“But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
–(Romans 6:17-18, ESV)
- ‘I may not have many more opportunities of preaching, and I make up my mind to this one thing, that I will waste no time upon secondary themes, but when I do preach it shall be the gospel or something closely bearing upon it. I will endeavour each time to strike under the fifth rib, and never beat the air. Those who have a taste for superfluities may take their fill of them, it is for me to keep to the great necessary truths by which men’s souls are saved. My work is to preach Christ crucified and the gospel, which gives men salvation through faith.
— Charles H. Spurgeon
But then what? What do we do now that we are free to do anything that we want? It seems that most who have looked earnestly at this question have come up with just one reasonable answer. And that is to look back at the One who has set us free, and present ourselves as His slave to do whatever He wills – whenever He wills it.
When we begin to consider – even for a moment – the true magnitude of what each of us has been saved from, and the infinite cost of the saving action itself, this choice to freely abandon our freedom and re-enter slavery under a new Master is the only option that makes any sense.
And as we enter into this new bonded service in our Master we begin to actually take on His behavior and bearing. We begin to become like Him and find that this service is not servitude at all, but a joyful free-flowing existence imbued with His power. So, we can say as Peter did:
- whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. — 1 Peter 4:11
