In the previous lesson, we concluded that we are ...dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:11-14)
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. (Romans 6:16-18) The word "slave" is not a word many of us care to hear, especially those of us from certain ethnic backgrounds, because of our history of being forced into slavery, from the time of the children of Israel in Egypt to Africans in America, and this inhumane practice still continues in many places today.
But the fact is we ALL are born into this world as a "slave" of sin. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:5) How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? (Job 25:4) By obeying from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered! The requirements of righteous have been the same from the beginning to Abraham to Moses to Christ to today, For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” [Genesis 15:6] (Romans 4:3) Once we believe God and through faith accepted Christ Jesus as our Savior and Lord, for those who are of faith are sons of Abraham (Galatians 3:7), then we 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. 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. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:19-23)
When we were "slaves" to sin, we were weak in our flesh. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21) Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (I Corinthians 6:9-10)
All of us may not be guilty of committing all of the above sins, be we all are guilty of committing at least one, an all of us deserve the penalty of sin which is death, for the wages of sin is death. But thanks be to God that He didn't allow us to stay in that condition, but offered us the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (I Corinthians 6:11) Now we are "slaves' to righteousness, and God has filled us with His Holy Spirit to help assure us that we are free from sin and able to overcome the desires of our flesh. Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? (Galatians 3:5) By faith! So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. (Galatians 3:9) And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:24-25)
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. [Numbers 5;11-31] (Romans 7:1-3) Interestingly, Paul uses the example of marriage to explain how the law works. “For the Lord God of Israel says That He hates divorce...” Says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 2:16) "Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Mark 10:9; Matthew 19:6)
The law is the law and it can not be changed, whether we agree with it or not, just like marriage is a covenant between a man, a woman and God; and it can not or should not be entered into lightly, nor should it be broken, whether we want to stay married or not for whatever reason, because the two shall become one flesh. (Matthew 19:5; Genesis 2:24) That's why when we obey the law, God blesses us; we should have peace with man, and we don't have to suffer the penalty of being charged a lawbreaker. But if we disobey the law, God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day. (Psalm 7:11) God's justice demands that the penalty of sin be death, just life if the woman leaves her husband and she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress.
The only way the woman can be free to marry another man without being charged as an adulteress is if her husband dies, she is free from that law. We were once married to the law of "sin", but now we are freed from that law of "sin" because Christ Jesus died to set us free. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. (II Corinthians 11:2) Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. (Romans 7:1-6) AMEN!
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