Sin Is A Cruel Taskmaster

Romans 6:16

“Do you not know

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?”

Who am I serving right now? As I sit on my bed and try to do homework, all I can think about is getting a snack, or taking a nap. I also think about other homework that has to get done.

So the honest answer is often times I serve self, I do what's best for me instead of others. But myself or sin is a cruel task master, because no matter how much I give it, it's not enough. An hour or two after eating I'm hungry again. When I awake in the morning the sleep never seems like it's enough. Things are comfortable but I always want more. These things in themselves are not sin but can turn into sins. And what about things we know are sins, when I'm weak, tired, hungry and lonely they pop up. The temptation pulls at me, but giving in leaves me feeling worse than before. Sin is a cruel task master.

This verse has had a lead up, as Paul explains the bounty of God's grace he knows his listeners may be thinking that they could continue in any sin. Maybe they even think that they ought to sin more, why not God's grace covers it? I love the Old King James Version response to this kind of Thinking “God Forbid.” or as it says in verse 1-2 in the ESV “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” To think of grace as being a means to practice sin without consequence is to misunderstand the very nature of grace! The grace of God is not only to forgive, it is also to renew. It is a death of the old man and the birth of the new. To obey grace is to rest in God and have faith in Him, but through that naturally comes a change of heart by His Holy Spirit. The conflict comes because we are still wearing this mortal flesh and we must reckon it dead daily, because it desires comfort and to misuse the very things God created for our joy! Our flesh wants nothing more then to be on the throne in our hearts. It wars with the Spirit and the Spirit with it. This in new Christians especially ends up looking very inconsistent on the outside. It often brings one to a feeling of condemnation, and defeat.

But look at the verses 17-18 “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves to 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.”

So obedience comes from the heart, so many times I can be obedient outwardly but inside my heart is hard and stubborn. Think of the pharisees they were obedient to the letter of the law, but not the Spirit, this hardness of heart led to them killing the very Son Of the God whom they supposedly served!

Obedience of the heart looks like this, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Romans 7:15 “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but that sin dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of the mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” Romans 7:20-25

Now a heart of obedience will work outwardly, because there is life through the Spirit in us, so if we do good it is no longer us But Christ living in us, and if we sin it is no longer us but sin that lives in us. And as we walk more in fellowship with God there will be more of an outworking of His Holy Spirit in our lives.

And we are set free by this, that though we fail daily the truth is God sees us as righteous because we believe in His son. It sets us free to rely on Him for all we need, and as we walk in the Spirit we do not gratify the desires of the flesh.

And what does look like in it's entirety? Love.

“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10
Sin is a cruel taskmaster, thank Jesus by His grace and Holy Spirit I don't have to obey it anymore.

Application

Rely on God's grace and walk in the Spirit.

How?

tomorrow morning I will carve out time to spend with Him in prayer and worship by getting up at 5:30 instead of sleeping in till 6:30.