Are You Free Or Enslaved?

Romans 6: 1-23

Paul has just noted that when sin increased, grace also increased. 

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 
May it never be! 

So should we just multiply sins, so that grace will continue to multiply, too? No, of course not! That's ridiculous! Here's why: 

How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 

If we have died to sin, how can we even consider going back to it? 

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 

If Jesus is our Personal Sacrifice, did we not figuratively "place our hand on His head" as the penitent did in presenting his lamb for sacrifice (Leviticus 1), identifying with that death as our own? 

Baptizo is from bapto, which is "to cover fully with a fluid." So we use Baptism as an sacrament of the church. Here's why:  

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 

This is the picture we act out, in publicly testifying that this is what happened to us. We died. We were crucified for our transgressions, and we died. Then we were buried, under the water. 

And just as Jesus rose victorious from the grave with a new Life, so we also rise up out of the water to live a new life, different from the one we lived before.

This is a very powerful testimony.

For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 

And, since we have died with Him, we shall also be resurrected like Him. We live a new lifestyle now, and we will be resurrected as He was to have that new Life that we haven't experienced yet, but we will.  

knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. 

So if we know that we've died with Jesus, then we know that we don't have to do those things we used to do. We're free from those things. 

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 

If we have identified ourselves with Christ, then we know that we are united with Him, and will live with Him forever. 

knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 

Jesus died once for all, He is not on the Cross any more, He finished that work, and he was buried and rose in victory over death. Now the Life He lives, that Resurrection Life, is not able to die any more, and will live forever. 

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 

So we need to think of ourselves this way, also: just because we're still living here in this World, we should not think like the World, but think higher thoughts, the way God sees us and thinks of us.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 
and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; 

We should not use our bodies to do things that are unseemly or wrong; those bad habits have been broken, and we don't have to do them any more. All our addictions are broken, we're free from them. 

but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 

Come to God in prayer and Bible study, and do the good and pure and right things that He presents to us to do. 

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under Law but under grace. 

We're not tied to those sinful things any more, we're not tangled up in a bunch of written rules and precepts and ceremonies--we're free! Free to do what is right, what is beneficial, what is healing.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under Law but under grace? May it never be! 

This is an attitude of, "I know it's not right, but God will forgive me!" This is wrong!

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 

We are always obeying someone, whether it is God or Satan or our own selves! Our choice is, who do we want to obey?

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 
and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness. 

As Christians, we used to be addicted to all kinds of bad habits, but when we turned to God and He saved us, Jesus bought us out of the slave-market of sin and set us free! Now He is our new Master, our Lord. 

I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. 

Paul has to put this in terms that we will understand, to give us the right picture to grasp the importance of what God has done for us in the spiritual realm. 

For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

Just as before we dabbled in stuff that caught us up into addictions, so now we are to dip our toe and plunge into what is right and pure, that will lead to our being separated from the filth of the World and enjoying all the wonderful, clean, holy things of God. 

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 

He's saying that when we were addicted, we didn't know anything about cleanness, because we were covered in the filth of the World. 

Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? 

So just think, were those addictions good for you? Now you're ashamed of them. 

For the outcome of those things is death. 

Those things only led to poor health, poor relationships, poor attitudes, poverty in every area, leading to an early death.

But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 

In contrast, like Black and White, is the difference here: Now that we are freed from slavery to sinful addictions, now we can enjoy all the benefits God put into this Earth, as well as good relationships with our loved ones, and looking forward to living forever with our God who Loves us more than we can imagine! 

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Because trying to follow a complicated system, and failing, results in earning the wrath of God on our sin; but God's gift that He offers everyone freely is to have a wonderful life that lasts forever, in the company of our Maker who wants to live with us, because of what Christ Jesus accomplished for us.

O my Father, You are such a good God! You have made this whole creation just to design our Earth for us to live on. And You planned for us to be Your own family, as Your children. So You had us form families here, which grew into our societies and cultures. 

You have given us so many pictures of what You are planning for us spiritually in the future, just as the pictures You gave so that we would be able to recognize the Messiah, our Savior, who fulfilled all those laws and prophesies. 

And what You are preparing for us to enjoy is so far beyond what we can even imagine, that You describe it mostly in what will not be there, all the results of sin. Only what is good and positive and beneficial will be there. Wow! 

Father, everyone needs to hear! Everyone need to understand how much You love them! Everyone needs to know that they can be free, and go from the dysfunctional, abusive family we are in in this World into the healthy, loving, encouraging family of God! 

Father, send out Your workers to tell them! Plant Your seed of the Gospel into every fertile field prepared for it, and reap Your fields that are ripe and ready to harvest, to bring in Your whole crop into Your barns. 

Send out Your children to find every wandering sheep, every lost lamb caught in a pit or entangled in brambles, to free them and draw them into the safety and consolation and comfort of Your One Fold with One Shepherd. 

And fill Your great House, my Father, with all your uncountable number of children, to dine together with You at Your great Banquet Table! 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language, that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, the King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever, Amen!

Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!