Printer Friendly VersionAn amazing thing happened yesterday. In Afghanistan 18 candidates,
including one woman, received votes for the presidency in that country’s
first free election since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. It’s dangerous
to vote there. Attacks have been leveled in an effort to disrupt the elections.
Some voters were killed just for registering. No matter what you may think
about the condition of our country, you won’t have to wear a flak jacket
to the polling place on November 2.
Freedom is not only “hard won;” it’s also
“hard kept.” I think we would all agree that something in the
core of the human spirit longs for freedom. And I’m not talking narrowly
about political freedom. Life in this world tries to bind and chain us in
a thousand different ways. There are chains of social status and chains of
poverty; chains of shame and chains of fear; chains of addiction and chains
of abuse. I don’t know of anyone who has ever experienced bondage to
anything who does not long to be free. The amazing thing is that even when
that freedom finally comes, it’s often surprisingly hard for people
to remain free.
I read with interest the report of a Chicago Tribune correspondent
who interviewed an Afghan woman named Nasifaz. The reporter wondered why so
many women in Afghanistan continue to wear the burqas—the full-body
coverings mandated by the Taliban—even though they don’t like
them and are no longer forced to wear them. In response the Afghan woman said,
“We have lived in darkness for so long that now we are afraid of the
light” (World, December 22, 2001, p. 13).
I think it’s an apt picture of what happens to many Christians.
And it lies at the heart of why I’ve been trying to preach this series
of messages. I believe with all of my mind and with all of my heart that there
is enough power in the cross and resurrection of Jesus to transform our lives,
and truly to free us from the things that so easily entangle and bind us.
And I don’t say this because I was taught to say it in seminary. I say
it on the basis of God’s Word and I say it out of the testimony of my
own life. I know personally that God in Christ is able to free us from sin.
But my heart is heavy because my job in this world is to try
and keep a finger on the heartbeat of God’s people as represented by
this congregation, and sometimes I have trouble getting a pulse! It’s
too often faint. It’s too often weak. Sometimes it seems to disappear
altogether. The way I’ve been saying it during this series is that so
many Christians are living far beneath our privilege in Christ. I don’t
think it’s because we don’t want the gifts of God. I don’t
think it’s because we don’t want to be free. I do think it has
everything to do with how easy it is to allow our lives to be shaped and guided
by the values of this culture, rather than by the values of the kingdom of
God. The truth is that when the life patterns of those who profess vital faith
in Jesus Christ are compared with the life patterns of those who claim no
such faith, there is really not much distinction. For example, I just read
a report from the Barna Research Group that says the divorce rate among Christians
is not distinct now from the divorce rate of the general population. How can
that be? If we really believe what we say we believe, that life under the
lordship of Jesus is the key to a healthy marriage, then how can Christians
not be experiencing a greater degree of marital health?
That’s just one example. There are many. I think one of
the reasons we see so many Christians bouncing around from church to church
today has nothing to do with what those churches do or do not offer. It has
everything to do with a sense of spiritual unrest that gnaws at the soul,
because we are not walking in full surrender and complete obedience to Christ.
When we fail to live fully under the lordship of Jesus, it’s no surprise
we are turned into omnivorous consumers. And that way of living is so opposite
of that to which Jesus calls us, it’s no wonder the power is sucked
right out of us.
I believe there is a huge power failure in the Church today.
The reason is we are not doing well with standing firm in what is true and
right in the midst of this compromised and chaotic culture of ours. It makes
me think that as God’s people we really do not believe what God’s
Word says. We may give lip service to it, but it’s really not finding
its way into our daily lives.
Over and over again we have seen in just these six texts we’ve
studied, that when the Bible speaks of what happens to us when receive Christ
Jesus as our savior and Lord, it uses words like “transformed, changed,
made new, resurrection, freedom, and holiness.” That’s precisely
what Paul is talking about in our text for today. Here he puts it in terms
of slavery, which is kind of an interesting way to think about it.
This follows one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible.
In the first part of chapter 6 Paul said when we come to Christ by faith and
are baptized into Christ, we are buried to the old way of life and raised
to a whole new way of life. In our passage, he’s really just going on
with that truth. It’s the idea that when we become Christians it’s
far more than a change of status. It’s far more than fire insurance.
It’s far more than joining a new club. Our whole orientation of life
is shifted. And using illustrative language that would have been meaningful
to them, he says it’s like once being a slave to the master called sin
and then undergoing a total change of ownership. Now, through Christ, sin
no longer owns us. We now belong to Christ and now, having been freed from
the grip of sin, we are free to embrace a new “slavery” —not
of compulsion but of love. This, Paul says, is slavery to righteousness.
I know we need to unpack that a bit. First, I want to make sure
you know what I mean and what the Bible means when we talk about “sin.”
Maybe what comes to your mind when you hear the word “sin” is
a certain behavior or behaviors. The Bible doesn’t frame sin primarily
as a moral category in the sense of a list of prohibited actions. The essence
of sin is when the human mind and heart turns in on itself. It’s when
we live under the sovereignty of our own will and desires instead of under
the sovereignty of God.
So in this whole discussion of the life you were meant to live,
the issue is much deeper than figuring out how to eliminate certain, unacceptable
behaviors from our lives. It’s all about the total orientation of our
lives under the lordship of Jesus Christ. That’s why Paul put as he
did. You’re either going to be a slave to sin or you can, by God’s
grace, be a slave to righteousness. I know that sounds kind of weird, but
really it’s no different than what Bob Dylan acknowledged years ago
in the pop song, “You’re Gonna Serve Somebody.” We know
that’s true. But it’s important to realize the two slaveries Paul
is contrasting are not equal and opposite, for the motivation is entirely
different. If we find ourselves enslaved to sin it’s because we want
what we want and nobody, including God, is going to stand in our way. But
when we are enslaved to righteousness, the motivation is a heart of love that
simply longs to respond with a holy life to what God in His mercy has done.
Becoming a Christian is not one piece of an otherwise self-oriented
life. Becoming a Christian and living as a Christian is a whole-life response
to the merciful love of a Father who in Christ has forgiven, healed, and made
us new. Now it’s one thing to declare that in the safety of a Sunday
morning. Most of you would probably say, “Amen.” But Paul was
warning against a mindset, an attitude that has reared its ugly head again
in our time. You see, as Paul earlier layed out how we are saved by God’s
mercy and grace and not by our own good works, he could just imagine some
in the Roman church saying, “Well, if God is full of grace and mercy
then it really doesn’t matter much how we live. God will always forgive
us no matter what.” In fact he takes it a step further by asking the
question we heard in verse 15: “Shall we sin because we are not under
law but under grace?” His answer is passionate, definitive, and strong—by
no means! God forbid!
But I would suggest to you, brothers and sisters, that this
is precisely the mindset of our age, even among people who identify themselves
as Christians. In our popular Christian music, in Christian books, TV, radio,
and from pulpits across the land one of our favorite proclamations is that
“God accepts us just as we are.” It is true that God does not
demand we clean up our act before we can come to Him and receive His love.
But make no mistake: God has absolutely no intention of leaving us as we are.
If you really think Christ died on that Cross only to forgive your sins, buy
you a ticket to heaven, and then leave you to struggle in your sin—you
may as well slap Him across the face and spit on Him, just as the religious
rulers did on that awful Friday. Jesus endured the shame of the Cross so you
and I could be free from the chains that bind us to the earth. In verse 19
Paul says, “Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery
to impurity . . . So now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to
holiness.”
Christian, to what, to whom are you offering yourself on a daily
basis? I would imagine most of you here today really want to live the life
you were meant to live—a life that would please God and bring joy and
peace to your heart. But it won’t happen unless and until you use the
grace that has already been given to offer your heart, mind, soul, and body
to the Lord on a moment-by-moment basis.
I’m worried about you. I’m worried about us. We
have so much to do, and yet we are experiencing a power drain because so many
of us are taking our cues from the world. I’ll tell you specifically
what I worry about. And I know I’m going to over-generalize these, but
for the sake of making the point:
1. I worry that you have no margin in your life from which to
serve people. You are so consumed with your own stuff that you don’t
offer yourself and your gifts to ministry.
2. I worry that you gauge your life by how you feel instead
of by what is true. A feelings-oriented life will always end in disappointment.
A truth-oriented life will always end in peace.
3. I worry that there is no space in your life where God can
meet you and shape your mind and heart. You don’t read His Word; you
talk about praying, but you don’t really pray.
4. I worry that our culture’s obsession with sex is eating
away at your very soul. It may feel exciting when you’re consuming lust,
but it always leaves you feeling empty. There will come a time when suddenly
you’ll realize there’s nothing left.
5. I worry that you are robbing God and apparently think nothing
of it. Every time you fail to surrender your resources fully to God, there’s
a little more distance, a little more desire to hide.
I know those don’t all apply to all of you. But is there anywhere in
that brief survey where the Spirit of God would say, “Child, that’s
you”?
Loved ones, how can I help you get it? How can I help you see
it? If you insist on keeping God at arm’s length, you can never fully
enjoy what Christ died on the Cross to give you. It is time to make a decision.
Some of you may need to make the decision to invite Christ into your heart
for the first time. Many others may need to make the decision finally to surrender
full control of your life to Christ and allow Him daily to show you the way
of holiness.
When deep in your heart you want more than anything to respond to God’s love for you with a life that truly honors Him—when that becomes your consuming passion—then you can live the life you were meant to live.
