For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness. Sermons
I. THE FORMER SLAVERY. Absolute freedom is impossible to man, who is surrounded by higher powers, and has a Divine law impressed on his nature. The headstrong youth is really in bondage to sin; and the recluse in his solitude, whilst free from some of the restrictions of civilization, yet deprives himself of some advantages, and thereby imposes on himself certain limits. The description of sin as bond-service is just when we think of the manner in which men are worn out by vice. The silken cords of pleasure become adamantine bonds. The man who delays to reform his life becomes a prisoner, unable to turn the key in the rusty lock. Dislike of the epithet, "servants of sin," must not blind us to its accuracy, in spite of the euphemistic terms which would hide the flagrancy of our transgressions. Without supposing that statistics of the members of Churches accurately embrace all servants of righteousness, the condition of slavery is all too common, even in Christian England. Press home this fact, and remember that the great, question is not whether we can fix the date and enumerate the details of our conversion, but whether we are conscious of a renewed heart and life. II. THE NEW SERVICE. The text speaks of a changed state of obedience to God and adoption of righteousness - a state sanctioned by conscience, ratified by the judgment, pleasing to the Almighty, and every way beneficial to ourselves and others. Its cause is the new teaching concerning Jesus Christ. The tense is definite; these Christians had received the doctrine and embraced it gladly. Perhaps the good news is today too much encumbered with technical phraseology, or, having been frequently listened to from infancy, fails to excite in us the glad wonder which it evoked when fresh to the ear. To the Romans it brought tidings of the abrogation of the Sinaitic Law as a covenant of life; it told of the one perfect Offering whereby those that believe are sanctified; it spoke of the all-providing love of the Father for his erring children. The gospel comes as a law to be obeyed, but supplies adequate motives and spiritual power for its fulfilment. The code is discipleship to Christ, hearkening to his preaching and copying his life. This doctrine is represented in the text as "a mould" into which the life of the obedient is cast, imparting to them a righteous form - a likeness to their teacher - Christ. And in hearty obedience true freedom is realized. The father, toiling home laden with gifts for his children, does not look upon his load as a wearisome burden. The mother, with her fresh responsibilities and cares, delights in the maternal yoke. Love alters the bias, oils the wheels of duty. Christ has won the hearts of his people, and to serve him is an honour and a joy. He strikes off the shackles of sin, and we welcome the golden chains of righteous obedience. We do not deny that sin has its pleasures; but, in comparison with the sense of purity and elevation which the service of Christ furnishes, there is the difference between the hot, stifling atmosphere of the music-hall and the sweet bracing air of the mountain-top. III. THE THANKSGIVING FOR THE DELIVERANCE. None could think that the rendering of the Authorized Version implied Paul's delight at the former unrighteousness; but the Revised rendering is less ambiguous to the hurried reader. The phrase, "thank God," used to be a stock insertion in ordinary letters. Here it is no unmeaning ascription, filling up the interstices of speech, but a devout acknowledgment of sincere gratitude to him who instituted the gracious plan of salvation, giving up his beloved Son, and by his Spirit opens the hearts of an audience to attend to the message of everlasting life. It is the outpouring of the heart for the safety and honourable obedience of fellow-Christians. A pastor may offer it for his flock, a teacher for her scholars. Give glory to God! thank him with lip and life, by seeking to understand and obey the statutes and principles of the Word of truth, and by leading others to know the joys of redemptive obedience. - S.R.A.
I speak after the manner of men. I. ITS METHOD. "After the manner of men," i.e., (Gr.) humanly — as men ordinarily speak, borrowing any illustrations from common life. Spiritual subjects are made plainer by familiar comparisons, and so preachers should use simple language and homely illustrations. This was exemplified in Christ, and inspired writers in general. The most useful preachers have ever been those who speak most humanly. The arrow too high flies over the head; too low falls short of the mark.II. THE REASON FOR THE METHOD. "The infirmity of your flesh" — imperfect knowledge through the flesh — an apology for the use of the expression "slaves," etc. Some believers are still babes and carnal (1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Hebrews 5:12-14); others are spiritual and of a full age. In God's family are fathers, young men, little children (1 John 2:12-14). The flesh is an impediment to the apprehension of truth. Carnal nature views holiness not as liberty but as bondage. Arguments and modes of speaking to be adapted to the hearer's state. Let not the mature and enlightened, then, cavil at methods adapted to reach the immature and ignorant and vice versa. III. ITS SUBSTANCE. 1. A reminiscence. "As ye have yielded your members" servants —(1) To uncleanness, a characteristic of heathen life in general (Romans 1:24). Uncleanness is sin against oneself: unchastity of life. All sin is uncleanness; some sins especially so (Romans 13:13). The greatest slave is he who serves sensual pleasures.(2) To iniquity — unlawfulness — what is opposed to God's law, and even the laws of human society (Luke 18:4). Uncleanness and iniquity include the whole circumference of sin (Matthew 15:19).(3) Unto iniquity — to the practice of iniquity as a result; to an always still greater progress and depth in iniquity. The practice is the necessary effect of the bondage. Sin allows none of its servants to remain idle. 2. An enforcement of duty. "Even so now" — as heartily and thoroughly, and in consideration of the past "yield your members" —(1) Servants to righteousness. Still servants, but to righteousness instead of sin. Christ gives His disciples a yoke, but it is an easy one. Servitude to righteousness means truest liberty.(2) Unto holiness — so as to practise and grow in it. Holiness is that which is in accordance with God's will, and embraces the whole man (1 Thessalonians 5:23). It is a matter of growth. The faithful performance of one duty prepares for that of another. Victory over one sin strengthens us for victory over a second. The practice of righteousness confirms the principle of holiness. Gracious acts strengthen gracious habits, as labour adds to muscle. (T. Robinson, D. D.) ? — To determine your choice consider —I. THE CONTRAST. 1. Sin conducts you from iniquity to iniquity. 2. God will lead you in the path of holiness. II. THE IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES. 1. The fruit of sin is shame. 2. Of faith is holiness. III. THE FINAL RESULT. 1. The wages of sin is death. 2. The gift of God eternal life. (J. Lyth, D. D.) Then you escape —1. Out of disgraceful impurity into true holiness (vers. 19-21). 2. Out of dishonourable servitude into true freedom (vers. 20-22). 3. Out of death and condemnation into eternal life (vers. 21-23). (W. Hauck.) I. The one was BITTER SERVITUDE; the other SWEET LIBERTY.II. The one has DISGRACEFUL NOTORIETY; the other PRAISEWORTHY MODESTY. III. The one has ETERNAL DEATH; the other ETERNAL LIFE. Note what Jesus says of these two ways and their ending (Matthew 7:13). (W. Ziethe.) Luther's domestic, Elizabeth, in a fit of displeasure, left his service without notice. She subsequently fell into sin and became dangerously ill. Luther visited her, and, taking his seat by her bedside, she said, "I have given my soul to Satan." "Why," rejoined Luther, "that's of no consequence. What else?" "I have," continued she, "done many wicked things; but this is what most oppresses me, that I have deliberately sold my poor soul to the devil, and how can such a crime ever find mercy?" "Elizabeth, listen to me," rejoined the man of God. "Suppose, while you lived in my house, you had sold and transferred all my children to a stranger, would the sale or transfer have been lawful and binding?" "Oh no," said the deeply humbled girl, "for I had no right to do that." "Very well, you had still less right to give your soul to the arch enemy; it no more belongs to you than my children do. It is the exclusive property of the Lord Jesus Christ; He made it, and when lost also redeemed it; it is His, with all its powers and faculties, and you can't giveaway and sell what is not yours; if you have attempted it, the whole transaction was unlawful, and entirely void. Now, do you go to the Lord, confess your guilt with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and entreat Him to pardon you, and take back again what is wholly His own. And as for the sin of attempting to alienate His rightful properly, throw that back upon the devil, for that, and that alone is his." The girl obeyed, was converted, and died full of hope.Among the spoils taken when Alexander conquered and captured Darius was a richly jewelled cabinet or casket in which the Persian king kept his perfumes and sweet ointments. It was carried to Alexander, who at once turned it to another and nobler use, and added a syllable to its name. He placed in it his copy of the "Iliad," saying, "This shall no longer be called myrrh box, but Homer box." What the "myrrh box" became by passing under Alexander's hands illustrates what the soul becomes by passing under the hands of its Divine Inspirer. By unseen influences (as certainly as by the miracle touch) God adds to the graces of "a chosen vessel" the gift of spiritual power and expression. He makes it empty that He may fill it with greater riches.For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 1. There is no condition so sad as that of a slave; and no slavery so hard as that of sin. There was once a tyrant who ordered one of his subjects to make an iron chain of a certain length. The man brought the work, and the tyrant bade him make it longer still. And he continued to add link to link, till at length the cruel taskmaster ordered his servants to bind the worker with his own chain, and cast him into the fire. That hardest of tyrants, the devil, treats his slaves in like manner. At first the chain of sin is light, and could easily be cast off. But day by day Satan bids his victims add another link. The servant of sin grows more hardened, daring, reckless in his evil way. He adds sin to sin, and then the end comes.2. Very often the slaves of sin do not know that they are slaves. They talk about their freedom from restraint, they tell us they are their own masters, that the godly are slaves. Once I visited a madhouse. Some had one delusion, some another. One thought he was a king, another the heir to a fortune. But one thing they all believed, that they were in their right minds. 3. The servants of sin bear about the marks of their master. I have seen gangs of convicts working on Dartmoor. You could not mistake them for anything else if they were dressed in the best of clothing. The word convict is stamped upon every grey face, as plainly as the Government mark is stamped upon their clothing. The servants of sin have their marks also. Look at the shifty eyes, and downward glance of the knave and the false man; the flushed brow and cruel eyes of the angry man; the weak lips and trembling hand of the drunkard. 4. The servants of sin have their so-called enjoyments, these are the baits with which the tyrant gets them into his power. For a time the way of transgressors is made easy and pleasant. The broad road is shaded, and edged with fair fruits and flowers. A saint of old once saw a man leading a herd of swine, which followed him willingly. When the saint marvelled, the man showed him that they followed him for the sake of the sweet food in his hand, and knew not whither they were going. So the servants of sin follow Satan for the sake of the sweet things which he offers, and know not that they are going to their death, even the living death of a lost soul. (J. H. W. Buxton, M. A.) Standing altogether outside it, having no relation to it, destitute of it, entirely unaffected by it; strangers therefore to its happy and gainful service. Possessing a freedom which is a bane and a bondage. A planet's freedom from the law which preserves it in its orbit; a child's freedom from the restraints of a happy home. This freedom pleases the flesh, but ruins the man; it is not mercifully given, but madly taken; it is Satan's miserable choice, "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." Note the latent irony of the text; "Ye were free"; but what kind of freedom? A freedom akin to that of hell. Freedom from righteousness a man's greatest misery; freedom in righteousness his greatest mercy.(T. Robinson, D. D.) You hear every day greater numbers of foolish people speaking about liberty, as if it were such an honourable thing; so far from being that, it is, on the whole, and in the broadest sense, dishonourable, and an attribute of the lower creatures. No human being, however great or powerful, was ever so free as a fish. There is always something that he must or must not do; while the fish may do whatever he likes. All the kingdoms of the world put together are not half so large as the sea, and all the railroads and wheels that ever were or will be invented, are not so easy as fins. You will find, on fairly thinking of it, that it is his restraint which is honourable to man, not his liberty; and, what is more, it is restraint which is honourable even in the lower animals. A butterfly is more free than a bee, but you honour the bee more just because it is subject to certain laws which fit it for orderly function in bee society. And throughout the world, of the two abstract things, liberty and restraint, restraint is always the more honourable. It is true, indeed, that in these and all other matters you never can reason finally from the abstraction, for both liberty and restraint are good when they are nobly chosen, and both are bad when they are badly chosen; but of the two, I repeat, it is restraint which characterises the higher creature, and betters the lower creature; and from the ministering of the archangel to the labour of the insect, from the poising of the planets to the gravitation of a grain of dust — the power and glory of all creatures and all matter consist in their obedience, not in their freedom. The sun has no liberty, a dead leaf has much. The dust of which you are formed has no liberty. Its liberty will come — with its corruption.(J. Ruskin.) People Paul, RomansPlaces RomeTopics Bondmen, Bondservants, Control, Free, Regard, Righteousness, Servants, Sin, Slaves, Sort, SubjectionOutline 1. We may not live in sin;2. for we are dead unto it; 3. as appears by our baptism. 12. Let not sin reign anymore; 18. because we have yielded ourselves to the service of righteousness; 23. and because death is the wages of sin. Dictionary of Bible Themes Romans 6:12-23 5004 human race, and sin 6746 sanctification, means and results Library May 6. "Reckon Ye Also Yourselves to be Alive unto God" (Rom. vi. 11). "Reckon ye also yourselves to be alive unto God" (Rom. vi. 11). Death is but for a moment. Life is forevermore. Live, then, ye children of the resurrection, on His glorious life, more and more abundantly, and the fulness of your life will repel the intrusion of self and sin, and overcome evil with good, and your existence will be, not the dreary repression of your own struggling, but the springing tide of Christ's spontaneous overcoming life. Once in a religious meeting a dear brother gave us a most … Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth November 11. "Reckon Yourselves Dead, Indeed" (Rom. vi. 11). February 24. "Sin Shall not have Dominion Over You, for Ye are not under the Law, but under Grace" (Rom. vi. 14). August 7. "Knowing this that Our Old Man is Crucified" (Rom. vi. 6). Sixth Sunday after Trinity Exhortation to Christian Living. Seventh Sunday after Trinity Exhortation to Resist Sin. Address on Easter Eve Twentieth Day. Holiness and Liberty. Love of Religion, a New Nature. 'The Form of Teaching' Christ's Resurrection an Image of Our New Life. Death to Sin through Christ Baptism --A Burial The Doctrines of Grace do not Lead to Sin Christ's Resurrection and Our Newness of Life Death and Life in Christ Alive unto God. Servants of Sin. The Parable of the Householder. A Sermon, by Bishop Latimer. "But if Ye have Bitter Envying and Strife in Your Hearts, Glory Not," &C. Schleiermacher -- Christ's Resurrection an Image of Our New Life How Christ is to be Made Use Of, in Reference to the Killing and Crucifying of the Old Man. Evening Prayer for a Family. Sanctification and Justification. 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