In Nomine Iesu

Pastor Thomas L. Rank
Trinity 13
August 21, 2005

Text: Romans 6:15-23
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

THESE ARE YOUR WORDS, HEAVENLY FATHER, SANCTIFY US BY YOUR TRUTH, YOUR WORD IS TRUTH. AMEN.

Free from sin in order to battle sin. This is the conclusion of this chapter 6 of Romans, and it is the teaching which is further explained in chapter 7. The Christian is indeed free from sin. Baptism, that powerful washing of water and the Word of God, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, has connected the Christian with the very center of the work of Jesus Christ: His death and resurrection. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are made yours in an intimate way through that work of God known as the sacrament of Holy Baptism. A child of Satan, one born in sin, born to die eternally, is resurrected and claimed as a child of God; saving faith has been created where there was only unbelief; life has been given where there was only death; forgiveness has been given where there was only sin.

The work of Jesus Christ at Mount Calvary, His suffering and bloody death on that cursed tree, the cross, has been given to you, poured out on you, made yours by the grace of God. And all of this means that you are free from sin. Sin has no power, no dominion, no claim on you anymore.

However, that great freedom from sin becomes a stumbling block in this way. We think: "since I am saved, it really doesn't matter how I live anymore. God is going to be nice to me when I die no matter what I do, so I have the freedom to live as I choose, knowing there are no evil consequences for me." This is the very thinking which St. Paul addresses twice in very strong terms in this chapter six. He starts the chapter with: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" He picks up the same thought at the start of our text today, repeating the very argument: "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?"

St. Paul makes it clear that no Christian has the option of considering sin to be something that he may safely do, ever. The fact of the grace of God which covers all your sins does not entitle you to act, to think, to speak, in any way which breaks the Ten Commandments.

Yes, you are free from sin. Yes, you are free from the law. But what does this mean for your life? In one of the movies on the life of Martin Luther there is a scene in which Professor Luther is teaching students about this very truth of the freedom of the Gospel. One student asks: "So, does this mean I am free to do what I want?" Luther replies: "Yes, but what is it that you want to do?"

What do you want to do with time God gives you each day? Do you want to let your eyes be used to lusting and coveting? Do you want your hands to hurt and steal? Do you want your mouth to curse and gossip? Do you want your ears to be flooded with blasphemy and foul language? Is that what God has given you the freedom to do? If so, then you are not free from sin, but you are its slave. Whatever you obey, that is your master. And St. Paul tells us what that means: "For the end of those things is death." Being forgiven gives no freedom to keep on sinning.

Being freed from sin means that now you have another master, the Lord Jesus Christ. You are never without a master. You are never out of slavery. Either you are a slave to sin, or you are a slave to Jesus Christ, His servant, desiring to do His will. There is no neutrality, no middle ground in this. "...So now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness....But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life."

To be this slave of righteousness is not at all a means by which you achieve salvation or forgiveness. This is no work of yours to earn a place in the glories of heaven. Salvation is the gift which takes you away from sin and brings you to Christ. That work is done. Completed. Finished. Yet while you remain in this world you are given time, years, months, days. And it is in this time that you have been freed to battle sin, not to give in to it; to love your neighbor, not to harm him; to serve God, not to serve Satan.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." You are freed from receiving the wage of sin. Your sin deserved to paid in full with your own death, your own eternal suffering in hell. What have you been given instead? The gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. In this one sentence you have a beautiful summary of the difference between being a slave of sin, and a slave of God. The one receives what is due: death. The other receives not what is due, but a free gift, a gift bought by the death of someone else – Jesus, the Son of God. It is this free gift into which you are baptized.

Free from sin in order to battle sin. This battle is not easy. We will see in Chapter 7 of Romans how St. Paul describes for us the struggle of life as God’s child in this world, and it is no broad and easy path. But we have our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who has gone before us, pulled the teeth of death, chained Satan, and freed us from the demands of the law by covering us with His mercy, His free forgiveness of our sin. God keep us strong in the faith which alone justifies, faith in Jesus Christ. In His name. Amen.