Whose the Master

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

WHOSE THE MASTER

Rom 6:15-18

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom 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 wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

NIV

Once again, we are reminded that we are not under the law, but under grace. However, we are also being admonished to look to grace not as a free pass to keep living in sin, or willing to look for ways to sin. Of course, our desire is not to sin, but at the same time, we are also subject to temptations. We would be lying if we said we never ever yield to some temptation occasionally. Oh, it is not that we go around looking for ways to sin, and we know that we would not murder, or steal go against one of those laws we still adhere to, like the Ten Commandments. Yet, there are other temptations, like gossip, envy, jealousy, pride, boasting, anger, rage, malice, unforgiveness, greed, and a host of feelings that no one can see, which includes thinking more highly of ourselves than we should. Those emotions just sneak right up on us and before we know it, we get caught up in them, if we are not careful. Again, we know the law shows us those sins, and we do not want to be slaves to them. Our desire is to live for Jesus. Praise God because he has freed us from being under the law, which means we would be condemned, but we are under grace, which means we are declared innocent of all charges, and any case against us is dismissed. However, that does not give us the freedom to do whatever, we are servants of the Most High. Paul says we are now slaves to obedience which leads to righteousness. This is a little confusing in the sense that it appears our righteousness is based on our obedience rather than just because we believe God. It was because Abraham believed God that it was credited to him as righteousness, but that believing led Abraham to do that which God told him to do in regard to sacrificing his son, Isaac. Therefore, as we believe God, we also must be obedient to that which God calls us to do. In addition, we must submit to his working in our lives, being open to that transformation, or being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory. Does that mean we will never sin again? That is doubtful as long as we live on this side of heaven, within this fleshly form. Still, we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, and alive to Christ. We do not look to sin, we look to Jesus, which is the whole difference between condemnation and righteousness. It makes us think of that song by Bob Dylan, “You got to serve somebody”. “We either serve the devil or we serve God, but we are going to serve somebody”. That is exactly what Paul is saying here. We are slaves to sin, or slaves to believing God, obedience. But we are going to be slaves to one or the other, we cannot serve two masters,