HE (CHRIST) IS MY LORD
Sermon Text, Romans 6:19-23 (NIV84). I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Lord, this is Your Word, and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. By this Word of truth, let us truly know You, that we may truly love, and, loving, fully serve You in perfect freedom, as serve the saints above. Amen.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our favorite part of this text is the beautiful last verse: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
This verse is a summary of the whole Bible and the entire Christian faith: first the message of the Law, that by our sins we earn as our “wages of sin” God’s condemnation and death, eternal death; but then the message of the Gospel, that in spite of our sins we don’t get what we earn but we receive – as the “gift of God” – eternal life, by faith “in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The part we pretty much don’t notice – the last two words – are really the point, the words “our Lord.” This is how it sums up all of Romans 6.
When we say “our Lord,” or you say of Jesus that “He is my Lord,” you’re saying that you are not free and independent. This is what we learn in the catechism to say about Christ: “that He is my Lord, who redeemed me.” We go on to say that He did all this so “that I may be His own” – belong to Him – “and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.” Which is all to say that although He freed you from sin, death and Satan, you are not free and independent; you are not your own. He is your Lord, you belong to Him as His own, and you serve Him – not yourself – forever and ever.
This is a continuation of what we heard last Sunday from the beginning part of Romans 6, where we learned that baptism means that we die to sin and live to God. We heard that not only does Christ’s death free you from sin, from guilt and condemnation, but that His death frees you for something. It frees you from sin ruling you. Now in the verse right before our text, he says: “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
Paul is having us visualize sin as a lord or master – that it masters you, holds you in a prison. We could say this of Satan too. He’s behind it. But the difference is, you easily are wary of Satan and think of him as a cruel enslaver of you, someone whose influence and power you need to be freed from. He is a being, a personal being, a created angel who is fallen and evil, an evil being.
We tend not to think of sin that way. You think of it as impersonally as a thing or some action you’re tempted to do. But God pictures sin as a kind of being, a ruling influence, back in Genesis 4. He said to Cain: “Sin is crouching at your door; its desire is to have you, but you must master it” (Gen 4:7, NIV84).
So in Romans 6, St. Paul is using this picture of slave and master. This starts back in verse 16. It’s a steady repetition of “slave, slave, slave,” with the contrast of “set free.” As we come into this at verse 19, Paul admits that there’s something unfortunate in talking like this. Although slavery was common and didn’t always involve race, it always had a denigrating element it brings; Paul admits: “I put this in human terms,” in other words, he’d rather not speak this way. But there is a reality God wants him to teach us.
It has to do with this issue of freedom: who is your master or what’s ruling you, what you’re driven by. God wants us to think about this.
But first it’s good to see how the devil uses it. The devil reverses and twists the way things are with freedom and serving. Remember in the Garden of Eden, God had created Adam and Eve to have a free will – free to serve Him with joy. The forbidden tree was so they could exercise this freedom in a righteous way; but Satan came and told Adam and Eve that God’s command was limiting them, God was holding back good things, and if they broke His command they would have true freedom. But it was a lie; they found out that once they disobeyed, they had lost the freedom and ability to choose the good; they were now in slavery to sin and needed a Savior.
Also, remember how it was at Mt. Sinai, right after God freed Israel from slavery to Pharaoh. God said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the house of bondage.” Then He gave them His commandments. God freed them so they could serve Him. What does Satan do with the commandments? He says the commands of God keep you from true freedom, and if only you would try the forbidden things, you’ll be free from all those harsh constraints. But if you do as Satan says, you find you’re in the worst bondage, in a prison of guilt and shame and feelings of unworthiness, and all the devil does is accuse you and keep you in the prison of doubt and uncertainty. That’s how the devil twists the issues of freedom and what slavery is.
As Americans, we thank God for our freedom. But we’re aware freedom can be misused, a person can have a selfish or self-serving view of freedom. If it means “I’m free to do whatever I want,” that’s wrong. You aren’t given your freedom so you can hurt someone or not care about the needs of others.
Let’s make no mistake: freedom is good. Christ came down to free us from slavery to sin, death, and the devil. This is so important. It’s the Gospel! – the Good News. The New Testament word “forgive” includes that your sins are “let go,” you’re set free from the shackles your sin put on you: that because of your sin you can’t escape “the wages of sin … death.” Jesus’ death frees you from this. The Israelites’ being freed from slavery in Egypt is a picture and preview of this. Being freed, rescued from out of this slavery is vital! And that Christ “redeemed” you means He purchased you – out of this slavery.
In Galatians 5, Paul says: “For freedom Christ has set us free.” But then he says: “Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature.”
That’s what this is about in Romans 6. It says, first, “you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity.” Paul is talking about your sinful condition prior to baptism, prior to having faith and new life; you’re unable to choose good or to believe in God. It says your whole self is “in slavery” to sin; in fact, you would present yourself and all the parts of your body – head, heart, hands – in service “to impurity and ever-increasing wickedness.”
But after the Holy Spirit works faith in you, then – by faith and the new affections He gives you, love for God and His will – you’re able to want to do God’s will, and to do it with His help. Our Lutheran Confessions say we “have a freed will” (FC II:67). This is about our sanctified life. Paul says you “now offer the parts of your body in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.”
See what he did there? He says you’re either in slavery to sin or in slavery to God and His righteousness. In other words, you’ll always have a master, a lord. The question is: Is it going to be sin, the way of the sinful world, or is it going to be Jesus, and the way the Holy Spirit leads you in His footsteps?
We must admit that we have a lot of regrets when we think of this. As you examine this, mostly you’ll examine it in light of God’s Law, His commands, and you’ll see how you let sin run you and the world’s priorities rule you, more than letting Jesus be your Lord in what you desire, think, say, and do.
What Paul says here about “what you reap” and the “result” of letting sin master you at times, it resonates with us. You can see that what seemed at the time like it would be so freeing ended up with results that were painful and not good at all. St. Paul tells us to think about that, partly because our past sins can have the beneficial purpose of keeping us from going down that road again. He keeps emphasizing, if you contrast being a slave to sin with being a slave to God, look at where each of these things ends, where that road ends.
Thinking of this struggle, it’s comforting, as our Lutheran Confessions say, that this “struggle of the flesh against the spirit remains even in Christians. A great difference can be seen among Christians. One is weak and another strong, but each Christian also experiences differences in himself. At one time he is joyful in spirit, and at another time weak and alarmed; at one time intense in love, strong in faith and hope, and at another time cold and weak” (FC II:68). This is why we need the Word!
In the end, we don’t evaluate this struggle and how we’re doing with it, from the Law. “Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God” (ELH #433 v. 1). We evaluate it by the Gospel, by the grace of God in Christ. By His grace, sin is not your lord. Jesus is! It’s by “the gift of God,” as it says here. You haven’t reached the end of the road of sin, which “is death.” By His Word – first Law, then Gospel – He’s always bringing you back onto the road of following Jesus by repentance and faith, which is how He is your Lord. It’s the road where everything is by “the gift of God” – “eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
That’s the road you’re on, where He’s always forgiving your sins. The fact that you say, “He is my Lord,” is due to the grace of the Holy Spirit. The fact that you are “His own” – that you belong to Him – comes from what He does for you and how He leads you. And for Jesus’ sake – not how well you do everything – you do “serve Him in perfect righteousness and innocence.” Amen!