When You Were Slaves of Sin

[Sue J Love]

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:20-23 NASB’95)

When we, as human beings, are born into this world, we are born with sin natures, in the image of Adam, separate from God and unable, within ourselves, to be approved by God. There is not anything we can do in our human flesh to be acceptable to God and to receive salvation from sin and eternal life with God. We are dead in our sins and hell is our destiny unless we, by faith in Jesus Christ, die with him to sin and obey his commands.

So, outside of biblical faith in Jesus Christ we are slaves to sin. And this means that we are free in regard to righteousness, i.e. we are free from righteousness and godliness, moral purity and uprightness, fellowship with Jesus Christ, and walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands. They have no part in us if we are still living in addiction to sin. And the outcome of slavery to sin, and of not living in righteousness unto God, is death, not life eternal.

But, if by God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, we have died with him to sin, and we are now living to him and to his righteousness, in walks of obedience to his commands, and we are no longer enslaved to sin, but now we are servants of the Lord, in living for him, and in doing his will, by his grace, then we have salvation from sin, forgiveness of sins, and our hope is eternal life with God, but provided that we stay the course until the very end.

So, when this states that “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” we need to read and interpret that in the context of the whole of Romans 6. For what that says is that if sin is what we obey, and not obedience to God, the payment that we will receive from God will be death, not life eternal. Hell will be our eternal destiny, and not heaven, regardless of what faith in Jesus we profess with our lips.

For the gift of God, which is eternal life in Christ, has conditions for us to receive it. It is offered to all, but on the condition that, by faith in Jesus, we now die with him to sin and we walk in obedience to his commands, and sin is no longer our practice, but we are now followers of Christ who are doing his will, from now to eternity. It does not demand sinless perfection, but that we not deliberately and habitually sin, and that obedience is our practice.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

Walk With Me

By Al Langdon and P.J. Zondervan

Walk with me, walk with me,
Lest mine eyes no longer see
All the glory, all the story of Your love;
Talk to me, talk to me,
Like You spoke so tenderly,
When You talked there,
When You walked there by the sea.

Talk to me, talk to me,
Lest mine ears no longer hear
All the wonder, all the beauty of Your grace;
Walk with me, walk with me,
As You walked so lovingly,
When You walked there,
When You talked there by the sea.

Let me follow in the footsteps
That trod the shore of Galilee,
Let me learn to pray like He did
In the Garden of Gethsemane;
Take my hand, take my hand,
Teach me Lord to understand,
All the duty, all the beauty of Your love.

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When You Were Slaves of Sin
An Original Work / March 24, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love