Romans 6:17-18
17 “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness”
True freedom comes from being a servant of Jesus Christ.
I am a person who though intellectually convinced that the gospel was true, balked at committing my life to Jesus Christ. If anyone would have asked why, my answer would have been, “Because I don’t want to give up my freedom.” I truly thought that I was my own god and was completely free to do whatever I wanted to do.
However, I was completely deceived in thinking that non-Christians are free. They are not! Unbelievers are slaves to sin (John 8:34). Only Christians have true freedom (John 8:31-32) the freedom NOT to sin.
Paul reminded the Roman Christians that before they were saved, they “were slaves of sin.” The apostle’s use of the imperfect tense indicates that the Romans, like all unbelievers, had been in a continual state of slavery to sin. Every human ever born since Adam and Eve plunged the human race into sin has been born enslaved to sin, except of course, for Jesus Christ.
When a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, he or she becomes (v.17) “obedient from the heart” to the Lord Jesus Christ. A Christian’s initial act of obedience, repenting and believing the gospel message (Mark 1:15), is the first step in a lifelong path of obedience.
In the words of the apostle Peter, Christians are those who “have in obedience to the truth purified their souls” (1 Peter 1:22).
Paradoxically, it’s only those who have made themselves servants of Jesus Christ who are truly free. They alone are free to do what is right. Even unbelievers’ “good deeds” are sinful, since they aren’t done to glorify God, nor are they done from the position of being “in Christ” see (Matthew 7:21-23). Christian liberty is not the freedom to choose to sin, but the freedom to choose not to.
Renew today your commitment to be an obedient servant of God, knowing that “You are not your own, for you have been bought with a price”
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)