Who Owns You?

In Romans 6:15-23, Paul continues the economic imagery of a kingdom to explain the gospel and its effects on believers. He wants his audience to see that gospel salvation isn’t about behavior modification in order to earn eternal rewards, but that when believers receive the free gift of salvation we enter a kingdom unlike anything on earth, where the king and his subjects enjoy a wonderfully complicated relationship. When we see the metaphor of slavery through the ancient audience and through other scripture in the Old and New Testament, we see a beautifully unique relationship of Christ and his believers. In fact, we learn that slavery to Christ is our only True freedom.

To help his audience understand their relationship with God through Christ’s gift of grace, Paul uses the idea of a slave/master relationship, comparing believers to slaves, knowing that his audience would understand the standard economic contract between a slave and master in ancient Rome. In modern America, we  have a negative experience with this word: SLAVE. I don’t know about you, but living in the grotesque aftermath of American chattel slavery makes this imagery harder to grasp. Remember that the ancient Roman slave “doulos” would have had a wage for his labor, so it was more of an employee/employer relationship. It can be so hard to imagine this when we read the word “slave.” But, Paul’s image is held together with the idea of obedience and reward. A slave will be obedient to his master. A master will pay a slave for his labor. Therefore, this relationship is an economic transaction.

Thinking merely in this metaphor for now, what are some things (literal and figurative) that you are a slave to? What actions or behaviors do you get paid for (in money, gratitude, clout, admiration)? Who or what do you devote most of your time, energy, money to?

So, the question then becomes who or what are believers of Christ slaves to? Whom do we obey? What payment do we receive from our master? This language is far inferior to the actual, eternal, ineffable transaction through Jesus, but it does give us human words to describe our salvation. (Paul admits the metaphor is not ideal in verse 19, saying he is using “human terms” because of our “natural limitations.”) Notice the question is not “ARE we slaves?” We are all slaves to something, serving and obeying it, receiving payment from it. The question Paul has us contemplate is whether or not we are slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. Being a slave to sin leads to “impurity and to lawlessness.” Being a slave to God and righteousness is outward evidence of our faith in God’s promises; it is NOT earning our salvation. But, by seeking right things and obeying God’s law from our hearts, we produce fruits of the spirit and grow newer as we pursue God until eternity.

Are my masters of sin or of righteousness? What types of fruit do they produce? Do they produce fruits in or of others?

Up to here the metaphor seems utterly commercial and cold. I have to be a slave to God? I have to earn wages in my spiritual life just like my normal life? BUT this is where the BUT starts ruminating in my mind. The “BUT” that God creates out of what seems like an impossible situation.

BUT I’m going to be a slave no matter what.

BUT through sin and its “freedom” I’m earning DEATH.

This should make anyone want a different option, so this is where the greatest BUT happens:

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If this doesn’t convince us of our true purpose in slavery to righteousness surely the news that our master is a loving friend set to give us our best life is the best news yet. We are going to be paid in death through sin, but God calls us through his son’s sacrifice to receive a payment we don’t deserve and can’t earn: eternal life. And it doesn’t even stop there. The metaphor isn’t that we are a one-time receiver of a gift (although this is true, too). The metaphor implies that even before eternity, we receive fruit for our labor. I think this idea is often missed with just quoting verse 23. Adding verse 22 helps us look at our lives and purposes differently in light of this relationship with God. God wants us to live abundantly gaining fruit of the spirit and reaping fruits of disciples as we continue our servitude to him. Verse 22 also clarifies that freedom doesn’t mean complete autonomy. As much as we may think we want that, God knows better than to let our sinful human hearts rule. Freedom in God’s kingdom means freedom under God’s loving and generous rule. God knows that for us to have life to the fullest, we need his perfect law to protect us from ourselves: a law that feels like freedom, that produces peace and joy in our lives.

What are some sins that you’ve served? How have they paid you? Were they satisfying at the moment? Will they be for eternity? Are you reaping death from them?

What are some laws of God that are hard to obey for you? What would their purpose in protecting you be?

It might be a little discouraging if we think of our relationship to God as only slave to master. It’s not adequate, and scripture teaches us that it is only one facet of our relationship with an infinite God. One Old Testament example of the metaphor goes from simple slave to cherished wife in Hosea’s poetry describing Israel’s relationship to God. In Hosea 2:14-20, God tells Israel that although they have been slaves under his rule, they are also in a loving and committed relationship with Him as their Husband. Again, our biblical writers use human comparisons that fall short of a heavenly being, but we do get a good glimpse at how God views us, and he views us as much more than slaves. Hosea’s beautiful language describes God as a faithful husband willing to call his wayward wife back into his loving arms:

“I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.”

I’ve always loved the way Shane and Shane paraphrase this passage in their song “Acres of Hope:”

“He will allure her, He will pursue her and call her out to the wilderness with flowers in His hand. She is responding beat up and hurting deserving death, but offerings of life are found instead… You have called me master and though you’re in the dark here call me friend and call me lover and marry me for good.”

The song and the scripture it summarizes both capture a tender relationship beyond slave and master, a relationship of freedom and trust.

In the New Testament, Jesus emphasizes that our relationship is so much more than slave to master, too. He is the ultimate servant leader, not a power-hungry taskmaster. His humbleness in his death on a cross and his power proven when he rose from the dead prove that. But, Jesus’ humbleness and power are also displayed in this seemingly opposite relationship with us. In John 15:12-17, as Jesus encourages his disciples to abide in Him and love others, he uses the imagery of a servant.

“You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

Our wonderfully complex relationship with Jesus should encourage us to obey him, but not out of the obligation of a slave to his master, but out of the love and joy of a friend to his friend. Jesus is my master and lover; I am his servant and friend.