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They say if you can remember the 60s you weren't
really there. Well, I don't know about that. I'm pretty
sure I was there and despite how long ago it was there
are still things I can remember about it. I guess the
thing that most memorable about the 60s for those of you
who aren't as old as I am, was that it was the era of
liberation and protest. There were the anti Vietnam war
protests, there were protests for women's lib, there were
protests for black rights, workers rights; protests
against Apartheid; you name it. And it was all about
seeking freedom for all people. The 60s were the years of
free love, freedom of choice, freedom to make up your own
mind about everything from clothes to morality. And the
result was that each generation since has been careful to
ensure that their freedoms and rights are preserved at
all cost. In fact it wouldn't be far off the mark to say
that freedom, particularly personal freedom, with the
right to choose what we will, is the core value of our
culture today. |
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Not that the desire for freedom is anything new
of course. It's always been a fundamental human desire,
even need. Even in cultures like those of Bible times,
when slavery was a fact of life for many, freedom was
longed for. |
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Yet what we've discovered so far in the first 6
chapters of Romans is that ultimately none of us can ever
be really free, none of us has a real choice, without
Christ. Without Christ we're told, we're slaves to sin. |
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So what does it mean to be a slave? Well, it
means no choice. Slaves do what their master tells them.
It means no freedom. Slaves go where they're told, live
we're they're told, get up, go to bed, work, when they're
told. |
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But at least there's a sense in which that sort
of slavery is outside their control. People are born into
it. They have no say over it. And because they have no
choice they can still protest against it, in their minds
at least. But what if we actually chose to enter into the
slavery of sin. Then it would be even worse. |
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There's actually an OT image that Paul may be
thinking of when he talks about people presenting
themselves to someone as obedient slaves. That's the
image of a slave choosing to remain in slavery to a good
master even though he could go free. (Exo 21:2-6 NRSV)
"When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve
six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free
person, without debt. 3If he comes in single,
he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his
wife shall go out with him. 4If his master
gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the
wife and her children shall be her master's and he shall
go out alone. 5But if the slave declares,
"I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will
not go out a free person," 6then his
master shall bring him before God. He shall be brought to
the door or the doorpost; and his master shall pierce his
ear with an awl; and he shall serve him for life." |
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Now notice that his slavery at first is a
limited thing. It lasts for 6 years, then the slave is
set free. But if a slave chooses to remain in the service
of his master, his slavery is then for life. This may
well be what Paul has in mind when he says, in v2,
"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?" |
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Having been rescued from slavery by Christ's
death on the cross, having been set free to obey God, we
still have a choice - we can return to the slavery of
sin, or we can choose to be slaves of righteousness, i.e.
slaves of God. In fact he thanks God that they have
become obedient from the heart to the teaching of the
gospel. Like the OT slave, they've decided that because
they love their new master, God, they'll submit to his
authority over them, they'll become slaves, not of sin,
but of righteousness. |
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But notice that our culture's belief in the
importance of freedom and choice has nothing to do with
the reality of being Christ's followers. In fact it's at
odds with it. We'll come back to this in a moment, but
for now, let's realise that we 21st century western
people have quite a difficulty here. We're so convinced
of the importance of freedom and choice that we don't
want to hear that we're slaves. We're so used to being
able to go to the supermarket and choose whichever
breakfast cereal we like, whichever toothpaste we think
will make our teeth the brightest; we're so used to
turning on the TV and being able to choose what to watch
and if there's nothing on TV we can go down to Mick's
Flicks and hire one of the 1000 or so videos he's got
there (plus get 3 weeklies for an extra couple of
dollars); we're so used to that sort of choice that being
part of a church, taking part in it's activities, even
worshipping with God's people each Sunday, becomes just
another recreational possibility, rather than a
commitment made to the one who rules our lives. |
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I quite liked this cartoon that Stephen showed
us last week. |
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You see, the problem is just as Peter says as he
looks down from his cloud. People are happy to have Jesus
living in them, but only as a tenant, not as the
landlord. |
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But we'll come back to that. |
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What he's saying in all this is that there are
in fact only 2 choices. Just as last time we saw that
there's a contrast between being dead to sin and alive to
Christ, so now we discover that there are two choices for
how we'll live our lives from now on. But neither of them
gives us personal freedom. With one choice comes a
renewed bondage to sin, with the other comes an
imperative to obedience. |
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But that isn't to say this is a bad thing. I'm
sure you can think of examples of times when you've
willingly given up your freedom because of the overriding
benefits you get by doing so. An obvious example, for
some, is marriage. When I got married, I gave up all
sorts of freedoms I had before. I can no longer do
whatever I like without considering anyone else. Now I
need to consult with Di before I make decisions about
what I'll do or where I'll go. I need to take into
account that I have three children who may be affected by
decisions I make. When I got married I took on new
responsibilities that limited the freedom I could
exercise. But you know, that loss of freedom was worth
it. The benefits I gained far outweighed the loss. And so
it is with us giving up our freedom to serve Christ. Look
at what he says: "20When you were slaves
of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21So
what advantage did you then get from the things of which
you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But
now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to
God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is
eternal life." |
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There was a time when we were free from the need
to live righteous lives. That's because at that stage we
were slaves of sin. Only sin had any control over what we
did. Unfortunately though, when we were slaves to sin,
our freedom from the constraints of righteousness had its
drawback. The result of that slavery, in the end, was
death. Not physical death but spiritual death for
eternity. That of course is the fallacy not understood by
those champions of liberation who pop up regularly in the
media, calling for us to liberalise the moral strictures
of our society. We saw it recently with the release of
the film "Baise-moi." We were told that people
should be free to watch what they like. Someone just this
week was complaining that the film was banned because of
complaints from people who hadn't even seen it. Well, I
want to know why we would need to watch something of that
nature to work out that its content is unacceptable. The
sad thing is that the people who champion freedom of this
sort never stop to think about where freedom becomes
licence, where liberation actually becomes bondage to
something far worse. And they certainly don't stop to
think that the freedom to continue in immorality is a
sign of slavery to sin which in the end will lead to
death. |
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But for those who are followers of Christ
there's a different scenario altogether. Now we've become
slaves of righteousness. And the advantage we get from
that is sanctification now and eternal life in the
future. |
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So lets think about what he means by
sanctification now. This is one of those words you hear
from time to time, but would rarely use in normal
conversation. Basically, it means to be made holy. We
could make up a word, 'holify' perhaps and it might make
more sense. So what does it mean that as a result of
becoming slaves to righteousness we're being made more
holy. It sounds a bit like we might start to glow, or
that we might start to come out with pious speech all the
time. It certainly doesn't sound like we'll have more fun
does it? |
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But that's actually to misunderstand the meaning
of holiness. Holiness has the idea of being set apart
from what's unclean or defiled and being dedicated or
connected to God. So for example when Moses came near the
burning bush, he was told to remove his shoes because the
ground he was walking on was holy. It was special because
God was there. Things placed in the Temple were holy,
because they'd been set apart for use in worshipping God.
There was nothing special about them apart from that. It
was just that their connection with God made them
special. So it is with us as we choose to becomes slaves
of righteousness, God comes and dwells within us through
his Holy Spirit, and that indwelling of his Spirit gives
us a connection to God that makes us different, holy,
right now. |
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Actually, if I can give you a more down-to-earth
example, in our kitchen we have a chopping board that's
holy. Well, actually we have a few chopping boards, but
there's one particular one that's reserved for sweet
things, for fruit and bread, and maybe mild cheese. But
if you chop up an onion on it you're in big trouble,
because the onion will defile it, make it unsuitable for
its primary purpose of chopping up fruit. So we're set
aside by God for his purposes, to do what's right and
good. |
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And there's also a sense in which we become holy
as we take on the characteristics of God in our
lifestyle. So as we live as slaves of righteousness, we
begin to live in a way that mimics God's righteous way of
behaving. And so we're set apart from those around us. We
take on a purity of life that pleases God. And the longer
we continue on that path, the more we become like God,
that is, the more sanctified we become. |
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So there's a double sense to this statement that
the advantage we get is sanctification and the end is
eternal life. We're sanctified right here and now, by the
indwelling of God's Holy Spirit, but at the same time we
continue to be sanctified as we live lives of
righteousness empowered by the Holy Spirit within us. In
fact if you look down the end of today's passage, to 7:6,
you'll see that that's how Paul ends this section. He
says: "now we are discharged from the law, dead to
that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not
under the old written code but in the new life of the
Spirit." Our sanctification, our growth in holiness
develops through the new life brought about by the Holy
Spirit living within us. |
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But as we'll discover next week, if you're here,
this doesn't happen automatically. This is no lay-down
misère. Our final sanctification is guaranteed by Jesus'
death and resurrection, but in the meantime our growth in
holiness is an ongoing struggle. We need to present
ourselves to God each day as his slaves. That'll mean
giving up our rights where they conflict with his
interests. It'll mean being committed to his purposes, to
his people, to his programs, not just our own. |
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This is possible because Jesus death on our
behalf has freed us from the bondage of sin and his risen
life gives us the freedom to follow him, to do what he
wants us to do. But we still have to choose to do it. We
still have to fight the battle in the power of the
Spirit, but the power of the enemy is broken, the
constraint of our sinful bodies has been removed. We're
free again to follow Christ. But that freedom can't be
separated from the constraints of holiness, of
righteousness. There's a paradox here, you see. We are
free, yet at the same time we're slaves. Thomas Cranmer
found a beautiful way to describe this paradox when he
wrote the service of Morning Prayer. The phrase he came
up with was this: "God, whose service is perfect
freedom." |
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This goes back to that idea we found in the
passage from Ex 21, where the slave can decide that
service of his master is far better than freedom to do
whatever he wants. God calls us to give up our freedom,
to make him our master, to submit to a new bond of
slavery, slavery to righteousness, knowing that obeying
God will actually enable us to live the way God
originally intended. And in doing that we'll discover
that this new slavery is in fact a new freedom, because
it provides us with a life that fits perfectly with God's
plan for us from the beginning. This new slavery means
that we're being made more like God each day, being made
Christ-like, being prepared for eternal life. This sort
of service is perfect freedom. |
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So how are you going to respond to this call to
present yourselves to God as slaves of righteousness. Are
you prepared to give up some of your so-called freedom,
in order to be made truly free? Are you prepared to
commit all of your life to God? Are you prepared to trust
him to give you what is good? Are you prepared to trust
him to make you more like him? Here is the advantage for
those who commit themselves to God wholeheartedly, as
slaves to righteousness: "the advantage you get is
sanctification. The end is eternal life." |
