Offer myself to …

Romans 6:15-23

¹⁵ Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! ¹⁶ Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. ¹⁷ Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. ¹⁸ Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

¹⁹ Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. ²¹ And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. ²² But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am struck by the interplay between “offering ourselves” and the concept of being a slave. It seems to me that the writer of Romans is talking about voluntary slavery here, or willing slavery.

I’ve always conceived of slavery as something forced on a person – by circumstances, by foreign powers, etc. But here, the writer describes a slavery that is as a result of our choice.

The power of this for me is simple – when I think of slavery, especially slavery to sin, as something I’ve got no control over or no say in, I can excuse myself of responsibility. But this passage doesn’t allow me to do so.

Sin is something I “offer myself to.” I’m responsible. I can’t just blame the devil, certain relationships, the world. There might be pressures exerted on me from any or all of these. But I have a choice of response. I have a will in the end.

My responsible choice must be, in the words of Romans here, to “offer myself” as a slave of righteousness leading to holiness, and eternal life. Why, as a slave? Well, if I’ve used my will in the past to choose sin, and that’s a choice for death, it’s probably a good idea to focus my will, and constrain my will. Not because God isn’t into freedom, but because I can tend towards wilful self-destruction. Hence, constraining my options, with His help, towards what is righteous. That means, I constrain myself to a life focussed on living right with God, and with people. 

Lord, help me to focus my will on living righteous before you and with my fellow man. Please give me grace to rise in strong and clear personal responsibility here. Amen.

Written by Ps. Rob Waugh