June 15, 2012
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Which Slave Are You?
Originally posted June 10.
Note: The odd display of this image will make sense later in this article.
Free will. An issue highly debated about in and out of Christian thought.
The purpose of today’s article is not about free will, itself, but to say that, if free will really is what it is theorized to be – where we are not controlled in any way regarding the choices we make – then we are certainly guilty of abusing it.
In the book of Romans, Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome regarding the very contradictory behavior of sinning while claiming grace and forgiveness under Christ.
Death and life are central concepts in the Bible – with the former being the ultimate consequence for disobeying the Giver of Life. So it’s no surprise that Paul embraces these topics and pits them against each other as he explains why we ought not to sin further when we have also been reborn in Christ.
Paul starts out Romans 6 with a well-known question, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin [so] that grace may abound?” (verse 1, ESV). This question is birthed from a very lengthy discussion about how God’s Law, while good, led to human nature’s proclivity to sin all the more. Why is this? Because human nature is rot with sin. Sin’s nature is to rebel against the Law, against that which is good. Paul explains, further, saying that, through Jesus Christ, God’s grace set us free from our sinful nature.
Paul summed it up nicely at the end of chapter 5, “Therefore, as one trespass [sin, disobedience] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness [Jesus' death in our place on the cross] leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”(verses 18-21, ESV).
Paul is saying that Adam’s sin (Genesis 3) opened up the floodgates for sin. But Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross opened up the floodgates of grace. The question is, which floodgate are you standing before?
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness,” Paul later says (Romans 6:20, ESV). In other words, those temptations, those urges, those “clever conspiracies” we plan are all born from a willfulness to act rebelliously. We know what is good, for our conscious tells us so (Romans 2:12-16), with or without the Law. It’s no lie that if we live under the authority of God, we have limitations we are expected to abide by. So one who is a slave to sin certainly has “freedom” in regards to what righteousness requires. That is what Paul means. (It should be noted, though, that the limitations in grace sets us free from the “freedom” of death.)
The Bible describes a life of sin as death – sin leads to our physical death and, ultimately, spiritual death, which is a life forever separated from the presence and peace with God. We have “life”, but it is empty and painful without Jesus. Hell is forever and ever in that state. Jesus often describes spiritual death (more aptly, in Hell and the Lake of Fire) with the imagery of “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. So it actually begins to make sense why Paul uses the illustrations of the “old sinful self” dying with Christ as Christ died on the Cross. “The old has passed,” Paul says (2 Corinthians 5:17). The old self has been separated from our new self which has been born again with Christ as Christ was also raised from the dead (see Romans 6:9-11).
All that brings us back full-circle to my opening commentary. Paul’s critics point out that we are no longer under the Law of Moses, stating, “All things are lawful.” Sure, Paul replies, “but not all things are helpful.” Again the critics say, “All things are lawful!” However, “not all things build up” (1 Corinthians 10:23, ESV). (Sin “breaks down” or decays the spirt and the body.)
The NLT Bible translation puts it similarly, “You say, ‘I am allowed to do anything’—but not everything is good for you. You say, ‘I am allowed to do anything’—but not everything is beneficial.”
Paul is reaffirming the fact that our free will must not be used to act contrary to what is good – to what leads to Life. How much more true this is when we, as born-again Christians, have died to sin.
“But what fruit,” Paul asks, “were you getting at that time [when you continually sinned] from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death” (Romans 6:21, ESV).
In the movie “Jurassic Park”, while everyone is at the private dinner table discussing the merits of the dinosaur park and the pros and cons inherant to it, everyone is overwhelmed by the awesomeness of live dinosaurs walking the earth once again. Everyone but Ian Malcolm…the one guy who everyone else thinks is a bit crazy (partly because he is, but he revels in that fact, too).
John Hammond, the owner and financer of the entire project, is gleefully receiving everyone’s praise, so he is rather annoyed with Ian’s cautions. However, the “crazy” man is the only one with any real sense. He wisely points out, “You were so busy wondering whether or not you could, you didn’t stop to think about whether or not you should!” That is precisely Paul’s point, too. There very real, very dire consequences – unwanted consequences which are not what anyone would sign up for in his right mind – when we abuse the available choices presented to us.
What that means for the Christian is this, “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 [which is really not the end at all]. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:22-23, ESV).
With all the joking going on about the zombie apocalypse coming “soon” (I told you it would make sense eventually), it might strike some hard when they realize they are living some kind of reverse-zombie life. Though they have been given new life – nay, life, period – they act as though they are dead. Paul addresses that contradiction all the way back in Romans 2:1.
Paul starts out by explaining an overview of the sins “others” commit and how such ongoing behavior will not lead to the Kingdom of Heaven. Then Paul switches things up on his audience, “…For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things” (ESV).
Certainly Scripture asks this very question, “How can the believer live like an unbeliever?” Paul actually confronts Peter about such an issue (this is the same Peter who walked with Jesus and the other Disciples for three years). And that is very much the criticism of many non-believers, too, who scratch their heads, honestly confused how many Christians call on Christ, yet behave like Satan. Who can tell the difference between a believer and a non-believer? Has not the salt lost its flavor, Jesus would ask.
Echoing Paul’s question about circumcision for the Jew in Romans 3, if the Jew is behaving just like a non-circumcised Gentile (non-Jew), what good is proclaiming faith in Christ if it has done nothing to change the heart of the believer?
I’m not calling into question whether or not such a person has ever truly accepted Christ, but as Christ said, “You will know a tree by its fruit.” The question is, how ripe – or rotten – is your fruit?
