obedience from the heart

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

Everyone is a slave to something. Everyone has a master. This is a slavery that rises up from our deepest desires. We want and so we serve until we are enslaved. And although such a truth is unpopular in our culture, the actual condition is, slavery is the natural born state of every person on the planet. In gospel terms, we are either the slave of sin by birth, bound to do wrong with sin mastering us, or we are slaves of righteousness with Jesus as our new Master. Everyone is a slave.

This truth is visible every day. In fact, even for those of us who by grace have believed the gospel, remnants of sin’s shackles still show us just how real sin’s slavery is. We see it all around us. This world is a miserable plantation under the ownership of a sinful system of ungodly taskmasters who gleefully dominate people under sin, controlled by Satan’s cruel hatred for all the good that God has done.

What do slaves do? Paul is very simple yet profound: slaves obey their masters. And we will either obey sin or obey righteousness. But from the heart, the slaves of righteousness have a new way to obey. We have the teaching of the gospel and the example/call of Jesus that is modeled for us to follow. We are committed to that standard. A slave can choose to obey by outward conformance only, but that is not how we are slaves to righteousness. We willingly obey from a transformed heart. We are set free from sin’s absolute control of our hearts, and now we are willing slaves to a good and loving Master… Jesus Christ the Righteous! Serving with obedience to the gospel from our hearts, we find joy in the tasks that Jesus gives us… His yoke is easy and His burden is light. It is a joy to be Christ’s slaves. It is what we were made for!