Romans 6:20-23

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 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. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Transcript

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Hi, this is Dr. Bill Branks, author of Love the Word. Allow me to read our text for today, Romans 6, verses 20-23. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 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. Hans Hoffman, an abstract impressionist painter, said, the ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. Earl should have listened to Hoffman. Let me explain. Years ago, I held a management position where one of my responsibilities was hiring truck drivers. I saw many colorful candidates and often had to sort through stacks of resumes to find the right person. The most memorable resume I ever received stood out, but not in a good way. Earl's resume was 47 pages long, typed with a manual typewriter, with many typos crossed out in pen and corrected by hand. Wanting to give the applicant a fair chance, I began reading his employment history. He had held 22 jobs in 17 years, and his resume had more cross-references than a Thompson Bible. For some jobs, he had less than a week, and he even listed his wife as a reference. Even with all the red flags, there was so much information I could not make a fair judgment. He killed his potential by burying it in irrelevant information. I came to appreciate the one-page resumes. Simple, clear, and to the point, with only information to make a fair decision. Many detractors of Christian faith should also take Hoffman's advice. Their rejections are based on false and irrelevant data. They clutter their understanding of basic doctrine into straw man arguments. They intentionally misrepresent Christianity's core beliefs, then attack their weak and distorted version, instead of dealing with the truth. The simple truth is, the truth is simple. The Apostle Paul has made this abundantly clear. Through various ways, Paul has described the simple truth of the gospel. We are slaves, in the harshest sense, of sin, or, slaves of God in the most benevolent sense. The slaves of sin end in death, and slaves of God experience sanctification and eternal life. Paul starts with the basics. We are enslaved to sin because we are unaware of unrighteousness, free from the boundaries of right and wrong. We think we're okay without a moral model. We have no objective measure for what righteousness is, so we are free from the standards of righteousness, but still guilty. How can we know we are breaking a law if we are unaware of the law? That's a valid argument, but it does not negate that we have broken the law. Once we know the law, we know our guilt. We need not remain in that guilt because God graciously gave us the standard of holiness and a way of redemption through Christ. We have no excuse when we remain slaves to sin. In another simple breakdown, Paul distinguishes between pursuing sin or seeking redemption. Sin has its wages. We are paid what we are owed for our sin. Bondage to sin bears compensation and bad fruit, separation from God, condemnation, and death. Those who seek Christ reject the wage-earning option and accept the gift, the truly free gift of forgiveness, redemption, and eternal life. The good fruit of abandoning sin and shame is sanctification and eternal life. We can shamefully work hard as slaves to sin and earn the wages of eternal punishment or abandon sin and accept a far more generous gift forgiveness and eternal life with Christ.