What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the fourteenth century, two brothers fought for the right to rule over a dukedom in what is now Belgium. The elder brother’s name was Raynald, but he was commonly called “Crassus,” a Latin nickname meaning “fat” because he was very obese. After a heated battle, Raynald’s younger brother Edward led a successful revolt against his older brother and assumed the title of Duke of his new land. But instead of killing Raynald, Edward devised an interesting imprisonment. He had a room in the castle built around “Crassus,” with only one door. The door was not locked, the windows were not barred, and Edward promised Raynald that he could regain his land, title, and anything he'd lost at any time he wanted to. All he would have to do was leave the room. The obstacle to freedom was not in the doors or the windows but in Raynald himself. Being grossly overweight, he could not fit through the door, even though it was of average size. All Raynald needed to do was diet down to a smaller size, then walk out a free man with all he had before his fall. However, his younger brother kept sending him an assortment of tasty foods, and Raynald’s desire to be free never won out over his desire to eat and appease his appetites. Some accused Duke Edward of being cruel to his older brother, to which he simply replied, “My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills.” But Raynald stayed in that room for ten years until Edward himself was killed in battle.

This story accurately illustrates the experience of many Christians. Jesus has set them forever free, and they may walk in that freedom from sin whenever they choose, but since they keep yielding their bodily desires and appetites to the service of sin, they continue to live a life of defeat, discouragement, bondage, and imprisonment. The truth is, whatever you present yourself to obey, you become its slave. For example, if you obey your appetite constantly, you are a slave to it. If you obey your ambitions of increase constantly, you become a slave to greed. Paul presents the choice we all have in our slavery: either it will be a path of sin leading to death or a path of obedience leading to righteousness and eternal life. We can either choose to be a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. One way or another, we will all serve someone and something. The option to live our lives without serving either sin or obedience isn’t open to us. There is no such thing as neutrality in this battle of God versus self. The old man remains imprisoned in his own desires and pleasures, but the new man may walk free of those bonds of sin and into the newness of life in Christ. Yet, as a follower of Christ, when we step out of servitude to sin, we are stepping into another form of servitude, that of righteousness. To be free from sin and to become a slave of righteousness means that sin is no longer your boss or your master. Now, righteousness is your boss, so you serve righteousness instead of sin and God instead of our own fallen flesh. It isn’t right or logical to think about pleasing your old boss when you change jobs. Can you imagine on the first day of the new job, leaving work at lunchtime and going to your old job and asking your old boss what he wants you to do? It just isn't right and doesn't make any logical sense, yet this is what many proclaimed Christians do!

The idea of a slave carries the following ancient ideas or definitions with it: One born into a condition of slavery. One whose will is swallowed up in the will of another. One who is bound to his master with bonds only death can break. and one who serves his master with disregard for his own interests. The following was once true concerning our slavery to sin: We were born as slaves to sin. Our will was swallowed up and captive to the sin within us. Our bondage of sin was so strong that only death – spiritually dying with Jesus on the cross – could break that bondage. We were so enslaved to sin that we served it, disregarding our own eternal interests, even when that sinful pursuit destroyed us. Now, the following is true regarding our slavery to righteousness: We are born again, now as slaves to righteousness. Our will is now swallowed up by the will of God. It is His will that matters to us and not our own. We are bound to Jesus with bonds that only death can break, but since He has triumphed over death and given us eternal life, those bonds will never be broken! And we now willingly choose to lay down and walk away from what we served before in our old life, instead serving Jesus in the newness of life, disregarding our own selfish interests.

The main point of Paul's words in today's passage is clear and could be summed up like this: If you have put your faith in God and His Word, you are now set free from the bonds of sin. Now, it is up to you to live every day consistent with that declaration of freedom and not remain imprisoned by your flesh, which has no actual power over you. As we read earlier in this chapter, we can be legally free and still choose to live like a prisoner, and sadly, many Christians do just that. Much like the Israelites under Moses, who wished to go back to the familiarity of slavery in Egypt, but all along, God had something much better for you ahead if only you would take possession of it. The promise land lies ahead for those who would boldly step into it! Paul has a simple command and encouragement for Christians in his day as well as in our current day: Stop living as who you once were and step boldly into who you are in Christ.