If you have not noticed yet, the Epistle readings these past few Sundays have all been from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans. In fact, it will continue to march through this epistle for the coming weeks. Two Sundays ago, my sermon was titled “By Faith,” in which we heard again how our salvation is made sure apart from our works, that it is received by us through faith and faith alone. This same theme was amplified last Sunday in a sermon called “The Free Gift.” The assurance of salvation is found in a gift, and it is a gift you can never pay back and never earn. These themes are clear in the teaching of Paul. Yet, every time we hear them, they seem to us to be too good to be true. We end up waiting for the other shoe to drop, trying to figure out the catch. And this is not just an intellectual hesitation. We feel it in our lives. We experience the confusion between the words of Scripture and the reality we live.
I recall baptizing a man at my congregation in Georgia. He came to church quite late in life, after the passing of his beloved bride. He was lost, hurt, and desperately seeking answers. We met many times to discuss the faith and the church’s basic teachings. And eventually, he asked to be baptized. The very next Sunday, we did just that. It was a wonderful day. The congregation turned out to support him, and we even had a big celebration after the service. And then, about two months after the big day, he stopped by my study one afternoon. He had some more questions. He believed he had been saved by grace through faith alone. He trusted in the free gift of God which had been given to him and into which he was baptized. But why did it seem like nothing was different? Why did he still struggle with the same sins? Why was he still plagued with the same failings? And in various ways, do we not all have these questions?
The question which often looms before the people of God is, how do we now live? And if we do not live as we want to, does that mean our Baptism did not work? Does it mean the gift did not take? Or does it mean we need something more than faith to be sure of salvation? This is the issue Paul addresses in our text today. He comes right at it, anticipating our questions. He says, “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey.”
The way Paul frames this issue may seem a bit shocking to us, especially as Americans growing up in the land of the free and the home of the brave. For he speaks of us as slaves, slaves bound to the very things we obey, either sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to righteousness. There is no middle ground, no neutral existence. If you are set free from sin, then you become slaves to righteousness. If you are free in regard to righteousness, then you are slaves to sin. And this is experienced in a dynamic struggle within our lives, a constant tension we cannot escape.
It does not help that the world works hard to confuse and trouble our conscience in this matter. You are regularly encouraged to seek freedom, freedom to be true to your authentic self, to do what you want as long as it does not hurt anyone else. Therefore, do not let anyone or any institution tell you what you can and cannot do. This sounds like freedom, sounds like the path towards happiness and contentment. But Paul reminds us how this path is, in the end, not freedom but slavery. It is slavery to yourself, slavery to your own desires and passions, slavery then to sin. In fact, not only will you do what you want, but you will only do what you want. You are bound to it, a slave to it.
So, Paul warns you that to be bound to sin is to be bound to death. “The wages of sin is death.” There may be temporal joy and momentary gratification, but it will prove to be a path that leads you further and further away from the things of God and the true gift of righteousness. This is where the works of God come in. This is where we see the necessity of the free gift of grace which comes through faith. For if there is only death within ourselves, within our own slavery, then God works to turn you from yourself to Him. Instead of being curved in upon yourself, you are turned toward the author and perfector of your faith.
In the waters of holy baptism, you are born anew, free from sin. But as Paul reminds us, you are still a slave, a slave now to righteousness. You are a slave who treasures and guards the Word of God, the same Word that declares you to be forgiven, the same Word that promises life everlasting. This is a movement from death to life, a literal dying to yourself and living to God. Instead of being your own god and lord, you are turned toward the true God and Lord. Being bound now to the promises of God, you are given the assurances of life everlasting. The gates of Paradise stand wide open for you. Your seat is prepared at the great wedding banquet. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What Saint Paul is doing in this text is calling for you to live in this promise. Live as the people of God, live as the baptized. Present yourselves to God as instruments for righteousness. The assurance of your salvation is found in the work and promise of God alone, but how you live matters. To present yourselves as instruments for sin and unrighteousness is to turn back to the old slavery, to take up the tyranny of yourself. And we know where that road ends: In death and separation from God.
We all know this struggle. We all experience this battle within ourselves. Dying to yourself and living in Christ is difficult in a world that mistakes freedom for slavery. This is where life together comes into it. This fellowship, here and now, provides the structure, encouragement, and support to continue living in the promises of your Baptism. Here, among your brothers and sisters, you find the rhythm of continually dying so you might live. Here, we confess sins and receive forgiveness. Here, we are embraced by the promises of our God in water and word, bread and wine. Here, we learn from one another to rejoice in the slavery of righteousness.
