Slave to Sin or Righteousness?

Slave to Sin or Righteousness

When the Spirit gave you new birth, your lineage ceased to be through Adam–the lineage of the flesh, the natural human lineage. When you were reborn, you were re-created in the lineage of God Himself—the lineage of the Spirit, the spiritual lineage of God.

Natural humans live according to what seems right to them.
Spiritual humans live by what Father declares is right.

I love the way Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write about it in Romans 6:17–18 (NASB 2020) “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.”

Ask yourself this, “in my heart, (that is in my true and deepest desires) do I want to live a life characterized by godly attitudes and actions?” If your answer is “yes”, as I’m confident it is, then two things are true of you.

First, you are a Spirit-born child of the Most High God and completely righteous.
Second, you are a slave to that righteousness (because it’s who you ARE) and not a slave to sin (because that’s just not who you are anymore).

That has ramifications!

Our enemy loves to imply that we can’t beat the sinful tendencies of the flesh. He wants us to believe we’re hooked, bound, helpless. He knows that as long as we believe this, we will think Father is at least a bit displeased, and we have no power unless and until we get our act together.

He has a very good reason for foisting this nonsense upon us. If he is successful, we will be ineffective at bragging on God to those around us. We will hide ourselves in shame and fear because we will perceive ourselves as unacceptable and the spiritual realm as unreal or at least only available in the Life beyond this world.

But God.

Father says something else entirely. He says we are “a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NASB 2020) The Greek word for “new” here is not new and improved, or an updated version of something that has gone before. We’re not a new edition. The word used is (kainos) and it means a whole new kind. We are not what we were, natural, earthy, fleshly. That old self is gone. Dead and buried with the Lord Jesus. That’s what the Spirit is telling us when He says that, “our old self was crucified with [Jesus], in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has died is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6–7, NASB 2020)

Freedom from bondage to sin does not mean that we never sin. It means that our eternal Life, our inheritance with the Lord Jesus, is never at risk. That score was settled at the cross. All the punishment we deserved was taken by our lovely Savior and there is no punishment left for us to bear.

Freedom from sin means that in actual truth we are no longer helpless in the face of sin. Our lovely Lord who Lives in us by His Spirit, like a dynamo is continually energizing us toward godliness.

He helps us see what He’s up to in passages like:
Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure” (NASB 2020).
Titus 2:11–12 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age” (NASB 2020).

Saint, He is IN you and He is working all things for good on your behalf (see Romans 8:28). He is not going to stop until the day you are redeemed and fully glorified in His presence (see Philippians 1:6).

Grace and peace to you.
Larry