Slaves to sin

"For we know that our old self was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin ... " Romans 6:6


Let's go, in our imaginations, to West Africa, circa 1801. Very early morning in our village, just before sunrise. The night sounds are still heard, but there is another sound as well. It is the sound of heavy feet; different from anything we have ever heard before. There is also a sound that is completely foreign to our ears; later we would learn that it is the sound of metal chains clanging against each other. A rather pretty and somehow melodic sound, but also a frightening sound. As sleep tumbles from our eyes, we sense firelight moving in and out among our tents. Then screams. Babies crying and mothers shrieking. Mens' and boys' voices raised in anger and fear. Then darkness descends as a heavy club knocks consciousness away.


We awaken, you and I, several hours later, to horrific smells and a foreign, sickening movement. Another unknown sound is heard - a whip, slicing through the air and splitting open backs and arms and faces. Again, angry screams and the smell of blood. There are chains around our ankles and our wrists and we have been stripped of our garments. We are inside some kind of a large box, it seems. This box sways and moves - it is a ship. We are captives aboard a slave ship and life as we had come to know it is forever over. Tears spill from our eyes, even as we are forced to sit on tiny benches and row at oars. Anger that is kept under control by the chains, becomes our constant companion.


After days and weeks of anguish and death, we would do anything to be free once again, but there is no hope for us. We are slaves now and we will be slaves forever, or so it seems. The only way out would be for us to die; for dead men cannot be slaves anymore to anyone ever again.


Do you see that that is what Paul is trying to have us understand? You and I were slaves, slaves to sin, but we died and have been given the opportunity to live a new life. Those chains, which used to bind us, bind us no longer, because they were loosed from our dead wrists. Those whips that use to scar us can do so no longer, for we are dead and dead men feel no pain and fear no whips. And the slave drivers who made our lives so unbearable? As soon as we died, they lost interest in us. Do you get it? When we died to sin, we were set free from its mastery over us.

"Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"


Today, recognize that you died and that sin has no hold on you at all! Live as free men! And don't go back to your old life of slavery.