Romans 6 verse 14 –
14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Medway, we are free from bondage under sin. We are No longer slaves to Sin, love that song I’m no longer a slave … I am a child of God.
And now, I can do whatever I want! I am no longer chained up by my sin, God’s Grace has been shown to me, and his love for me is infinite and His forgiveness will never end.
So yes, under Grace we are forgiven, no longer dead in our sins, we are no longer condemned.
But Grace is Not Permission to sin.
Shall we sin because we are under grace – BY NO MEANS.
And you hear that and you go, wait, I was here last week and I heard Lawrence say the exact same thing – what, are you guys copying messages now?
No, as tempting as that may be, the writer here Paul, as we go through the book of Romans (to the visitors here) , he is repeating himself.
There are a few points we’ll see this morning that are a straight echo of what we looked at last week in the beginning of Romans 6.
Paul knows how to hammer home a point. Sometimes it’s layers of slowly built up arguments. We’ll see that. Sometimes its relatable metaphors and pictures – we’ll see that.
And sometimes it’s a one line zinger to punch it home – we’ll end on that this morning in a few moments.
So we begin this morning where – under Grace – under the Authority of Jesus our Lord – who we just a few moments ago remembered– endured the Cross, its punishment and shame and suffering on our behalf. For our freedom. So that, in a sense, we could get out from being under the law.
Romans 10:4 Christ is the culmination of the law (some translations say END) so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Without that – we would still be under sin – as Lawrence so rightly pointed out last week – as sinners we would have had no other option –
But Grace has come, He has been nailed to the cross in your place. And those who believe in faith – are under grace. Have come under Grace.
Notice, you’re still under something. Our verses this morning extend the slave picture - we’re all slaves in the end to the things we serve. We are slaves to the one we obey. We are in submission to things, to people, to ideas. If we were to look at your bank accounts, if we were to see a weekly breakdown of what you spent your time doing, we would very quickly observe who you serve.
You tell me you’ve never felt like a slave to your job?
You must have seen that clip, where it’s a guy sitting at his desk at work having a bad day but then he looks at a picture frame and starts to smile, and the voice over reminds us to remember who we do this all for – and then the shot shows a close up of the picture in his hands and you expect to see a picture of his family but instead you see the SARS logo – that who he is working so hard for.
OK so fellow slaves let’s read together Romans 6 from verse 15
Slaves to Righteousness
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.
So Paul leans in to the analogy of the slave and the master. An imperfect picture, he acknowledges - ‘I am speaking to you in human terms’ he says but he is trying to get a few points across. So very quickly, and we have already thought of the first.
1. Grace Is Not Permission to Sin (v.15)
Epistle to the Romans 6:15 begins with a question: “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” and Paul answers emphatically: By no means!
We now have an option to do something else. There is freedom, but, actually when you think about it – second point incoming
2. Everyone Serves a Master (v.16)
Paul presents a spiritual reality: you are a slave to whatever you obey.
- Obedience to sin → death
- Obedience to God → righteousness
- And there is no inbetween.
Calling us slaves? That’s offensive How dare you.
Oh no? You say you’re not in submission if your relationships? Your spouses? Your bosses? Your teachers? Your elders? Your parents.
It’s the way the world works. Unclutch your pearls my friends. We are still under what we serve. Even if we are under Grace, we are still under subject to willingly enslaved by GRACE.
Bit of a hard phrase to buy into hey, Willingly enslaved.
OK, here’s a different one then, that rolls off the tongue, and makes it into our songs. Much more comfortable
By the time Paul circles back in Romans 8 he almost upgrades – he modifies the picture
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba,[a] Father.”
Let me translate I’m no longer a slave to fear – I am a child of God.
Hey, good news - At least some of Bethels theology checks out – ANYWAY
Point 3
3. Gospel Transformation (v.17) what changes
What does the Gospel Change? Does it change your standing on the earth? Does it immediately change your outlook, your prospects, your social standing? Your wealth? Do you look better? Do you behave better? Immediately?
Did you notice in vs 17 something about obedience, about how this Master – servant role should play out. Under Grace, this obedience, comes from where?
It comes from a transformed heart. Why is that important – because it’s not from a place of fear.
Its not even from a place of head knowledge – and i’ll be careful here because there are surely, people out there who came to faith via some strong apologetic argument that they were mentally convinced of the truth of the Gospel. OK, sure, if that’s the doorway that God blasted through to get to you – that’s awesome, and we are not gonna knock it. But the core conversion. The regeneration, the being born again, is a heart issue. For the most educated theologian, for the youngest child coming to grips with who Father God is, for the most contrite sinner, even hanging on a Cross next to Jesus himself – the plea is CHANGE MY HEART OH GOD.
Didn’t Danwill just nail it this morning hey – well done sir! First time? Natural.
4. Growth Is Progressive (v.19)
Theres a lovely sequence happening here in these verses. It’s a process.
Listen to the following, lined up.
Verse 16
obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17
then it says - become slaves to righteousness.
Then it says
so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20
THEN IT SAYS
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
Okay, so follow the path – Obedience to righteousness to holiness to eternal life.
Any Christian you meet, who seems to give off such a holy vibe, they’re not there yet, I can promise you, Just get to know them better, you’ll get to quickly see that they, just like you, maybe younger believer, are on a path.
That’s why you have to choose each day – that’s why you have to submit yourselves under grace. Obey. Yes, you are now a beautiful child of God – but act accordingly. Be who you are. Become who you’re meant to become.
My son got into detention last week, minor stuff, but not a pleasant email you want to receive for any parent. And I was trying to think of clever things to say to him, you know, the chat. And what came to mind was, how surprising this was. That we know, he is not a naughty kid. We never have any behavioral trouble with him really. So that’s what I said to him, This is not who you are. Now obviously, he’s a teenager, he’s busy trying to figure for himself who he is and who he is going to become, and I suppose that’s what I was really saying to him – this is not who you want to become.
So both these things are true – you are a child of God. And you are becoming a Child of God.
It portrayed here in the verses as a path, as a process, as a race to run, as a journey to progress along for a reason. And this letter isn’t written to Jesus, its written to ordinary human beings just like you and me.
My study bible tells me (I didn’t count them) that the phrase eternal life is used 42 times in the new testament. Popular phrase. Most of the time it is used in the sense of a gift that is received at the moment of belief in the Gospel. But 11 times, a quarter or so, it’s used in the sense of something that has to be attained.
So it has to be both. How do reconcile that? In other words its more than just a simple static fixed entity. Eternal life is not just living forever. Getting older and older and older. Eternal life is a living and growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Through living in faith, in obedience, growing in righteousness Holiness. And the enjoyment and knowledge of Him.
5. Sin’s False Freedom (v.20–21)
Verse 20 makes a thought provoking point. It takes the reader back to before conversion – when you were under control of sin. Right, in a sense, you were free from the control of righteousness.
And then he asks, what gain was that? Where did it get you. What were its fruits, what did it produce – where did it lead.
And the answer is death.
No true believer really longs for the old days – you know, before you came to faith, were you were so free to do whatever you wanted and have a great time and you were subject to all these fuddy duddy bible rules like you are now. We recognise – that so called freedom was totally fake. It was no freedom at all, and it certainly didn’t amount to anything of eternal value.
Number 6
6. Two Outcomes, One Choice (v.23)
One of the most quoted verses in Bible:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Sin pays wages — what we earn.God gives a gift — what we don’t deserve.Death is earned. Eternal life is given through Jesus.
Its both my kids birthdays this week. Back to back - engineered – planned, executed.
But consider this contrast. My daughter, will wake up early, she will squeal with delight, she will rush and open every last one of her gifts, fully assessing each one, considering who they came from, she will show appreciation, I’m gonna get some good hugs. And shes gonna recognize the effort that went into the gift. Shes going to treasure those pieces of plastic and get maximum fulfilment until they are destroyed.
My son, bless his oblivious heart, will not wake up early. He will be woken up late for school (more detention, great), he will groan at the prospect, there will be no squealing.
Not only will he need to be reminded that it is in fact his birthday, he will definitely need to be reminded that there are gifts for him waiting to be opened, and enjoyed. There will be no hugs.
It’s a crude analogy – like Paul said, not a perfect picture, but you get the difference.
Receiving the gift of Eternal Life is the start. Enjoying Him, growing, maturing, running is the path. Submitting to His authority and leadership in your life – if we were to stop one of the cyclists this morning at like 20 km in, and say, hey well done man, you did it, what an achievement. Cape Town Cycle tour, in the bag, good job. They would say, what are you nuts. I’m still busy cycling!
And so we come to the last verse in our section this morning an absolute zinger of a verse.
I do wonder when Paul wrote this, he was like, oh, that’s good, this will be used to change lives…
He brings it together in contrast, points he has been making in the past verses.
Sin leads to death
Following God leads to Life
Sin and death is getting what you deserve – it is a wage – something that your works have resulted in payment for.
But Gods grace isn’t described as a wage. It’s described, very intentionally as a gift. You didn’t earn it. It didn’t come from you.
And the gift, what a beautiful , thoughtful, desperately needed and completely undeserved Gift, thank you Abba Father – big hug.
Eternal Life, In Christ Jesus our Lord, - don’t cut off the end of the sentence.
Eternal Life is life in Jesus and Jesus in us.
It’s certainly not an extended stay on this earth – we know that – our bodies will they will turn to dust.
And its not just a ticket into the good place. With streets of Gold and no more back pain.
It is the fulltime, undimmed, undistracted, presence of the Lord God himself.
What a contrast. Which do you choose. Path to the left, or path to the right. Serve sin, or Serve obedience, slave to sin and fear or slave to righteousness, Holiness, in Christ Jesus himself. Choose the wage, worthless as it is? Or choose the Gift of the highest, worth, the most expensive Gift ever given. Medway the simple choice is yours.
Are we over simplifying here? These are weighty spiritual matters – we will never fully understand, this side of heaven, what Grace really is, what it actually took for us to be seen as righteous. For God to even look upon us in our shame. True, sure, but obedience to God, what does that look like. Is it that complicated?
You sit there on your chair every Sunday morning. And when we’re done (don’t worry, just about done this morning). You put it to the side for a some space so we can have a lekker cup of tea and the kids can run around…But next week, you walk back into the room, amazing – the chairs are back there, in position. Its not a miracle. Its not magic. Someone put them there. Now, I think I know who did it, and He’s not here right now, busy riding the Argus (ok, again, the illustrations are not perfect). He still has to attain full Holiness and never miss a Sunday. Because that’s what Holiness is.
But I was in the meeting when he agreed to put out the chairs. And it went something like this.
Hey guys, someone needs to come on Saturday and put out the chairs.
And he said. Ja ok, sure, I’ll do it. No problem.
Even though he would much rather be gooing his rod in the water at Strandfontein, or helping his wife deliver those beautiful cakes to clients… or indeed training for the Argus
No problem – hand goes up.
He didn’t um and ah – ooh is this really my place of spiritual gifting, have I really got confirmation of God that the chairs need to be put out. Maybe I should do a yearlong bible study on putting out chairs first. Maybe when I’m Holy enough, worthy of a position of service at Medway then I will be obedient.
You saw the sequence. Obedience first. Then righteousness then Holiness, Follows. It follows in the work. And as that guy has said yes, gotten stuck into chairs , the music, the deaconate, we have ministered into each others lives. He lead us in worship for the first time on camp.
We baptised that guy and his wife at Fish Hoek beach on Friday evening. Tattoos gleaming in the rain.
Why? Because it’s ANOTHER step of obedience. Of willing slavery / submission of himself to a Holy Master. A Holy God. To his Eternal Father.
I am talking about our Nathan, by the way. And the end of the baptism, Mike jumped up and bumped Stuart out the way, and said, No No He would be praying. And he started his prayer with these words…
From my family, to your family.
Hey? Wow.
Medway? I’m no longer a slave to fear – I AM A – come on – I’m a what? I am a Child of God.
Amen
