Everyone Serves Someone: Who Do You?
Everyone is a servant of someone. Before Christ, all we did was ultimately serve ourselves and, unknowingly, Satan. Our identity before salvation was as a servant of sin, a child of darkness, wrath, and disobedience (Eph 2:1-3, 5:6-8, 1 Th 5:5, Col 1:13, 20-22). But upon trusting in the gospel of Christ's grace (1Co 15:1-4), our identity changes entirely. We are now servants of righteousness, freed from the bondage of sin so that we can bear righteous fruit that glorifies God, strengthens us, and blesses others (Eph 2:10, Col 1:5-12, Gal 5:22-23).
The passage below in Romans 6 gives us some remarkably clear insight into that change in identity, our current position, and what it means for how we live.
"[15] What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. [16] Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? [17] But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. [18] Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. [19] I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. [20] For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. [21] What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. [22] But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. [23] For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." – Romans 6:15-23
Notice that Paul doesn't ask whether we can sin under grace. He asks whether we should. And his answer is clear and swift: God forbid. Grace is not a license to sin. Titus 2:11-14 tells us that the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness, not embrace it. Grace kills sin, it doesn't excuse it. When we truly understand what Christ paid for us and who He has made us, the impulse isn't to see how much we can get away with. It's gratitude.
Everyone yields their members to something. Before salvation that choice didn't exist; we were bound servants of sin, free from righteousness in the same way a prisoner is "free" from the outside world (v. 20). But now, in Christ, we have been delivered. That's past tense, settled and done. "Ye were the servants of sin" (v. 17). That's not who you are anymore when you’ve trusted the gospel (1Co 6:11).
This doesn't mean we automatically live like it. Having a new identity and title doesn't mean we can't still succumb to our old ways. It means we now have the power and weapons to fight (Rom 7:21-8:13, Eph 6). There is no neutral ground here. It’s clear in verse 16 that whatever you yield yourself to, that is what you serve practically. We are always serving something. The question is whether we are walking in agreement with who Christ has already made us to be.
Our problem is that we routinely downplay sin and its effects while simultaneously downplaying the real benefit of walking in righteousness. It takes a deliberate choice to reckon the old man dead and remove what gives the flesh its foothold (Rom 13:14, Jas 1:13-16). Pride constantly pushes back against that reckoning, and we have to wage that war with intention, humility, and the spiritual weapons that we have (1Co 10:12, 2Co 10:3-5).
So what does sin actually produce? Paul puts it plainly in verse 21: what fruit did you have in those things you're now ashamed of? None. The end of sin is death. Not just the judicial death of condemnation and hell which we’ve been delivered from in Christ, though it certainly carries that weight, but corruption in the practical, daily sense: death of peace, death of relationships, spiritual decay, and sometimes physical consequences as well (Gal 6:7-9, Rom 8:6, 12-13, Jas 1:15). Sin never fills what it promises to fill.
On the other side, the fruit borne by yielding to righteousness is real and lasting: holiness and life (v. 22). That fruit, the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22-23, is not something we manufacture through effort or earn through discipline. It is produced by God in us as we mind the things of the Spirit and walk according to who we are in Christ (Rom 8:4-6, Php 1:11). It is a grace, not a wage. This brings us to the final crescendo of the passage: wages are what you earn, and what sin earns is death. But eternal life is a gift, freely given through Jesus Christ our Lord (v. 23, Eph 2:8, Rom 5:15-21). Praise God for His grace!
Walk in that. Remember who Christ has already made you. Reckon the old man dead and walk according to who you already are in Him (Rom 6:11-12). You are not a servant of sin any longer. It’s time to believe that and act like it, not through self-effort, but through the Spirit’s power, prayer, and the word of God that transforms us from the inside out when we believe it (Rom 12:1-2, Php 4:4-9, Eph 3:14-21, 1Th 2:13).
