For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.
Truth to Learn
Before we were saved we could not pursue righteousness.
Behind the Words
The word translated “free” is the Greek word eleutheros. We looked at the verb form of this word in verse 18. In the current verse it is the noun form, which means “one who is capable of movement;” in other words, one who is independent or unrestrained.
Meaning Explained
This verse is short and is a restatement of what Paul has been saying repeatedly in different ways for most of this chapter. Before we were saved, we were in slavery to our sin nature. We had no choice but to sin because our sin nature owned us; therefore, we had no choice but to obey our sinful impulses.
One of the things Paul has been pointing out is that there is no gray area when it comes to who our master is. It is either sin or righteousness. We can’t be part way in between. While we were the slaves of sin, we were free ones with regard to righteousness, not under its control. That is, righteousness could not influence us because we were owned by sin.
The argument that Paul has been making all along is that since we are no longer slaves to sin, that is, sin does not own us nor control us, we should be in subjection to our new master, righteousness. Unfortunately for us, though, is the fact that we have a choice as to whom we submit and old habits are hard to break. Now that we are freed from sin, we should gladly obey our new master, righteousness. But we seem to fight our new master far more than we did our former master. It’s easier to be lazy and submit to our sin nature than to put the effort into obeying righteousness.
But, and this is Paul’s point, we have no right to continue in our lazy obedience to sin because we have a new master who wants us to turn from our old ways and commit ourselves to Him. We have a responsibility to obey righteousness, not just because it would be polite, but because that’s what our Master wants us to do, and we are under obligation to obey Him.
Did you ever wonder why the world seems to be getting more sinful and wicked with each passing year? It’s because those who are of the world are slaves to sin and are constrained to obey their master. As a result, sin continues unchecked, growing stronger and more pervasive with each passing day.
But consider this, in heaven we will not have a sin nature and we will obey righteousness perfectly. We will not have to fight our tendency to sin. That’s part of what will make heaven so rewarding. We will always do what is right and our actions will always be pleasing to our Heavenly Father.
But we’re not there yet. We still have our sin nature. So, to boil it down to the essence of what Paul is teaching here, we are to submit to our new Master and commit to doing His will. Instead, we constantly try to break free from righteousness so we can “do our own thing,” which is called sin.
Application
The laziest thing for a Christian to do is to just sit back and skate through life. But, now that we have the ability to obey righteousness, we also have the obligation to obey righteousness. Let’s commit right now to resisting our old master and submitting ourselves to our new Master.
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2018 Will Krause. All rights reserved