Slaves of Righteousness

 

In this study, we will be using the terms of slavery. We need to remember that in Paul's day, slavery was used as the term for workers. Whereas we have employers and employees they used the terms master and slave. The big difference being a slave was the legal property of their master.

'Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? Thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. Being made free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.' Rom 6:16-18

Here's the issue with this verse, it's too easy to read it as if Paul is saying, 'When you do bad, you make sin your master.' Notice how Paul says, 'You were bondservants of sin.' and 'You became slaves of righteousness.'

Let me give you a multiple-choice question. Which is Paul talking about?

A slave of righteousness is:

A) Someone who works their fingers to the bone to make sure everything they do is righteous?

or

B) Someone who was bought for a price by a master called righteousness?

Let me give you a very paraphrased translation of the passage to try and make it clear.

'It is down to God, that, although you belonged to the slave master called sin, you never-the-less responded with a joyous 'yes' and 'amen' to the message of redemption through Jesus, which was spoken to you. Being set free from the slave master called sin, you have now presented yourself as a servant to the master called Righteousness, who is in fact Jesus. And now you belong to him.'

It's about ownership

The passage is not about whether we are constantly choosing to sin or be righteous. It is to do with ownership. We who believe were bought with a price. The word redemption means to be bought out of slavery.

Imagine a scenario: You set off in the morning to do the work of your master, Jesus. Along the way, your old master sin comes along and asks you to do a little errand for him for old time's sake. And you do, we all do from time to time. (Or as James 3:2 has it, 'We all stumble in many ways.') But, at the end of the day, sin is not your master in the sense he does not own you. He has no legal claim over you. He does not call you home at the end of the day. He does not pay your wages. You belong to Jesus. You go to the house of your master.

This brings us to the last verse in Romans 6:

'For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Rom 6:23

This is said in the context of what Paul has been saying about slave masters. We think of sin as an action so we think the 'wages of sin' are part and parcel of the action. However, Paul has been talking of sin as a slave master. He has effectively drawn a picture of sin as a person. In this context, the wages of sin are what sin as a master pays to his employees. Masters did not pay wages to someone else's servant or slave.

When you belong to the slave master sin, the wages you will be paid are death. When you belong to Jesus you are given eternal life, you do not work for it - it is a free gift. Again some people twist this and say every sin brings a payment of death somewhere. That is really twisting this passage. You either get paid at the end of your service by sin or by Jesus, we do not serve two masters. If we, and we will, run the occasional errand for sin, we will not be paid for this because sin is not our employer, Jesus is.

It is more like saying sin is a deceptive master. Those who belong to him think he will give them great rewards of satisfaction and fulfilment if they do his bidding, but in the end, the only payment he can give to those who belong to him is death.

Sin personified

Thinking of sin as a person may seem odd. But sin is occasionally personified in the Bible. That is to say, it is not unusual for the Bible to refer to sin as having a will of its own.

'Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen? If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it."' Gen 4:6-7

'Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.' Rom 6:12

'For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.' Rom 6:14

'But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.' Rom 7:8

'For sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me' Rom 7:11

'But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.' Rom 7:23

Sin is not just something we do. Neither is it something we simply have in us. Sin has its own desires and lusts. It seeks to reign over us and have dominion over us. It looks for opportunities. It wages war against us and uses cunning to try to bring us into captivity.

It is important, also, to understand that in the verses from Romans 7, Paul is not talking about his experience as a Christian. He is harking back to what it was like as a Jew under the Law. He is saying that under the Law sin found every opportunity to produce more sin in him and as a result condemn him. Far from the Law being a weapon against sin, sin used the Law as a weapon against Paul.

If you have accepted Jesus, you have been bought with a price, you belong to Jesus. Sin will not have dominion over you, Jesus has won the victory.