Daily Thoughts from Romans: Good Slavery (6:12-23)

Daily Thoughts from Romans: Good Slavery

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

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

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6:12-23 ESV)

Because our old self has been crucified in Christ and we’ve been raised to new life, we are commanded to not let sin reign in our bodies.  We are to present ourselves to God and our bodies to His service.  God, in His grace, will not let sin have dominion over us.  Grace doesn’t give us permission to sin.  It is what delivered us from the slavery to sin we experienced before Christ.  We’re either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.  As saved people we are slaves to righteousness and so are under obligation to it, leading to holiness or sanctification.

Besides, why would we willingly return to what was so destructive to us before?  Enslavement to sin was killing us.  When we were set free from sin we experienced the glory of being on the path to eternal life.  If we are not truly saved we will stay slaves to sin and the wages sin pays are death.  But if we have received God’s gift of eternal life, life will always be the product.

There is a delicate balance being preserved in this passage.  God has, speaking in human terms, made us His slaves and is working in us through His Holy Spirit to shape us into the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus.  He will succeed at that.  But at the same time, we are commanded to and are responsible to present our bodily members to Him as subservient to His purposes.  We’re responsible to take this action but He is ultimately responsible for the finished product.  We’re talking about the mystery of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.  It factors into every aspect of our lives as believers.