LIFE AS A SLAVE — ROMANS 6:16-23
Jack Cottrell – First Church of Christ, Greendale, IN – July 19, 2020

INTRODUCTION

Slavery has been in the news quite a bit recently, mainly because it is associated with the number-one subject of controversy in our country, namely, RACISM. Racism is presently regarded as the worst of all evils, and slavery is seen as the worst expression of racism. Thus, everything associated with slavery is automatically thought of as being evil, and therefore it must go! For example, all statues of historical figures who ever owned slaves must be torn down, no matter how much good those individuals may have done otherwise. Also, some real estate folks are no longer calling the main bedroom (or bathroom) in a house the “master” bedroom (or bathroom)—because “master” is a word that conjures up the idea of slavery. So from now on they will speak of the “primary” bedroom or bathroom.

Let’s get clear about this. The fact is that there are different kinds of slavery, with some being good while others are bad, even very bad. The difference is whether the slavery is forced or voluntary. Indeed, any FORCED slavery is BAD. If you are forced into slavery to another human being against your will, this indeed is EVIL. Today when we hear the word slave, this is usually what we think of. This was the nature of most American black slavery in the nineteenth century and before. But if you study the history of this evil, you will find that white slavery has been very, very common over the centuries also. (I googled “white slavery”; it reported 183,000,000 results.) Today the latter is very common in the form of sex slavery, usually called “sex trafficking.”

The Bible condemns forced slavery. It is called “man-stealing.” The Law of Moses presents it as one of the most serious of sins; see Exodus 21:16 (ESV) – “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.” 1 Timothy 1:10 lists several sinful activities; one is named “kidnappers” (NASB) or “enslavers” (ESV). The ESV adds this clarifying footnote, that the word translated “enslavers” literally means “those who take someone captive in order to sell him into slavery.” [Most Biblical quotes in this essay are from the ESV, or English Standard Version.]

BUT – there is such a thing as VOLUNTARY slavery. In some cultures it has been a way of paying a debt when money is lacking. This was quite common in Bible times. Much of the slavery regulated by the Law of Moses was this kind. One of Jesus’s parables was built around this practice (Matthew 18:23-35). Today, generous bankruptcy laws make such slavery unnecessary, to the loss of the lender. Still, in recent times we are aware of the practice of “indentured servanthood” as a way of paying a debt, which is similar to slavery. (I have been told that the first Cottrells to come from England to the “new land” in the 1600s were indentured servants.)

The point here is that we need to be careful when we read the Bible. Not everything called “slavery” therein is equivalent to the FORCED slavery which is condemned as evil. (For a bit more on this, see my Studies in First Peter [The CRA, 2017], pp. 187ff, the chapter on 2:18-20.)

Getting to my main point, here is what I want you to know about slavery today: YOU ARE A SLAVE! You were born a slave, and you will always be a slave! Who says so? The Bible! GOD says so! The Bible teaches that everyone is a slave! See this text, Romans 6:16-23 (ESV) –

16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This lesson intends to show what it means for a human being to LIVE as a slave.

I. UNIVERSAL SLAVERY TO OUR CREATOR.

I am actually going to start with an aspect of slavery to God that is not even mentioned by Paul in this passage in Romans. It is the kind of slavery shared by all human beings in the same way; it is the most basic form of all slavery. It begins with the fact of creation.

The most fundamental and most important of ALL truths is this: the God of the Bible is the absolute CREATOR of all things. The very first statement of the Bible is this: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This act of universal creation makes God the OWNER of all things. In poetic form Psalms 24:1-2 says, “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” Note that this affirms God’s ownership of every member of the human race—including YOU, the reader (and ME, the writer). Verse 1 in this Psalm says that “the world and those who dwell in it” belong to the Lord God. Psalms 100:3a says, “Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his.”

The fact that God owns you makes you (and every other human being) His property, and thus His SLAVE. This is the most basic element of our human identity. It is who we are. God OWNS us because He made us.

How does this Master-slave relationship work? For every human being it means this first of all, that God has absolute authority over us; we are under His authority. What is authority? It is the right to tell others what to do, and to require and enforce their obedience to all such instruction. How, then, does God “tell us what to do”? The answer is that He has given to us, His slaves, a law code that we are absolutely obligated to obey. Some of this law code is written on the hearts of all human beings as the result of our being created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27; Rom. 2:14-15). For those of us now living in this New Covenant era, most of our law code is found in the New Testament.

How, then, does God use His authority to enforce our obedience to this law code? By warning us that we will all answer to Him on a Judgment Day, on which we will receive either rewards for our obedience or punishment for our disobedience.

SO! How is this all working out for us slaves? Ever since the Fall of mankind through the sins of Adam and Eve as recorded in Genesis 3, there have been two groups of human beings. ONE: Most of the world’s population rejects God as their Creator and Lord, and denies their own identity as His slaves. These are the slavery-deniers. TWO: The world’s minority—the Christian remnant—accepts their role as God’s slaves, and tries to live a life of obedience to His laws.

Both of these groups are still equally slaves of God the Creator in the sense that He made us and thus owns us as His property. None of us has any control over this relationship; it is absolute and unchangeable. However, how we choose to respond to this fact of universal slavery leads us individually into another level or kind of slavery, i.e., one or the other of the two described by Paul in our Scripture text in Romans 6:16-23. The point is that each one of us must choose either to honor our role as slaves and God’s role as our Master, or not to honor it but rather to deny it. How we thus respond leads us all into other kind of slavery, i.e., one that we have voluntarily chosen. We will now examine how this response or choice works.

II. THE SLAVERY-DENIERS.

First we will discuss the slavery-deniers. Sin has taken over in this world, and the essence of sin is the denial of authority. How often have we heard this arrogant avowal: “No one has the right to tell me what to do! I will make my own rules!” This pompous assertion involves two things. First, it proposes one’s outward denial of the existence of a Creator. BUT second, if we take Romans 1:18ff. seriously, this assertion also presupposes an inward, suppressed recognition that the Creator does exist. Thus it is nothing but an arrogant rebellion against God’s authority and God’s law.

Most of the world falls into this group of slavery-deniers. We need to understand that when anyone denies the basic Master-slave reality, the only remaining alternative for determining how human beings should live is this: MIGHT MAKES RIGHT! I.e., whoever has the power can force others to do their will. This can be military power, which is usually what makes dictatorships possible. Or it can be corrupt politicians and political systems, which convert Godless “progressive” (liberal) ideals into law. Or it can be a kind of social intimidation (also known as mob rule), which bullies and terrorizes populations and leaders via “protests” and threats and riots. In these latter forms, the power comes wrapped in the packaging of attractive lies, falsehoods, and deceit. They are all imposters.

At this very moment we are experiencing a widespread rebellion against God as our Creator and Ruler. GOD is being replaced by an onslaught of misguided and fallacious political power, and an avalanche of social intimidation or mob rule. This mob rule is seeking to overthrow all forms of God’s law and God’s authority, and to establish a culture governed by sinful, lawless, Godless power and rules.

An example of this is the determined attack on police and police forces all over the country. “Defund the police” is the watchword. The online June 26 (2020) Seattle Times reported this: “The Minneapolis City Council on Friday unanimously advanced a proposal to change the city charter to allow the police department to be dismantled.” The vote was 12-0. On the same date an online paper called Crosscut had an article by Shaun Scott headlined, “The time to abolish Seattle police was yesterday.” I recently saw a picture of a protester wearing a T-shirt with the message, “Kill all cops!”

We need to understand that God’s word (Romans 13:1ff.) clearly says that He has delegated His own authority to human governments, which includes police forces. The authority of governmental units, including the police, is a form of God’s own authority. To resist and to rebel against legitimate police activity is to rebel against God! As slaves of God, we are obligated to submit to all forms of God-ordained human authority, which includes civil governments.

The bottom line is that slavery-deniers are in effect wanting to establish a culture in which they are the masters, and we God-fearing people are the slaves.

How does all of this relate to our Scripture text (Romans 6:16-23)? The main point is this: All who deny GOD as their Master and themselves as His slaves are just making themselves slaves of another kind, as described in this text. See v. 16 – “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” The text says that those who reject God as their Master becomes slaves of SIN (vv. 17, 20); slaves to impurity (v. 19), and slaves to lawlessness (v. 19).

In our time, we are witnessing Godless slaves of lawlessness deliberately fomenting revolution. They are seeking to disempower those who want to uphold God’s laws. Instead, they want to establish and enforce a system that protects and encourages sinful and lawless behavior. For example, the website of the organization called “Black Lives Matter” says, in its official statement of “what we believe,” that they are opposed to the traditional nuclear family and to “heteronormative thinking.” They are fighting to “foster a queer-affirming network” and to “dismantle cisgender privilege,” while normalizing all forms of sexuality and transgenderism. (“Cisgender” is the concept of claiming that your gender is determined by the sex you were born with. In today’s lawless culture it is a vilified viewpoint.)

This is just one example of how our culture has become SLAVES to sin and lawlessness! What does it mean to be a slave to anything? It means that you are controlled by that MASTER. You do what it leads you to do. For example, if the sin of greed is your master, as its slave you do whatever will increase your bank account or your possessions, whether it be an event of riotous looting or voting for socialist candidates. If sexual sin is your master, as its slave you do whatever will gain you that pleasure, even if it involves homosexualism, transgenderism, or polyamory. If the sin of pride is your master, as its slave you will do whatever increases your reputation or power. If lawlessness is your master, as its slave you will ignore the laws of God and man and do just anything you WANT to do!

This is the slavery that Paul condemns in Romans 6. But not everyone chooses to be that kind of slave. See the last point, as follows.

III. WE ARE CHRISTIAN SLAVES!

We Christians are slaves in the sense that we recognize, confess, and accept the role of slaves for which God created us in the first place! We humbly submit to the sovereignty of the Creator-God, and accept our intended place as His slaves. We are motivated to do this by grateful love toward God our Redeemer; this impels us to submit ourselves to His authority as our Lord. Thus we seek to obey His laws in every aspect of our lives.

Romans 6:16 says we are “slaves of obedience, resulting in righteousness.” We have become “slaves of righteousness,” says verse 18. We are commanded to present our bodies “as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (v. 19). We now “have become SLAVES TO GOD” (v. 22) – which is simply what we were created to be in the first place! The difference is that now, by becoming Christians, we have ceased our rebellion and have voluntarily surrendered ourselves to God as His slaves.

Now what? We ARE slaves to God, so what immediate task does that fact lay upon us? The first thing we must do is to develop a slave’s mentality, or the mindset of a slave. We must learn to think like a slave thinks! This means we must realize that we do not make the rules we live by – GOD does! He tells us what to think and what to do. He tells us what is true and false, what is right and wrong.

In other words, we exist to carry out God’s will for us. But what about the idea that “Nobody has the right to tell me what to do”? Well, that demonic claim is pure HERESY! It is EVIL! Our Creator-God has the right and the authority to tell us what to do—and He does it! We slaves live by – are controlled by – God’s laws. We are slaves of righteousness – which is the opposite of lawlessness. And the Creator’s laws or commands are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). Paul says that God’s laws are holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12).

Here is the essence of a God-slave’s mental state, as formulated in the words of David in Psalms 119:97 — “O how love I Your law! It is my meditation all the day!”

Christian friends—fellow God-slaves – you are slaves in two senses. First, God CREATED you—He MADE you, and therefore He OWNS you as His property. Second, God BOUGHT you—by paying the price (the DEBT of punishment) you owed Him because of your sin! See 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20, “You are not your own! For you have been bought with a price! Therefore glorify God in your body.” How we do this is summarized in another paragraph in Romans 6, namely, in verses 12-14, thus:

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.