Reading Romans 6 right now...
Now that we are justified, we should no longer let sin reign in our bodies, but should strive to kill it. As Christians, our world view changes, making us concerned with the heavenly things and not with the things that occupied our time before. We are no longer bound to the law, and therefore we are not ‘tied up in legalistic knots’* to try and maintain righteousness. We are free to live under the reign of God and not to be continually enslaved by sin. We should not give sin the opportunity to reign, nor should we give any ground to it because we are children of God and have been justified, and the rule of sin over us has been broken. We do not have to fumble around in the dark, we have Christ, we have peace with God, and we are made capable of killing sin by his work on the cross. We are no longer children of the devil who must play the world’s game and live in the flesh, we are children of God and must act like it, and can act like it. We are to present ourselves as slaves to God. Slaves are not autonomous; slaves do the will of their master. God will discipline us and keep us when we stray, but our responsibility is to seek his will in the word and live as though nothing matters but the glory of God. We are to be obedient from the heart to the teaching of God, which is given to us in His word. Before we are saved we strive and endeavour to satisfy our fleshly desires and to make ourselves happy. Now that we are justified and saved, the correct response is to strive for the things of God, and to present ourselves as ‘slaves to righteousness’. Slaves work for their masters. Work for God, because this results in sanctification. We cannot expect God to make us more holy when we are still presenting ourselves to the laziness and dissipation of the world. God will sanctify us when we follow the commands of scripture, which we are enabled to do by the great work of Christ on the cross. The benefits we received from our sin in the past were not lasting benefits and resulted ultimately in death and punishment. But the benefits we receive now from slaving for righteousness have eternal benefit and result in salvation.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23 NASB
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" Matthew 11:28-30 NASB
Let us not forget that although His yoke is most certainly an easy one, it is a yoke nonetheless. We are slaves to Christ - slaves, not associates, not coworkers, not buddies. God is for us, but we should not lose sight of the fact that our proper response to the love and mercy of God is work. We show the world what we truly believe by our lives. To often I myself am lazy and halfhearted in my slavery. What a pitiful and worthless slave I am! May God help me to be a slave who strives for righteousness.
* - From Voddie Baucham's sermon entitled "What is adultery?"
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