Sermon Tone Analysis

Title: “Enslaved to Serve”

Theme: In this passage, there are only two choices, two different ways of living: one is a slave either of God or of sin.

There is no such thing as an autonomous person, free of any master.

The person who imagines himself to be free because he acknowledges no god but himself is deluded; for such a self-serving perspective is nothing less than idolatry, the very essence of slavery to sin (1:21–25).

This is very much in line with the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, which stresses that not everyone who claims to be a believer will find a home in the Kingdom of God but only those who take seriously their calling to obey ().

It is possible for us to so overemphasize God’s grace and the principle of salvation by faith alone that we lose sight of the demands of God’s lordship over us.

This is very much in line with the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, which stresses that not everyone who claims to be a believer will find a home in the Kingdom of God but only those who take seriously their calling to obey ().

It is possible for us to so overemphasize God’s grace and the principle of salvation by faith alone that we lose sight of the demands of God’s lordship over us.

It is possible for us to so overemphasize God’s grace and the principle of salvation by faith alone that we lose sight of the demands of God’s lordship over us.

In this passage, there are only two choices, two different ways of living: one is a slave either of God or of sin.

There is no such thing as an autonomous person, free of any master.

The person who imagines himself to be free because he acknowledges no god but himself is deluded; for such a self-serving perspective is nothing less than idolatry, the very essence of slavery to sin (1:21–25)

(ESV)

INTRODUCTION

In 6:1–14, Paul responds to an objection that the very abundance of God’s grace in Christ encourages sin by arguing that Christ, in fact, sets believers free from sin.

In 6:15–23, Paul responds to a similar objection by emphasizing the “flip side” of this freedom from sin: slavery to God and to righteousness.

Slave imagery dominates this paragraph.

Paul also uses the language of freedom but less often.

Thus, it is not “freedom” that is the topic of this paragraph but “slavery.”

This emphasis on the Christian’s slavery—which Paul admits is not the whole picture; cf.

v. 19a—is necessary in order to show that the freedom of the Christian “from sin” is not a freedom “to sin.” Between the dangers of legalism and licentiousness Paul steers a careful course.

He makes it clear that Christians are free from the binding power of the Mosaic law while at the same time stressing that Christians are “under obligation” to obey their new “master”—God, or righteousness.

He makes it clear that Christians are free from the binding power of the Mosaic law while at the same time stressing that Christians are “under obligation” to obey their new “master”—God, or righteousness

For, as Paul makes clear, there is no such thing as human “autonomy,” a freedom from all outside powers and influences.

Either people are under the power of sin, or they are under the power of God.

The question is not, then, whether one will have a master, but which master one will serve.

Serving sin, Paul shows, leads to death; serving God, to life.

Paul repeats the objection of verse 1 in slightly different terms (suggested by the wording of verse 14) and uses the analogy of the slave-market to answer it.

Moo, D. J. (1996).

The Epistle to the Romans (pp.

396–397).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Bruce, F. F. (1985).

Romans: an introduction and commentary (Vol.

6, pp.

143–144).

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

In this section, Paul addresses another anticipated objection, closely related to the first: If Christians are now freed from the jurisdiction of the law and governed solely by the principle of grace, what’s to keep them from continuing in sin?

Doesn’t such a denial of the God-given role of the Mosaic law undermine the foundation of all morality and ethics?

Not at all, Paul responds, because true Christians submit themselves to God and are committed to obeying his desires.

If a person chooses to continue in sin, it shows that sin—not the will of God—is the real “master” of that person’s life.

Real Christians are committed to living a morally good life because they have made God’s desires their “master.”

How a person lives, then, shows who or what that person’s master is, for that to which we submit becomes our “lord.”

One cannot claim to be a follower of God and continue to live in sin; the two are mutually exclusive—to continue to live in sin results in eternal death.

Mohrlang, R., Gerald L. Borchert.

(2007).

Cornerstone biblical commentary, Vol 14: Romans and Galatians (p.

107).

Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

BODY

I. Rhetorical Question and Reminder of Consequences that actions bind us to powers (15-16)

15 What then?

Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?

By no means!

In both vv. 1 and 15 Paul asks whether the grace of God should lead to sin.

However, in 6:1 it is a question of sinning in order to gain more grace, while in 6:15 it is a question of sinning because of grace.

The reference in 6:15 is obviously to 6:14b, where Paul proclaims that the believer is not “under the law” but “under grace.”

Those who are joined to Christ by faith live in the new age where grace, not the law of Moses, reigns.

This being the case, believers’ conduct is not directly regulated by the law.

Under Jewish premises, such a “law-less” situation would be assumed to foster sin.

Christians would be no better than “Gentile sinners” (cf.

).

But Paul sees in God’s grace not only a liberating power but a constraining one as well: the constraint of a willing obedience that comes from a renewed heart and mind and, ultimately (cf.

; ), the impulse and leading of God’s Spirit.

Moo, D. J. (1996).

The Epistle to the Romans (p.

398).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Grace does not free us to do anything we want.

It does not provide the opportunity to live apart from all restrictions.

Freedom is not the exercise of unlimited spontaneity.

It means to be set free from the bondage of sin in order to live in a way that reflects the nature and character of God.

Mounce, R. H. (1995).

Romans (Vol.