True Freedom is Slavery to God

Trinity 7| Romans 6:19-23| Pastor James Preus| August 3, 2025

You are either a slave to sin or you are a slave to righteousness, that is, a slave to God. There is no such thing as complete independence. You are always bound to something. Satan lies and says that sin is freedom to do what you want, but sin is not freedom at all. It is compulsion which you obey. Yet, the only way to be free from sin is to become a slave to God. Now, St. Paul is speaking in a human way because of our natural limitations. But what he means by a slave to God or a slave to righteousness is that we obey God, that we belong to Him, and that we are united to Him to do His will. So, freedom is relative. You can be free from God, but that then means that you are a slave to sin. And you can be free from sin, but that then means that you are a slave to God and to righteousness. There is no in between.

If God has set you free from your sin, which we learned last week that He does in Baptism when He joins you to Christ’s death and resurrection, then you are bound to God to do righteousness. Yet, if you present your members to sin again as obedient slaves, then you reject the freedom Christ won for you and become slaves to sin once again. It is actually a very simple concept. You are a slave to whatever you obey, whether sin or righteousness.

Yet, what does it mean to be a slave to sin and a slave to righteousness? Our text teaches us three things about being a slave to sin and three things about being a slave to righteousness. First, it is a shameful to be a slave of sin. St. Paul writes, “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.” Now, it is good for you to recognize that sin leads to death and judgment. And that is the reason I think most people try to avoid sin. But are you ashamed of your sins? You should be.

Sin is shameful, because it places you on the side of Satan instead of on God’s side. Sin is shameful because you should know better. Sin is shameful because it reveals that you are a slave and that you deserve to die. It is shameful to trust in money or people or any other thing in this life instead of fearing, loving, and trusting in God. It is shameful to neglect prayer and to skip worshipping God, so that you can worship those things which are not gods, like money, sports, and leisure. It is shameful to disobey your parents. It is shameful to hate your brother. It is shameful to view pornography, to have sex before you are married, or to cheat on your spouse. It is shameful to lie, cheat, and steal. And to be a Christian means to be ashamed of these works of darkness.

Yet, there is no shame in being a slave to righteousness. There is no shame in trusting in the Lord God instead of money and people. There is no shame in going to church to worship God, even if it means that you are missing out on something else. There is no shame in honoring your father and mother and others in authority. There is no shame in loving your brother. There is not shame in chastity. It is not shameful for young people to guard their virginity and for married couples to be faithful to each other. There is no shame in honest work and speaking the truth to your neighbor in love and being content with what God has given you. Even if you suffer and are maligned for doing what is right, there is no shame in suffering for righteousness’ sake. And as Scripture says, whoever believes in Christ shall not be put to shame (Isaiah 28:16; Romans 9:33; 10:11).

If you are a slave of God, which is to be a slave of righteousness, then nothing can put you to shame. Rather, you have the opposite of shame. You have a name that you can glory in, a name that has been given to you by God, the name of Christian. As St. Peter says in 1 Peter 4, “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” (vs. 16)

Second, to be a slave of sin is hard labor. St. Paul writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sin earns wages. That means that sin is work. It is the task that your task master drives you to do. This is why St. Paul calls them the “works of the flesh.” In Galatians 5, he writes, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warned you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (vss. 19-21) Sin is labor which wearies the soul. It is not freedom to relax, even if the sin to which you are driven is sloth and laziness, because sin compels you to work against your renewed self which wants to be obedient to God. St. Paul writes in Romans 7, “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. … For I do not do the good I want, but the evil that I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (vss. 15, 19) And so, sin is a relentless slave master, which drives you to labor. Sin grants no rest. Sloth isn’t rest. Sloth is a heavy burden, which drives you against the good that you really want to do.

Yet, slavery to righteousness is not hard labor. Now this seems counter intuitive. What do you mean slavery to righteousness is not hard labor? How can slavery not be hard labor? And isn’t righteousness to follow God’s commands? How is that not work? First, because the righteousness of God by which we are justified and saved is not our own righteousness under the law, but the righteousness of Christ, which He earned with His perfect obedience, suffering, and death. God gives this righteousness of Christ to us as a free gift to be received through faith, as St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 4, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (vss. 4-5)

The righteousness of Christ which God gives to us as a free gift to be received through faith alone cannot be diminished in any way. You cannot make it greater either. Through faith you are righteous before God for Christ’s sake. Your sins are forgiven. You cannot make them more forgiven by your works or less forgiven by your sins. Since it is Christ’s righteousness, no fault can be found in it and no improvement can be made to it. And because it is received through faith as a gift, it does not depend on works at all. So, while being a slave to sin is hard labor, being a slave to righteousness is rest.

Yet, having been freed from slavery to sin to become a slave of righteousness, you naturally cannot return to be obedient to sin. And having received Christ’s righteousness through faith, you are now a new creation which produces its own righteousness. This righteousness which you produce does not save you. Only Christ’s righteousness saves you. Yet, everyone who receives Christ’s righteousness through faith produces righteousness as well, which is pleasing to God.

Yet, even this produced righteousness is not labor. While St. Paul calls sin the works of the flesh, he calls the righteousness we produce, “fruits of the Spirit.” He calls them fruits, because they are produced naturally, not through toil and labor. He writes in Galatians 5, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (vs s 22-23) These fruits of righteousness are not toil, because they are done with a willing heart with no threats of hell. That is why Jesus says, “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:18-30) Jesus is able to speak of an easy yoke and light burden, because with His own righteousness, He gives us the will to produce righteousness.

So, slavery to sin is shameful, while there is no shame to be a slave of righteousness. And slavery to sin is toil and hard labor, while slavery to righteousness is an easy yoke and light burden. Finally, slavery to sin leads to death, while slavery to righteousness leads to everlasting life in Christ Jesus.

St. Paul warns us, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8) The wages of sin is death. That is, if you sow sin, you will reap death. Yet, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. When you sow to the Spirit, that is, when you sow righteousness, you will reap eternal life. To sow to the Spirit means to follow the Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus, you will harvest everlasting life. Sowing to the Spirit costs you nothing, because it is the Holy Spirit who gives you Christ’s righteousness and forgiveness of sins as a gift. And it is through faith in Christ’s righteousness that you continue to sow to the Spirit.

St. Paul says that this slavery to righteousness leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. Sanctification is the act of becoming holy. To be holy means to be set apart by God. As your new self continues as a slave of righteousness, your old self becomes weaker and weaker in its slavery to sin. This is why St. Paul calls it sanctification. It is a process by which you become less and less like your old self and more and more like your new self. This path of sanctification leads to eternal life, not because you earn eternal life through this process, but because slavery to righteousness results in eternal life, and if you are a slave to righteousness, you will be sanctified.

So, St. Paul teaches us to have an active faith. To have faith in Christ Jesus and the righteousness He has won for you and which is given to you by the Holy Spirit. But to not become a slave of that righteousness, which leads to sanctification, means to deny the faith and to fail to reach eternal life. That means to become a slave to sin once again, which leads only to death and hell. Yet, if you have true faith in Christ and receive His righteousness as a gift, then you will be a slave to righteousness, and you will become more and more set apart from this sinful world until you finally obtain everlasting life.

So, do not be deceived by Satan’s delusion of freedom. Freedom from God is slavery to sin. But true freedom is to be a slave to God and of righteousness. There is no shame in being a slave to righteousness. Rather, this is an easy burden that leads to everlasting life in Christ Jesus. May we all obtain this life promised to us in Christ. Amen.