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?
—Romans 6:16-18
History tells us that when the slaves were liberated at the end of the Civil War, some of those who had lived under bondage refused to leave their masters. They had been legally set free, but they stayed in chains because slavery was the only life they had ever known. Freedom was theirs, but they kept living as though it weren’t.
There are many Christians today living exactly like that. Christ has set them free, yet they keep returning to the bondage of their past, because the old patterns feel familiar. And Paul presses a question on every one of us in this passage: who is your master? Because, he says, you are the slave of whatever you obey, either sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to righteousness.
That’s a sobering way to think about our choices. Every time we surrender to a sin, we’re not just slipping up, we’re presenting ourselves to a master. So, the question every believer should ask before acting is this: Is this thing becoming my master? Is it controlling me? Does it have the potential to control me?
I’ll tell you, in years of ministry I’ve watched pastor after pastor lose his ministry and his family over this very issue, men who believed they were above ever becoming a slave to sin again, and who refused to acknowledge their own weakness. The lie that brings a strong believer down is the lie that says, “That could never happen to me.”
So, when it comes to sin, don’t buy the lie that you’re immune, that you’re past the point of falling back into old patterns. None of us is beyond it. Pride goes before a fall, and the believer who stops watching is the believer most likely to be ambushed.
But here’s the glorious other half of what Paul says. Look at verse 18: “having been set free from sin, [you] have become slaves of righteousness.” Your master has been changed. You’re no longer owned by sin; you’ve been transferred to a new and better Master. And so, when temptation does come, and it will, you don’t have to face it as a helpless slave. You face it as someone who has already been freed.
Thank God, the people who once obeyed sin “have become obedient from the heart.” Notice that, from the heart. This isn’t grudging, white-knuckled rule-keeping. It’s a new master we love, an obedience that flows from a changed heart.
So, live each day on the offensive. Don’t spend your life flinching, waiting to fail. Remind yourself who owns you now. When the old master comes prowling around, calling you back to the plantation, remember that you don’t live there anymore. You’ve been bought, freed, and given a new home.
You are a slave to righteousness now. Live like a free man.
YOU ARE THE SLAVE OF WHATEVER YOU OBEY, YOU’VE BEEN FREED FROM SIN, SO LIVE ON THE OFFENSIVE AS A SLAVE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
