Whose slave are you?

Do you want to be as good of saint as you were a sinner?

Great question.

This evening we will look at Romans 6:15-23.  Wonderful passage of challenge.

Paul writes in Romans 6:16, "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are salves of the one you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Ray Stedman tells about visiting Los Angeles during the days of the Jesus People.  He saw a strange-looking character walking the streets wearing a sandwich board. 

On the front of it - it said, "I'm a slave for Christ."  He walked around back.  The question on the back of the sandwich board was, "whose slave are you?"  That's exactly what Paul is asking here - and the question I ask you today:

"Whose slave are you?"

To sin?  Or to the savior?

Paul's target audience was the church at Rome which would connect immediately to what Paul was talking about.

One-third of the people in Rome were slaves during the first century.  In fact, there were so many slaves that a law to make slaves wear a certain type of clothing was abandoned because it would reveal their numerical strength.

It is estimated that one-half of the church in Rome were slaves.

Now then, there were two forms of slavery in ancient Rome:

1.  Someone who was captured by the enemy would have all of their worldly possessions destroyed that would tempt them to go home and then they were transported to Rome for sale on the auction block.

2.  The older, more common type of slavery was "voluntary indenture."  Impoverished people could offer themselves as slaves to someone in order to have food to eat and a place to live.  In other words, people willingly accepted slavery in order to meet their basic needs.

Free men would become slaves out of financial need.

Perhaps Paul is referring to this second type of slavery and is asking, "Why would you choose a master whose dedicated purpose is to keep you enslaved and ultimately kill you?"

Whose slave are you? 

It is a choice for all of us.  Daily.  Moment my moment. 

Am I going to commit myself to Christ?  Or am I going to serve sin?

In the last days of the Civil War, the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia, fell to the Union army. Abraham Lincoln insisted on visiting the city.

Even though no one knew he was coming, slaves recognized him immediately and thronged around him. He had liberated them by the Emancipation Proclamation, and now Lincoln's army had set them free.

According to Admiral David Porter, an eyewitness, Lincoln spoke to the throng around him:

"My poor friends, you are free—free as air. You can cast off the name of slave and trample upon it …. Liberty is your birthright."

But Lincoln also warned them not to abuse their freedom. "Let the world see that you merit [your freedom]," Lincoln said, "Don't let your joy carry you into excesses. Learn the laws and obey them."

That is very much like the message Paul gives to those whom he has liberated by his death and resurrection.

Jesus gives us our true birthright—spiritual freedom. But that freedom isn't an excuse for disobedience; it forms the basis for learning and obeying God's laws.

Whose slave are you?

Just a thought for a Wednesday.