686 - Slavery Leads to Life - Romans 6:22

When you become a slave to Jesus or a slave to righteousness, where does that end up? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. And today we're continuing our dialogue on Romans chapter six. And I want to continue talking about being a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. That's what the section seems to be about. Today, I want to read verse 22. "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you drive your benefit, resulting in sanctification and the outcome eternal life." And that's from the 1995 New American Standard translation of Romans 6:22.

Paul has been talking about this, , slavery to sin or slavery to righteousness. I don't believe there's a spot where we can be freed from being a slave to sin and not be a slave to God, or be a slave to Jesus, or to righteousness. I acquaint the phrase, slave to righteousness as working for Jesus. I want to be an employee of Jesus's and I want to do what he wants. And that's my mental model for being a slave to righteousness.

So now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification. And the outcome is eternal life. When I'm freed from sin, I'm immediately in slave to God. I'm not sure there's a spot where I can be freed from sin and not be a slave to God. I believe we're going to be slaves of something. We were created for a relationship with God. And when we know him, the better we know him, we realize that we're not just buds, that he is the God of the universe. He's the most powerful thing. He's more powerful than anything we can even imagine.

And therefore we are either a slave to sin, which is our own flesh and the world and the devil. Or we're a slave to God. And when we choose to become slaves to God, then it results in sanctification. What does that mean? While sanctification is the process of being dedicated, being committed to a particular thing, my sanctification is that more and more of my life becomes what Jesus would have it be.

I listened to him better. I take direction from him better. I transform myself a little bit with his help and the holy spirit living in us. He transforms me and makes me something dedicated for his will and his glory. That's our job as Christ followers is to be people who reflect Jesus to the world. We help others see what life following Jesus really looks like. And the outcome of all of this is eternal life. Eternal life is not something I believe we get when we die. I believe we get the rest of it when we die, but we can experience eternal life now. We can become the church. We can relate to other believers. You experienced joy in worship or in following Jesus, or even just spending time with your family. And these are glimpses of the eternal life that we get to live full time when we leave this life.

But we don't have to wait until then to experience it. We can turn from sin, assign ourselves to God and we derive our benefit. We become sanctified and we experience this eternal life. Part of the reason why we do these podcasts is to help marketplace Christians realize that our participation in that eternal life on a daily basis is part of Jesus's plan.

It's his goal to make us into the people that will help him be visible to the world. People see him when we live our lives obeying him. And to me, that's the greatest goal of being a follower of Jesus is learning how to be his vessel, his tool, his resource in every area of my life. Would you join us?

You can join a community of us who are chasing this very goal by joining https://community.followerofone.org. Today, let's pray for the people around us. Let's be more and more of Jesus's people, slaves of righteousness, and let him put us to work in the world.

Thanks for being a marketplace minister. And thanks for listening to this podcast. I'm grateful.

When you become a slave to Jesus or a slave to righteousness, where does that end up? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. And today we're continuing our dialogue on Romans chapter six. And I want to continue talking about being a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. That's what the section seems to be about. Today, I want to read verse 22. "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you drive your benefit, resulting in sanctification and the outcome eternal life." And that's from the 1995 New American Standard translation of Romans 6:22.

Paul has been talking about this, , slavery to sin or slavery to righteousness. I don't believe there's a spot where we can be freed from being a slave to sin and not be a slave to God, or be a slave to Jesus, or to righteousness. I acquaint the phrase, slave to righteousness as working for Jesus. I want to be an employee of Jesus's and I want to do what he wants. And that's my mental model for being a slave to righteousness.

So now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification. And the outcome is eternal life. When I'm freed from sin, I'm immediately in slave to God. I'm not sure there's a spot where I can be freed from sin and not be a slave to God. I believe we're going to be slaves of something. We were created for a relationship with God. And when we know him, the better we know him, we realize that we're not just buds, that he is the God of the universe. He's the most powerful thing. He's more powerful than anything we can even imagine.

And therefore we are either a slave to sin, which is our own flesh and the world and the devil. Or we're a slave to God. And when we choose to become slaves to God, then it results in sanctification. What does that mean? While sanctification is the process of being dedicated, being committed to a particular thing, my sanctification is that more and more of my life becomes what Jesus would have it be.

I listened to him better. I take direction from him better. I transform myself a little bit with his help and the holy spirit living in us. He transforms me and makes me something dedicated for his will and his glory. That's our job as Christ followers is to be people who reflect Jesus to the world. We help others see what life following Jesus really looks like. And the outcome of all of this is eternal life. Eternal life is not something I believe we get when we die. I believe we get the rest of it when we die, but we can experience eternal life now. We can become the church. We can relate to other believers. You experienced joy in worship or in following Jesus, or even just spending time with your family. And these are glimpses of the eternal life that we get to live full time when we leave this life.

But we don't have to wait until then to experience it. We can turn from sin, assign ourselves to God and we derive our benefit. We become sanctified and we experience this eternal life. Part of the reason why we do these podcasts is to help marketplace Christians realize that our participation in that eternal life on a daily basis is part of Jesus's plan.

It's his goal to make us into the people that will help him be visible to the world. People see him when we live our lives obeying him. And to me, that's the greatest goal of being a follower of Jesus is learning how to be his vessel, his tool, his resource in every area of my life. Would you join us?

You can join a community of us who are chasing this very goal by joining https://community.followerofone.org. Today, let's pray for the people around us. Let's be more and more of Jesus's people, slaves of righteousness, and let him put us to work in the world.

Thanks for being a marketplace minister. And thanks for listening to this podcast. I'm grateful.