Whose Slave Are You?

Would it surprise you to learn that the Bible defines true freedom as slavery to the right master? That was Jesus Christ's point when he was speaking to the religious leaders of his day. He said to them, you'll know the truth and the truth shall set you what? Free.

But he went on to say, no, I tell you the truth. Every one of you who sins is a slave to sin. But if you know the Son, the Son shall set you free. That's freedom. Freedom is Jesus Christ. Freedom is redemption. Freedom. What does that word mean to you? For some, it means the ability to work where you want to work and marry whom you want to marry and vote for whomever you want to vote. For others, it means not having to answer to anyone. But while freedom means different things to different people, there's one thing it can never mean.

The absence of authority. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey teaches an important lesson that every person, Christian or not, needs to know. We all serve some master. The question is, whose slave are you? Stephen continues through his exposition of Romans 6 with this message called, whose slave are you? I have an announcement to make as we re-engage our study of Romans chapter 6, and we will finish in our lifetime the book of Romans, by the way.

It is an announcement that may startle you, so I encourage you to fasten your seatbelt. You happen to be a slave right now. All of your friends are slaves too, by the way. Your mother, your father, your sons, your daughters, the banker, the clerk, your school teacher are all slaves at this very moment. And if that isn't startling enough to consider, we're about to discover from Paul's description that the Bible does not condemn this kind of slavery that I'm talking about.

It, in fact, commands it. Let's find out where in Romans 6, let's go to the core of his argument in verse 17, and then we'll go back to the beginning of the paragraph where Paul writes, 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. You could take your pencil, by the way, and go through this paragraph and circle eight times where that form, some form of slave or slaves or enslaved appears in Paul's description of every person's lot in life. Now you need to understand that when Paul used the word doulas for slave, he was using a word and a concept that got everybody's attention in the Roman church as well as it does ours.

That's because all of them were at some point touched in their lives, having been slaves or knowing someone who was a slave or themselves even being currently enslaved to some master. Studies tell us that the population of Rome during the days of Paul, probably one third to one half of the population were slaves. So vast was the population and culture of slavery in Rome that one early suggestion that slaves be made to wear distinctive style of clothing so they could be identified, that was abandoned simply because it would reveal their numerical strength. There were a number of ways that a person could become a slave in Rome. Of course, the most predominant manner was being born into a family where the parents were slaves. Another equally significant practice in that culture, which we wouldn't understand in ours or our history, would be the self sale of a person in order to attach themselves to maybe a more prosperous family.

They would sell themselves for a period of time at which they would be reimbursed later and they would use that money then to buy their citizenship as most had to do. During the days of Paul, slaves were often given great responsibility. The cruel and heartless manner that brought thousands of babies into slavery was the term exposure. This was the practice in Rome where the father had the right to determine the life of the newborn baby.

If he didn't want it to live, he could command it to be killed. Oftentimes the father would take the baby and simply have it placed on the doorstep at night. Overnight it would be carried away by wild beasts. Worse yet, the babies were often taken to a public square where overnight slave traders would come and raise these babies to become part of their slave enterprise. Many of them, if they were female babies, would be taken into brothels where they would be raised for prostitution. One of the early ministries of the church would be rescuing those infants who were exposed and raising them. Children were often sold into slavery by their own parents who were hoping to use the money to buy their own personal citizenship and freedom in Rome. One commentator suggested and I can imagine he's probably right that as many as one half of the church that would read this letter either had been enslaved or were currently enslaved in some manner. One thing is for sure, everybody who read what I just read would immediately understand the context and culture. When Paul talked about being slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness, they grabbed the concept immediately.

You could go through this text and just see how often he uses the word. Verse 16, present yourselves to someone as slaves. There it is for obedience. You are slaves of the one whom you obey. Down in verse 17, we already read it, thanks be to God that you were slaves of sin. Verse 18, you were freed from sin and became slaves of righteousness. Over in verse 19, you presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness. Impurity is internal corruption.

Lawlessness is external or outward acts of lawlessness. He says later on in the verse, you are slaves to righteousness. Verse 20, when you were slaves of sin, down in verse 22, now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit.

There again, he uses the word. So in effect, what he is saying is everybody on planet earth is a slave. You are either a slave to your old master's sin or current master, or you are enslaved to your new master and Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody might protest, well, I'm not a slave to anybody. I'm certainly not a slave to sin. I am free. I'm free to live like I want to live.

I'm not enslaved. It's interesting that more than 400 years ago, John Calvin said, the greater the sinner, the more fiercely will they argue that they are free. Well, let's start at the beginning of this paragraph. Go back to verse 15, where Paul asks, what then shall we sin? Because we are not under law, but under grace, may it never be. And that ought to be very familiar to you because that's the way the chapter began.

He begins it in verse one. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be.

There are different nuances to this question. The first time Paul asked it, he was asking from the vantage point of a believer who was asking, look, I'm under grace. Can I live in sin? May it never be. Now in verse 15, the person is saying, I'm not under law. So can I live in sin?

And again, the same answer comes back. May it never be. You can render it God forbid or a thousand times no, or not on your life. No way.

All those would be appropriate. Now in the first part of this chapter, Paul said, God forbid because of who you are. In the middle part of this chapter, he will say, God forbid because of what you will become.

Look again in verse 17, but thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching in which you were committed and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I love it. Right in the middle of this argument, he breaks out of this doxology, but thanks be to God. Praise, doxa, praise to God.

Why? Because there's been a change of heart. Did you notice that wonderful little phrase you want to underline? You became obedient from the heart. You became obedient to God, not because he tacked up all of these laws and you're obeying because he said it. And it's written, although that's a wonderful reason to obey, but it isn't just that it's an issue of the heart. You obey God because you love him. You obey God because you want to honor him. You want to please him because you love this new and wonderful master. And so you obey him not because you have all these things written up.

You obey him because you love him. My wife, you fellas can probably identify with this. My wife cooks a certain way for me and cook certain things for me and for my children, not because I've got things tacked up all over the kitchen, but because she loves me. That love ever grows thin. It shows up in what I have to eat. I'm just teasing.

She's actually very faithful. Well, I go to a restaurant for breakfast. I have some meeting and typically you'll have one or two a week. That waitress will come to me and I will give her my what? What's it called? Order. Do you know why it's called an order?

Because that's what it is. It is your orders. The guy back in the kitchen doesn't love you. He doesn't care about you. He doesn't know you. He doesn't necessarily want to please you.

He probably doesn't like the fact that you're there and he has to cook. And so you give that order. I want my eggs cooked a certain way and and maybe throw a little cheese in there for cholesterol. Get that right.

And then extra icing on my cinnamon bun and everything's fine. Paul says we obey God, not just because and the motive being he's ordered us, but because we love him. That's a change of heart.

It's been changed and we have been from the inside out. You notice again in verse 17, this little phrase obedient from the heart to that form of teaching which you were committed. What does he mean that form of teaching? Well, the word form is the word tupon, which gives us our English transliterated word type. It could be translated manner or fashion.

In classical Greek, that word tupon or tupos was used to speak of the mark left by a branding iron or maybe a mold into which hot molten metals were poured and then cooled to find the shape of that mold. This becomes then a rather graphic picture of the believer. The believer has been, as it were, poured into this mold of truth.

He calls it this doctrine, this form of teaching. You've been poured into it and now you begin to take shape, this shape formed and fashioned by the word around you. You obey it. You love it.

You live it. J.B. Phillips translates Romans 12 one with the same thought as he paraphrases. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold, but let God remold your minds from within. That's a wonderful thought and commentary on this passage right here. We are being molded into a new shape, formed by the truth of God's word, which creates a new way of living, a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling. Praise God for a change of heart. Paul not only encourages his readers to praise God for a change of heart, but now he commands them to practice a change of habit. The heart deals with our position. Certainly from it comes our practice.

It is the inward profession that becomes the pattern of life. Notice how Paul describes the change in habit and lifestyle in verse 19. I am speaking, he writes, in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.

In other words, what he's saying is I'm using an illustration that is fairly common and crass, but you'll get it because our minds aren't capable of grasping such infinite truth. He goes on, for just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness. By the way, the digression of sin breeds more sin.

You can't stay neutral. You go after one sin and you will hunger for another sin and a new thrill and a deeper thrill and a more perverse thrill. You cannot stay where you are right now if you're progressing or digressing in sin. He also encourages us by saying in this verse, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. You live a holy life and that breeds holiness. That gives you a greater desire for more holy living. You discipline your life into holiness and that will lay the groundwork for more holiness. So we are either digressing in sin or we are progressing in sanctification.

That's his point. He says here, since in effect you've been redeemed, everything has changed. The word, by the way, for redemption literally means to be bought out of the slave market.

It's a wonderful word in the Greek text. You were bought, Paul says, out of the slave market of sin and now you belong to a new master. You are slave to a new Lord.

And somebody might say at this point, well, big deal. What's the good in that? You go from one slavery to the next, from one master to the next.

What's the advantage of that? You're really never free. I was hoping one of you would say that because I want to answer that. Let me ask you a question. How would you define in your mind freedom? What is freedom? I don't see any hands raised, so I'll give you mine. Okay.

All right. Is freedom perhaps autonomy? No, because none of us are really independent. In fact, we got here today because we depended on something or someone.

We're having a service depending on the volume of this microphone and these lights to stay on and we are interdependent in life. No one is truly autonomous. It can't mean license to do anything we want, even though the world would use that as their definition because really you can't do anything you want, can you? I can swing my fist like this all I want until it meets your face. My liberty ends where your nose begins. And that's a good thing.

So I really can't even do this all I want if you come along. Would it surprise you to learn that the Bible defines true freedom as slavery to the right master? That was Jesus Christ's point when he was speaking to the religious leaders of his day. He said to them, you'll know the truth and the truth shall set you what? Free. By the way, that statement incensed them. It made them so angry because if you read that text, they come back immediately with a response. What do you mean we are free?

In fact, they make the statement. We have never been enslaved. And if you think just a moment, they spent 400 years in Egypt enslaved. They spent 70 years in Babylonian captivity during the period of judges.

They were captives on seven different occasions. Now the very coins in their gowns that jingled had the impression of Caesar, their oppressive master. They couldn't do anything without the Romans watching.

And they hated the oppression of the Roman government. And they're saying to Jesus, what do you mean? We're free. Jesus very graciously didn't take time to remind them of their obvious loss of historical data.

But he went on to say, no, I tell you the truth. Every one of you who sins is a slave to sin. But if you know the son, the son shall set you free. You know what freedom is? Freedom is a clean conscience, isn't it? Are there a few things more freeing than that? Some of you came to faith in Christ, maybe later in life knew that burden of sin that you gave to the Lord had your conversion and you got up from your knees or wherever you were, and you had this incredibly clean sense.

You had given him the sin. And with that, the guilt, that is liberation. You know what freedom is? Freedom is redemption. Freedom is Jesus Christ. You'll know the son and the son shall set you free.

That's freedom. Now, since we design our services for believers, let's talk as believers for a moment. In fact, I want to talk a little bit about this progress of sanctification that he talks about. He talks about this process where you are either digressing in sin or progressing toward sanctification.

And that really is our struggle, isn't it? The process of sanctification, the daily presentation of the members of our bodies to our master. Why do we struggle so with sin? Well, Paul will give a very lengthy description of his own struggle in Romans chapter seven. But as we wrap up our time here, let me for now give you four reasons why we struggle with sin. Number one, even though we know we've been liberated by Jesus Christ and he is now our master, we still struggle with the old pull and the old habits of sin.

Why? Number one, because we like it. And we just be real honest here and say we like it. That's why we're tempted to sin. If we didn't like sin, we wouldn't be tempted to commit sin, right? Temptation is tempting because it's tempting.

I know it's near lunch for this kind of logic, but hang with me here. If something isn't tempting, then it isn't what? Temptation. I have never personally been tempted to eat spinach. Never once.

I know it grows on land, but it's still seaweed as far as I'm concerned. But when I was a little boy, I was forced to eat what? Spinach.

After years of counseling, the nightmares have finally stopped. I have never been tempted one time as I take my tray and I moved through the cafeteria to take liver and onions and put it on my tray. Never, never once have I been tempted. How many of you like, by the way, liver and onions?

Far too many. The very smell of it repels every fiber of my being. Anybody know what I mean? The other part of you. It's amazing we have unity in here.

We have the liver people and the non liver. Well, I am tempted to gossip because as Solomon says, that's like a tender morsel in my mouth. That tastes so good. I'm tempted to pride. Why? Well, because I like myself better than anybody else. We're tempted to selfishness.

Why? Because we'd really rather have our needs served first. We struggle with sin because our natures prefer it.

We like it. Number two, we struggle with sin because we seem to get away with it. Every time we lie, our noses do not grow longer. Wouldn't that be a great deterrent to dishonesty? Wouldn't it be neat if the Lord made us that way?

Whoa, look at that guy. You know, he had a real problem. Wouldn't it be something if the Lord displayed or had built into our forehead some LCD display that just sort of flashed whatever sin it was we were committing?

You know, you go to the car lot and the salesman comes up to you and says, have I got a deal for you? And flashing on his forehead, liar, liar, liar, liar. I think it'd be great. We could come to church and just read everybody's foreheads.

Which would have a real difficult time with the gossip issue, too, wouldn't it? Make my job a lot easier. I just come up and read your forehead and say, you want to confess or what? Huh? Well, he didn't make us that way. And part of the problem is we think we get away with it. The truth is God sees and that is enough. And as you progress in sanctification, as you present the members of your body for the progression of becoming holy, that will become more and more enough. We struggle with sin. Third, because we redefine it, we categorize it so we can feel a little more self-righteous. We have these categories of inconsequential sin. That's the stuff we don't think really hurts anybody.

And there aren't any immediate negative impacts from those acts. And so we think we can do… those are the inconsequential sins of this gossip we're talking about and the lying and the hypocrisy or the lust or the greed. There are consequential sins.

These are things that have immediate negative impact. We call them the dirty dozen or the big three. And we try not to do those. God doesn't have those categories, by the way. It's sin.

It's just sin. We call it by other names. How many times have we heard? And aren't we tired of hearing it?

And aren't we tired of saying it? Well, I just made an unfortunate decision. No, you didn't.

You didn't. We call it the way we want to call it. And part of our struggle is we redefine things. And our Master and His Word is set aside and we are pulled back into this former habit of sin. We struggle with sin. Let me give you one more here because we ignore its offensiveness to the glory of God. Joseph is probably the classic example of someone who resisted sin because of this very reason. If you look at that story in Genesis thirty nine and we don't have time to do anything but just skim it. But you know there are several observations you can make of his incredible testimony.

For one thing, he was probably seventeen or eighteen years old. He was propositioned every day by Potiphar's wife and several times throughout each day. Joseph's temptation was unavoidably tied to his employment. Some of you can can identify with that because your job puts you in harm's way.

It exposes you to some things that make it very difficult to progress in sanctification. Potiphar's wife furthermore made sure detection was not a problem. It'd just be between them. Joseph was a slave. He had absolutely no rights. Furthermore, it was the wife of his boss who is commanding him to sin. Add to this the fact that he'd been betrayed and abandoned by his brothers.

He'd been thrust into a foreign culture and a foreign land and he was away from home. If anybody had the right to sin, it would be Joseph. If anybody could sin, it would be Joseph. If anybody should sin and say to God, well, I gave you everything I had and this is where I land and end up, I'll go ahead and do it my way.

And yet Joseph at the apex of that temptation, that classic phrase in verse nine of chapter thirty nine, Joseph says to her, how can I do this evil and sin against God? It is the glory of God that we are to reflect. It is the glory of God that we're to honor. It is the glory of God that we are to please. And if we do not develop and ask the Spirit of God to develop within us that greater desire, we will never see the offensiveness and the utter callousness and crassness of sin against the character of our Redeemer.

Let's at least read verse 21 and 22. He wraps up his discussion by saying, therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? Remember, Christian, why go back into the pull of sin? Because, you know, now there wasn't any real benefit to that. It was temporary. It didn't last. So so why go back?

You're now ashamed of it. The outcome of those things was death and a death like life, he says. Verse 22. But now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, you derive your joy, you derive your great pleasure, which results in sanctification, holiness and the outcome. The ultimate outcome is eternal life. The sun has set you free.

You shall be free. Indeed. Let me tell you something I read about recently. Ray Stedman, who was pastoring in Los Angeles, this provoked my thinking, which led me to the title. He was pastoring a Bible church in California for years, and he was on the streets of Los Angeles at one point in time. And and a man, a rather eccentric looking man, came walking toward him wearing a sandwich board. You know what that is?

You get one board on the front, one board on the back. The message painted rather crudely on the front read, I am a slave for Christ. And he walked past and Ray Stedman turned around and looked and read the backboard and the backboard read, Whose slave are you?

That's great. That's the question of the Apostle Paul, by the way. My friend, you happen to be some things slave. The question is, whose slave are you? Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart.

I hope this message has helped you. Sin is a terrible taskmaster, and slavery to sin always results in death. Christ is a loving, gracious master, and being the slave of Christ always results in life. Be encouraged from the truth of God's word. Wisdom for the Heart is the daily Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey.

Stephen is the pastor of the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina, and the president of Shepherd's Theological Seminary. In addition to bringing you a daily Bible lesson, Stephen also publishes a monthly magazine. In past issues, he's explored topics such as how to forge friendships, how to find true happiness, how to properly understand and process the pain that sometimes enters our lives. Each month deals with a particular topic and helps you think biblically about important real life issues. We'd like to offer you a gift of three complimentary issues.

Heart to Heart magazine is not available by subscription. It's a gift we send to our partners, but we'd like you to have the next three issues as our gift to you. Our number is 866-48-BIBLE. That's 866-482-4253. We'd love to talk with you and introduce you to this resource, Heart to Heart magazine. Call today. Well, thanks again for joining us, and I hope you'll be with us for our next Bible lesson right here on Wisdom for the Heart.