What are you slave to?

Romans 6:19-23

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. 

Once upon a time, we all did things wrong.

Wait..... don't we still do things wrong?! 

The difference is, now we KNOW they are wrong, yet we still do them. If you think about it, doing something wrong usually ends up in a spiral. That's what Paul is talking about when he writes, 'lawlessness leading to more lawlessness,'. When we do or say something wrong it usually ends up with us doing something else wrong to cover up the first thing, and so on, then before you know it you're in a right old mess. 

This is the situation we get trapped in. 

That is until we, 'present (y)our members as slaves to righteousness'. When we do that, the text says this leads to sanctification. So, what is that? Sanctification is; to purify or make holy. To be restored to our original condition. This starts to happen when we begin discover who Jesus is. 

I like Paul's reasoning for making a decision about what we are slave to - look at the results of being, 'slaves of sin,' - Shame, and death. The results of being, 'slaves of God,'? Purity, holiness and eternal life. I know which prize I'd prefer!

Although both choices include slavery, they both have freedom within them. Paul says that those slave to sin are 'free in regard to righteousness'. Righteous behaviour is not expected of them, but the wages of that is death. Being a slave to God means you are free from sin with the result of eternal life. 

So, we do have a choice. We have a choice of freedom and slavery. Whatever decision we make we will be slave to it, but within that will be a certain amount of freedom.

Once Jesus has been revealed, you HAVE to make a life choice. It's one or the other. 

To carry on as you're going, or accept Jesus and change your life. 

Paul is the guy that wrote this passage and he is talking as a person who has changed his life, quite dramatically. He was originally one who berated, persecuted and killed the, 'slaves of God,' now, he is one. He has chosen to become one of the, 'slaves of God,' instead of one of the, 'slaves to impurity'. Once Paul recognised who Jesus really is, it caused the whole trajectory of his life to change. Are you ready for that kind of life change? 

What are you going to choose to be slave to?

Questions to consider:

What do you want to be slave to? 

What do you want to be free from?

What result do you want to get?