Willful Bondage

    But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
    You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
    Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
    But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Those words are from the chorus of Bob Dylan’s song “Gotta Serve Somebody”. It is said that Bob Dylan became born again in the late 1970s, in no small part because of his friendship with the late Keith Green.

If this week is supposed to be a look at freedom and liberty and how Christianity works into those concepts, what’s with a devotional on willful bondage?

    “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 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? 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. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 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.” (Romans 6:14-19)

The Apostle Paul says that we Christians who are truly born again should no longer be slaves to uncleanness—a sinful lifestyle—we are to be slaves to righteousness. Why? For holiness:

    “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:13-16)

Paul used the Greek word doulos for slaves because it had a very specific meaning in New Testament times; this was a person who was owned as a possession for various lengths of times, but unlike American slaves these slaves could earn or purchase their freedom. Obviously a price had to be paid.

Still not seeing the connection between willful bondage and being a slave to righteousness? Paul further explains:

    “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 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.” (Romans 6:20-22)

If you willfully become a slave to God because of the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ, it produces holiness. When I was living my life as a lost soul, heavenly righteousness had no hold on my life. But when I surrendered my life to the Lord Jesus Christ I became indebted to Christ’s righteousness, and I did so of my own free will through the grace of Christ. Do I still sin? Unfortunately yes but I am no longer “free in regard to righteousness.” When I sin I now try to cover myself with a fig leaf and hide from God. Why? Because I am a slave to righteousness; I am owned by the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I will not confess my sin and seek restoration to God the Father through His Son, then I try to hide my hideous deeds from the Master.

We so often delude ourselves, even after we are born again, that we can somehow earn or for that matter lose our salvation. You trusted the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation; that’s all you had to do with it. If you did nothing to gain it, how can you keep it or lose it? We earn our paycheck and although we may thank our boss for our paycheck, we don’t thank him or her for the wonderful gift of our paycheck. But a gift, freely given in love, is something to be thankful for, and the gift of eternal life is something for which you should surrender your life.

    “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Who is your master?

Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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