No Longer A Slave

Romans 6:3-11

Have you ever heard of an animal, perhaps a dog, that was kept for a long period of time on a short chain?  He could only move a few short steps and then the chain held him tight.  After being kept this way, perhaps for years, the chain was removed.  However, instead of running free, the animal would still only walk the length of the chain and no further, as if he were still imprisoned.  Would you believe it if you heard of a prisoner, after spending many years in prison, is now finally allowed to go, yet he refuses to leave his jail cell?  Or a slave who has lived many years in forced servitude, yet when set free, continues to toil and serve the master?  As we read in today’s Scripture from Paul’s letter to the Romans, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are no longer slaves to sin, so why do we continue to act as if we are?

One of the themes in the Book of Romans is that those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior have died to sin.  Since this is so, how can we continue to live drawn to sin?  Paul examines this, and the symbolism of baptism to the death and resurrection of Jesus, in our passage.  Baptism in the days of the early Church in the New Testament was usually by immersion into a body of water.  It symbolized the death and burial of the Lord Jesus and the believer’s old way of life (vs. 3-4).  Coming up out of the water symbolized resurrection to a new life with Christ.  Our old sinful nature is dead and buried.  This is a reference to the work of the Holy Spirit at salvation.  Baptism symbolizes this union.  It separates a believer from his old life, and identifies him in resurrection with a new life in Christ.

Baptism is also an act of obedience on our part, after we have accepted the Lord Jesus as Savior.  We are not saved by being baptized.  We are baptized because of what it represents.  It is a public testimony that demonstrates what has happened in our lives as a result of being born again.  When someone places saving faith in Jesus, they are spiritually immersed with Him, united and identified with Him.  Since we are united by faith with Jesus, His death and burial become ours (vs. 4).  We are also united with Jesus in His resurrection.  Sin describes our old life, righteousness describes the new.

We are united with Jesus in His death and resurrection (vs. 5).  Our desires and captivity to sin died with Him.  United with His resurrection, we have freedom from sin’s hold on us.  The “old man” that Paul talks about is the unregenerate, unsaved self (vs. 6).  The old self died with Jesus.  The life we now have is a divinely given life, the life of Christ.  The unregenerate life and presence has been removed.  We should not follow the memories of its old, sinful ways, nor remain under its influence.  Although the old self is dead, sin retains a foothold with its corrupt desires.  The power and penalty of sin died with Christ on the cross.  Our old self died once and for all.  We are freed from its power.  We no longer need to live under sin’s power.

Before we were saved, we were slaves to our sinful nature.  Now we can choose to live for Christ.  When we become saved, our sinful nature dies.  However, certain aspects of our character do not go to their graves willingly.  If they are allowed to come forth, they will stifle the fruits of the Spirit in our life.  We need to treat the desires and temptations of the old nature as dead.  Jesus broke sin’s power over those who belong to Him (vs. 10).  Believers died to sin the same way Jesus did.

The “old man”, the flesh nature, cannot be disciplined, rehabilitated, or improved.  We must treat the old sinful nature as it is - dead (vs. 11).  We are no longer obligated to obey its desires.  We do not have to yield to sinful impulses, but present ourselves to God in obedience.

Once the penalty is paid, why continue to live as if in prison?  What does the prison or slavery have that we desire?  Each time we give in to the old nature, each choice we make to break God’s Word, adds another link to a slavery chain that Jesus died to set us free from.  That hinders us from enjoying the Lord’s blessings.  We should live our life manifesting the Resurrection, free from sin’s control.