Last week the sermon focused on the gift of Holy Baptism, and if you recall, we talked quite a bit about the bondage or prison of sin. Sin is not just a poorly made choice or a description of our actions, it is the atmosphere we breathe as fallen creatures. We are going to sin because we are, as Saint Paul said, slaves to sin. So, in that context we found great comfort in the gift that is Baptism. To be baptized into Christ is to be baptized into His death. Therefore, because of our baptism, Paul goes on to say we must consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Your freedom from the prison house of sin is a new life given to you in Christ alone. Our Lord has smashed open the gates. He alone has liberated you and freely given to you all the blessings of eternal life. Just as God delivered His ancient people from the slavery of Egypt through the Red Sea, so He has delivered you from the slavery of sin through the waters of your baptism. Such is the nature of our God and His love for you.

In many ways, today’s reading from 1 Corinthians 6 acts as a continuation of that very topic. After all, all that discussion and proclamation about being free in Christ begs the question, “Free for what?” or perhaps simply wondering what this freedom actually looks like. You have been set free through the waters of Baptism. You have died and risen with Christ… but now what? This is precisely what Paul is addressing as he writes to the church in Corinth. He says, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.” You are free from sin, so all things are now lawful, but that does not mean all things are beneficial. In fact, some things will lead you right back into that old slavery. They will dominate you, control you, and become a new, reinvigorated prison.

Freedom in Christ does not mean you are unattached or that no one has a claim on you. Sometimes we assume this. We assume liberty means we are now completely independent, that we are all free-range, former slaves to sin who can scurry around this earth making our own way however we see fit. But that is not the way of things. You are not independent agents, masters of your own destiny, set free to chart your own course. No, you belong to someone. You may not belong to sin, to the condemnation and destruction of this age, but you still belong to someone. You belong to Christ your Lord. Freedom is not to be enslaved to yourself, to your passions and desires. Freedom is to be enslaved to the light shining in the darkness, to the very gift of hope that lifts your heads beyond the temporal life to the gates of Paradise itself. The question is, how do we now live? How do we live in this new life of freedom, in this new bondage to Christ?

“All things are lawful for me,” Paul says, “but I will not be dominated by anything.” The caution Paul is highlighting is man’s inexhaustible desire to take the blessings of God and turn them into curses. Good food becomes gluttony. Rest and comfort become laziness and weakness. The ability to organize and streamline functions of society becomes control and exploitation. Wisdom becomes arrogance. Piety becomes pride. The list goes on and on but perhaps Paul is wise to highlight what seems to be the most pervasive issue, sexual immorality. Sex, desire, passion, these are gifts of our God. They bind man and woman as the two become one flesh. They are foundational to care and protection. They are part of an emotional bond and a lasting commitment which not only produces children but also provides a crucial bond that gives strength and endurance to our life. Yet, this very gift becomes a new slavery, a new domination for those set free in Christ.

We may very well lament how our society is an oversexualized and debased one. From the rich and powerful trafficking underage girls on Epstein’s Island, to the pornography that permeates every social media app on every phone in someone’s pocket. But this is nothing new. Why do you think Paul is so passionate in his exhortation as he says, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?” He speaks this way because it is a problem. The people of God are living as if they were still slaves to sin, as if their bodies were their own and not bound with Christ. To live this way is dangerous for the Christian because it pulls us back into slavery, back into the domination of our own desires. Furthermore, sexual immorality is incredibly destructive, as Paul says, because it is not only an external thing, but also a sin against your own body.

Of course, these days our society seems to be having a constant conversation regarding gender and sex and every conceivable aspect of it all. People want to be defined primarily by their sexual identity. The gift of sex has become a transactional commodity in ways the ancient church could not have imagined. We have gone far beyond temple prostitutes to a hook-up culture without honor or any sense of the sacred.

Many years ago, I had a young girl confide in me that she believed she was a lesbian. She was terrified and did not want her parents to know, but she was also confused, unsure of what this meant and where it would go. At her school there was a whole community of people ready to affirm and guide her through this journey. But she came to her pastor, which I realized is a rare thing and, to be honest, I was not sure what to say to her. Except, there was one thing. I refused to allow her to be defined primarily by sex. Regardless of her attraction, regardless of her desire, she was above all things a child of God. Every time we met I would reminder her that as a baptized follower of Jesus, she is an heir of eternal life. She is precious to her Lord. So, He would not abandon her. He would not forsake her.

It became such a common thing that when I would see her outside of our meetings I would say, “Hey, guess what?” And she would smile and instantly reply, “I know, I know, I’m a baptized child of God.” That is right! These powerful desires fueled and backed by this fallen world, by the Devil, and by our own sinful longing for former bondage, they are no match to the gifts of Christ our Lord. And whatever label our world wants you to ascribe for yourself, it pales in comparison to the one Christ places on you. This is why, as Paul says, we should flee from sexual immorality. But that does not mean you just run amok, stumbling from one bondage to another. No, you are to flee into the Word of promise and forgiveness, toward a hope which is found in the One who has washed you and claimed you as His own.

The Apostle Paul reminds you that you were bought with a price. You are not your own. This is why how you live matters. You are to live in the freedom purchased by the blood of Christ your Lord. The issue here is not that you might bring shame to your Lord by your conduct. This is not a last-ditch effort to get you to toe the line. No, the focus is on your identity. When you go home today, look in the mirror. Take a good, hard look. What you see is the Lord’s. What you see is the work of the Son of God. Live like it. Live in His freedom, in the assurance and confidence that salvation is yours. Stop living like a slave to sin, for the more you do that, the more you will believe their lies, and the more you will embrace the prison from which Christ Jesus has already released you.

All things are lawful for you, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for you, but do not be dominated by anything. You were bought with a price. So, go with joy and glorify God in your body.