P101_021225 Rom. 6:15-18 Now That I’m Free Who Do I Belong To?

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So let’s read the second part, or at least a portion of the second part of Romans chapter 6 together, this chapter on freed from sin, because there’s a lot of really interesting insight that we can learn from what it says. All right, verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves, whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves to sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. I’ll stop there. There’s another half to it. But let’s consider some of what we’ve already looked at and then some more that we haven’t yet. Paul says, Shall we sin because we’re not under law? This is a question that he had asked right at the beginning of the chapter, but now he’s asking it again from another point of view. Shall we sin because we’re not under the law? In other words, because we don’t have any condemnation or guilt or shame anymore? No, we won’t. We don’t have to. Certainly not, he says. In other words, that challenges us, as I pointed out the other day, over the question, what motivates us to do good? What motivates us to believe in God? Escape from hell? Fear of condemnation and judgment, which the law brings? Love and kindness. And so we are drawn to God by Jesus’ sacrifice, and it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. And that is what motivates our life and gives us cheer and lifts up our hearts every day. We’re not obeying God because we’re scared to death of Him. We’re obeying God because we’re gradually falling in love with Him, because He has loved us. So then he says, don’t you know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or obedience leading to righteousness. Now here Paul presents us with a real conundrum. In other words, he’s saying you can be a slave of sin or you can be a slave of righteousness, take your pick. Well, I mean, that doesn’t leave us with any pleasant options, does it? Switching from slavery to sin and death, to slavery to God? Oh, yes, it does. Because the slavery to God that Paul is talking about here is the kind of slavery that Paul is talking about in the book of Galatians. Slavery, the slavery of love, the love slave that we become to God. The slavery to sin is wicked and hard and cruel. It is joyless and abusive. But not God’s slavery. God’s slavery sets us free. God’s slavery gives us a devotion to him that is out of affection and love and kindness. That’s the difference. And you might ask yourself, what kind of a Christian are you? Do you follow God because you’re a slave in the sense of the slavery to death, where there is legalism and fear of judgment and the need to obey him, otherwise he will clobber us? Or is there slavery because he has been so good and kind, because he set us free, because he didn’t judge us anymore, and he said, I am setting you free, and you said, O Lord, I will be your slave forever. This is love slavery. This is very, very different. The slavery that we have to righteousness uplifts us. And I might say now that this is one of the big issues or big problems that people struggling with addiction have. And by the way, we’re all addicts in one way or another. Even though we may not have the overt forms of addiction like drugs or alcohol, we do have addiction. a slavery that is an escape from the pain of our lives because we’re broken and wounded people in this world. And if we don’t find faith that uplifts us and draws us close to Jesus so that we are in companionship with him, then we’re still escaping pain, the pain of our loneliness and isolation and a sense of abandonment. So hook yourself up with God, because in that yoking together with him, you will find fellowship, you will find warmth and companionship. But as I was about to say, there is a problem that many people in addiction find. They want to find freedom from their drug of choice. They go to various meetings and support groups in order to do that, and perhaps they do get free from their addiction for a year or two or five years. But they don’t then join… something else. They’ve joined themselves with addiction, but they haven’t joined themselves with anything else, and so they’re adrift. They’re still isolated, still alone, and what AA may call still dry drunks, because they’ve got free from the alcohol, but there hasn’t been a change of heart and mind. They still wished they could drink if it wouldn’t kill them. And that creates a constant undertow of longing that we want to still go back to it because we haven’t been now reconnected or connected with someone else and something else. And that’s what the truth is being revealed here. The truth is that if we are delivered from slavery to sin, we are now delivered in order to belong to someone else. That is a consistent point that Paul is making. He makes it in regard to the law as well, that we are delivered from the law, as he will talk about in chapter 7 when we get there, that we may belong to another person. that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit. So the question that you may have to ask yourself is, now that I’m free from my addiction, who do I belong to? And you might get a little nervous when you say, you know, I don’t feel I belong to anybody because I’ve had an empty life. I’ve belonged to the bottle, and now the bottle is gone. I don’t know who I belong to. I don’t seem to have anybody. Well, it may be difficult for you to reconnect socially, friends, people at church, people at work, and so on, family members, but you can and must connect to God. You can say, Father, you are my Father. You are my friend. Jesus, you are my brother. Father, I am connected now with all the members of your kingdom in this world. You can begin to pray to him and talk to him as a friend when you’re lonely, when you’re isolated, when you feel abandoned. Don’t move from addiction into isolation of soul. No, no, no. Move into fellowship. Lord God, I thank you that you’re here with me. I praise you that you have forgiven me of all my sins. I thank you that you have brought me into your home. And I thank you that I can look forward to my everlasting home. This is the way we fellowship now with God. And, of course, if you can slowly, gradually hook up with Christians, go to a Bible study group maybe at somebody’s home or fellowship in church, you may feel it difficult to connect at first because… Again, I say to you, addiction is always about disconnection. Whatever kind of addiction it is, we are disconnected from people in order to be connected with our favorite secret addiction. But now we are moving outward into the world instead of inward into ourselves, and we’re looking to fellowship with people. I know that that is a very, very difficult process, but I ask you to consider it, to attempt to make your first steps. I remember some years ago someone saying to me, for 38 years, I tried to go back to church after my addiction or even during it. And I would go up to the church door and simply step away. And I did that on occasion for 38 years. Now, can you imagine that? He finally did break through, however, and you can too, in some way finding connection with others. Because, you see, Paul is talking about freedom from the slavery of sin to the slavery of righteousness. Now, this slavery of righteousness, I must emphasize… is not demeaning. It is not servile. It doesn’t make you feel less than you were before. It liberates you. It opens you up to fellowship with God and Jesus Christ. It opens you up to fellowship with others. So then, he says in verse 18, having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. And then he says, I speak in human terms. In other words, he’s using metaphors here. We’re not really slaves, but he’s trying to make the comparison between, look how much we were devoted to the slavery of sin, so that you can compare the slavery you have to righteousness. Look, there’s another way of saying it. Get good goals in your life. Again, people who have been addicted over many, many years, when they are freed from their addiction, they don’t know what to do with their freedom. And I urge you to look for advice. Call up a pastor. Call up a friend. Call up a counselor. Ask them, what can I do with my life? Is there something I can volunteer in at church? You know, soup kitchens and those kinds of things. There are wonderful volunteer programs in society, in secular culture, as well as Christian culture. The thing is to become useful, useful to the kingdom of heaven. So don’t hang around once you are freed from your addiction, but don’t even wait to be freed from your addiction, but rather recognize what this freedom is that’s being talked about here. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you are free altogether from falling or slipping back to it. What it means is that you are freed from the kingdom of sin and death, as I’ve mentioned many times now, and you’ll understand me, I’m sure. Freed from the identity of being in that kingdom. Freed from the identity of being a sinner and the judgment of being a sinner. Now you are in the kingdom of Christ by faith in him. So you’re no longer identified as a sinner and no longer condemned as a sinner. You respond to God with all your troubles, with your defeats, as well as your successes, and thank him that there is no judgment, that you’re in his home, that he is lifting you up every day, that he’s teaching you how to walk, just like a father with a little child, a little baby. You know how kids try to walk, little babies try to walk, and they fall on their bottom every time, and then they get up again and get up again, because there’s no condemnation from the parent. There’s no judgment. There’s just a welcome arms as the child tries to move forward to his daddy or mommy. This is the same thing that we’re talking about. God is our Father. He has released us from the kingdom of sin and death. He has brought us into the kingdom of His Son, Jesus. And He said, now that you’re free from that… The slavery of that, be my slave. I won’t harm you. I won’t hurt you. I will make you feel much better day by day. Thank you for joining me today. Colin Cook here, and this is How It Happens. And you can listen to this program any time of the day or night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in How It Happens with Colin Cook when you get there. If you would care to make a donation to the program, it’s listener-supported radio. You can do so online. Go to faithquestradio.com and make your donation there. Thank you so much. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.