Everyone Serves Someone: Who Do You?
Everyone is a servant of someone. Before Christ, all we did was ultimately serve ourselves and (unknowingly) Satan. Our identity before Christ was as a servant of sin, a child of darkness, wrath, and disobedience (Eph 2:1-3, 5:6-8, 1Th 5:5, Col 1:13, 20-22).
But now, upon trusting in Christ’s grace, our identity in Christ is as a servant of righteousness. We’re free from the bondage of sin so that we can bear righteous fruits which glorify God, help us, and help others (Eph 2:2-3, 1Ti 2:4, Col 1:5-12, Rom 8, 1Co 2:11-14, Gal 5:1,13).
The passage below in Romans 6 offers some extremely helpful insight into our change in identity, our current position, and our current condition mentioned above.
“[15] What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. [16] Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? [17] But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. [18] Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.[19] I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. [20] For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. [21] What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. [22] But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. [23] For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”– Romans 6:15-23
Everyone yielded (allowed, permitted, surrendered) their members to sin before salvation and we still can after being saved, even though we shouldn’t. This passage does not imply that you automatically will yield, but that there is a choice and that we should yield. We didn’t have a choice before Christ, but now we have a choice to yield our members as servants of righteousness.
Just because we have a new identity and title, that doesn’t mean we still can’t succumb to our old ways. It just means now we have been given the power and weapons to fight! (Rom 7:4-5, 7:21-8:13, Col 3:5, Eph 2:10, Eph 6)
Our problem is that we downplay our sin and its effect on our lives while simultaneously diminishing our need for and the benefits of God’s righteous fruit. It is a constant war we must wage to quell our pride! (1Co 10:12)
The shameful sin that we used to be a servant to, brings forth no good fruit (advantage, profit, good derived). It brings forth death! It’s worthy of death (soul condemnation), it doesn’t fill us or satisfy our soul’s needs, it reaps corruption and spiritual decay, and sometimes sin can cause physical death! (Pro 10:16, Rom 5:21, Jas 1:15, 1Co 11:30)
Sin is a serious issue even after we’re saved. God is not mocked. Even though our identity is no longer as servants of sin, if we yield our members to sin we will bring forth corruption and still serve sin and Satan. If we yield our members to righteousness, we’ll bring forth life: satisfaction, love, joy, and peace (Gal 6:7-9, Gal 5:22-23, Eph 5:9).
