Romans No.12 Slaves under new management

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means. Don'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. But 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.

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 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 Christ Jesus our Lord. There's a beautiful statement in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20 where the Apostle Paul says, I live but not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I live in the flesh I'll live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Martin Luther is a man who I sometimes consult because his works are still available today.

He's as good as Tozer. In some ways he was a bit in advance of Tozer, and he's worth consulting. Martin Luther once said, speaking of his old heart, Martin used to live there, but now no longer, for the Lord Jesus has taken up residence.

Those weren't his exact words, but that's the gist of what he said from the German language. And in one sense that's very true, isn't it, my friend? As far as you and I are concerned, once we used to live in our bodies, so to speak, but we've handed over our spirits to the Lord, just like handing over the driving wheel of your car, and you've said, well there's a more competent driver, let the Lord come in, let him take on the task of steering. And so we get lovely scriptures that speak of Christ living in me.

We have preachers who exhort us to hand over our lives to the Lord Jesus. Now when you do that, you're not moving from a vacuum into a situation where the Lord Jesus is in control. What I mean by that, when you become a Christian, it's not that before your life wasn't controlled by some other influence.

When you were not a Christian, your life was in the control of the devil. Now that's a very stark statement to make, and perhaps it needs some qualifications. But it is true, the Bible makes it quite plain, that a man either is in Christ or he's not in Christ.

He's either in the light or he's in darkness. There is no neutral position whatsoever. So you don't move into the sphere where God is in control from a vacuum.

You move from a sphere where alien forces in some measure were in control into a position, happily, where the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father and the power of his Holy Spirit are now the management in your life. I wonder if you've understood that. You see, it seems to me that sometimes as evangelical Christians, we latch on to the term free will a little too simplistically.

You see, in one sense, our will is not free. The Apostle Paul tells us when he's writing here about being a slave of sin. He uses that word slave on several occasions.

Now, a slave by very definition is not free. The very thing that he wants is always precluded from him. You can't be a slave and be free.

Now, before you became a Christian, you were a slave. The Apostle makes it very clear in the seventh chapter. He speaks about being sold under sin.

Chapter, verse 14 of the seventh chapter. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. He says in the eighth verse of the eighth chapter, those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God, and yet he goes on to show that other people who have committed their lives to the Lord Jesus are not under the control of the sinful nature.

So when we talk about free will, let's be a little careful as to what we mean. In one sense, the will is not free. That doesn't mean to say that anyone who's outside of Christ can't make their own decisions in minority matters, no more than the prisoner in Lewis prison cannot make certain decisions.

He can clean his teeth, he can wash his neck, he can do a number of things at night, he can even watch television or so I understand in some measure. But the one thing that he can't do, that he really would have to do if he was a free man, was to get out of the jail. And that's what you were like as an unbeliever.

You were enslaved in as much as the key thing that you needed to get out of, you couldn't. The bondage of your sin. So that's what I mean when I say that we need to be a little careful in the way that we handle this concept of free will.

The Christian before he was a Christian was under the management, directly, indirectly, of the forces of evil. When he became a Christian, he comes under the management of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So this little study that I bring to this evening has as its general title, Slaves Under New Management.

And in the 15th verse we discover the Apostle Paul repeating what he said in the first verse. What shall we say then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? And then he adds his own response to that preposterous notion, by no means perish the thought. You and I who have become Christian people as a result of the grace of God, don't exploit that grace by being careless with this whole matter of the law.

Though God has forgiven us, we are to measure, we are to evaluate, we are to treasure his forgiveness and not exploit it. Paul repeats what he said in the first verse. He's got a good deal of repetition in these verses actually, as you'll discover as you compare them with what has preceded in the first 14 verses of this chapter.

Perish the thought. My friend, do you ever feel strong about sinning? I mean strongly in your loathing of sin. You see, this is what I want to get to in my spiritual pilgrimage.

I'm not there yet. Occasionally it hits me. I wish it did more and more, to get absolutely annoyed with sin.

You remember that the publican who goes into the temple in the story that our Lord told, he's not as articulate as the Pharisee in addressing God. He just beats his hands upon his breast as though he loathes the sin that's there. And I believe that that loathing of sin is something that you and I could well learn from this publican.

I remember on one occasion, somewhat humorously, Dr. Lloyd-Jones, who influenced me a great deal in the early years of my life, he was preaching in Canada, and he refused after this event ever to wear a neck microphone, because when he got to the point, and in his Welsh character he could be a little bit dramatic, I don't mean in a theatrical sense, when he got to the point of beating on his breast, he forgot about the microphone being just hung from his neck, and from that point on he turned aside from the idea of having a neck mic and used the sort of thing that I've got this evening. Shall we sin because we are not under law but under the grace? No, perish the thoughts, says the apostle. And he takes us in the 16th verse into the picture, in our imagination, into the scene of a slave market.

Now slave markets were well known in ancient times, in biblical times, and in medieval times. Joseph is a good illustration in the early part of the Bible of a man who was in slavery and twice knew what it was to transfer from one ownership to another ownership. It's a tragic thing that slavery was so slow in disappearing from the face of the globe, even in the Christian Church.

The history of Christianity is not always something that we can be proud about, you know. The London Missionary Society had its own slaves, did you know that? George Whitfield, it took him some time before he realized, but thank God he did, when he was in the southern states of America, that slavery was contradictory to the very ethos of the New Testament, and even today there are vestiges of slavery. But in this spiritual sense, we have got this picture of the slave, and the apostle says, don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to whom you obey? How do you know that Jesus Christ is your master? How do other people looking on to your life know that Jesus Christ is your master? The apostle supplies the answer.

You are slaves to the one whom you obey. You're either slaves to the principle of sin, which leads to death, or you're slaves to the principle of obedience, which leads to righteousness. You see, again, how the apostle won't allow neutrality.

He won't allow some ground that's between the two extremes. You're either one thing or you're the other. There's a cutting edge with the apostle.

This is why, far from being insulted, I always feel rather heartened when people reject the ministry of the tabernacle, and indeed of evangelical pulpits at large, because of its cutting edge. Thank God for the cutting edge. If I've got no cutting edge, then you get the elders to cite me, because really there's nothing in the message that could possibly be traceable back to the New Testament, says the apostle.

There are two ways. There's a way which leads to death, and those who follow that way are slaves to the principle of sin. There is a way which leads to righteousness, and those who follow that way are slaves to the principle of obedience.

Now, don't you hear someone else getting in before the apostle Paul, speaking along that line? Here's our Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, talking of the two ways, the narrow way and the broad way. One leads to life, the other leads to destruction. You see, you get the metaphors changed in Scripture quite often, but the principle, my dear friend, remains the same.

So what were you when you were not a Christian? You were a slave to sin. You were not in some vacuum state, in some vacuous state. You were a slave to sin.

When you became a Christian, you knew the transfer of ownership, as Joseph transferred, or his ownership was transferred from the Midianite tradesmen to Potiphar. So the apostle speaks the language to us of the slave market, and he gets quite enthusiastic in the 17th verse, doesn't he? When he appreciates, because Paul has known what it's been to move from one camp to the other camp, hasn't he? How does Paul incidentally often describe himself when he's writing his letters? Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, yes? But more often than not, he twins to the concept of apostleship, that of servanthood or slavery. Paul, the doulos of Jesus Christ.

Not just servant, that's a bit too anemic. The slave of Jesus Christ. My brothers and sisters, you and I are the douloi, that's the Greek plural of the singular doulos.

We are slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a remarkable, wonderful thing for us to find ourselves in, in terms of a category. Because as the prayer book tells us, in the service of our Lord Jesus, there is great freedom.

It's not the servitude of bondage. We're not controlled by an Egyptian task master. If the Son has set you free, then you're free indeed.

And yet the paradox is, as you enjoy the freedoms that the Lord Jesus Christ brings to you, you discover that you are more and more submitting yourself to him and his concerns over your life. And this is what you want to do. You see, our Lord Jesus, as I argue in these notes, which you can check through yourself in your own time, as you please, was basically the only free man that there ever was in our world.

I only make one exception to that, and that was Adam before the fall. I believe that then his will was free. But after he sinned, he had the principle of rebellion in his nature, and he passed that principle on to all his descendants.

Now our Lord Jesus, he's the exception to the rule. You see, he comes into this world, he has utter freedom, and yet his choice is to submit his will to the will of the Father. And the psalmist sees this, and he prophetically speaks of our Lord Jesus, and he mouths these words, I delight to do thy will, O my God.

You see, this was his choice. This was the only obvious thing for him to do. Now that's the same with you and with me.

So the whole idea of servitude in the Egyptian taskmaster relationship is completely taken out of perspective. Well, thanks be to God for this, says the Apostle Paul. Thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you are entrusted.

I use a word in the notes that you may not have come across, because we're not too ecclesiastical in our language here at the Tabernacle, but today you still come across the word catechism in the Anglican Church, and really the word has this idea. When the early church found people who were responding to the message in an enthusiastic way, they became catechists. That means they were a group of people who had special instruction.

You see, you didn't immediately come fully fledged into the church. You became a member of the body of Christ. But the early church fathers, the folk who took on the baton after the disciples had died, they were very concerned to ensure that Christian people, merging from the, or coming out of the pagan background of the Grecian world and the Roman world, were well instructed in the faith.

Now it's very hard for you and for me, who've been brought up on the Bible, who have Tozer, Campbell Morgan, Martin Lloyd-Jones, books by the hundred, to appreciate that books were not available then. Bibles were not available then. You had to get to the third century before they got a complete New Testament.

So it was basic to the running of the early church that those who were interested in the Christian gospel were taken on one side and they were counseled, a sort of discipleship class. It's a very biblical system, this one that we have at the tab. We call it our catechist class, if you like.

They were instructed in the faith. That's the reason why they had the creeds, you see. I had a letter from a lady who really was just parading her ignorance some while ago, who was most annoyed that I get you at Worthing Tabernacle to say the creed.

Oh God bless my soul. Why shouldn't we say the creed? It's the summary of all that I believe. I would shout the creed out from Worthing Pier if people would listen to me.

I'm no apologist for this. The reason for the creed, if you trace it back historically, was back to these classes. The catechists, they came together.

They were instructed by men and women and they began to imbibe the truths of Christianity. Now this is what Paul has in mind, you see. He says you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.

That phrase, the form of teaching, really responds to the initial curriculum given to the early catechist. And that warmth of response was indicative of the fact that these people were leaving the slave slavery background that they had when they were under the authority of evil forces. You've been set free, says the Apostle, verse 18, from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

You move from one authority into another authority. The former would ultimately have led you into death and destruction. The latter brings you through to righteousness.

Thank God, says the Apostle Paul, for that. I wonder to what degree you thank the Lord for the way that he's liberated you from the bondage of sin that you used to be under. Now, says Paul, verse 19, let me put this to you in a human way.

Let me use human language. You see, these men who were receiving, and women who were receiving the epistle to the Romans, they weren't theologically educated people, no more than you and I are. They were simple people and they wanted to have truth taught to them in a way that they could understand.

So Paul uses a simple analogy as he's speaking to them. He says, remember how you used to live. Now, he's already told them this earlier on in the chapter.

You were very, very weak, weren't you? And the fashion of your lifestyle was this. You used to offer the parts of your body, latter part of verse 19, you used to offer the parts of your body to slavery, to impurity. And now they did this in a very enthusiastic fashion.

I mean, Rome really was a cesspool. You know, Dallas and that sort of mentality, and playboy, and the whole philosophy of Hefner, and these sort of people today, they had their antecedents. The majority of Roman emperors following the ministry, following the time of our Lord Jesus, were homosexual.

Prostitution in Rome was not just a question of women parading their wares, but men parading their wares. And there was great enthusiasm in this sensuality, in this permissive sexuality that obtained in Rome and many of the great centers. Now, says the Apostle, because some of these people had come from this.

You see, I praise God. I didn't know what John was going to say earlier on this evening, but I thank the Lord that He told you, and many of us who know Him, and I'm not saying this to embarrass Him, appreciate the difference that there is in His life. Now, there should be a difference in our lives.

Once we were like that, and when we were like that, there was a degree of enthusiasm, the old way of life. Now, says the Apostle, in the way that you were enthusiastic then, transfer the same enthusiasm, but have different objectives now, because you're under the service, you're under the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. 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.

Do you see the contrast there? The former life to ever-increasing wickedness. Then He balances it down. It's just like a seesaw.

He balances it with, and now, in your new slavery, offer your body to righteousness, leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. Now, that's true, wasn't it? It was true in the story of the prodigal, not so? How did he live in the far country? He wasn't troubled by the old man.

He lived as though the old man was dead. You know, the death of God, I dare, is really as old as the prodigal. That's not a new theology.

If you were to read a book that came out in the 1930s by one of the scientists there, Huxley, Adolf Huxley, he will tell you the reason why he didn't become a Christian. It's all contained in a book by C.E.M. Jode called, Why I Believed, and he went on to say that he, following Huxley, didn't want to believe in the 30s and in the 20s in the concept of God, because if they did, then it would have had an effect on the way that they lived their lives, in a moral, in an ethical sense. Well, that's quite true, isn't it? When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.

You were not afraid of this God, but then somebody told you of God and the Lord Jesus and his requirements upon your life, and you started to move by the impulse of the Spirit from the category of the former servitude into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in those times, in those former years, what benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? What benefit did the prodigal reap? Well, there was nothing lasting, was there? In fact, he lost all that was really precious. He lost his self-respect.

He lost his father's money, though I don't think that that was the most important thing. He lost the good name of the family. He lived as though dad was dead, and the way that he lived was an insult to God.

That's what he reaped. You know, I'm never terribly impressed when anyone who gives their testimony goes into all the nastiness and the sinfulness of past years. I think some things are best not said.

In generalities, yes, but not in specifics. Those things, they've now been covered by the shed blood of Christ. We don't glory in those, do we? But that's what we were reaping.

But over against it, see how the Apostle uses the contrast. You see, 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. My friends, wax eloquent on that, on what God has now done for you through Christ.

Yes, how wonderful that John could hardly read before he came here. David Mitchell will tell you the same. He could hardly read before he became a Christian, and yet his concerns to know the Word of God triggered such a desire, such a stimulus in his mind, that he put himself to the task of reading, and now even reads Banner of Truth stuff.

How well qualified can you get? I ask myself. Well, thank God then for the way in which we are changed as we move out of slavery, the former slavery, into this blessed servitude with the Lord Jesus as Master. And He pays us in different wages, doesn't He? Pays us in different wages.

Verse 23, the final part of the chapter, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. What does that do? Well, it takes us right back to the beginning. I talked to you about Martin Luther and management in my notes.

I give you this, the idea of the corner shop and the man who takes over as a new manager, and he puts up a notice that it's under new management. Well, this is true for you and me, isn't it? This is exactly what happened. Once we were not the people of God, we didn't concern ourselves about spiritual things, and we were building up for us, though we didn't realize it, eternal destruction.

We were reaping a reward that was to be seen in terms of being alienated from God, if you like, hell. But when we moved, not just because you willed it. It was not that I did choose thee, Lord, for, Lord, that could not be.

This heart would still refuse thee, hadst thou not chosen me. He got in first. He placed that holy seed of desire in my heart.

Why he did it, I don't know, but he did it. And by his grace, which is always previous, he enabled me to respond to what he had done for me. And as a result, he moved me from the servitude of evil forces into service for his son, and he shifted the rewards from hell to heaven, from destruction to holiness.

This is what God has done by the power of his great gospel for you and for me. Thanks be to God. Perish the thought that we'd ever take this love and this forgiveness and exploit it by careless living.

May the day dawn in the lives of the fellowship that meets at Worthing Tabernacle when we get angry with sin that still lurks in our own breast and still is rampant in our world today.