slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness?

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Paul does something very interesting in this passage. A criticism Paul seems to have faced was that by telling people they didn't have to follow the Law of Moses he was encouraging people to behave badly. In other words, Paul was giving people too much freedom with his teaching, and that was risky. Paul turns that argument around in a very helpful way by saying that sin takes away our freedom. He argues that when we sin we give up our freedom and become slaves to sin. While freedom is extremely important for Paul, he believes that we choose who we obey. We can either obey sin, which is slavery to evil, or we can obey God's calling and be slaves of righteousness. We'll be chewing on this passage a bit more in worship tomorrow; I hope to see you then.

Saturday blessings,
Sam

Romans 6:12-23

12Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.



15What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do 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? 17But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.


20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.