When you are a slave, you obey your master. And whatever you obey, that is the indication of your master.
There are many things that can be our master–lust for food, lust for sexual matters, desire for money, longing for respect, and so much more. These stalk us all the time.
Romans 6 says in Christ, we died to sin. If we die, then our master we were under no longer has authority over us. We are dead. A slave owner cannot make demands of a dead person. They aren’t going to respond.
Sin was our master. But when we were baptized into Christ, we were united with him in his death. Which means in essence we died to the slave master of sin. The master of sin no longer has power over us. He cannot dictate to us any longer.
But just as Christ is raised to live, we are raised to life. And we have a new master. That master is Jesus, and his Holy Spirit leads us. He is our Master.
Unlike the sin master, whose fruit leads to misery and death, the master of Jesus leads to life and eternal life.
Ok. so what about the reality that we still have very real desires and temptation to sin?
- These don’t come from Jesus
- These are habits from an old life, under an old master
In our old life, we were used to giving in to carnal desires. We must learn to live a new life. One in which obedience to our new master becomes our new habit.
It goes beyond habits, does it? Don’t our desires come from within?
Yes. But with Jesus, we have the power to say no to those old desires. And we don’t fixate on saying no. Instead we focus our eyes on pursuing loving ourselves and others in righteousness, purity, holiness and more.
Sin desire produces quick pleasure, but long term problems. Pursuing love in righteousness and truth is not always pleasurable up front, but the fruit (which grows slowly), is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 6 is clear. We are no longer under a sin master. We are a like a dead person to that master. We not longer need to listen as the threats and enicements of that master have no authority over us.
Our new master is Jesus. We are alive in him. So we treat him as our master, obeying his commands. Therefore we use the members of our body for righteousness and not for sin and death. More on this is coming.
Romans 6
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self[a] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free[b] from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
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.
Slaves to Righteousness
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,[c] 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.