Slaves to Sin

Hello, everyone. Today is Monday, June the 19th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028. You can also email us at Clearview Today—contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. What did you say? I almost didn't give him the email address. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, and where you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. And the verse of the day today is coming from Galatians 5.1. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. I love the language of freedom in the Bible, especially in Paul's writings.

The book of Galatians, the book of Romans has it. So often, we talk about being free in Christ, but we live our lives like we're still slaves to sin. It's like we've been released from prison, but we're choosing to walk back into the cell. It's like someone put a pin on us that said, Hey, you're an heir of the king now.

I don't know what that is. I don't know how to live that way. I'm just going to... Or I do, and I'll just continue to choose this life of servitude and slavery. If I go back to the salt mines, and I come back, will I still be a child of the king?

I will? I mean, yes, but you don't have to go back to the salt mines. I get that, and I hear you, but if I do want to, and I come back, I'm with you, but if I did, am I still a child of the king? So many times. Silly Christians.

We do that. We're like, I'm going to live in bondage to this sin because I just feel like I need to be in servitude, because that's all I've known for so long. But Christ has made us free. It's like we're free. Yeah, sin is very senseless. Sin makes no sense whatsoever.

Yeah, I love the ending. Do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. That's right. That's right. One thing we focus on really heavily on the worship team here at Clearview is freedom and worship. Freedom is one of those buzzwords that I think in America it means something different to us than it would mean to Christians around the world. Our freedoms are not necessarily our rights. But when we talk about freedom and worship, or just even freedom in the church, freedom from sin, we're no longer in bondage to it.

That's true. But now we also have freedom to build on what Christ has given us. So in worship, what we say is you can feel free to lift your hands.

You don't have to raise your hands as a performance. You can feel free to express yourself in that way. So there's a lot of freedom in scheduling. There's a lot of freedom in the songs that we choose, how we weave the services together. It's not that we're sitting here putting pieces on a board. It's that because we are in the word, we are praying, and we are coming together. We're talking about this thing. These spiritual disciplines build freedom in that it becomes easy. You know what I mean by that? I love the analogy you've given us before as part of the worship team.

I'm not sure if it's original to you, or if you got it from someone else. It's like this playground set up, and there's no fence on the playground. Naturally, you're going to want kids to stay far away from the road. So they're going to keep toward the middle of the playground. But if you put that fence up, and they have the entire playground to play now, it's not just like, we have to stay in this one little locked-up area. Nor is it, I'm going to run into the road. Sometimes I think we think about freedom in worship like that.

Now I'm going to run around the stage, and I'm going to do cartwheels down the aisle. That's not what freedom is either. That's just sort of wildness. Well, we think about that in the context of our country and our nation. Our freedoms are not unlimited.

We're not an anarchist state. We have regulations, and we have rules and limits to our freedom. We have boundaries that we as a society abide by.

So also in the church, so also in the Christian life. There are regulations, and there are boundaries that God has put up there. But the boundaries are what make us free. Just like you said in that illustration, when the fence is up, now the kids can explore that entire playground. They're not going to sit in the middle and just be afraid to move. Because when you have true, ultimate freedom, no restrictions, carte blanche, do whatever you want, there's fear. And it doesn't feel like there would be, but there is, because I don't know what's possible.

Or worse, I do know what's possible. Have you seen that attitude shift in the worship team? Very much so.

Very much so. Because people don't want to put boundaries on worship, and they don't want to put boundaries on their freedom. They don't want to establish goal posts that you can move to. And so once you do it, and you say, okay, guys, feel free to raise your hands. Feel free to clap. Feel free to stomp and move your hands. But we're not going to leave the stage.

We're not going to run off the stage. That's just an example. Now we know, okay, so here's my boundary. I have complete freedom within this space to do what I want to do to express worship towards God. And people reward it. People will reward the boundaries that you set. And not even the boundaries that you set, but just the freedom that you invite into the place.

Yeah, such a great point. We're going to grab Dr. Shaw in just a second for our episode. But if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028.

Or visit us online at cleaverveetodayshow.com. We'll be right back. Well, good morning, afternoon, evening, Clear View Today listeners. My name is Jon.

And I'm David. And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Shaw's work. And that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons by Abaddon Shaw, Ph.D. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know. If you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast. David, hop off the podcast.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Shaw is actually the lead pastor of Clear View Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend, he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God-honoring lives. Well, one of the four core values of Clear View Church is that we're a Bible-believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the word of God spoken into your life. And God's word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Abbadon Shaw, PhD podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clear View app. You can get that in the Google Play Store. You can get that on iTunes. But you can also find the podcast on the Apple Podcast app or on our website at ClearViewBC.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading, you can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shaw's website, AbbadonShaw.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions for Dr. Shaw or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

That's right. And if today's your first time ever tuning into the Clear View Today Show, we want to let you know you are welcome here. We are very glad you've stopped by.

We want to let you know who's talking to you. Dr. Abbadon Shaw is a Ph.D. in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and host of today's show. You can find all of his work on his website.

That's AbbadonShaw.com. That's right, Dr. Shaw. Welcome to the studio today. I know you've got a lot going on prepping for the weekend. Busy weekend this weekend. Yeah, busy weekend this weekend. Busy weekend this weekend.

Busy weekend this weekend. It's exciting to see the way that you devote this time and research to getting messages ready and prepping everything and making sure it's lined up. It's an honor to be able to watch you prep and get things ready. You knock it out of the park every weekend.

Thank you. And I don't want to say that you guys helped me so much to do that. You guys are a part of doing that. It's not just that I am the superstar here and y'all are helping me become that. No, to the contrary, because you are on the team, I am even thinking that way and even working that way. Of course, I worked hard by God's grace to get to this point, but I don't see that that way.

I see it more as God assembled a team, and together we complement each other to build God's kingdom through him. That's right. And for him. Amen. Thank you for saying that.

But kind of to echo what you were saying, we mentioned this kind of last week. It is good, in the intros we mentioned this last week, it's good to see someone who's very good at what they do. It's fun and it's encouraging. When someone's solid, especially a pastor, is solid at what they do and they are on top of things and they're productive, it inspires you. A lot of people can get intimidated by that, but for me, it inspires me. I'm like, yeah, I want to do that. I want to work under him.

I want to move and capture territories. It's awesome to see. In a sense, we are fellow workers in God's field. I may have a certain task, but without the other workers doing their part, I cannot do my part. It's not just that y'all are helping me do my part.

No, we are helping each other, and he is the ultimate master. So that's where we're headed today. Absolutely. That was pretty slick.

I'm not going to lie, I was scared. That was a great segue. Today is actually the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Very important date in our nation's history. Freedom was something that was not available to all people, and then was made more readily available as a result of that. It's still a work in progress, and we know that Christianity had a big part to play in helping people be free. We want to not only just celebrate that, but we actually want to go back to the roots of what that means, that we are free in Christ. There were many who were, even though they were slaves, they understood the principles we want to talk about today, that Christ is their master. Even though earthly masters were sometimes very hateful, mean, cruel, but they still understood that Christ is worth serving. That really humbles me and puts me in my place, I should say, not humbles me, to realize how much I have to learn, how much I have to understand, that people in another era understood in spite of their circumstances.

That's right. When you think about it, it makes me think that freedom was such a hot topic on everybody's mind, but this is the true and better freedom. This is the deeper reality of what freedom actually is.

We live a free life here in the United States today. At the same time, there's still so much palpable frustration because people are still living in service to sin and in bondage to sin. I feel like there's so much, even with Christians, like, yes, we're free in Christ and we proclaim freedom in Christ, but I still feel so much frustration. It's because I've got this sin I'm hanging on to. It's not even I'm hanging on to, it's hanging on to me, because I haven't fully experienced that freedom in Christ.

One of the greatest truths of Christianity is the fact that Jesus came not only to forgive us for our sins, but also to set us free from the power, from the control of sin. And most Christians, even I myself, for a long time just had the first part. The second part was still elusive and it took a while to learn.

And still many, many, many times I forget and start living just the first part. I know it's June right now and this may not be an apt illustration, but in the book that we're working on, you actually talk about this very principle and you use the illustration of going to your friends from when you were in college, going to your friend's house for Christmas, and they opened up the stockings and you were like, why do you people have stockings hanging over the fireplace? Yeah. I mean, the main gifts are done, presents are done, Christmas presents, but then it's like now we have stockings.

So also in the Christian life, there are many, many wonderful things sitting in the stockings, which may actually be worth just as much as what you find in the big boxes. That's right. That's right. That's a great point.

So we're diving in today. We're talking about freedom. You know, when I think about freedom, I think about Paul's writing. I think about the, especially the book of Romans and the language of like, you know, you were once once a slave to sin, but now you have been free from the power of sin.

Right. You know, there are many Christians are still chained to some old habit or to some old hang up or some old sin that they had before they got saved. But God's promise in Romans 6, 18, if I can read that is having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. So it's, yeah, that's an interesting, it's intentional.

That's intentional language. Yeah. You are slave means not only are you free from sin, but now you are chained to doing good.

Right. Having been set free from sin, you became slaves. I mean, it's like a, it's like you feel like you're going in one direction.

All of a sudden you're yanked to go in the opposite direction, but it's a good direction. So can we say that? Can we say I've been set free, but I'm a slave of righteousness. See, I like that because it's, it's yes, you are a slave to righteousness. It doesn't mean you don't have a choice.

It means it's natural. That's your identity. You know, that's a, that's who you are now.

That slave to righteousness where Christ, if Christ is truly your master, then his work is, is righteousness is, is, you know, faithfulness and obedience. Right. Yeah.

I love that. So there's a couple of things I want to point out today. One is that we are free from master sin.

Okay. So let's back up to verse six. This is Romans chapter six, verse six says, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, meaning Christ, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. So we are free from master sin. And so Paul kind of begins with the promise that sin is no longer our master.

And that's, that's to me is very important to understand. Sin was our old master, but God has freed us from him. And how did God do that? He didn't kill master sin.

Okay. Till the end of times that sin is with us. He is still alive, but God has killed us.

I see the old, the old me, the old man. He has crucified us, the old man. That's what our old man was crucified with him. I see. So it's not that sin is no longer cause that's, that's a thing that people say, well, God defeated sin and he did, but it's not that sin is no longer a problem.

It's not done away with forever yet. That's a much different way to think about it is that our old self, our old selves were slaves to sin. The, the master sin is not the one that has been taken out yet, but the, but the slave was the one that was taken out right now. We are new slave died. I mean, once, you know, even I was talking to somebody recently in, um, in our own County, I mean, they found slave graves and they're kind of working towards making it sort of a historical side, which is wonderful. People can go visit and learn more about history.

You know, history is great. But once a slave died, I mean, what use is he to the master, right? He can control him. He cannot control her. He cannot do anything. He is done. So also when it comes to our, our salvation, uh, master sin is still alive, but God has killed us.

And how did he do that? So 2000 years ago, we, you know, the way we see it is that Jesus died for our sins. True. But he also took us to die with him. That's right.

That kind of makes that take up your cross and follow me kind of gives it new meaning. That's well, that comes later. Okay. Okay.

That's my daily walk with Christ. Okay. Okay. Okay. But there is a one time thing that happens when, uh, I am saved. Okay.

Once and for all, which is that you died and your life is now hidden with Christ and God. Okay. Okay. That one time event.

I had nothing to do with that. That was Christ's grace. Right. Now daily taking up our cross and walking. That's another thing. Okay. That's part of discipleship.

Got it. But salvation is that moment. You know, when you understand, Oh, Jesus is my savior. So he died for my sins, but he also died as my representative. So he died to represent my death in the family of sin or the family of Adam, because the only way we could get out of this family was to die. So Jesus not only died for our sins, but he also died our death for us. That makes sense.

That's so it's, it's rich. Yeah. Jesus rescuing us. I mean, that's that, that I've been crucified with Christ's passage that we talked about this, the idea that our death, so Jesus died and our death is an extension of that.

Jesus died as our representative and through death, our freedom was purchased. So master sin still comes around, but I am no use to him. I'm just a cadaver. Sadly, many Christians, when they see old master sin around, they try to fight him by digging up the old man. Like grave robber Christians, just trying to dig it up and revisit that old body. They put all their energy into trying to train the old man. They try to suppress the old man, but the old man is dead. They try to deny the old man.

They say things like, I'm not going to get angry, or I'm not going to be envious or I'm not going to lust, or I'm going to do better. But, you know, keep in mind, it doesn't work because before we know it, we start doing those things again. And so someone even can make a commitment to crucify their old man. But, you know, imagine trying to crucify a dead body.

Yeah. It doesn't work. There's nothing. There's no, there's no point. You're wasting your time.

It's fruitless. And how do we know you're trying to crucify a dead body? Because Galatians 2.20 says what? I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So why would you think it's okay to go crucify the old nature?

Right. So what does God want from us? So Romans 6.11, let's go back to Romans because that's where these precious, invaluable, essential truths are found. Romans 6.11 says, Likewise, you also reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Reckon yourself. So reckon means la count, logizimai, right? It means count yourself that this has been done. So by faith, you are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.

So ask the Holy Spirit to help you do that. A lot of our listeners are probably from the South and they may say, I think reckon means something different. I reckon that means something.

I reckon, I reckon, I reckon he's right. I don't know. So that's what we're talking about here, you know?

Yeah. And sometimes Christians make things even worse. They turn to the law, you know, they say, well, for sin shall not, you know, verse 14 says, for sin shall not have dominion over you for you're not, you're not under law, but under grace.

So why would you want to go back to the law? If you go back to the law, it only gives master sin the opportunity to control you. And this is so ludicrous because the old man is dead. You're digging him back up, trying to crucify it. And now the old master is trying to control the old you who's trying to hide under the old man.

This is a hodgepodge of illusion and mess. It's encouraging for me because, you know, I feel a lot of times I'm trying to do exactly that. I'm trying to put on that old person.

I'm trying to become this old, you know, for some pleasure, some sin or some weak moment. But what God really wants is for us to accept by faith that we are dead to sin and that we're alive in Christ. And that's so much simpler and that's so much easier than trying to dig up this old nature and put it back on for a moment of frivolity, I guess.

I don't know. Why do people continue to do this? Is it just, is it a misunderstanding?

Is it just a lack of maturity? Yeah, because, OK, the Bible is simple, but it's not simplistic. So simple means the principles are simple.

The basic truths are simple, but it's not simplistic. It is so deep. So what many people do is they rather just swim on the shallow end so they can touch bottom. But if you do that, that's fine. But you'll never see the coral reefs. You'll never go deep enough to go, wow, there's such beauty here because I'm scared. I can't see bottom.

OK, that's fine. You can do that. Just know you're not swimming. You're just walking on the key.

Right. You just turn along the sandbar. You're not actually in the ocean.

You're not in the ocean. And so it comes with a risk. And I think that's a beautiful picture of freedom, because we tend to think of freedom as just no holds barred, no restriction, just we can do whatever we want. I'm free to sin. I'm free to not sin.

But it's really not that way at all. There are still restrictions within God's grace, not to hurt us or to keep us back, but to protect us. And in that freedom, just like you said, Dr. Shaw, we can go scuba diving. We can snorkel. We can go in the coral reefs.

But there's still like, we can't go into this deep trench abyss and still be snorkeling. Within the confines of what he's given us, we have that freedom to move around and to do what we want. It's kind of like a chess game.

I have lots of moves in chess, but there's some things I can't do and still be playing chess. So I have complete freedom over the board, complete freedom over our life within the grace that Christ has given us. And so going to the law, again, takes us right back to the old place, which is Romans 7.8 says, but sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desires. So old master sin does want us to make a list of things, the chores to do for the day. But all those chores do is actually make us slaves again. But you're actually dead, but you're making us list.

Yeah. You're trying to enslave a dead person. That's not, you're just like a living cadaver. And make a list for the things.

So you're going to cut wood and you're going to pick cotton or you're going to whatever it is that they were supposed to do. You're going back to that. It's a trap. And it can't, it can't. Yes, exactly.

It can't ever work. You know, first Corinthians 15 56, Paul says the strength of the string of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. Wow. Sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. Strength means this is where you find power and, and, and, you know, strength is actually the law. Wow.

So, you know, maybe we'll need another episode on this one because it's so much packed in here. You can no longer, you're no longer a slave to sin. You're no longer under the law.

You're free, right? We all agree with that. You may not feel it. You may not understand it, but you have to receive it by faith. You just have to believe it.

Okay. And, and, you know, just like true love is in the will, not in the emotion. So also faith is not in seeing it's in accepting.

That's right. And that's our prayers that God, you would give me those eyes of faith to see. You know, we've, we've mentioned this on the show before, but a lot of times life is blurry because our eyes aren't on Christ.

Just like when Peter, he took his eyes off Christ and he started to sink through the water. When I take my eyes off of him, then yeah, I started to get confused. I think I'm seeing clearly, but things are hazy. Things are unclear. I can't discern what choices God wants me to make. Why does God feel distance?

Cause my eyes aren't on him. I think that that's clarification is helpful for people because so many of us just kind of let our feelings lead and feelings are important. I mean, we should pay attention to how we feel, but feelings should not be the ones in the driver's seat because feelings can change.

I mean, you've, you've used this in a sermon illustration before it makes me laugh every time, but like, Hey, if you're feeling this way or if you, you know, feeling upset about this, maybe change to what you eat the night before indigestion from, from the previous night is not feeling well. Exactly. And it's affecting and impacting your spiritual understanding, but it has nothing to do with the real truths of the spiritual life.

That's right. And taking your eyes off Christ, I mean, where is it going to go? It's all, it's just going to go right back to my old self. Like if I'm not looking at Christ, if I'm not looking at my new master, I'm going to look for my old one, right? Because we're as human beings, we are hardwired to worship something. We are going to find something to devote our lives to. And if it's not Christ, it's going to be sin. It's going to be myself or it's going to be some pleasure, some ambition.

Yeah. So, so, you know, we need to keep our eyes on Christ. And if you take your eyes away from Christ, you will see the old self again and you'll start to dig him up and try to give him a list. And it may seem all spiritual.

I don't misunderstand. I'm all for spiritual disciplines, you know, like these are things you must do. These are things you do not do. Places you don't go, places you avoid.

I mean, those kind of, those are fine. You do that. But if you just stick to those things as if these will help me live the Christian life that God has offered to me, it's a very frustrating place and it'll make other people frustrated. But it's easy to do that. It's very easy to do that because it's simpler. It's not as much hard work.

Just have your list. Yeah. It makes me think, continue that analogy of like digging up the dead body. If you dig up a dead body, what's going to happen? It's going to stink. And then eventually it's going to stink and people around you are going to smell that and it's going to, you know, affect everybody. Well, it's also a good way to build up resentment, I think, because when I make, when I do lists and I play it by the book, I start expecting the results. You know what I mean? Like, this is why the book is here.

That's why the list is here. So I'm checking off all these things, but I'm not seeing blessings in my life. I'm going to start building up resentment because now I feel like I've earned it. When I check stuff off, that in my mind is saying, I've earned this. I've done my chores.

Give me my allowance. Exactly. Exactly. That's why many Christians are sitting in churches and, or, you know, being in churches and being a Christian. Uh, but they are in their hearts. They don't really believe this thing works.

I mean, I've been there, you know, and I get there sometimes it's like, is this real? Cause I mean, I was hoping this would be happening, but then I have to go back to the Romans six truths. Like, wait, I'm doing things because I'm in a hurry or I'm busy or I'm stressed out or I am temporarily confused and doubtful for what God is up to. So I am reverting to the old ways and I'm blaming God for it. When the whole time God has said, this is the truth.

I think even this particular radio broadcast or this podcast today is God ordained for the people in this room for me, for you guys. And then for somebody somewhere and I hope lots of somebodies who are frustrated with their spiritual lives and hoping there's an answer, guys, this is the answer. And I want us to continue that because this is just half the message. The second half is about how we become slaves of righteousness. Okay. So the first half definitely is we are free from master sin, but Romans six, four is not just that we are free or Romans six, six, but we are now slaves of righteousness.

So how does that work? That's what I'm excited to talk about. I know there was somebody who was listening and they heard slaves of righteousness.

They were like, wait a minute. I thought we're talking about freedom. Like I thought I was supposed to be freed from slavery. Now you're telling me I need to be a slave to something else.

That's right. We're going to unpack that a little bit in the next episode. If you guys have questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to two five two five eight two five zero two eight, or you can visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com. And don't forget, you could partner with us financially on that same website. Click that donate button. Let us know it's coming from the Clear View Today Show family. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear View Today.