Slaves to Obedience

In former times some people chose to become servants, virtual slaves. Why? Debt. They got themselves heavily into financial debt. Those who could not pay their debts, instead of going to debtors’ prison, could work as servants or slaves. This was less than an ideal situation, since the Bible says, “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:23). The Bible suggests we avoid debt, and be content with what we have. In our day, credit card companies make it so easy to fall into debt to them. Proverbs 22:7 says, “The borrower is servant to the lender.” Literally, the person who borrows money is a slave to the lender. This is a bad slavery.

During the 17th century people in Europe who lacked money to sail to America agreed to become indentured servants. Once they arrived in the American colonies they worked six or seven years for a merchant or farmer. Then they were freed and started out on their own. Indentured servitude provided tools, supervision, education, food, and shelter to those without capital. It was a helpful arrangement for those who desired to get a fresh start in the New World. Indentured servitude has its roots in the Old Testament. For Israelites, slavery was normally a contractual service that lasted seven years. You will remember that Jacob served Laban, his father-in-law for seven years in order to earn Rachel as his wife. Jacob served Laban as an indentured servant. If a slave truly loved his master he could choose to become a perpetual slave. Exodus 21 describes the procedure. The elders would examine the servant to make sure he was serious. Then the master would bring the servant to the doorpost of his house and “pierce his ear with an awl.”

We see a whole gamut of slave systems in history. The word “slavery” to the typical American calls to mind the racist version practiced in the Antebellum South. In that method, blacks were captured in Africa, and brought to the New World in filthy ships. Once in America, their families were split up. Even after conversion, black Christian slaves were kept in perpetual bondage. These elements violated the precepts of the Bible.

The Roman Empire was dominated by yet another form of slavery. We’ve mentioned slavery to debt, the indentured servitude of the Old Testament and Colonial America, and the racist slavery of the South; there is another variety: the slavery of Greece and Rome. The Romans, through military conquest, enslaved nations on a massive scale. By the time of Christ there were more slaves than free. A typical wealthy household in Rome consisted of the immediate family, and an army of slaves. Female servants did chores indoors, and male slaves cared for the stock, and worked the fields. There were so many servants that the owner, usually a father, appointed a steward to supervise the operation.

St. Paul picked up on this “steward” term and applied it to the ordained ministry. He called himself a “steward of the mercies of God.” The Church is like a large Roman landed estate. Christ is the Head of the household and owns all the property, while the steward manages the vineyards and runs the domestic concerns. Pastors are thus stewards of the Lord.

Most slavery is negative: slavery to debt, slavery during Roman times, slavery in the American South. Not to mention the Muslim enslavement of Christians in the Sudan today; these are repugnant. Even the indentured servitude of Jacob, and the voluntary contracts of poor American colonists seem like desperate decisions. After all, they gave up seven years of their lives. But the Bible speaks of a good slavery. St. Paul mentions a slavery to Christ that is a blessing. David describes himself as a “servant” of the Lord. Daniel also regarded himself a “servant of God.” The Virgin Mary describes herself as “the handmaiden, or slave-girl, of the Lord.” St. Paul called himself a “bondservant” of Christ. The Prayer Book speaks of it like this: “O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, whose service is perfect freedom” (BCP p. 17). It is a paradox to say that slavery is perfect freedom, but in Christ it is true. This positive slavery or servanthood is what we want to examine today. Reading Romans 6:17-18. [Read them.]

“Though you were slaves of sin” (v. 17). Slavery is an inescapable concept. The Holy Spirit teaches us that every human being is born a slave to sin. The tense of the verb “you were” is imperfect and suggests ongoingness; this is what you always were before regeneration. In theology we call it “original sin.” The sin, rebellion, and disobedience of the First Adam were imputed to you at conception, and you stand justly condemned before a holy God. And your heart has a selfish bent. So strong is this tendency toward self-centeredness, it is called slavery. I saw a lady wearing a t-shirt that said, “I love me.” That might be fine to a small degree, but if she loves only herself, that is a problem. I read about some boy in India who learned how to catch monkeys. He put a shiny coin, or a piece of hard candy in a cage. There was one hole big enough for the monkey to put his arm through and grab the coin, but the hole was too small to pull his hand out with the coin or candy in it. The boy would then run up and catch the monkey in his net. The monkeys got imprisoned due to their refusal to let go of the coin or candy. A grizzly bear in Yosemite had the same fall. In about 1850 Grizzly Adams lived there and saw the biggest bear he had ever seen, possibly 1,500 pounds. He and some friends built a massive cage and put bait in it. Shortly thereafter, the bear chewed up the bait but the trap failed to spring. The mammoth got away. Grizzly Adams tried it again. The creature couldn’t stay away, and two nights later came again for the greasy meat. This time the trap sprang, and Grizzly Adams had the biggest bear ever captured, because the bear couldn’t stay away from free food. We too were once enslaved to vices like gluttony, anger, money, sloth, worry, hedonism, pornography, and other idols.

Salvation liberates you from slavery to sin and makes you a slave of obedience, obedient to God’s Word. Baptism gives you a new Master. Your slavery to sin, then, began at our conception; it is the natural condition of all humanity; but your slavery to God began when by grace you obeyed the Gospel; when God graciously imputed the righteousness of Christ to you. “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Now you are a slave of righteousness, if you are in Christ. Jesus said, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Of what am I freed, you ask? You are set free from the control of your evil desires and your selfish habits; you are free to become enslaved to righteous living.

Consequently, slavery is an inescapable concept. There are two kinds of slaves in the world – slaves to sin, and slaves to obedience. There is no third slave master, nor is there a status of non-slavery. There is no neutral ground from which a person can stand and gaze upon the two camps and remark, “those people are slaves, but not me.” The person who says this is self-deluded, and is really a slave to sin.

Let’s read the next verse. Reading Romans 6:19. [Read it.]

The larger context of this passage has to do with the abuse of grace. “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Paul asks rhetorically (Romans 6:1). Some people have the attitude: “I have my ticket to Heaven, and I don’t have to worry about what I do. God’s grace means I can get away with anything.” And so some people interpret the doctrine of grace as cheap grace. Paul wants to counter this notion. What Paul wishes to stress is this: the same exact way the Christian was a total slave to sin in his prior bondage, so should he be a total slave to righteousness in his new bondage.

Paul actually apologizes for using this picture. He says, “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.” He apologized because he regretted comparing the Christian life to slavery. To understand this, we must understand the schedule of the slave. When we think of the live-in nanny, or the hired hand today, we think of a person who clocks in and clocks out. He receives a certain agreed upon wage for doing his job. When he clocks in he is under the command of the owner of the house. But, when he clocks out, he is free to do whatever he likes. During his working hours he belongs to the client, but in his free time he belongs to himself. But, in Paul’s time, the status of the slave was different. Literally slaves had no time which belonged to themselves; every single moment belonged to their master. They were their master’s absolutely exclusive possession. That is the picture that is in Paul’s mind, for which he regrets using. Even today we feel uncomfortable with this illustration as a representation of the Christian life. Slavery as we know it is a violation of human dignity, it runs counter to human nature itself.

But the one thing that this picture does show is that the Christian can have no master but God. He cannot give a part of his life to the Lord, and another part to the world. With God it is all or nothing. As long as you keep some part of your life from God, you are not really a Christian. A Christian is someone who has given complete control of his life to Christ, holding nothing back. No one who has done that can ever think of using grace as an excuse for sin.

Another point comes out in this verse. We see the development of the two slaveries. There is progress and movement and growth, like a mustard seed, like a river. The verse shows that slavery of sin results in the inevitable process of moral deterioration: “In the past you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness…” This is the slave spinning down into the maelstrom. That is the pull of the first slavery. When people are enslaved to sin, they are held in bondage to a master whom seeks their destruction. This week I read about a woman in the 1920s. She is one of those heroines of the feminists. She had multiple affairs behind the back of her husband. Of course she had to lie to her husband and others about where she was and what she was doing. In order to keep straight all her stories she wrote them on 3X5 cards, which she kept hidden, and reviewed often. Her lies were so vast she had to study them constantly. The more adultery she practiced, the better she became at lying. We too, the more we practice sin, the better we get at it.

The slavery to God is very different. It results in gradual sanctification. “So now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness” (v. 19). Each slavery develops; neither stands still. In one we get better, growing in Christlikeness, and in the other we spiral slowly down to death. (Nevada Falls illustration.) Man never stands still. He either grows, or he declines and decays.

On this basis I would ask you today, “have you grown in holiness this week? Have you given yourself to prayer and love and study of the Bible? Or have you done nothing? Which means you let yourself be carried in a current that leads to death. The Christian life is dynamic, not static. You will one day work and worship in the New Heavens and New Earth in total love and obedience to Christ the King. That is what you will be. Even now that is what you are: a slave to righteousness, and obedience. Now start becoming that. Don’t wait until you get to Heaven. You are either walking with the Lord or walking away from the Lord. You can’t float in limbo; it is not an option. The slave of righteousness grows in holiness, righteousness, love, and service for His Master.

Moving on to our next verses, Romans 6:20-23. [Read them.]

Here we see the end of the two slaveries. St. Paul asks the believers, “Remember when you were slaves of sin, what fruit did you have in those things of which you are now ashamed? What good did it do you? At one time, you may have bragged about your fornication, your drugged out fun, your theft, lies, and bad habits. You neglected God and His worship on the Lord’s Day; you coveted your neighbor’s new car, your desires orbited around yourself, and bringing attention to yourself, and giving pleasure to yourself, while leaving out God and service to others. “What good did it do you?”

I once talked to an unsaved lady about transformation in Christ. She seemed close to conversion. I tried to tell her the benefits of a life surrendered to Christ: “God can change your desires. He changed mine.” She stopped me there: “I don’t want my desires changed!” And that halted her from coming to faith. She was too comfortable with her self-centered existence and the desires that emanated from that mindset. The Gospel of Jesus Christ indicates that man’s problem is sin. Paul calls it slavery to sin. When you and I were slaves of sin, things like covetousness, pride, and narcissism seemed normal, but now we are ashamed and embarrassed by them. That shame is appropriate. Those things are idolatry, and their end is death.”

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sin leads to death. This is the dark side of life outside of Christ. Here we need to be clear what the word “death” means. Do not think that the phrase, “the wages of sin is death” signifies termination of life, or annihilationism. Scripture and Tradition have said no to the idea of the annihilation of the soul and the obliteration of consciousness. “The wages of sin is death,” signifies eternal death, unending punishment from God.

How about the slaves of obedience? What is their end? “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” King Jesus will receive His own into His eternal kingdom. The slaves of righteousness will partake of the Tree of life in the glory of the New Jerusalem, where there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Here then are two completely different systems, producing totally opposite worlds – the life of the old self, and the life of the new. By birth you were a slave of sin; the slavery of sin points to death. By grace and faith in Christ you have become a slave of God. The slavery to Christ is righteousness, obedience, and perfect freedom. It is a good bondage. As you come to the Holy Eucharist, thank the Lord that He has delivered you from sin’s bondage. You are a slave of righteousness. You are free indeed.

Let us pray.