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? 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.
Everyone is a slave to something.* Paul points out that what you obey, you serve as a slave to.* If you are enslaved to sin, sin tells you to do something, and you obey. If you are enslaved to obedience of God, you do whatever God tells you to do.* There is no middle ground.*
Apart from God, humanity struggles through life grasping at counterfeit freedom, insisting that they are free, but living enslaved to sin on a path toward death. The only freedom that humanity may truly find is in becoming slaves of God, living in the reality of their created-ness and submitting to a loving God.* Herein lies the difference: enslavement to sin involves obeying a harsh, deadly master; enslavement to God involves obeying a loving and caring Father.*
This point hits us today, wherever we are, but in the time of Paul, scholars suggest that 85-90 percent of the population of Rome and the Italian peninsula were either currently or had been slaves.* They understood what it meant to live subjected to another. Paul’s illustration would mean something to them that must not be lost on us: to be a slave is to be required to listen to and to be lower than the one to which one is enslaved.*
The rebellion of this world that says, “no one can tell me what to do” is actually subjected to (under the rule of) sin. They are not free. Those who claim neutrality are enslaved in sin because a claim to neutrality is a rejection of the rulership of God.* Subjection and obedience to God is the way of Christ and the way of the believer.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to remember that the need for sanctification in your life does not mean you are a slave to sin. Maybe God wants to show you how He has made you righteous. Perhaps God wants you to bring your life into obedience of Him in a new area.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a water break… we all get thirsty.
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*Kruse, C. G. (2012). Paul’s Letter to the Romans (D. A. Carson, Ed.; p. 282). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos.
Osborne, G. R. (2004). Romans (pp. 160-163). InterVarsity Press;
Morris, L. (1988). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 261–263). W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.
Moo, D. J. (2000). Romans (p. 210). Zondervan Publishing House.