Day 16 – When Slavery is a Good Thing – Julie Earl
Romans 6
Who would have thought slavery could be a good thing? It is if your Master is passionately in love with you. I can’t think of a greater Master than a God who loves me so much that He suffered and died for me.
Romans 6 tells us that once you receive Jesus’ forgiveness, you are free from your sinful nature (as we discussed in the previous post). You are no longer a slave to sin, but a slave to God and righteousness. Since that’s the case, let’s think about this Master/Servant relationship and what it’s meant to look like. Let’s start with a peek at the Master and what He is like:
God is Love. According to 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 God is patient, kind, humble, honoring, not looking out for Himself, not easily angered and doesn’t keep track of wrongs. He is saddened by evil and excited when truth prevails. He always protects, trusts, hopes and never gives up! Now that type of Master is an awesome Master to obey. Everything He asks is out of love, honor and protection for us. Even if what He asks is hard, it is only for our good and the good of others.
Now let’s peek at the servant’s part. Does a servant or slave decide where to go, what to do and how to get it done? No. The slave is completely dependent on the master for every moment of every day. That may sound like a bad thing, and it can be if you are following the wrong master. Romans 6 tells us that we are all following a master. “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans 6:6).
The good news is that Jesus came to free us from sin so that we can follow God’s leadership rather than the devil’s. “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:22-23). When sin is our master, it leads to death – depression, emptiness, dissatisfaction, lust, selfishness, pride, anger and ultimately eternal death and separation from God. But when Jesus becomes the Lord of our lives – our loving Master – the amazing life God has for us begins here and carries on into eternity with Him in heaven.
The trick to having that incredible life here on the earth is being a good servant and trusting God enough to say “yes” to everything He asks us to do and say. When we wake up every morning we can say, “Good morning, awesome, loving Father! What are we doing today? Let’s have fun together!”
Much love!
Julie Earl with Crazy About You Ministries (CAYM)