Slaves to God

https://odb.org/MY/2021/10/14/a-vital-beginners-guide

In Romans 6:16-23, Paul used the metaphor of a slave to describe our relationship with sin in our life before we knew Christ and our relationship with God after we knew Christ. He used that metaphor because it was something the people in Rome were familiar as some of them were slaves before.

Slavery is alien to us now in the modern world even though there are analogies. For example, we could be slaves to our work – most, if not all of us, cannot live without a job. That is sad, but life is sometimes like that. There are sad situations.

Slavery is a chapter of history we want to forget as slaves were mere chattels, an owned possession like livestock or a piece of furniture that may be bought and sold, and slaves serve an ongoing life long economic benefit to their owners. It was tragic that slavery even existed in human history. Somewhat similar to cattle raised for milk except that slaves are fellow human beings. That is why it is so cruel and tragic to be a slave. During ancient times, slaves were usually prisoners of war. They are spoils of war who chose to be slaves, instead of death. They get to live but their lives were no longer theirs, they were now owned by their owners.

When we were yet sinners, our lives were owned by sin. We cannot control our propensity to sin since sin controlled us. We were driven by our own selfish desires since we were owned by sin. We were slaves to sin. We have no say over sin in our lives. We do as sin dictates.

But once Christ who died for our sins redeemed us from sin, we became free from sin. Christ was like another slave owner who bought us over from our former slave owner. He paid the price with His blood and conqured sin. So we are now owned by Christ because He paid the price for our liberty, our freedom. But note that the teaching is that although we are set free as slaves to sin, we did not become a free man of our own. We were redeemed not to be a free man but to be slaves to God instead. We are now owned by God. Our lives are still not our own. We are God’s people. We now are slaves to the living God, the Great I Am, the Almighty God, our creator and the creator of all things. Not only that, as co-heirs with Christ, we are also God’s children. God is now our Heavenly Father as much as we are slaves to Him. The difference is that as much as our lives are God’s and are to serve Him, we have the status of sons and daughters who dine at the main table at the house. We are not relegated to eat in the kitchen. Like Mephibosheth, we have a lifelong place at the King’s table.

So Paul argues that for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. In other words, why would anyone want to remain as slaves to sin since its end leads to destruction and death? The alternative is God and eternal life through Christ Jesus. There is no middle road here or a third path. It’s either to the left to sin and death and destruction, or to the right to Christ and God and eternal life. The choice may be obvious but to some it is still not clear cut and remains debatable. I pray that the Holy Spirit will lift the scales from your eyes so that you will see the obvious choice!