Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
10/10/10

Slaves to Righteousness
Romans 6:18

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Dear friends,

As I prepared for the sermon, I went over my notes on sermon text, Romans 6. I found a poem in margin of my notes that I had taken seven years ago. It is the poem Invictus and it ends like this:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus was written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley. This poet is convinced that he's in complete control of his future. This statement is based on personal observation, but concerning the one things that he needed, he was dead wrong. Humans do have ability to pick which crop to grow and who to marry and even sometimes correct injustice from a time. But when it comes to salvation, we are not in control. So the reason I made a note of this poem next to Romans 6:18 in my class notes was because this poem and verse 18 are opposites.

Mr. Henley the poet wrote, “I am the master of my fate.” St. Paul wrote, “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:18). The poet thought that he was in control of his fate. Paul knew the truth. We used to be slaves to sin, but now we are slaves to righteousness.

Slaves don't control anything. They are told what to do and when to do it. So slaves hope that they have a good master. But when your master is evil, life's bad.

St. Paul talked about this bad life. He described it from personal experience.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:14-25)

When we were conceived in our mother's womb, we were sold into slavery. And we were slaves to our evil impluses and desires. Our old master was the devil. But it goes deeper. Our sinful nature was our master, too. Like Paul said, he wanted good, but he did evil. There was a civil war going on inside of Paul, but it was a war Paul would have lost on his own.

But see how Paul ends? Not in defeat, but in victory! Who won? Jesus did and so did Paul because of Jesus. Jesus traded places with Paul on the cross. On the cross Jesus took responsibility for Paul by being punished for Paul's wretchedness. But Jesus also happily gave Paul the credit for Jesus' own lifetime of righteousness and perfection and goodness. God now looks at Paul and sees Jesus.

When we were born, we were slaves to sin. When we were baptized, we were born again as slaves to righteousness. Our new master, Jesus Christ, bought us. Dr. Luther said it best.

[Jesus] has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.

All this He did that I should be His own, and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as He has risen from death and lives and rules eternally. (Luther's Explanation to the Second Article)

We serve Jesus in righteousness. Because Jesus has set us free from our slavery to sin, we are now different kind of slaves. In the upper room on the night Jesus was betrayed by Judas, Jesus said to His disciples, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. This is My command: Love each other.” (John 15:14-17)

Slaves to righteousness love to love and love to do good. But the most important thing we share is our Master, who calls Himself our Friend and who died as our Savior. We were slaves to sin, but now we thank our Savior Jesus for our new status as slaves to Him, our righteousness, the One who God sees when He looks at us.

Therefore, I speak to you on behalf of Christ, our many sins have been forgiven and therefore we love much. Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace (cf. Luke 7).

Amen.