Freedom Through Slavery to Righteousness [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Death is the wages. It's what you earn.

Destruction and death are earned by sinful living, destructive choices, but life abundant and eternal life is not earned. It's a gift. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series called Unleashed as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. You can find out more about it and even receive a copy of your very own for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer at pastoralan.org. Find out more about it and make your request or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Again, our website, pastoralan.org. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. The modern age is saying is that I don't have to serve anybody. That's what that's what the version of freedom is. And Paul's saying, no, that's not it at all. And what instead he's saying is that the freedom that you have in Christ is not a transfer from being a slave to sin to now just do whatever you want without serving anybody.

He's saying, no, it's not like that. He says, after I've told you all about grace in chapter 5 and how we're making it so plain that you're no longer under law and how the law only served to show you how much you needed the grace of God in Jesus Christ and how law has only served to show you how powerless you are over your own sin. And therefore, how the law that never worked and all the legalistic system never worked now is over because Christ has come to fulfill this on your behalf. Now that I've shown you all of that, you're asking, well, does this mean we should just go ahead and sin because now we're free? He says, no, you're totally misunderstanding freedom if that's the way you think about it. He said, instead, actually the Christian life is much more one in which now it is like you are a bondservant to Christ. See, sometimes people in slavery, the reason they were there in ancient Rome is that you owed a big debt to someone and you couldn't pay it off, and so they would just sell themselves to that person for a period of time.

The problem is, once you sell yourself to them, you got to do whatever they say. And he says, what's changed here is you were a slave to sin and now you use this image, you're a bondservant to righteousness. Let me just kind of go through this and show you what he's saying. So we're back up here to verse 3. Romans 6 verse 3. He said, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

And he says a similar thing at verse 6. Romans 6 verse 6, we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Now let me tell you, I've been reflecting on this deeply this week, and I just am seeing this in a deeper, richer way I think than I ever have, and it's thrilling my soul to see it like this. What Paul is saying is that when you accept Christ, you become a Christian. You're born anew. You are now a new creature in Christ, and your life is seen as in Christ. So you are, the image of the New Testament says, engrafted into Christ.

We're speaking of mysteries. We're speaking of something that's mystical, but it's very, very personal. That what happens is that God in some mysterious way makes your life so united with the life of Jesus that you are united with Jesus in His death on the cross. Now what this means is beautiful and momentous because it means, Christians, that you were in Christ crucified. It means therefore that God looks on you through Christ as if you also had been on the cross. It means that your sin has been in a very real way to God absolutely paid for, and Jesus was crucified once. He never has to go back to that cross, and so it means that for every Christian, your sin is crucified with Jesus on the cross. Now the reason this is so powerful and so important is that Paul is later going to say to us, you need to count yourself dead to sin. That the secret of power in the Christian life is not contemplating and thinking about all the sin in your life.

The secret of power in the Christian life is to come to the glorious revelation that your sin has been thoroughly forgiven and is cast as far as the east is from the west from you so that you're holy and you're clean before God and therefore you have full access to the throne of grace. And then he says at Romans 6-4 that this also applies to Jesus' resurrection. We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Likewise at verse 5, he says, for if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. So what he's saying is that in a very real sense, you are so united with Jesus that it is as if you were on the cross and your sin was crucified there. But likewise, you are so identified with Jesus that when He was raised from the dead, you also have been raised up spiritually. And you have already been raised up into kingdom life, into an exalted place where Paul says elsewhere in Romans, we now reign with Christ. But he's also saying one day your body will be glorified and be resurrected just like Jesus' was. As much as you can count on the fact that your sin has been paid for, you can also count on the fact that you will one day have a resurrected body just like Jesus because your life has been so united with Jesus. You are so united with Him that you have resurrection life in you. This is why Paul prays in Ephesians that you would know the hope of your calling, your glorious inheritance in the saints, and he prays that you would know the incomparably great power that is at work in you, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

Hallelujah. And what this means for us therefore is that everything has changed, Paul says at verse 9. He's saying we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again, so death no longer has dominion over Him. Death lost its dominion over Christ, and we're in Christ, and therefore death lost its dominion over us.

Now we will die a physical death, but we will not die. We will live eternally because we're united with Christ. What this means also at verse 10 is that what rules anyone in Christ is not death but life. Paul says this, for the death He died, He died to sin once for all.

But the life He lives, He lives to God. And so what this means therefore is that the ruling force in the Christian's life, because we're united to Christ, is no longer sin and death. That was the old.

That was the old. But the new has come, and with life that Jesus is alive and lives unto God, this is the life that you have is you live unto God. He says further at verse 11, so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God and Christ Jesus. This means, beloved, that God wants you to see your entire sinful past and every flaw that you have today and all the sin that might commit in your life tomorrow. He wants you to see yourself dead to that. It's still stuff that comes up and crops up as part of an old nature, but He doesn't want you to go around and dwell on that and define your life by sin that's already been crucified. He doesn't want you thinking all the time about what a sinner you are. He wants you to be thinking about how alive you are in Jesus Christ. This is the way to victory, He's saying.

It's a new dominion. It's a move from law to grace, He says at Romans 6 14, for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. That when sin had dominion over you, you were under the law. And what He means by this is that in a system of law-based living, you are rewarded for what is good about you and you're punished for what is bad. You are only blessed to the extent that you can keep the law. And the problem is that nobody except for Jesus has ever kept all the law. There's not one single person who is perfectly righteous and so all deserve punishment. So what happens when you live under a law is you either say, well I can't do this and you just rebel, or you say I'm gonna do it better than other people and you become spiritually proud. A Pharisee trying to live more righteous than other people so that you can use that to feel okay about yourself and think that you're going to be blessed. And what Paul says is that whole, whole era of trying to relate to God has come to a glorious climax as Jesus fulfilled all the law. And now the key thing is not whether you keep the law or not. So you don't have to be afraid of punishment whether you mess up and you don't have to be worried that you won't be blessed because you weren't good enough. Instead you're united with Jesus.

That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. This is what the Lord says, I will restore the fortunes of Jacob's tents and have compassion on his dwellings. The city will be rebuilt on her ruins and the palace will stand in its proper place. Those timeless words from Jeremiah 30 reveal the heart of God. He loves to restore. In ancient times cities would often be rebuilt on top of the ruins of the former city.

The new city would stand higher with safer walls and a greater perspective. In Pastor Alan Wright's eight message CD album Out of the Ruins, you'll discover how God can rebuild your life gloriously out of yesterday's disappointments. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastoralan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. And Jesus lived a perfect life and so God reckons unto you as if you lived that life. And you say well people if you get that idea they're just going to sin. That's what Paul's addressing here say no.

So you don't understand that. What happens in your life is a fundamental change that happens. New fruit begins to happen.

This is what he says at verse 21. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you're now ashamed? Well I was just laughing and making fun of sin and bitterness and coveting and well what's the fruit of that? Misery. Misery. He's saying just look at the fruit that came from sin.

No. But he's saying for the end of those things is death but now that you've been set free from sin and have become slaves of God the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life. He's saying what looks like slavery to God is actually freedom.

He says this very distinctly at verse 23. The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Death is the wages.

It's what you earn. Destruction and death are earned by sinful living, destructive choices. But life abundant and eternal life is not earned. It's a gift. You see the contrast? The wages of sin is death but the gift in contrast is eternal life.

It is just given to you. I heard one pastor put it this way say imagine that there was a man who was poor but then was smart and hard-working and innovative entrepreneurial and he started a business and it grew and he worked and he worked 12-15 hours a day. He worked almost every day of his life and he built this business into a multi-multi-million dollar business and became very wealthy and then he fell in love with a woman and they were married and it was a beautiful and happy marriage and everything they had was held jointly and so whatever was his was hers and in that picture is just a dim a dim reflection of what God is saying to us here. The man got wealthy because of his hard work but now all of his riches are equally shared with his wife because she is married to him and she received it as a gift. One was work the other was grace and what Paul's wanting you to see is that all the riches that God has wanted you to have spiritually all of them he says in Ephesians one every spiritual blessing is yours in Christ all of the spiritual riches all of the love and joy and peace and patience all of the power of the Holy Spirit all of the hope all of the eternal life all of the capacity to reign in this kingdom and forever in a new heaven and a new earth all is in your inheritance all of it has come because you've been wed to Jesus he did the work and you're wed to him you didn't do the work you wouldn't have been able to do the work but now you've received it all as a gift and so you could say yeah but I'm I'm free I'll do whatever I want to do whatever I want to do that's not the way you think when you have been wed to someone who loves you infinitely and has given you everything that is precious instead what you want is just more and more of their fellowship and more and more of that life to him him as much more is given so if you just keep pursuing what is destructive it just becomes more and more destructive some of you have experienced that but when you experience life and you're in Christ you just want more and more and more when I was a kid I played the piano I say I played I took lessons and I hated it I'm sorry mom I hated it I I did and and because of that I didn't practice I here's what I would do 15 minutes before I would have my piano lesson my teacher was across the street I'd run in the piano and I'd try really hard to work through a little bit of fur Elise I didn't like for Elise the most modern song we ever did was called Tijuana taxi I didn't like Tijuana taxi I like rock and roll you know and I had to play all these scales and chords and I didn't know why and I go and sit down my lesson and say let's do your scales and I do my scales your chords and I'd stumble through for Elise and so eventually I quit and I started playing guitar I like the guitar I like the guitar well when I was in college there was down in the common room in my dormitory the oldest worst beat beat up upright piano you've ever seen in your life it was half the notes didn't work and the ones that did work were out of tune and for some reason I went by that piano one day and I now have been playing the guitar for years and I thought well I wonder if an a minor on a guitar sounds like a minor on a piano this was a very basic music theory here that I was into and I went down and I said well you know that's kind of neat you can play the same chord here and I started tinkering around with some of the same songs that I strummed my guitar to for our inner varsity fellowship meetings and next thing you know I found myself dropping by that old piano in the dormitory several times a week and then it got to be more and I started tinkering around I thought you know piano is pretty fun and then later I got one of these little electronic keyboard things you know little toys you can buy at the Walmart and I had one of those and I'd play with it and I liked it and I was getting ready to turn 40 years old and I told my wife I said what I want for my 40th I said I'm special I said I want to get into special I said I want to get a piano I said I know we we came forward go ahead and buy a nice piano I said I just want to get a cheap clunker something like was in my dormitory be fine we'll stick it up against the wall and she said there's no such thing as a cheap clunker to be found and we don't have room for it you can't get a piano and I said well rats and on the day that I turned 40 she woke me up more she said come downstairs she said there's some people here to see you and I said what is that surprise breakfast party on my birthday and I went down there some friends there yeah they're there and they said that we got your birthday present look out in the driveway and there was a truck that brought in a beautiful baby grand piano into my house if I don't play it every day for the last 16 years it's it's called I was out of town and if I feel like praising Jesus I sit down at that piano and if I'm feeling sad I sit down that piano and nobody ever says you better get in there and practice that piano and do your scales because it's a gift and I love it the difference between law and grace is a transfer of allegiance it's not a move out of allegiance to sin and to just do whatever you want because there's no restraint on your life it is a move into a higher beautiful glorious version of restraint which is love of the Lord Jesus and the more you're with him the more you just want to be with him and serve him and enjoy him Dylan was right you got to serve somebody and that's the gospel Alan Wright in today's teaching freedom through slavery to righteousness and I was quoting this song lyric because you quoted it Alan a little while ago and I think we're going to talk about that here in a moment in our parting good news thought for the day stick with us this is what the Lord says I will restore the fortunes of Jacob's tents and have compassion on his dwellings the city will be rebuilt on her ruins and the palace will stand in its proper place those timeless words from Jeremiah 30 reveal the heart of God he loves to restore in ancient times cities would often be rebuilt on top of the ruins of the former city the new city would stand higher with safer walls and a greater perspective in pastor Alan Wright's eight message see Diablo album out of the ruins you'll discover how God can rebuild your life gloriously out of yesterday's disappointments when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org unlock the power of blessing your life discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing if you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get Alan Wright's daily blessing it's free and just a click away at pastor alan.org Alan we're in this series Unleashed and today's teaching freedom through slavery to righteousness and yeah there's that quote you got to serve somebody might as well follow the principles in the bible and say you know what i'm you're doing it for the right reasons at that point yeah yeah everybody everybody's serving somebody yeah uh and it might be that the only thing you're serving is your own selfish ambitions but you're still serving it right uh you line up your life to something and uh we're just saying over and over Daniel don't be duped by the culture's version of freedom freedom is not unlimited expansive choice it is when you come to realize that there is one narrow gate and truth leads to real freedom well if you got to serve somebody give yourself to the one and become subservient to the one the only one who gave himself to die for you you give yourself to the one who loves you infinitely there's no other idol that would ever do that success acclaim nothing else would ever be utterly for you and die for you and so the call to submit to christ is a call not to submit in a way that's going to take away your freedom but to give you freedom that's the good news of the gospel thanks for listening today visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 if you only caught part of today's teaching not only can you listen again online but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org that's pastorallen.org today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.