Faithful Living – Freedom
Romans 6:11-23
June 29, 2014[1]
What does freedom mean to you? On this last Sunday in June, with
Independence Day coming up, you might think that a sermon on freedom will be
talking about our country and celebrating the freedom that we enjoy. I truly treasure the freedom that has been
won for us at such a price. But this morning, we are talking about freedom in a
different sense. We are talking about
the freedom to offer ourselves as slaves to God.
It sounds a bit like a contradiction in terms. But we find this apparent contradiction
stated boldly in our Epistle Lesson this morning. Romans
6:22 says that “you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God …” Let’s look at what this means.
I recall taking a class in Political Philosophy when I
was in college. College philosophy
classes, at least in the early 1970s, were havens for some of the more
“unusual” students and instructors on campus.
Those were the days of a lingering, very unpopular war, days of protest,
days of challenging and changing, if not eliminating, many of the rules that
governed our culture. Given my
relatively conservative upbringing, those were days of internal conflict for
me. So I remember vividly struggling
with my final exam in that Political Philosophy course. I had to answer only one question: what does freedom mean?
I don’t remember my exact answer, but I think I
responded by quoting the words of John Locke that inspired Thomas Jefferson as
he drafted the Declaration of Independence.
Locke was the one who wrote that all men were entitled to the blessings
of “life, liberty and property.” As you
know, Jefferson revised that statement slightly to read “life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.” In those days,
the colonists were rebelling against what they felt was oppressive English
rule, in which they could be subjected to taxation but had no say in the
matter. The freedom they sought was from
someone outside telling them what to do.
Self-determination was the goal that they sought—freedom from being
controlled or restricted by someone else.
I think I got a B on the exam. It was a passing grade, but my professor was
not overly impressed with my response. He
was firmly of the view that true freedom is not freedom from external
restraints, but it is internal. He was
by no means a religious person—I suspect that he was an atheist; but in one
respect, he was much closer to the Apostle Paul than he would have wanted to
admit.
Paul firmly believed that our freedom was not to be
found in our external circumstances but in our inward existence. He speaks of how sin made us instruments of
wickedness (v. 13); but through
God’s grace we have been brought from death to life. He says “sin will have no dominion over you,
since you are not under law but grace” (Romans
6:14).
Paul knew that people wouldn’t really get his point. He
knew that they would jump to the wrong conclusion, that “if I am saved by grace rather than by my
works, my behavior and my actions, then I don’t need to change my
behavior—I can continue living the way I always did.” In fact, they carried this logic one step
further. They asked, “Should we not
continue to sin because we are not under law but grace?” The more sin, the more grace. Paul quickly responds, “By no means!” (v. 15).
He knew that we become slaves of those to whom we give ourselves. He says that “you, having once been slaves of
sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you
were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves
of righteousness” (Romans 6:19). In other words, if we have truly presented
ourselves to God, we no longer will act the same way, think the same thoughts, or
speak the same words. Our faith will be
reflected in our deeds.
We don’t like to talk about “sin” very much in our
world. I have heard many people complain
about the “guilt trip” that they say religion has placed on them. I have heard of Jewish guilt, Catholic guilt,
Baptist guilt, or, in my case, Nazarene guilt.
How sad it is that the joy we find in serving God can be overshadowed by
a perception that our faith is driven by obedience to a set of outward rules of
conduct. I admit that I chafed at the
many rules for holy living that the church of my upbringing placed upon us. The
rules that, at that time, stopped us from playing cards, dancing, going to
movies all seemed designed to stop us from having a good time.
Those rules may seem a bit unusual to us today, but it
helps us to put into perspective the “rules” that the Pharisees were caught up
in about ritual purity, food laws, observing the Sabbath. And yet neither set of rules seems quite to
reach the heart of what Paul is talking about when he speaks of being “slaves
to sin.” What does he mean we are slaves
to? For Paul, sin is anything that
separates us from God. Sin isn’t just
something we do, say or think and hope that a divine policeman doesn’t catch
us; sin is rooted in an attitude that we want to go our own way. Sin is rooted in a desire harbored deep
inside of us that we should be able to do and think what we want. Sin is the assumption that we don’t need God
or need to follow God’s ways. Sin is
becoming attached to or chained to someone or something other than God.
Think about your own life—what are you a slave
to? Is there something or someone that
stirs up anger or resentment within you?
Are you having trouble forgiving someone for something they have
done? Are you a slave to a life
style—that takes up so much of your time, your energy and your life that you
have nothing left over for your family, for your God? Has a habit in your life developed into an
addiction that you no longer can control, that runs your life? Is there anything in your life that has
become more important than God?
Paul was not advocating a legalistic approach to
salvation—far from it. But Paul did
believe that when we have encountered the saving grace of the Holy One, our lives
would not be the same. But did you notice—this lesson does call for action on
our part. Paul invites us to “present
[ourselves] to God as those who have been brought from death to life,” to
“present our bodies “to God as instruments of righteousness” (v. 13).
What does this mean, to become an “instrument of
righteousness?” Remember the teachings
of Jesus. When He was asked to identify
“the greatest commandment,” Jesus did not quote any of the “Thou shalt
nots…” Not that Jesus was doing away
with the commandments that spoke of ways of living that were contrary to God’s
plan for us. He said that “not a stroke”
of the law would be done away (Matthew
5:18). But the “greatest
commandments” identified by Jesus—the ones that Jesus said were the most important
ones for us to follow, the ones that we were to pay the closest attention to,
were affirmative commandments: Love the
Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your
neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark
12:28-31; Luke 10:27).
When we present ourselves to God and to God’s way of
loving, things change. What seemed at
one time to be confining now becomes liberating.
When our son, David, married Nicole on July 26, 2008,
they made us all laugh when they made their grand entry into the reception
hall. They joyfully entered the
reception wearing handcuffs! I never got
around to asking whether he was trying to hold on to her or was she
trying to hold on to him. I think
that the feeling was mutual. But it
occurred to me—those handcuffs may be external “chains,” but they were no more
confining than the wedding rings that they exchanged. The real “chains” were the internal
commitments that they freely made to each other to honor and cherish each
other, to remain faithful to each other until they are parted by death. But in those “chains,” they found the freedom
to love each other fully. When we commit
to this way of loving, we become free to remain faithful.
God’s way of loving changes us--we become “instruments
of righteousness” (Romans 6:13),
even to the point of becoming “enslaved to God” (v. 22). Yet this is slavery
without chains and without handcuffs.
This slavery is symbolized instead by a cross and an invitation to “take
up your cross” and follow Him (Matthew 16:24;
Luke 9:23). The cross that Jesus
spoke of was not just a piece of jewelry.
He called us to commit our very lives.
But just when it seems that this cross is too heavy a burden for us to
carry, we hear Jesus tell us that the burden we carry sets us free from our
chains. When we take up our crosses to
follow him, His “yoke is easy” and his “burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). For “when
the Son makes [us] free, we are “free indeed” (John 8:36).
What does freedom mean? Freedom means that we are no longer separated
from God. The freedom that Jesus offers
to us is the freedom to realize who we really are—we are children of God—free
to live and to love as God wants us to live and to love. May you experience this freedom today!
Copyright
© 2014 by Thomas E. Frost. All rights
reserved.
