Slaves to Righteousness - Romans 6:15-23

We are now into the book of Romans in our Bible Reading Plan.

Following on from my post on "Ouchhhh .... !! Exodus 21:2-6", the strange concept of a willing slave, Apostle Paul brought the argument further in Romans 6:15-23. 

Verse 16: Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

The willing slave is the one who has the option or choice to be a slave. In this argument, Paul is basically saying that we have really only two options in life. Either you are a slave to sin, or a slave to righteousness. And righteousness comes through faith, not of our works.

Ephesians 2:8-9 ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast.

In the first instance, when we are slaves to sins, we are unwilling slaves. We all know how easy it is to sin. It comes so naturally. We never have to teach a child to do wrong. They will naturally do wrong. But we have to teach a child to do RIGHT. We are therefore naturally drag into sins because of our sin nature. We have to try very hard not to sin.

In the second instance, when we are slaves to righteousness, we choose to do what's right. The willingness comes from a wholehearted desire to follow Christ. The new life in us enables us to free ourselves from ourselves (the sin nature) and turn that control over to Christ. 

2 Cor 5:17 ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Gal 2:20 ²⁰I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Romans 6:6-7 ⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with (or rendered powerless), that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

When we move away from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light, we experience an inner transformation or regeneration which allows the Holy Spirit to render that sinfulness powerless over our lives. Instead, we now choose with a new desire to do what honors God. It is not without struggle because Paul gave us a glimpse of the inner battle in Romans 7:7-25 of our struggles with our sin nature - the flesh man versus the spirit man. This struggle remains with us until the day we die. Hence the need to choose each day to live for Him by the power of the Holy Spirit.

'Be filled with Spirit' in Ephesians 5:18 is not a one-off experience. The verb used is of a continuous tense, which rightly translated, 'be constantly filled' or 'keep on being filled', with the Spirit of God.

We need to guard our hearts therefore everyday to ensure that new life is fed rightly.

What are the principles and lessons?

1. When we are slaves to sin, we can't help but do wrong.

2. When we are truly slaves to righteousness, we can't help but do right.

That's why many of us experienced that when we became a Christian, we no longer like to do what we used to do. There's a strange desire that envelopes us that helps us stay away from wrong things. I know of new Christians who were chain smokers before and upon their new life, the taste of cigarettes became repulsive instantly.

But we do not take this new life for granted, but to nurture it to be strong spiritually so that we do not fall back into our sinful nature. The KEY is therefore is daily OBEDIENCE to the Word of God. That builds a strong spirit man within.

BECAUSE YOU ARE WILLING

1 Peter 5:5 Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be;

In my journalling on 10 May, the verse above reminded me of my attitude towards serving God. I remember when I was a young Christian at the age of 17, I was quite affected by my some older Christians who would come out committee meetings "sour face", complaining about the meeting being long, about someone who is not in agreement with them, or simply unhappy being there. I made a promise to myself since, that in whatever I do in serving God, I will not be a reluctant servant. In fact, I recognize the importance of my influence of the people around me, just as I was affected by those coming out from the meetings. If I want to affect people positively, I must find joy in what I do. That's why my vision and mission, written in 1994, is written this way:

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MY VISION

To inspire, equip and model a life of joyful worship and surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, both in person and as a family, to the community of people around me.

MY MISSION

My God is a good and faithful God and I make it my mission to communicate this so that others may see Him as such. Through my life, I want people to see that obeying and surrendering to God is a joy, and not a chore. 

I want to be called a man after God's heart, a true worshipper.

The first place where I want to exhibit this is in my own home. I want Stella to know that I will love her the way God wants me to, and I want her to express to the fullest her potential and giftedness in serving God. 

I want my children to see that their dad loves God dearly and serve Him joyfully, and they would want to have what dad has. I want to see my children grow up to love the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly. In this process, we will serve God together as a family and be an excellent model of a Christian family in every aspect of our lives.

I strive for excellence in my ministry so as to inspire people to excellence in the way they serve God. I will put in a process of equipping that will enable people to discover their vision in life and actualise this vision at home, in ministry and their secular employment.

It is my desire to end life’s journey with these thoughts in the minds of people: Here’s a man who loves God intimately, his wife and children dearly, people passionately, and life itself purposefully

Having said all this, I am fully aware that Jesus Christ must continue to be my central focus in all that I do and all praise and glory are due His Name.

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As a leader today, I realize the power of joyful worship and service. That's what Apostle Peter is saying: "Do it not because you must, but because you are willing". There is a world of difference between the two because it will show up in our attitude. People will sense it and although they may not say it, they will simply be affected in the same way in the way they serve God. I am therefore careful about what I say in front of people, especially my own family. Often because they are the closest, they are also the most vulnerable to our shortcomings. I am not advocating that we are not authentic with the way we feel. Rather, I am advocating "efficacy" - right words at the right time. Better still, we should deal with our attitude towards the way we serve. This way we guard against bad attitudes that naturally comes out when we are reluctant. Examine therefore why we do what we do. We do it because we love God. It is a love response. This is the gist of my last post. 

SERVE GOD JOYFULLY!

Ouchhhh .... !! Exodus 21:2-6

The reading for 1 April according to our Bible Reading Plan is probably fascinating to many of us when we consider the laws on slaves. As we know, the Old Testament is Christ concealed and New Testament is Christ revealed. Is there something we can learn about Christ here? Here the term servant and slave is used interchangeably. The Hebrew word for servant in Exodus is "eh'-bed", which means "bond-servant/slave". Paul called himself a "servant" (Romans 1:1), of which the Greek word "doulos" means "slave, a person owned by another." 

Exodus 21:2-6

² "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. ³ If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. ⁴ If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

 ⁵ "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' ⁶ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

This is repeated the second time in Deuteronomy 15:16-17 but more graphically "push it through his ear lobe into the door." Ouchhhh!

Christ had redeemed us through the cross. Our price for redemption is fully paid. He sets us free when we receive His forgiveness. In case we think that this redemption is one where there's a condition tied, like God saying "Now that you have received forgiveness, you have no choice but to submit to me for the rest of your life, whether you like it or not!" This sounds very much like someone out to trap you into a commitment. God's greatest gift to man is a "free choice or will". The essence of love is about this free choice, that we choose to love God, as much as God chose to give His Son that we might be saved. God will never violate this part of human dignity and even when He had saved you, He still gives you the choice to follow Him daily!

Gal 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Gal 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature^; rather, serve one another in love.

I am sure you are very aware that each of us, although forgiven and set free from condemnation, have the choice of walking away from God. God will never hold us to ransom to follow Him. He wants us to choose. Christians are to be the freest person in the world because we recognize the importance of boundary and we choose to do things that are constructive for our lives. We learn to take personal responsibilities over the choices we make.

1 Cor 10:23 "Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive.

Very much like the slave when he is set free, he is free indeed but note what he does after he is set free: "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' ⁶ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life."

Because of a love relationship, the servant now choose to be a servant for his master and therefore creating an oxymoron term: a willing slave!

That's exactly what happened in our relationship with God. Once we were slaves in the kingdom of darkness but now we are redeemed by the blood of Christ and God says to us, "You are free to go. Do what you like from here on." But because we have come to know how good this Master is and we cannot think of a life apart from that, we now choose to follow Him for the rest of our lives, WILLINGLY!! How often we have seen, or ourselves become, unwilling servants! No wonder many have drifted away from God because they have not come to experience how good God is.

If you were to touch your right ear now, you will be able to feel a small hole on your earlobe through which the pierced awl have gone through. Try it now!

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KIDDING! :) It's a virtual piercing. Those of you who love the Lord, you would have willingly gone and allow the Master to drive that awl through your earlobe into the doorpost. Ladies (or men!), if you have a ear piercing, let it be a reminder that you belong to God! It may be 1st of April but we are certainly "Fools for Christ"! 1 Cor 4:10

Psalm 40

^6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,

but my ears you have pierced;

burnt offerings and sin offerings

you did not require.

^7 Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—

it is written about me in the scroll.

^8 I desire to do your will, O my God;

your law is within my heart.”

BLESSED EASTER!