Reflection on Romans 6:12-23

Romans 6:12-23 (NRSVue)

¹² Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey their desires. ¹³ No longer present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

  ¹⁵ What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that, if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that you who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted ¹⁸ and that you, having been set free from sin, have become enslaved to righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of your limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.
  ²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ So what fruit did you then gain from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reflection

The small group of people called themselves “Angels,” even though they were not actually heavenly messengers.  In fact, they were far from pure messengers of light.  They all had complicated and murky pasts.  One came from a culture of drugs.  One had no parents, having graduated out of the foster care system without a family.  The angels were her family now.  One came from an overbearing, religious home, who felt trapped for years and years under the weight of unrealistic expectation.  Yet another had previously been trapped in a relationship with violence and belittlement. 

They all came from different backgrounds, but the one thing that they all had in common, as they gathered around the table in the church basement, was that God had at one point of another sent someone to help free them from their pasts.  Sisters, uncles, childhood friends, and coworkers had all been summoned by God to step up to the plate and step into their lives to free them from their pasts.  Learning of each other’s new found freedom, they all decided one day to start meeting after church to work together and identify people who were struggling in some way. They planned to intentionally insert themselves into these people’s lives, to help them be truly free.

They were like angels, servants of God, who inserted themselves into people’s lives to bring good news to unsuspecting people.  Thus, they called themselves “Angels.”  But, they also had a few biblical mascots, so to speak.

They loved reading the story of the Good Samaritan, a man who crossed cultural boundaries to help someone in a dangerous situation, investing time, money, and personal risk to share God’s love with that person.

They also loved reading the story of Ruth who left her own homeland to share in her mother-in-law’s grief, help provide for her needs, and be at her side in her struggles.

They read these stories over and over again, allowing God to inspire them as they helped a childless, elderly woman, whose husband had died, leaving her with no family.  The angels became her family and they brought the good news of Jesus in word and deed until her own death.  They helped a teen who left her own troubled home as soon as she turned 18.  They became for her the attentive family the girl had never found with her own parents.  There were so many more people to whom they became personal angels.

It was hard work, full of frustration and anxiety, but at the same time it was loving work.  It was freeing work.  It was fulfilling work that burst forth from the core of who God had created them to be.  They were free to be loving servants of Jesus.  More than that, their hands and feet were “weapons” of Jesus; weapons of compassion and love.

That is how Paul would describe their hands and feet anyway. He says that the hands and feet of those rescued by Christ are “weapons of righteousness” (Romans 6:13).  He says their hands and feet, are no longer “weapons of unrighteousness” (Romans 6:13).  Their hands and feet are no longer enslaved and enlisted to do things that are harmful and destructive.  They have been set free.  Instead, those who are rescued by Christ are set free to be enslaved to someone better: a new Lord, a new master, a new commander. 

Under Christ, their new commander, people are brought out of lives of pain and death and led into lives of love and purpose.  Their hands and feet will no longer be “weapons” that destroy relationships, but Christ will use them as “weapons” of love that seek to bring people together in justice and love.  Followers of Christ may be enslaved, but they are enslaved to eternal love.  Being enslaved to eternal love means they are truly free.

The small group of “Angels” were free.  They were set free to be slaves of righteousness, slaves of all that brings together rather than pushes apart.

Now, in the United States we talk about how we are the land of the free.  We are a nation free from the tyranny of government.  We are men and women who are free to plot our own courses in life.  But that sort of freedom is different from the freedom that the Apostle Paul talks about in Romans.

When we in the United States talk about freedom, we talk about how we are free to choose the direction of our own lives.  And though that has often led to lives of greatness and led to beautiful stories of patriotism, that freedom does not mean that we will necessarily choose that sort of purpose-filled life.  In fact, many people choose lives that enslave them to other’s expectations, enslave them to substances, enslave them to rotten jobs, enslave them to twisted ideals; in other words, enslaved them to lives of destruction.  Some people are literally made slaves, having had their passports withheld by their sponsoring employers so that they can be enslaved as cleaners, technicians, and nannies.  Yes, this is illegal, but it still happens.

In Paul’s eyes, the political freedom that we hold so dear does not necessarily lead us to be free people.  Paul points out that humans have a strong impulse to “present [our] members (our hands and feet) as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness” (Romans 6:19). 

I think of the man whose infidelity led to the breaking apart of his family, which led to his children hating him, which led to a deep depression, which led to him missing work, which led to the loss of his job.  Being enslaved to sin can result in the complete crumbling of life.  Being enslaved to sin is being enslaved to the wrong master.  What if you were enslaved to a good master?

“But thanks be to God that you who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted and that you, having been set free from sin, have become enslaved to righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18).

For Paul, the question is not if you are enslaved.  The question is to whom are you enslaved?  Are you following someone who feels compelled to promote life or someone who is chained to ways of struggle and death?  Are you following someone who leads to life and the eternal, or are you following someone who leads to what is not eternal?

Being enslaved to Christ means that we are free.  Jesus Christ has set us free from all that binds.  We are free to be people of grace.  We are free to be people who show love and bring life through all we do!  Why would we turn back to ways that do not promote life and love? 

Why would anyone turn back and be slaves in Egypt after God had set them free from their task masters?

Why would anyone continue to be a helpless leper in the street when God had healed them and made them whole?

Why would anyone face the threat of death by seeking revenge when God has created peace between us and our enemies?

Why would any of us decide to be a slave to sin when Jesus has set us free to be a slave of love and mercy?

You are free from sin.  You are free to love.  You are free to care about someone who is exploited or treated unjustly.  You are free to forgive even when someone does not deserve it.  You are free to live in slavery to Christ’s grace rather living in slavery to your own guilt and shame.

The "Angels" were free.  That small group of people were found by Christ and set free from their shameful pasts.  They were set free from their worldly concerns.  They were set free to choose to surround a lonely boy from the foster care system who kept running away from his placements.  Would supporting him with the good news of Jesus be easy?  No.  Would he be a worthy target upon which to aim their weapons of Christ’s love and grace.  Absolutely.  After-all, they had each been “freed from sin and enslaved to God” (Romans 6:22).  And a little boy was about to find out what that meant.

Take a moment to choose one person to whom you will be an angel; a person to whom you will direct Christ’s love and grace.