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Join me in prayer.
Father, would you speak to us and would we hear, not just with our ears but with our hearts,
and would our hearts be open and tender to the way that your Spirit wants to mold us into the image of your perfect Son.
Convince us, Lord, that true freedom is slavery to you, slavery to righteousness.
Would we delight in you as our Lord, you as our Master.
There is no greater Master, no one who has loved us like you have.
Would you convince us of that even more deeply than we already think we might be convinced of that truth.
Today we pray in the preaching of your Word, in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, so we are still in Romans and we're still in chapter 6 of Paul's letter to the church in Rome.
And last week we looked at Paul's response to pretty much the biggest objection that his message faced.
And that objection goes something like this.
If we are justified, if we are righteous in the eyes of God by faith and apart from our good works,
then what's going to keep us from continuing in a bunch of wicked works?
Like, Paul, if the gospel you preach is true, how is this not a license to sin?
And we heard last week that Paul answered this objection in the first 14 verses.
And he ends and he caps it off saying,
For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
But then today we find that he raises pretty much the same objection, right?
The same objection comes up again, verse 15,
because he knows that what he preaches is so radical, so counterintuitive,
so unlike anything anyone else has ever preached.
Whenever the gospel is preached and the scandal of God's free gift of grace is heard,
Paul knows that the question will arise again and again and again,
like, how is this not a license to sin?
So here in verse 15 we find Paul posing pretty much the same objection he just answered,
but he puts it in a different way.
Verse 15,
But this time he applies, he supplies a second reason.
So we're going to look at that second reason today,
whereas the first reason he gave pointed us to Christ's past work,
the second reason he gave points us to our present identity.
The first reason he gave for why we should not go on sinning
was our union with Christ and his death to sin.
And now the second reason he gives for why the church should not go on sinning
is our identity, our identity in Christ.
And notice how he describes our identity in Christ, though.
Verse 16, what does he call us?
We are slaves.
Don't you know that when you offer yourself 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.
The number two reason Paul gives for why we should not sin,
even when we are under grace,
is because we are all slaves.
Even if we've been freed from slavery to sin, he says,
we are still slaves.
And we're going to talk about that,
what it means to be slaves to God,
slaves to righteousness.
But before we talk about that,
I want to first bring your attention to the beauty of Paul's reasoning here.
See, just like he refuses to motivate us
by, you know, dangling a carrot like heaven or happiness
or threatening punishment upon us like heartbreak and hell.
For Paul, and I think this is the heart of God himself,
the main reason for us to not sin
isn't about following rules or being good versus being bad.
For Paul, it's always been about being real.
It's always been about being authentic
to our highest and our truest identities.
And that's why he says,
by no means.
By no means.
We aren't going to go on sinning,
not just because it's bad for us,
but because it defies the truth
about who we are and what is real about us
in God's eyes.
In Christ, we are dead to sin.
And that is why we cannot live in it any longer, he says.
And here in verse 15 and following,
he reminds us of another reality about who we are,
and that is we are slaves of righteousness
if we're united to Christ by faith.
As I heard one of our past pastors,
Pastor Quinn, she used to say,
you know, God is not interested
in shitting all over us, all right?
Like, you should do this, you should do that,
you should not do this, you should not do that.
No, time and time again,
what God is most interested in speaking to us
is who we are.
Who we are, because everything else flows from that,
from our identity.
So in Genesis 1, right,
when God creates the heavens and the earth,
he says to Adam and Eve,
you are the crown of my creation.
I have made you in my image, in my likeness,
therefore, be fruitful, right?
Or to his own son at his baptism in the Jordan River,
before he sends him out into the wilderness,
before he sends him out to teach
and to do all his miracles,
what does the father say to his son at the Jordan River?
He says, this is my son whom I love.
With him I am well pleased.
See, it's only when we accept the reality
of our identities before God
that any of us will ever do the things
we should be doing
or stop doing the things we shouldn't be doing.
Again, God's primary task is not to should all over us,
it's to tell us who we are to him
and what we are to believe about ourselves
if we would just see ourselves through his eyes
in order that we might live accordingly.
And that's why I left verses 11 through 14
in our text today,
even though we went through them last week,
because it's so important how we count ourselves.
It's so important how we count ourselves,
it's so important that we count,
how God counts.
Verse 11,
in the same way count yourselves dead to sin
but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
So in a sense we could say
that a question underneath Paul's question here
in verse 15,
shall we sin because we are under grace?
Another question that Paul is provoking here is,
well, who are we fundamentally?
Particularly Christians,
how should we count ourselves?
What is our identity?
identity?
And how might that actually be the key
to all of our actions and our behaviors
in the first place?
You know, I have two girls, four and three,
and my goal is to raise them
to be beautiful women of God
who are secure in themselves before God
and in this world.
And so I tell them that that's what they are,
that they are beautiful
and that their only comfort in life and in death
is that they belong to Jesus.
Like more than telling them what to do, right,
in order to be beautiful
or what to do to belong,
I tell them who they are to me
and to their mommy and to God
that they are beautiful
and that they already do belong.
I don't say to them,
try hard to be beautiful or else,
or else you won't belong.
But you are beautiful and you do belong,
therefore live like the beauty that you are.
Because I want them to have so deep inside of them,
I want them to trust this reality in their hearts
to know and believe the truth about themselves
so that when those days come,
when they are tempted to not believe
that they are beautiful
or that they don't belong to anyone of any significance.
And those days have come,
actually the days have already arrived.
One of our daughters some months ago,
she said this to us,
she said,
I wish I had my little sister's eyes
because they're prettier than mine.
She said that,
and you might think
that this was just some minor sibling rivalry jealousy,
but to me this was a lie from the devil himself,
tempting my daughter to believe
that she's not enough,
that she's not beautiful enough,
that she's not pretty enough,
she's not desirable enough.
And is this temptation really so unlike
what the rest of us face?
No.
My daughters need to know.
We all need to know our true identities
in the eyes of God.
If we ever want a chance
at living and experiencing
the beautiful lives of belonging
that God wants for us,
we can see our identity,
who we are,
who we understand ourselves to be
will ultimately dictate how we live.
But again, the question is,
well, who are we?
Who are we?
And to this, Paul says,
well, if you've been justified by faith
and if sin is no longer your master
and you are now under grace,
guess what?
You're still slaves, he says.
You're still slaves
and that's why you should not sin.
He even gives thanks for this in verse 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.
You have been set free from sin
and have become slaves to righteousness.
No longer under the dominion of sin,
but now under the reign and rule of Jesus Christ.
See, for Paul,
even for those who are under grace,
you see, they are still under something.
Yes, set free from sin,
but now slaves to righteousness.
For Paul, it's not a matter of
whether or not we're slaves,
but whether we're slaves to sin
or to righteousness.
Just as it says in verse 19,
we are either offering ourselves
as slaves to impurity
and to ever-increasing wickedness
or we are offering ourselves
as slaves to righteousness
leading to holiness.
For Paul, there is no third alternative.
As Jesus said,
you cannot have two masters
no matter what we are slaves,
he says,
either slaves to sin
or to righteousness,
to the devil or to God.
And now, maybe,
you find this offensive, right?
To speak of people as Paul does,
as slaves to sin.
Maybe you even disagree with Paul here
because aren't people
like more complex than that?
For us to categorize them
into just slaves to sin
and slaves to righteousness.
But what Paul means here
is not that some people
can only do utterly wicked things
and others, you know,
Christians are the best
and they can only do righteous things.
We all know that's not true.
No.
What Paul is talking about
are the two different domains
and directions
that people are in
with respect to the Lord Jesus Christ.
See, slaves to sin
might do some great things,
feed the hungry,
donate to charities,
advance our society
with technological innovations
just like the descendants
of Adam and Eve's
wicked murderer son, Cain, right?
They were the ones.
Cain's descendants
were the ones who what?
They made music
and they developed tools
and they built cities
and developed livestock, right?
But the question is,
for what and for whom
and to what end?
Was it truly unto the glory of God,
unto the glory of the kingdom of Christ,
or was it to the glory of Babel?
Let us build a city
and a tower with its top in the heavens
and let us make a name for ourselves,
they said.
See, when Paul talks about
slaves to sin
versus slaves to righteousness,
what he's saying
is that apart from liberation in Christ,
we are all slaves to sin.
As Paul writes earlier in chapter three,
quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures,
there is no one righteous,
not even one.
There is no one who understands.
There is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away.
They have together become worthless.
There is no one who does good,
not even one.
And listen to what he says
at the end of this list.
There is no fear of God
before their eyes.
For Paul, you can do
and achieve some pretty impressive
and good things,
but if there is no fear of God
in your eyes,
if you do not have a relationship with God,
if you're living your life
not in a Godward direction,
for the glory of Jesus Christ,
and I'm sorry,
but as good as whatever it is
you're doing is,
it is still tainted by sin.
And that's how the prophet Isaiah
can say things like,
all of our righteous deeds
are like filthy,
bloody menstrual rags
before the Lord.
And this is what it means
to be a slave to sin,
to not live Godward,
to not live unto and under Christ,
but with something or someone else
as our master.
And if this describes you
and you are not living
unto or under Christ,
he invites you today
to at least consider
what or who your master really is.
He invites you to consider
a different yoke,
a different bondage,
a different master,
slavery to righteousness,
slavery to God through Christ.
Now maybe for some others of us,
it's precisely this
slave to righteousness,
slave to God stuff
that sounds so offensive
and unappealing, right?
And maybe that's what some of us
either hate about being Christians
or for those of us
who are hesitant
to become Christians,
this is why.
Like, see, I knew it.
You Christians are always
talking about how,
oh, I can be free from my sin,
but here you are
just pitching another
kind of slavery,
so no thank you.
And honestly,
I deeply resonate with this.
Growing up,
I've shared about
my best friend, right?
Both of us grew up
in the church
from the days
that we were born.
He was born
just 10 days before me.
Both of us grew up
in the church.
Both of us got baptized
together on the same day
as sixth graders.
We went to the same
Sunday school classes,
the same Christian school
from kindergarten
to 12th grade.
Both of us went off
to college
and became involved
in our churches
very heavily.
We loved theology.
We loved apologetics.
We loved studying the Bible,
and yet I've become a pastor,
and my best friend now lives
a life apart from God,
apart from Christ,
in unbelief and skepticism.
And I've shared this before,
but we used to play
this game as kids,
this game called,
Man, If I Weren't a Christian,
and he'd be like,
Man, If I Weren't a Christian,
I'd totally ditch church
and Sunday school,
and we'd be outside
working on our jump shots.
And I'd be like,
Man, yeah, that's right, man.
And yeah, man,
if I weren't a Christian,
I'd have so much more money
because I wouldn't be tithing,
and that would be awesome.
And we'd go on and on and on
fantasizing about the happiness
and the freedom that we'd enjoy
if we were not Christians,
if we were not slaves to God.
And you know, looking back
and reflecting on where
both of us are now today,
I wonder if what has happened
is that both of us rightly understood
that Christianity does involve
a kind of slavery,
slavery to God,
slavery to righteousness,
a commitment to denying ourselves
and following Jesus.
But I wonder if what has happened
is maybe one of us
has had our eyes opened
to the beauty of being a slave to God,
while the other has yet
to have his eyes open
to the beauty and the true freedom
that are found in slavery
to righteousness,
slavery to God,
to being under the rule and reign
of a good master and Lord,
King Jesus.
Now, I get why you might be skeptical.
Like, how is Christianity
not just another power play
on my life,
just an extra external authority
here to limit and restrict
my happiness and freedom?
And honestly, you're not wrong
that God wants you to be free.
You're not wrong to want to be free.
We all want to be free.
God put this desire into us.
But see, the real question, though,
is what does it mean to be free?
What does it mean to be free?
And I want to suggest,
according to the scriptures,
that the truest freedom,
the highest freedom,
is actually,
is subversively
only found
in being a slave
to God.
You see, our modern,
secular,
Western world
will tell you
that true freedom
is the absence
of all restraints.
All restraints.
That we are cheetahs
whose most fundamental need
is to get out of our cage
and to be untamed, right?
The modern Bay Area
definition of freedom
is that freedom
is antithetical
to any and every
binding limitation.
That freedom
is freedom
from all such restrictions
and freedom
to pursue
whatever it is
that we want.
And you're not free
unless you can do
whatever you want
and no one can tell you
what to do
or what not to do.
But is this truly freedom?
Is it?
To be able to do
whatever we want.
To have every option
in the world.
Tell me,
are you free
when you turn on
Netflix at home
and you have
a million options
before you?
A million options
of what you could watch
but you spend
half an hour,
right,
deciding
what that is
that you want to watch
and even after you decide
for the first five minutes
you're thinking to yourself,
do I want to keep going
or do I want to switch back,
right?
Is that freedom?
In his book,
The Paradox of Choice,
this Swarthmore psychologist,
Barry Schwartz,
he actually is a visiting scholar
here at Cal.
He wrote,
actually a greater variety
of choices
actually makes us feel worse.
He actually advises,
choose less
and feel better.
And you know,
Paul would agree
that sure,
maybe this is
a kind of freedom
but is it
the kind of freedom
we want?
Is it?
Verse 20,
look at verse 20.
In verse 20,
he begins to describe
and remind his readers
of what it was like
when they were once
slaves to sin
and lived to make
all the God-free choices
that they pleased.
And he recognizes
that it was
a kind of freedom,
a freedom from control
but freedom from whose control?
Verse 20,
when you were slaves to sin,
you were free
from the control
of righteousness.
Paul says,
yes,
there is freedom
apart from God
but he says,
is this the kind of freedom
you want to be free
from what is right
and good
and pure
and true
and beautiful.
And then he asked
his readers
to consider the fruit,
the fruit of that kind
of a freedom
from the control
of righteousness.
Verse 21,
what benefit
did you reap
at that time
from the things
you are now ashamed of?
Those things
result in death.
He's basically asking,
where did that freedom
from all restraints,
where did that lead?
What did it produce?
What kind of a person
did it make you?
Someone who is proud
of themselves
or someone
who is ashamed
of themselves?
I'm listening
to this audio book
right now,
this book on Audible,
it's a New York Times
bestseller called
Tweak,
it's by someone
here from the Bay Area,
Nick Sheff,
and it's a memoir
of his life
and his struggle
with addiction
to meth.
And even as a
very gifted person,
someone from a very
privileged background,
you know,
they had a house
in the city
in San Francisco,
they had a weekend
house up in Point Reyes,
his family loved him,
he had a great life.
And I'm only a few
chapters in,
but it's really,
it's a riveting,
wonderfully written memoir.
And basically,
it's Nick's sober retelling
of the stronghold
of meth on his life.
A retelling
of how ashamed
he is
of his many decisions
as someone
under the control
of meth.
And early on
in the book,
he recounts how
not long after
his first stint
in rehab,
he comes home again,
but he's suffering
from withdrawals, right?
And so,
the first chance
he gets,
he gets out of the house
away from his parents
and he leaves
and he finds himself
all of a sudden
unconscious again.
And so,
he tells about how,
yeah,
he has no idea
what happened that week,
but all of a sudden
he wakes up
from his blackout,
he's back in his parents' home,
and what wakes him up,
though,
is this commotion
that's going on
in the house,
a commotion between
his little brother
and his little sister.
His little brother
is crying,
where is it?
Where is it?
Where is my five dollars?
You took it,
he's saying to the little sister.
And she says,
no,
I didn't take it,
and they're both crying
and this wakes Nick up.
This wakes him up
and in that moment,
Nick says,
I didn't remember
taking the money,
but I knew I had.
So,
he begins to
pack his stuff up,
he heads toward the door,
he can only look down
at the floor in shame,
but his parents stop him.
His parents stop him
and they're all red in the face,
their heart broken,
and they block his exit
and they confront him.
They say,
where are you going?
Nick,
we know you're using again.
And Nick says,
yeah,
I'm not coming back.
But they slam the door
and his dad says,
you can't just leave
with tears running down his face,
you can't just leave,
we'll get you help,
Nick.
And Nick says,
no,
I have to,
I have to do this,
I have to leave.
And at this point,
his dad says no
and he tries to physically
stop Nick
from leaving the door,
but Nick pushes his dad
really hard
and Nick says,
what the hell
are you doing?
Jesus Christ,
you people
are suffocating me.
you people
suffocate me.
And in this moment,
Nick is basically
screaming to his parents,
let me be free,
get out of my way,
untie my bonds
from this family
that loves me
so I can be free
to do what I want,
so I can be free
to do what I know
that I need.
But you know,
he's writing in retrospect,
right,
this is a memoir,
and as he recounts this moment,
he also writes in his memoir,
the truth was,
I didn't want to stop.
It's not like I enjoyed
stealing or hurting my dad,
I was just so scared
of coming off the drugs.
It was like this
horrible, vicious cycle,
the more I used,
the more I did things
I was ashamed of,
and the more I had to use
so I never had to face them.
And my question for us is,
was Nick truly pursuing freedom
when he accused his parents
of suffocating him?
Was he free
the moment he left the house
and started getting out
on the streets,
driving around,
shooting up again and again,
hiding in bathrooms,
missing veins,
blood running down his arms,
hanging out in filthy hotels
with stained mattresses
and trash all over the place?
Was Nick free
when he fled
the alleged suffocation
of his parents?
Or was he fleeing
from their love,
trying to free himself
from their love,
free himself
from true liberation?
You know,
the reason Paul celebrates
our slavery to God
and to righteousness
is because freedom
from any and all restraints
and authorities
and commitments
isn't freedom at all.
It's just another kind
of bondage.
I mean,
and think about it.
Is the freedom we seek
apart from God
not actually a greater burden,
a heavier yoke
than the one Jesus invites us
to take up
alongside of himself?
You know,
all around us
in the Bay Area,
we are advised,
we are even commanded,
right,
to be true to ourselves.
True to ourselves,
right?
But in his book,
You Are Not Your Own,
which I highly recommend,
Alan Noble writes,
how can you ever be sure
that you are being
true to yourself?
How can you ever know
if you are being authentic?
You are utterly alone
in your judgment,
sovereign,
but alone.
And to make matters worse,
you cannot trust yourself.
The human mind
is capable
of tremendous self-deception.
Maybe you are least
true to yourself
when you are trying
to be like yourself.
And he writes,
the freedom
of sovereign individualism
comes at a great price.
Once I am liberated
from all social,
moral,
natural,
and religious values,
I become responsible
for the meaning
of my own life.
With no God
to judge or justify me,
I have to be
my own judge
and redeemer.
This burden
manifests as
a desperate need
to justify our lives
through identity crafting
and expression,
but because everyone
else is also
working frantically
to craft
and express
their own identity,
society becomes
a space
of vicious competition
between individuals
all vying
for attention
and meaning
and significance.
So you see,
the freedom
that so many of us
are pursuing
apart from God
is far more burdensome
than we realize,
even leading to death.
Like,
what if a fish said,
I'm not free
unless I can get
out of this water
and get onto dry land?
How would that turn out?
Horribly.
Horribly, right?
Because a fish
seeking to be liberated
from the ocean
onto dry land
is a fish
that's denying
its own God-given
identity and purpose.
But what God wants
for us
is to be liberated fish.
Dolphins.
He wants us
to be dolphins.
Alright?
Swimming free
in the vastness
of His ocean.
God's word
is saying to us
that there is
a better freedom,
a better slavery,
one that leads
to wholeness
and holiness
and eternal life.
Verse 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.
God wants
this slavery for us.
I know this sounds
daunting and scary
and restricting,
but what if freedom
is not what you thought?
What if freedom
is not the absence
of all restrictions
but life within
the right,
proper,
God-given restrictions?
What if true freedom
was the freedom
to be who you
were meant to be
according to your maker?
Freedom to be your best
and most ideal self.
Freedom from every
other alternative path
other than the narrow road
that Jesus wants you
to follow Him in.
What if freedom
was not found
in being unbound
by God,
but in being bound
within a holy
and loving relationship
with this God?
See, the essence
and the beauty of love
is not liberation
from one another, right?
It's being bound
to one another.
I officiated a wedding
yesterday.
Two people became one.
They covenanted
with each other
to belong to each other.
And this wasn't sad, right?
It was beautiful
because the truest intimacy,
the truest intimacy
and experience
of love and delight,
the truest sense
of purpose
and calling
that you will ever experience
is only ever going to be
in a binding relationship
that requires
your commitment.
And see,
this is the antidote
to the paralyzing paradox
of unlimited choice.
It's covenantal commitment.
And that's what God
wants for us.
That's what God wants
for us when He calls us
to be slaves
to righteousness.
He's calling us
to something good,
to something pure,
to something holy,
something liberating
and delightful
all at the same time.
Take my yoke upon you,
Jesus says.
Take my yoke upon you.
And yes, it's a yoke.
But what if the point
is not that our necks
are under a yoke?
What if the point
is not the yoke
but who we are yoked to?
What if the point
is that we've been invited,
we can be yoked
right up next to Jesus,
the Son of God Himself
who's willing
to bear our burdens.
And see,
this is the gospel.
This is the gospel.
This is the good news
that while every other master
pays a terrible wage,
there is a better master,
a loving Lord,
who promises
not to pay you
what you deserve,
but who wants to give you
a free gift
at His own expense.
Verse 23,
for the wages of sin
is death.
But the gift of God
is eternal life
in Christ Jesus,
our Lord.
So Christ Church,
choose today.
recognize that
we're all slaves
and what matters
more than anything
is who we are a slave to.
A master who pays us
the wage of death
or a Lord who dies for us,
a Lord who's risen again,
a Lord who offers us
the free gift
of eternal
and abundant life,
a life free from freedom
for freedom's sake
and bound
within the loving arms of God.
For really,
what's better?
What is better?
to be forever free
from our maker,
sustainer,
and redeemer
or to be permanently
and inseparably bound
within His warm embrace?
Will you pray with me?
Father, would you convince us
that it is better
to be bound
within the loving arms
of Jesus
than free from Him?
Show us the beauty
of who you are
as a loving Lord
and Master.
And oh God,
thank you
that you are not
a master
who pays us
the wages
that we deserve,
but you are a master
who wants to give us
a gift
and the ultimate gift
of yourself,
of eternal life,
abundant life
with you
in Christ
forever and ever.
Make us a people
who treasure that
and who live
out of that identity
that we belong to Jesus.
It's in His name we pray.
Amen.