Enslaved to a Donut – Romans 6

A text – Romans 6:12-23

6:12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
6:13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
6:15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
6:17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted,
6:18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
6:20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
6:21 So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.
6:22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.
6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A reflection:

Paul is writing here to the Roman Christians. It is one of the Bible books that Luther really loved. This section is making an argument to those new believers that, although, yes, Christ has already done all the needed work for the redemption of our eternal souls and that redemption was not bought by our obeying rules and laws (it was bought by the love and sacrifice of Jesus), it is NOT helpful to continue to live in sin just because we know we are redeemed anyway.

One might think of it this way. I love bakery goods. They are heavenly to me. Eating them gives me tremendous pleasure. If nothing mattered in this earthly existence, I could probably be found in a bakery all day long. And where would that lead me? To death from diabetes, heart failure, or cholesterol buildup and a stroke. It’s ok to have a donut now and then and even to take great pleasure in it. But when that activity keeps me from living out my holy calling from God who has saved me for holy work and a heavenly eternal life, that activity is sin. And sin leads to death, even if it takes a long time.

As the Bob Dylan song says,

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed, you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody

So then, what leads to life, and especially life in a solid relationship with God? Being not enslaved to baked goods, but rather being free to choose to be a servant or slave of … God. That kind of slavery will lead me to eternal life, and not just me, but anyone else who is looking to me as an example. Like my grandson or my neighbor or my cousin or my former students. Will I do that servanthood perfectly? Nope. Will I have human needs for baked goods? Yep. Will I buy one now and then? Absolutely. But that is different from enslaving myself to sin. Instead of living enslaved to donuts, almost every time I make a free choice for God and God’s calling of me, because God has already gone to all the trouble of saving my eternal soul. As Luther says, “I should fear and love God so that I…” choose the action that will lead us all into life and light. May I be bold enough and far-seeing enough to follow my own advice. Amen.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for calling each of us to life in you and abundant life at that. Help us to choose well so that we can live and work with abundant joy and energy in your Kingdom. Amen.