Slaves to Christ

Romans 5: 15-18

15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.


Slaves of biblical times were not slaves in the terms that we tend to put on slavery today. When we think of slavery today, we think of people held against their will and forced to work at back breaking labor, people stolen from their land, and forced into a life they did not choose. In biblical times this was not so much the case. Yes some people were forced into slavery against their will, but a quick read through Exodus 21 will show that was not the case, nor was that type of slavery acceptable. For many slavery was a way to protect themselves, and their families. If you were not born into a wealthy house there was no certainty of what your life would hold, if you found yourself in debt, and could not pay it back, an option was to “sell” yourself into slavery. Many people would even continue to be bondservants after the debt was paid. The point being, they willingly were slaves. They chose to live under the roof of someone else for their protection, their welfare, or the reward of having a better life under the rule of someone, than they would have had on their own.

When we have that understanding, then read this passage we understand what Paul means by offering ourselves to sin or to Christ. It is a choice, and it is a choice that we make that decides how we will live our life. Will we live it as a slave to sin, or a slave to Christ? We offer ourselves to a master each and every day. I always quote Dylan when I think of this choice. “You’re gonna have to serve somebody, it might be the devil, or it might be the Lord, but your gonna have to serve somebody.” This is what Paul is telling us, when we sin, we make ourselves slaves to sin. Just because Christ died for us, and gave us the hope for eternal life, we sill have to choose who we will serve. We do not have a ”kitchen pass” to act however we would like. We cannot “sin because we are not under the law, but under grace”, we must continue to choose to offer ourselves…..better yet, make ourselves a slave to Christ. Not a slave as in modern terms, but as biblical slaves. People who choose to give their lives to Christ, because we can see that living in Christ produces more joy, more satisfaction, and a better, whole, God loving life, than we would ever have on our own.

Peace,
Rev. Thetford