Beneficial bondage
Abraham Lincoln wrote, “although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself.” No, we would not expect anyone to submit to slavery in this world. What we desire and value is freedom, and so much so that we have written down our freedoms and made them law, guaranteed to all who fall under the authority and protection of those written words. Spiritually speaking, however, freedom and bondage go hand in hand. We might think they are distinct states of being, but they are not. A review of God’s word will show us that one cannot be gained without submission to the other. The question is not one of whether we wear bonds but of which master has placed them on us.
Rom. 6:20-21
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
Spiritual freedom is a funny thing. I used to look at it like someone being released from prison. The prisoner goes through a process from freedom to incarceration and then to freedom again. At any given time that person will be either free or locked up; it is black and white. Legally, the prisoner was entitled to certain liberties which become forfeit for a time as punishment for a crime. The one who once was free to come and go without restriction, to walk down the street without permission or supervision, now cannot walk in that freedom. In the physical world, freedom and captivity do not occur simultaneously. One is either bound or free. Spiritually, however, that is not the case. As we read these verses, we see that. There was a day when we were bound to sin, but in that time we also were free from righteousness. Our issue was not the fact that we were slaves. Our issue was the object to which we were bound, which was sin resulting in death.
Spiritually, we always spend our time both in freedom and bondage. Freedom can be good or bad, and bondage can be good or bad. Being free in regard to righteousness and bound to sin only leads to death. However, being free from sin and bound to Christ and his righteousness is incredible. That leads to life. We say that it leads to freedom, but what we really mean is that it leads to beneficial freedom as well as beneficial bondage. We desire, or we should desire, to be bound to righteousness. Our aim is not simply to be free from everything, autonomous and self-focused. Our goal is to be bound to that which builds the spirit and free from that which builds the flesh. The thing is, we cannot be free from sin and death unless we submit to bondage to the Spirit. We merely go from one kind of slavery to another. That is something with which we must come to terms before we can begin this process of sanctification. We are certainly spiritually free in the manner which is beneficial, but now we also are bound in a good way.
v. 17-18
But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
A fundamental truth of this Christian faith is that we must be bound to something. We have no choice. Some may think that they have loosed all ties, that they exist in the world on their own and in complete freedom. That, however, is an illusion and a lie. Those who think and live this way just remain shackled to sin in a different way. They have made idols of themselves, and their idolatry keeps them bound to death. It might be a tough pill to swallow, but we must be attached to something. We can choose to be bitter about that and try, yet fail, to be completely free of all ties. Or, we can accept this truth and be thankful to God that He allows us to trade in the bonds of death for the bonds of life. After all, being bound to sin is a result of mankind’s actions, not God’s. We have placed the chains of sin upon ourselves, but we certainly cannot save ourselves from our error. It is only by God’s grace that He affords us the benefit of being bound to him.
The deliverance from sin provided by God is not an open gate to an uncharted land. We are not let out and sent to find our own way or our own place. When that gate opens, it takes us from one land to another. The way is laid out; the path is straight. There is no “no man’s land” between here and there. Being delivered from sin only happens when we are delivered to righteousness. It sounds like a paradox, but our deliverance takes us from one form of bondage to another. When those bonds of sin are loosed, they are replaced by the bonds of life and righteousness. It works like light and darkness. We cannot remain out of the light and out of the darkness. We must remain under one of them. God calls us out of darkness even though that is what fills our hearts at the time, and He makes a way for us to be refilled with light, spiritually illuminated. Thanks be to God for giving us the option to choose which bonds we will wear and under whose authority we will live.
v. 22-23
But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We likely did not realize this at the time, but our prior bondage to sin produced an abundance of fruit. Just as we are always spiritually bound to something, we also produce fruit at all times. The most obvious of the bad fruit we used to produce is what was to be our eventual end, death and eternal separation from God. However, that was not the only bad fruit born of our prior way of life. While some fruit was internal, other fruit was external. The thing about being carriers of death, which is what we once were, is that this death is contagious and spreads. Those who remain in bondage to sin sow it into circumstances and people by their words, actions and thoughts. When that happens, it is really sin trying to extend its grasp to whoever it can reach. Being bound to sin is being a pawn for sin, doing its evil work to keep others bound. If we survey our lives prior to Christ, we should have no shortage of evidence of this dark work which used to be ours.
Now that we are slaves of God and righteousness, our fruit has undergone a transformation. What we are able to produce in abundance is that which counteracts the powers of darkness in this world. This new fruit serves to free people from the shackles of sin and death and lead them to beneficial bondage. When we practice goodness, we show others just a glimpse of the goodness awaiting them in the Lord. When we practice patience, we do the same. Whether love, kindness or any other fruit of the Spirit, the point is to sow life inside and outside ourselves. We now work for light, and our goal is to bring others into that light. Part of our duty as slaves of God is to increase the harvest by showing others the good fruit we bear through him, fruit not just for today and tomorrow but fruit which is eternal. We can be kind and good in this world, but the ultimate fruit of this process is unending life with the Lord. Our work is not merely to seek that for ourselves but to have a hand in imparting that to others, showing them the benefits of being bound to God.
v. 15-16
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
One night when I was in my mid-twenties I got pulled over for speeding. When the officer came to my window I had a pretty compelling reason for asking him to cut me a break. I had been following a friend of mine who also was a police officer. Yet, of the two of us, I was the one who was stopped. My argument was one of fairness, claiming that I should not be held culpable of breaking the law when an officer of that very law set the example for me by breaking it himself. To my surprise, my argument worked, and I was let go with a warning. The officer who stopped me had every authority to give me a ticket regardless of my reason for speeding, but he extended grace. That did not mean, however, that I was free to just speed down the road again. I could not zoom through his area every chance I got and simply expect him to keep giving me warning after warning. I was spared the punishment I deserved that time, but his expectation was that I would learn the lesson because I would be held accountable the next time.
Freedom from sin cannot be confused with freedom to sin. We cannot abuse the grace of God by continuing to live in the flesh. Christianity is about transformation, submission and appreciation. If we understand the value of grace, then we will be careful to cherish it for the gift it is. When grace undoes the shackles of sin and binds us to righteousness, whether we keep going back to sin surely indicates whether we have submitted to our new master, who is God. Sanctification is no overnight process, but willful sin is something we must target from the beginning. Genuine submission to God will produce a desire to remain submitted to him and not to the old master. We should want to sow life not only in ourselves but in others. We should want to see freedom from sin and death abound. The way we live after receiving salvation is a reflection of how we have come to understand the value of this free gift we have received, and it shows the Lord whether we take this servant-master relationship seriously.
v. 12-14
Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Authority in this world is not often a choice. When I was born I came under the authority of my parents or legal guardians. After all, no child can run his own household. I also came under the rule of the land in which I was born. From federal to state to local government, many different people and entities rule over me just as a consequence of my living here. Although I would have the option later in life to leave this land for another, I still would come under the rule of whatever land might become my new home. Professionally, holding certain positions makes one accountable to certain organizations which monitor behavior and professional conduct, as well as to the workplace. If we want to live in this world and have gainful employment, we must come under many authorities. We can select some over others, but we never get to be autonomous and answer to no one. This physical relegation to leadership and dominion is akin to what we experience spiritually.
We might not have a choice regarding whether we remain under spiritual dominion, but we can choose who and what that will be. Being born in sin is outside our control, but it is our decision whether we choose to stay there. Even after giving our lives to Jesus we will be tempted to return to our old master and bow. We will be tempted to behave as if we still wear those old shackles. Some will entertain that temptation because grace is there to scoop them up and clean them off, but they are missing the point. Exchanging those bonds means that we now belong to another master and exist for a different purpose. We actually are free not only from the wages of sin but from the act of sin itself. We are free from falling to temptation. If we want to live in grace and freedom we will take advantage of the way God makes for us to escape temptation, which He provides every single time. Being slaves to God and righteousness, our hearts, minds, bodies and spirits are free to obey him and rebuke the enemy. This is not only our ability but also should be our desire and aim.
If we must be bound, let us be bound to God and his righteousness. A true understanding of what it means to be spiritually free will not deter us from submitting to God’s authority and desiring to be slaves of his. That understanding should have us running to him with our hands held out, begging him to claim us as his own. Being a slave to a benevolent, gracious and redeeming master is a joy and a privilege. Beyond that, being a slave to this specific master is life; anything else leads to death. God has never stopped calling his Church to walk in the freedom He makes available to us, but too often we let it slip from our grasp. Let us make a renewed commitment to value this precious gift by submitting to our master daily, by obeying him and keeping our ways pure. Let us forsake the old master and the old ways because we know that grace is not something to be taken lightly or abused. Let us proudly proclaim that we are slaves to the only master worth serving, and let us show the lost that being bound to him is the greatest freedom we can pursue.