s what it you were like as a slave of sin that literally refers to any deed that Rebels against God’s standard anything that breaks God’s law thieves the Covetous the drunkards the revilers the swindlers 1 Corinthians 610 says that and just a few examples and there are many more we could add to that list those who engage in from Romans 1:29 greed Envy murder deceit malice gossip slanderers The Arrogant Disobedience to parents that’s always your favorite one as a parent and the point is if you look back in Romans 6:19 all these sins did all they did for you was to lead you further and further into lawlessness right the point that Paul is making is that the lawlessness just progresses from bad to worse as you indulge in it more and more sin always leads you to more and more sin an un an uncontrollable death spiral that just pushes you further and further down into depravity that is what it g that is what it did for you but listen for believers that is what you were now listen as a slave of God you cannot and you must not do those things anymore instead here is what God commands he wants you to take all that energy and all that aggression that you used to pursue sin with and then he wants you to pursue righteousness with that much abandon right with that much energy with the same tireless effort and greediness that you used to use to present the members of your body to sin now presentent the members of your body to righteousness just think about what the opposite of all those things were that we read instead of pursuing immorality pursue Godly sexual relations within the context of marriage instead of pursuing all of those deeds of lawl L lawlessness pursue the works of righteousness that are pleasing to God that’s the command pursue those deeds of righteousness and you may ask then what do those deeds of righteousness look like what am I to pursue really to understand the whole of that you have to be poured into the mold of the Bible so that your thinking can be informed but we can quickly just leave through the rest of Romans and get a quick understanding of what Paul is saying see in chapter 10 Paul tells us to bring the gospel to those who have not heard right preach the gospel that’s a righteous deed that’s one of the things it means to pursue a deed of right in chapter 12 he tells us then to serve the church we all have different gifts he says now exercise them within the body of Christ serve God’s Church Romans 12:7 he speaks of the gifts of serving of teaching of exhortation of giving of leading of diligence of Mercy Paul says serve one another through those gifts that is whatever is within your ability to do in the church do those those are righteous Deeds it’s righteous to serve in the nursery it’s righteous to serve and kids for truth it’s righteous to serve in the kitchen or to be an usher that’s a righteous deed when you commit yourself to the service of God’s people that is pursuing righteousness I hope you understand that and then in verse 10 of Romans 12 he continues listen to what he says he says be devoted to one another in brotherly love give preference to one another in honor not lagging behind in what’s that word diligence right fervent in spirit serving the lord rejoicing in Hope persevering in Tribulation devoted to prayer contributing to the needs of the Saints practicing Hospitality see this is what he’s saying love one another pray for one another show hospitality and do all of these things with diligence and Servants of spirit see that’s the point you don’t pursue righteous need Deeds by yourself at home right that’s not what it means to pursue righteous deeds and to pursue righteous Deeds likewise doesn’t just mean that you do you don’t do the things that are bad that’s not what it means either if you don’t do any of those sins but you just sit at home and watch sports that’s not righteous to be righteous is to pursue what God has told us share the gospel serve the church that’s it it’s the body of Christ so are you doing that are you doing that with the same greediness and Reckless abandon that you used to use to pursue sin ask yourself that question not just when it strikes your fancy or or when it fits neatly into your schedule the command of the Bible is to pursue those things listen to the point of exhaustion be zealous for Good Deeds that’s in Titus 2:12 you can’t avoid this language exert great effort e yes it says effort to these things be very busy with your Master’s work remember God created you for good works right we saw that in Ephesians 2:10 and in 1 Corinthians 15:58 you’re called to abound in the work of the Lord knowing that your what’s that word toil is not in vain all that that language is all over the Bible work hard it never says to take a day off right if you live this way you will not be comfortable it won’t be a comfortable life for you but you know what God didn’t call you to a comfortable life or an easy life where did we get that idea Jesus didn’t have a comfortable life did he Paul didn’t seem to have a very comfortable life either and really I fair I think it’s fair to say that if you are comfortable then you’re probably not working hard enough for the kingdom of God so fellow slaves of God do you hear the commands of your Master be aggressive in your pursuit of Deeds of righteousness with Ardent passion present every fiber of your being to your master for service if you means you have to cut some entertainment out of your life or some Recreation you know what just do that just cut them out don’t be about your business be about the business of your master as proper for a slave it’s what God your master requires of you and listen that is also what is good for you it’s all good for you in fact let’s see this let’s look back down at verse 19 now um actually Paul says that if you obey this command if you flee Deeds of Law lostness and pursue hard to use the member of your body for righteousness it will lead to what what’s the last word in that verse sanctification right now just as pursuing heart after sin LED you to more and more lawlessness pursuing heart after righteousness will lead Paul is saying to more and more righteousness all right you will experience in your daily life more and more freedom from sin more and more righteousness now let me just ask you a question who is this sanctification for is it for us or is it for God it’s for us it’s always been for us and please don’t miss this look at verse 20 let’s read that and we read from 20 to 23 for when you were slaves of sin you were free in regard to righteousness therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed for the outcome of these things is death but now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God you derive your what benefit resulting in sanctification let’s stop right there whose benefit is it it’s yours it’s your benefit that brings us to the third characteristic of every true slave of God and this is it every slave of God is motivated by the new possibility of a well-lived life every slave of God is motivated by the new possibility of a well-lived life I mean see we often think of this whole sanctification thing as I’m just doing God a favor right this is this is all just kind of for God that’s so we think but remember God is not like that cruel slave master of sin every command God gives you was for your good right he desires your good your joy and your benefit doesn’t he it’s for you and look back in verse 20 Paul says remember when you were slaves of sin you were free in regards to righteousness now that word free is not used in a good context here right basically he’s saying you did nothing righteousness now you did nothing righteous you had no relationship with righteousness at all only sin right you only serve one master you can’t serve two so you serve sin and then it goes on in verse 21 and Paul asked this just says look what benefit and literally that word is fruit what benefit were you deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed that is how did that work out for you how did that life of sin work for you in your former slavery to sin what good did you harvest from any of that from your sexual immorality and your lawlessness and the answer is what nothing absolutely nothing in fact all those things are nothing but a cause of shame to you right I mean is there think back is there any portion of your life before coming to Christ that causes you to say boy I’m proud of that immoral act you know I’m glad that I did that deed of lawlessness I go back and do that again you know is that is that is that at all true for you no your wicked Deeds never brought you anything but regret and shame right in fact I would bet I would bet that you would do anything to be able to go back and take back some of those deeds wouldn’t you to undo some things to unsay some things to unsee some things and if you had stayed in that St Paul says in verse one that nothing but death and hell would have been down that path for you nothing there’s nothing down there but death that was you before but then Paul turns the coin over again verse 22 but now you have been freed from sin and look at the words what did that say enslaved to God there it is black and white you are enslaved to God you see this enslavement is actually God’s grace to you it’s his grace because once you are enslaved to God you Des you derive your what your benefit right your life as a slave to sin was fruitless and shameful but your life enslaved to God now is filled with Barrel fulls of good fruit that’s what it’s saying the point is this look you as a Believer get to Bear good fruit you get to do that you get to live a life now listen Without Regrets you get to live a clean with a clean sorry a clean and quiet conscience that’s not constantly accusing you you get to live a purpose-filled life full of joyful and fruitful Ministry to God’s people you get to be the guy who comes to his end of his life and says that was a well-lived life I fought the good fight I finished the race that life counted I saw Progressive victory over sin and by God’s grace God used me to share the gospel and to build his church no regrets and then with a smile on your face you will enter joyfully into your rest my friends listen that is what you get to do as a a Christian you get to do that and that is all what is wrapped up in that word sanctification that word that we all so often think it’s something that we’re just doing to God as a favor right that is good for us and it is worth the striving it is well worth it that is what sanctification will do for you I mean how much do you think people in the world would pay for that that kind of peace and joy and purpose you know that’s what everybody in this world is looking for but nobody knows how to find right you can’t buy this but you your master gives that to you for free as a gift see God doesn’t need your service he doesn’t need any of that he doesn’t need even for you to share the gospel with anybody he doesn’t need a thing from you but he wants you to be Sanctified for your sake for your sake it is his gift to you every slave then is motivated by the new possibility of a well-lived a well-lived Life by the grace of God but you know that’s not all you get it’s not all you get there’s a last characteristic of every true slave of God and that’s this every slave of God looks forward to his eternal reward look back in verse 22 but now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God you deive your benefit resulting in sanctification and the outcome what eternal life there it is the end result of sanctification is glorification that’s what sanctification is pointing to and will lead to and that’s just a start guys one day your sanctification will burst forth in Indescribable Glory you see it will not always be a daily struggle against sin it will not always be a struggle for self-control it will not always be three steps forward and two steps back it will not always be self-denial and taking up your cross it will not always be hard work and sleepless nights someday soon it will be nothing but pure joy pure peace and pure rest and then Paul caps it all off in verse 23 let’s read that for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord see this is the verse that we all use for evangelism isn’t it that’s fine but I want you to notice that in this context Paul is actually talking to who Believers right he wants to encourage Believers how is that how is he doing that if you remember this whole passage Paul’s been ping ponging back and forth from slavery to sin to slavery to God right throughout this whole passage he’s been contrasting for us two paths two masters and here he finishes the contrast see Paul shows that the path you used to be on enslaved to sin resulting in a life of futility and misery that life will just lead to your reward which is eternal death that’s the path you were on that’s path a and that’s what you deserve that’s your wage but believer when Jesus Christ brought you out of the slave market you were were placed on the completely different path your new path is still slavery but it is to a good master god resulting in a life of benefit Rich sanctification and satisfaction and then at the end of this well-lived life your master gives you not a wage but a free gift see this slave master gives his slaves gifts how backwards is that slaves deserve nothing you’ve done nothing but your rightful Duty right but out of nowhere to your surprise and your wonder you get a gift and you find to your astonishment that your gift is the best you could ever get it’s eternal life do you see the Stark difference between these two paths point is this don’t ever cast a backward glance to your old Master sin don’t ever cast a backward glance there because there is nothing there for you but death turn to your new master and finally this gift eternal life is given only in who at the end of the verse it’s given in Christ Jesus our lord right only in Jesus in Union with him enslaved to him can we can we obtain eternal life and you know Jesus doesn’t ask us to do anything he hasn’t already demonstrated for us right remember when we studied Philippians 2 verse 6 and 7 what did it say said Jesus although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped but emptied himself taking the form of a what a slave right that’s the word and then it says this he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross you see Jesus your master took on himself the form of a slave he gave us his rights he gave up his privileges he gave up his life life and he took up slavery to serve whose good your good right and you could say that before you were even born Jesus willingly from the heart enslaved himself for you the good Master himself became a slave to the slaves I mean what Master would die for his slaves that’s totally backwards but Jesus your master died for you so that you could have eternal life words just can’t express how good and kind your master is it’s far beyond what you could imagine so how could you do any less but to give up everything to serve him and you know what you will find you always find this you will find that when you give up everything for Jesus it is you who will benefit remember what Jesus said in Matthew 16:25 he says this for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it right my friends at the end of the path of slavery and hard work and righteous Deeds you will find your life that you’ve been looking for all along and after that you will find waiting for you eternal life just amazing grace of God so Believers we’ve seen what being a slave to God looks like he is characterized by an eager obedience to God’s word he obeys the command to be aggressive in Good Works he is motivated by the new possibility of a well-lived life and then he looks forward to his eternal reward and it is all by the grace of God so I want you to look at yourself in the mirror of this passage does this resemble you at all have you been enslaved saved by grace to God or possibly are you still enslaved to your sin there are only two options when Jesus returned you will either hear well done good and faithful slave or he will say to you I never knew you I never knew you depart from me you who practice what lawlessness right see there is no middle ground there’s no middle ground I pray that if you are still a slave to sin then you will be bought today by the good Master if you would repent and believe in the gospel but if after looking at the passage you find yourself to be a slave of God then I invite you as a church having been enslaved by Grace let us now push each other on to work hard to joyfully present our members to God as his slaves of righteousness amen amen let’s close in a word of prayer and I think we’re going to sing stronger right sing one more song okay let’s pray father as we close our service this morning I just want to um thank you Lord for your word and for the goodness that you’ve given to us that Lord even the work you’ve called us to do is for our good and for our benefit Lord I pray Lord that you would help us each one of us to examine ourselves inspect our lives to understand whether or not we’ve been living the way you’ve called us to as your slaves in Christ’s name amen
