Freedom #9—Free From Sin

You are slaves of the one whom you obey. … Thanks be to God that you became obedient from the heart to his instruction so that, being freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness … indeed to God, from which enslavement you derive the benefit of sanctification and its end, eternal life. Romans 6:16–22

Our normal way of thinking about slavery and freedom is binary: black or white, on or off, 0 or 1. We proclaim a “drug free” workplace, a “crime free” neighborhood. In football a “free safety” is a defensive player unconstrained by a specific assignment. In economics a “free market” is unobstructed by government hindrances to trade. When we borrow money, we are slaves to the lender; when we pay back our loans, we become free from debt. Sometimes the dualism of freedom and slavery seems like two sides of the same coin, especially when related to the advantages we seek to attain and the disadvantages we seek to avoid. When we make a choice between alternatives, we not only decide for the benefits we desire, we bind ourselves to the behavior that will yield these results. At the same time, we free ourselves from both the actions and the consequences of every other branch on the decision tree.  We can free ourselves from sin by focusing our hearts on the benefits God offers us, so that we desire these more than anything else; then we will obey his instructions. Freeing ourselves from sin—and its deleterious consequences—is the flip side of binding ourselves to God’s instructions for righteous living.

Sovereign Lord, thank you for making the freedom you offer so appealing and the instructions you ordain so beneficial. May my heart always respond with the best choice.