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Read Introduction to Romans

 

18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

 

18 And having been set free [liberated] from sin,

Jesus liberated believers from sin. It was possible for Roman slaves to be emancipated from their slavery by a purchase price, and it is also possible for believers to be liberated from sin by the payment Jesus made for their sins. Christians are free from sin in every regard. God will never condemn the believer for his sin. He will chastise the believer as a family matter but He will never cast the believer out of the family. In this sense sin does not have dominion over the believer. This is true biblical freedom.

you became [constituted by God at one point] slaves of righteousness.

The Greek for “you became” means that something happened to the believer at one point and that God is the one who did it (aorist passive indicative): “You became enslaved to righteousness.” Salvation is something God achieves. God gave us a new Master, not a license to sin. The idea is that God pronounces us legally righteous. This does not preclude human responsibility to believe God’s promises.

God’s system of liberty from sin does not mean license. God freed Christians from sin in order that they become “slaves of righteousness.” There is no ethical vacuum in the Christian life, because Christians have a new Master. There is a compulsion that comes from our constitution in the grace concept. This is a necessary effect of being in Christ’s family as over against Adam’s family. It is a matter of our status in Christ.

Christians were freed from sin by becoming slaves of righteousness! Our options boil down to two: (1) slavery to sin or (2) slavery to God. The idea than man can be independent of either of these is an illusion. The only true freedom for man is to give the rights of his person over to God, a life of dependence on God.

PRINCIPLE:

God did the work in transferring believers from Adam’s family to Christ’s family.

APPLICATION:

Something God did caused Christians to become “slaves of righteousness”—we have a new Master. Since we are free from the tyranny of sin, we are liberated from the shackles of living under Adam’s family. That is the basis for our choice to submit to God’s revelation about the gospel. Our former master no longer has control over us. A liberated slave no longer gives allegiance to his former master.

Christians no longer live as in the Roman times when slaves were sold to another master summarily. Often those slaves were ripped from their family and friends with no more concern than what might be expended when selling a cow to another owner. However, Christians have been purchased from Adam’s family of inherited sin to a new Master who declares us as righteous as He is righteous. We do indeed have a Master, but what a Master! That is why we are willing to obey this new Master from the heart (Ro 6:17). We thank Him with joy for all His provisions, His redemption, and liberation.

Ga 5:1, Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

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