Romans 6:15-23: Set Free from Sin

Romans 6:15-23: Set Free from Sin

Please turn with my in your Bible to Romans 6. If you’re using one of the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 781. We’ve been working our way passage by passage through Paul’s letter to the Romans, and this morning the next passage we come to is Romans 6:15-23. Romans 6:15-23:

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 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? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

This passage starts out with the same basic question Paul asked in the previous passage. Here’s the way he phrases it this time. Verse 15: “Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?” In other words, if we’re saved entirely by God’s grace and not in any way by our own personal merit, then what’s stopping us from just continuing in sin? If we get to go to heaven anyway through Jesus, then why make any effort to resist our sinful desires? 

And if we’re honest, that can sometimes be a very tempting question to ask. There are times when sin looks so good to us. Kind of like when you’re trying to eat healthy but then you go to a restaurant and see on their dessert menu a picture of a dessert that looks absolutely delicious. Of course, that dessert menu has been propped up on the table very intentionally because restaurants are well aware of how those pictures can make your mouth water. And that’s exactly what happens. You can almost hear that dessert calling out your name. You want it so bad. Now of course I’m not suggesting that eating dessert is sinful, but the way we might desire that dessert is similar to the way we often desire sin. Sin can be so alluring, so enticing. So we might be tempted to ask the question Paul poses, “Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?” And Paul gives same exact answer he gave earlier in the chapter: “By no means!” Absolutely not! Yet after giving this answer Paul gives a slightly different explanation of the answer—an explanation that doesn’t contradict his previous explanation but approaches the issue from a slightly different angle. 

Here’s the explanation he gives—and this is our main idea: Christians have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. Christians have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. And there are three principles wrapped up in that idea that I believe are very helpful for us to keep in mind whenever we’re tempted to sin. Whenever we start to be enticed by sin, we would do well to remember these three things. 

Sin Is a Cruel Slave Master

First of all, sin is a cruel slave master. That’s the first principle. Sin is a cruel slave master. Throughout this passage, Paul uses the provocative metaphor of slavery to describe the kind of hold sin had on us prior to conversion. It oppressed us to no end and led us down a path of progressively greater misery and eventually death. In verses 20-21 Paul writes, 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. So even though sin can often seem enjoyable at the time, it actually brings death. How many marriages have been ruined by infidelity? How many lives have been ravaged by addictions? How many other kinds of consequences have followed from dishonesty or gossip or greed or jealousy or uncontrolled anger? The misery that these things bring to ourselves and to the people around us is almost indescribable. And the ultimate consequence for all of these behaviors is spending eternity apart from God and under God’s judgment in hell. That’s death in its ultimate sense. You might compare being enslaved to sin to being in a plan that’s spiraling down and down until it eventually erupts into a ball of fire upon impact. So ask yourself the question Paul raises: “What fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”

And one of the most tragic aspects of slavery to sin is that, as the metaphor suggests, you can’t get out of it no matter how hard you try. Prior to salvation, you’re helpless to stop sin’s oppression. We might say that you can’t not sin. Now you may think that you’re free and that you have free will, and in a sense you do. But understand that your free will only extends to the realm of sin. Kind of like someone in jail. You know, we talked about jail ministry earlier in the service. When someone’s in jail, they only have freedom within the confines of the space they’re in. They can go wherever they want but only within that space—maybe their jail cell or the cafeteria or the yard outside. So their free will is limited by walls and doors and locks. And in the same way, in our unsaved condition, our free will is limited by our own sinful nature. That’s part of being enslaved to sin. John MacArthur describes it this way in his commentary on this passage. He says, “[The unsaved person] is bound and enslaved to sin, and the only thing he can do is to sin. His only choices have to do with when, how, why, and to what degree he will sin.” So it’s only within a certain realm that an unsaved person is free. He has some control over when to sin, how to sin, why to sin, and to what degree he’ll sin, but all of those options involve sin. He’s enslaved to his sinful desires. They have a hold on him that he can’t get out of.

And not only that, but there’s also a progression in sin over time. Verse 19 describes how we once presented ourselves as “slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness.” So you never stay where you are with sin. It pulls you down deeper and deeper and becomes more and more oppressive. As one pastor of mine used to say, sin always takes you farther than you ever thought you would go and makes you pay more than you ever thought you would pay. 

So in a number of different ways, sin is a cruel slave master. And here in Romans 6, Paul reminds his readers of that so that they’ll think twice before going back to sin. He’s reminding them of what they were before they were saved so that as Christians they’ll stay as far away from sin as possible. He’s basically saying, “Are you sure you want to commit that sin, considering the fact that there was a time when sin enslaved you? Why would you ever want to return to such a miserable condition?” And we also would do well to keep that in mind—that sin is a cruel slave master.

You’re a Slave of the One You Obey

Then another principle for us to remember whenever we’re tempted to sin is this: you’re a slave to the one you obey. You’re a slave to the one you obey. In verse 16, Paul asks, 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? Notice that in this particular verse, Paul’s not instructing his readers to do something but is instead simply stating a fact: “you’re a slave of the one you obey.” In other words, if you want to know who you belong to—whether it’s to God as a Christian or to sin as a non-Christian—just look at who it is that you obey. If you obey sin as the overall pattern of your life, you don’t belong to God.

Just this past week, my old college roommate who I haven’t talked to in years sent me a Facebook message asking for my advice. He said that a good friend of his had recently come out as gay and was now living very openly in a gay lifestyle. And this was very surprising for just about everyone because this friend had been raised in church and had appeared at one time to be a devoted Christian. So my former roommate asked me for advice about how to approach this person. And so I told him to approach this friend of his in a spirit of love and humility and gentleness but to keep in mind the very real possibility that his friend wasn’t truly saved and had never been truly saved and was therefore in need of evangelism. Because regardless of the way things may have seemed in the past, this friend’s present behavior really calls everything into question. There’s now a big question mark when it comes to this person’s salvation, as there would be in the case of any unrepentant sin, not just the sin of a homosexual lifestyle. And of course, we never want to make any pronouncements about whether a specific individual is or isn’t saved. But we do have the general knowledge from here in Romans 6 and from other passages that people who walk in unrepentant sin are in fact slaves of sin, which implies that they’re unsaved. You’re a slave of the one you obey.  

And if that sounds to you like a warning, it absolutely is. Paul’s basically saying, “Be careful. I’m addressing you as Christians, but make sure your lifestyle doesn’t reveal you to be a slave of sin. Make sure you don’t show yourself to actually not be a Christian by thoughtlessly giving yourself to a sinful lifestyle. Don’t take your salvation for granted. Instead, prove your salvation through your works. Don’t try to obtain it through your works, but prove it through your works.” You know, I wonder how many people even in this very room think that they’ve been saved when in fact they haven’t. There’s a real danger of that. So if you’re living in unrepentant sin, be careful. Take Paul’s warning here. It may be that you haven’t been saved. 

Christians Have a New Master

Then for those who are Christians, we find one final principle here that’s helpful to remember whenever we’re tempted to sin. We’ve already been reminded of how sin is a cruel slave master and of how you’re a slave of the one you obey. And now Paul seeks to remind us that we have a new Master. That’s the third principle: we as Christians have a new Master. Look at verses 17-22: 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 

So notice that according to Paul, Christians haven’t ceased being slaves. They’ve ceased being slaves to sin, but they haven’t ceased being slaves. They’re now “slaves of righteousness” and “slaves of God.” Paul seems to use those two phrases synonymously. So if you’re a Christian, you’re now a slave of God. Jesus died to redeem you out of slavery to sin and, in so doing, purchased you for himself. You’re now a slave of God. So be that. Live out that identity. As we said last week, be who you are.  

Now perhaps we should acknowledge that saying that Christians are “slaves of God” is a bit of an odd thing to say, isn’t it? And I do think Paul’s saying it a bit tongue-in-cheek. Certainly he doesn’t mean that all of the dreadful and oppressive aspects of slavery to sin we discussed earlier are now true of our relationship to God. But we are slaves of God in the sense that we don’t belong to ourselves but to him and are therefore called to be devoted entirely to his will, his purposes, and his glory.  

And here in this passage, Paul speaks of slavery to God as something that’s absolutely delightful. He describes it in a way that clearly implies we should rejoice in our status as slaves of God and joyfully dedicate ourselves to serving him. Think about the way it is when a man is madly in love with a woman. Now, just like in any relationship, there will be aspects of the man’s life that he’ll need to alter out of consideration for this woman he loves. He’ll have to start limiting his freedom in certain ways and observing certain boundaries in his life. Perhaps the most fundamental boundary is that he’s not going to be pursuing other women. That’s a pretty important requirement. In addition, he’ll also need to accept other limitations of his freedom such as the kinds of movies he sits through or the kinds of restaurants he eats at. The woman he loves might not want to watch Black Hawk Down the way he does or eat at Buffalo Wild Wings multiple times a month. So he’s going to have to limit his freedoms in certain areas in order to give preference to this woman. Yet if he really is madly in love with her as we’ve said, do you think he’s going to resent those limitations on his freedom or consider them burdensome? Of course not. He’ll consider it a delight to limit his freedom in certain ways if it means enjoying more of the woman he loves. And that’s the way a true Christian feels about the limitations involved in being a slave of God. Living as a slave of God is a delightful thing for someone whose heart has been changed to love God. That’s why Paul wears this title of “slave of God” as a badge of honor in most of the letters he writes in the New Testament. That was his typical way of introducing himself in the majority of his letters—calling himself a “slave of God” or a “slave of Christ Jesus.” He considered it absolutely delightful. 

In fact, I’d even like to suggest that slavery to God is the only true freedom there is—because true freedom is doing what we were created to do. Think about a sailboat. When is a sailboat most free? I’m sure you’d agree that it’s most free when it’s sailing on the water since that’s what it was created to do. Now of course, sailing on the water requires accepting the limitation of not trying to sail on the land. It’s not going to go well if that sailboat tries to sail on the land. It’ll get smashed to pieces. So that sailboat has to limit itself to the water. But we wouldn’t say that a sailboat isn’t free because it’s sailing on the water rather than on the land. That’s the only way it can be free. Its freedom involves limiting the places it tries to sail and confining itself to the water. And in the same way, our freedom involves limiting ourselves in certain ways in order to embrace the purpose for which we were created, which is seeking and serving God. And since seeking and serving God is the purpose for which we were created, that’s the only thing that at the end of the day will fulfill our deepest longings. If we try to live contrary to our design, we’ll be perpetually empty and unsatisfied. It’s only as we live out our design and seek and serve God that our deepest longings are fulfilled. So if you’re a Christian, have you embraced your identity as a slave of God? Does your life demonstrate that you’re undivided in your devotion to him? 

Conclusion

So those are the three principles for Christians to keep in mind whenever we’re tempted to sin—that sin is a cruel slave master, that you’re a slave of the one you obey, and that Christians have a new Master. But here’s the thing: even if we have these principles memorized and can quote them word-for-word, there will be times when we foolishly ignore them. There will be times when we sin and even sometimes sin in significant ways. So what then? What should we do when we discover that we’ve sinned against God? 

The answer is that we need to repent. And I’d like to quickly give you a brief description of what biblical repentance looks like. Now this doesn’t come from Romans 6. It actually comes from Psalm 51. I was reading Psalm 51 in my personal Bible reading, repenting of sin in my own life, and I thought it would be helpful to share what I learned with you, especially since it meshes so well with the material we’ve looked at in Romans 6. So this is kind of like a little sermon within a sermon. Psalm 51 was written by David shortly after it came out that he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. So David’s basically modeling for us what God-honoring repentance looks like. And as we look at David’s model, I believe we can see four practical steps for repentance. And I truly believe these four steps are something you can use every day of your life. 

Step one is to understand what God does and doesn’t want. In verses 16-17, David says to God, 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. So God doesn’t want you to perform empty religious rituals. He wants you to recognize that your sin is a very serious thing and to be genuinely broken over it. Perhaps that’s often the reason our repentance sometimes doesn’t feel adequate. Of course, sometimes it doesn’t feel adequate because we’re not truly trusting in the blood of Jesus to cleanse us. But I think there are times when our repentance doesn’t feel adequate because we haven’t allowed ourselves to come to a place of genuine brokenness over our sin and genuine grief at having offended God. Now that doesn’t meet we have to wallow in it for an extended period of time, but I’m convinced we do need to let ourselves feel the weight of what we’ve done for a few moments or even minutes. 

Then step two is to confess your sin plainly. David writes in verses 3-4, 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. So now that you’ve felt the seriousness of your sin, confess the seriousness of your sin. Acknowledge that you’ve sinned against God himself and that he’d be entirely justified if he decided to judge you for it. 

After that, step three is to humbly seek God’s mercy. In verses 1-2, David states, 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! So seek God’s mercy with all humility. That means recognizing that mercy, by its very nature, is something you don’t deserve. You don’t deserve to be washed of your iniquity or cleansed of your sin. However, as we see in the New Testament, we’re able to be washed and cleansed through Jesus. Jesus died in our place on the cross and suffered the wrath we deserved to suffer. So through him, we can be forgiven. 

Then finally, step four is to ask God to change your heart. As David says in verse 10, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. You see, true repentance involves not just a request for forgiveness but also a desire to change. And that change needs to happen on the most fundamental level—the level of our heart. So ask God to change your heart—to create in you a clean heart and renew a right spirit within you. And believe me when I say that that’s the only way you’ll be able to truly overcome your sin. If you merely put a band-aid on it and try to get away with just engaging in some form of behavior modification, it won’t work long term. You’ll end up either running out of willpower to maintain the change or simply replacing the sin you repented of with a different sin. True change begins in the heart and with repentance on a heart level. 

And maybe as you think about these four steps, you realize that you’ve never done anything like this. You’ve never truly repented of your sin before God and experienced true conversion and true salvation. If that’s you, let me encourage you not to go another moment without doing that. Don’t let yourself continue another moment as a slave of sin. Look to Jesus! He’s the only one who can save you. Consider Paul’s words back in verse 23 of our main passage. He writes in Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is perhaps the most powerful verse in the entire passage. Think about what it means. Think about what it means for you. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” You can have that life this morning. But you have to look to Jesus and put your trust in him alone to receive it.