Romans 6:15-23
Bob Dylan was in the 1960s the conscience of that rebellious generation. He is best known for the music he wrote but his influence on other singers and song writers is also part of his legacy. In late1978 Dylan was busy being born again. His widely-publicized conversion to Christianity made him perhaps the most famous Jewish apostate in American history. Suffering from a painful divorce, a tiring world tour and too much alcohol, Dylan began looking for answers. He found one:
“There was a presence in the room that couldn’t have been anybody but Jesus. I truly had a born-again experience, if you want to call it that…. It was a physical thing. I felt it all over me. I felt my whole body tremble.”
Coming out of this experience, he produced three albums that reflected his new-found faith, Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot of Love. His fans’ reaction to this change was not positive. On tour he disregarded the wise advice of his spiritual mentors at the Vineyard Fellowship and stubbornly refused to play any of his songs from before his conversion. He was booed by his audiences and reacted:
“I told you the times they are a-changin’ and they did. I said the answer was blowin’ in the wind and it was. I’m telling you now Jesus is coming back, and He is! And there is no other way of salvation.”
One reviewer said Dylan “felt obligated to save the souls of an audience he never liked all that much.”
Additionally, in what often happens to famous people who announce they have chosen to follow Christ, Christians put a lot of pressure on him to conform to their expectations and I expect Dylan felt squished by their expectations.
As a consequence, Dylan pulled back and began to study with a Jewish rabbi and it is not clear today where he stands in terms of his faith.
His three “Christian” albums are not the favorite of critics and most of his fans, but they are my three favorites. I printed the words of one of his songs from that period in the bulletin.
Gotta Serve Somebody
You may be an ambassador
to England or France,
You may like to gamble,
you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight
champion of the world,
You may be a socialite
with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody,
yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You may be a construction worker
working on a home,
You may be living in a mansion
or you might live in a dome,
You might own guns
and you might even own tanks,
You might be somebody’s landlord,
you might even own banks
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody,
You may be a preacher
with your spiritual pride,
You may be a city councilman
taking bribes on the side,
You may be workin’ in a barbershop,
you may know how to cut hair,
You may be somebody’s mistress,
may be somebody’s heir
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Might like to wear cotton,
might like to wear silk,
Might like to drink whiskey,
might like to drink milk,
You might like to eat caviar,
you might like to eat bread,
You may be sleeping on the floor,
sleeping in a king-sized bed
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody,
yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
How I wish I had a band to back me up and could really sing this song.
I think the apostle Paul would have liked this song, well at least the words to this song. We who are older sometimes have a difficult time liking the music that is currently in style and Paul would have to deal with almost two thousand years of musical changes, not just a few decades. But the content of this song is a great addition to Paul’s argument in Romans 6.
Paul is talking about sanctification in this chapter, the process by which we are transformed into holy men and women. This is principally the work of the Holy Spirit but also requires our efforts to make good choices, discipline our flesh, and resist the temptations that come our way.
In verses 17&18, Paul lists the four stages of the process:
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. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
We begin as slaves to sin. This is the human condition and any reading of history verifies that this is so. The history of the world is a history in which the abuse of one person by another has been a constant. Selfishness and greed are not seasonal traits; they are constants in history.
Despite the evidence, from ancient times, philosophers have rejected the Biblical truth that we are at nature sinful creatures and theorized that we are basically good. The Chinese philosopher Mencius who lived from 371-289 BC developed his entire philosophy from two basic propositions: the first, that Man’s original nature is good; and the second, that Man’s original nature becomes evil when his wishes are not fulfilled.
This school of philosophy said, “If you let people follow their feelings (original feelings), they will be able to do good. This is what is meant by the saying that human nature is good. If a man does evil, it’s not the fault of his natural endowment.”
This idea of the natural goodness of man took hold in Europe starting in the 14th century and in the 19th century took over and enlightened men and women entered the 20th century convinced that man was basically good and all that had to happen was to enlighten him and we would have a peaceful existence.
But then came WWI. It had been understood that terrible things happened in other parts of the world, but in the educated West, man’s natural goodness would prevail because of enlightened education and culture. When the Germans began to use poisonous gas as a weapon and the British soon retaliated (taking advantage of the prevailing west to east winds) and over 7,000,000 of the sons of the educated and enlightened west were killed by gas and bullets and bombs, you would think that this philosophy would have been reconsidered.
But it continued and then came WWII with the people of Goethe and Schiller and Beethoven and Bach setting out to exterminate the Jewish population of the world. In a book titled, Hitler’s Scientists, it is revealed that this extermination of the Jews had excellent scientific minds behind it. Enlightened people began to understand the genetic link to disease and theorized that by eliminating an undesirable people who they speculated carried diseases, the human race would be strengthened.
Has anything changed since WWII? Day by day and year after year the news reveals what is true, that humans are sinful beings. We are as Paul says, slaves to sin.
This is not news the world welcomes because it means that what we are is not good and needs changing. From ancient times people have resisted this truth.
Jesus, in John 8, was speaking with Jews who had believed him. These were likely, pious Jews, hard working men and women, respected members of their synagogue and community. Listen to how they reacted to Jesus’ teaching.
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
This did not go over well. “Set us free? Who said we were enslaved?”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
This is our starting point in life. We have a sinful nature and we are slaves to our sin.
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.
We are slaves to sin but then we are set free by Jesus when we wholeheartedly obey.
In the Greek it says literally obeyed from the heart. This is not a shallow or superficial obedience but obedience that comes from deep within us. Wholehearted obedience is not joining church because it seems like the thing to do, or because your friends have joined or because it might be good for your business or other economic prospects. Wholehearted obedience is not really about joining a church. Wholehearted obedience is a recognition that God exists, that he loves you, that you have a sinful nature and that you have no hope apart from his active help in your life. Wholehearted obedience is turning around and setting off on a new direction with determination to persevere.
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. 18 You have been set free from sin
We were slaves to sin, we wholeheartedly obeyed and then in the most miraculous of all of God’s works, we are set free from sin.
If you have been here the last month or so you know that I have pointed out that to be set free from sin does not mean that sin is no longer a problem. As Paul points out in this chapter, we died to sin but sin did not die. Sin is still on the loose, bringing us temptations, inflating our egos with pride, causing us to disregard the needs of others around us, seeking what is best for us first before anyone else.
Sin is still on the loose but with this marvelous miracle of God, we are capable of choosing well because we have been set free from the power of sin over us. Sin is still present but we have the potential to choose not to sin.
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. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
We were slaves to sin, we wholeheartedly obeyed, we are set free from sin and then we become slaves to righteousness.
Slaves to sin and slaves to righteousness, there is no other option. To say you are your own master and slave to noone is an act of arrogance that feeds the ego which is to be a slave to sin.
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
I talked a couple weeks ago about how sin pulls us in deeper and deeper. When we bite on the temptation of sin, we are like a fish biting on a juicy worm floating in the ocean. What we do not see is the hook and when we bite we are hooked and the line gets pulled in and we are no longer free. We get pulled where we do not really want to go.
We tell one lie and another is demanded to cover up the first. We desire something that is not ours and that leads to stealing it or unfairly treating someone to get what it is we want and then that leads to lies and more lies as we cover up for our behavior.
We like the compliments we get for an accomplishment. Our ego grows and our pride demands more compliments and soon we find ourselves trapped in an ever increasing need to have people think good of us and the door to more sins and deeper sins is opened.
Sin pulls us in deeper and deeper and sin becomes our master. But Paul holds out the hope that we can also be slaves to righteousness.
The problem is that it does not seem hopeful to be a slave to anything, even righteousness. This is a difficult phrase. Slave to sin, we understand. Slavery is a negative and sin is a negative, they go together. But righteousness is a positive so how does it fit together with being a slave?
You can tell that Paul was not altogether comfortable with this description. Right after this in verse 19 he wrote:
I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves.
It is not the best analogy because to be a slave means you have no freedom and that is exactly the opposite of what Paul argues.
In verse 23, at the end of this chapter, Paul contrasts the two.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
With God comes a gift, freely given, eternal life. This is Paul’s argument throughout his letters. Freedom is found in obedience to God so here being a slave to righteousness does not mean what it means to be a slave to sin.
With sin, we are taken where we do not want to go. We have fewer and fewer choices as it pulls us deeper and deeper in. With righteousness we have choices that lead to more and more freedom.
Let me illustrate this in a couple ways.
When I set out to be more disciplined, I restrict my freedom. I can no longer sit in front of the TV and eat snack foods, sleep in as long as I want, eat as much as I want as often as I want. Instead I get up early, go out walking or jogging, lift some weights or work out to an exercise video. I not only don’t have seconds, I restrict the portion size of my first helping. By submitting to my diet and exercise regime, I am restricted in my freedom.
But who is really free? The one who eats what they want when they want and does not exercise? Or the one who restricts their diet and exercises regularly? Eating wisely and exercising regularly will allow you to live a longer life and a more enjoyable life. The one who has disciplined his or her life is the one who is free to enjoy life more fully. Especially as we age, these things become more important.
You can argue that you are more free if you do not restrict your diet and do not exercise, but you will likely argue in your older age from a sitting position, unable to easily get up out of the chair. Being disciplined is what leads to real freedom.
Let’s say that someone betrays you. Your sister-in-law, your best friend, behind your back cheats you out of your inheritance. She had you over for dinner. You got together during the week to talk and have coffee together. You vacationed together. And then one day you discover that her husband maneuvered things so that you were forced out of the family business.
What do you do? The human reaction, the natural reaction is to want to kill her, do something terrible to her for her betrayal. She was your friend and look at what she did to you! So you nurse your anger. You cut off all contact with her. You refuse to have anything to do with her. As your anger grows, it turns into hatred and bitterness.
Someone tells you that you need to forgive her for what she did to you but that just makes you more angry. Don’t people understand how terribly she acted? Your heart becomes hardened and although you may not notice it, you begin to change. Your hardness of heart affects other areas of your life.
And what have you really accomplished? Have you made the person who betrayed you miserable by the way you act? Ann Lamott has written, “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
Holding on to anger and then bitterness is a way of putting yourself into a prison. You have become a slave to sin and you have lost freedom.
But consider the alternative. You don’t have to once again become a best friend to your sister-in-law, but if you are able to come to God with the hurt you feel and the anger that is a Biblical response to injustice, God can help you to let go of the hurt and be healed. You can forgive the person who has hurt you, even if that person never asks for forgiveness. And when you do, you are set free. You are no longer a prisoner of the intense emotion that has gripped you.
In our struggle with sin, it is important to remember that we do not only resist sin. We do not only say no, no, no, no, no. We also say yes. And when we say no to sin and yes to righteousness, we step out of the prison of sin and into the freedom of life.
The world rejects this message. The world insists on freedom to do whatever it wants whenever it wants. Christians who say that we need to submit to God’s morality are viewed as repressive and narrow-minded.
The battle for sexual freedom was fought and won in the 1960s and the world does not want to step back, despite the evidence that the freedom that was desired has not been realized. Broken relationships, broken families, broken hearts and broken bodies are the result of this sexual freedom and yet the right to be sexually free is still insisted upon.
The world insists on being its own master with noone telling them what to do. Despite all the evidence that this is not working, there is a resistance to coming to God and submitting to his plan for us.
I am not optimistic for the world. I think the world will continue as it has for the rest of time. But I am optimistic for you. You can step out of the world and into the true freedom Christ offers.
You do not have to live as the world lives. You can choose to submit to God, offer him your life and be set free. You can restrict what the world calls freedom by being wholeheartedly obedient and then you will be free indeed.
Each of us this morning are facing choices. Choice is always before us: to forgive or to hold on to anger and bitterness; to give in to temptations or to exercise the discipline of the flesh; to get up in the morning and get on with the business of the day or to take the time to sit with God, reading, reflecting, journaling, praying.
It makes a difference. Choose life, choose freedom.
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
As you come forward to receive the elements of communion this morning, make your coming forward a declaration of serving the Lord and choosing life.
