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.
—Romans 6:20-22
There’s an epidemic I’ve noticed in the church, so many people giving little or no real evidence of conversion, of a changed life. And I believe one of the root causes is a simple but deadly misunderstanding about how a person comes to Christ. Many are trying to turn from their idols before they turn to God.
Here’s what I mean. They hear the message of Jesus, and they conclude that the way to come to Christ is to first give up their sin, get their act together, and then offer their cleaned-up life to God. “I want to give my life to God,” they say, “but I’ve got to fix some things first.” It sounds humble. It sounds reasonable. But it’s exactly backward.
Because you and I do not have the power to turn from our sins on our own. That’s the whole problem. This passage couldn’t be clearer: before Christ, we were “slaves of sin.” And a slave cannot free himself. Our bondage to sin is far too strong for us to break by willpower and good intentions. If we could clean ourselves up first, we wouldn’t have needed a Savior at all.
So, the order of the gospel is the reverse of what people assume. We don’t reform our way to God; we come to God and He transforms us. We come to Christ as we are, still tangled in our sin, still unable, and we let Him invade our lives. And then, from the inside out, He begins to change us. That is real conversion.
Look at the progression Paul lays out. Once we were slaves of sin, ashamed of the very things we did, and the end of that road was death. But “now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God,” the fruit is different: it leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. The transformation isn’t the price of admission; it’s the fruit that grows once you’re His.
And notice what produces the change: becoming a slave of God. Not trying harder. Not a self-improvement plan. A new ownership. When Christ becomes your Master, fruit starts to grow that you could never manufacture on your own, holiness, a hatred of the old life, a longing for God.
So, if something is holding you back from coming to Christ today, some sin you think you have to conquer first, some area you’re ashamed of, hear this clearly. You don’t have to clean the fish before you catch it. You don’t have to win the war against sin before you surrender to the only One who can win it for you.
Trust Christ first. Come as you are. Let Him take ownership of your life and then let Him do what only He can do, change you from the inside out, bearing fruit that leads to sanctification and life everlasting.
YOU CAN’T OVERCOME YOUR SIN ON YOUR OWN. COME TO CHRIST FIRST, AND HE WILL CHANGE YOU FROM THE INSIDE OUT.
