20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
Paul wrote this letter to a church of Jews and Gentiles and masterfully navigated the tricky waters of Law and Grace. The gospel message is in every chapter and these verses at the end of chapter 6 are no different. Paul’s message is simple. You are a slave to something, either sin or Jesus Christ. Bob Dylan put it in the vernacular in the song “Gotta Serve Somebody.” It may be the devil or it may be the Lord. What a slave wants more than anything is freedom. They may fantasize about what they will do when they are free. It may involve all the sins they couldn’t commit while in chains. The problem is that sin comes with a new and heavier set of chains. This freedom isn’t free.
About a month before graduating high school, I basically left home like the Prodigal Son and “sort of” moved into my friend’s apartment in Reading. “Sort of” means I didn’t pay any of the rent. I thought I was free as a bird. I soon found out I wasn’t. Freedom got pretty expensive and I soon found myself wishing I was home eating real food and sleeping on a real bed. We are free to live in a dump but real freedom comes from being under the roof of a loving mother and father.
It wasn’t long before I became a slave to Christ. Now I know real freedom under the sovereign control of Almighty God. You can know that too because Jesus gave us that freedom on the cross. He paid the rent because…
Freedom isn’t free.