Is Christ My Master?

This is my response to someone that I know on the issue of Lordship. I wrote this for him, but I know that anyone that reads this may benefit from this so please be patient and read the whole thing if you're going to read it at all. I am sorry for the length, but it's a big issue and I think that this is a pretty good response. The question I'm responding to is, "Can Christians (believers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ) be a slave to sin (can sin be their master)?" This person that I know heard a sermon by Charles Stanley, and apparently he spoke from Romans 6, he said that believers can be a slave to sin. I'll stay in Romans 6, mainly because Romans is so doctrinally based in it's delivery. I would attempt to give a defense for the other side of the argument; however, I know of now scriptural support for saying that a believer can be a slave to sin. Also I would like to mention that my response isn't addressing the issue of Lordship specifically I believe that the issue at the heart of the matter is Lordship/non-Lordship.

In response to the question in verse 1 "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?" Paul says in verse to, "May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" What does Paul mean when he says "died to sin?" Paul answers this in the following verses, "us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?" And in verse 4, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." Continuing on in verse 6, "our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;" It says right there without using any extra Biblical theological words that Christ died so that we would "no longer be slaves to sin." That's what he did, it was accomplished on the Cross, there's nothing that we can say or do to change that very fact. Based on this passage that if someone is living in such a way that would we would declare that they are a slave to sin we would have to assume that they are no longer a believer. Verses 1-11 are all about what Christ has accomplished for us on the Cross and the rest of the chapter, verses 12-23, are a call for the Christian to live in such a way that says he is what Christ has already made him. These passages make me think that if I were wholeheartedly pursuing Christ in prayer, reading his word, and seeking to glorify him through my life then I would have no sin left in my earthly body, but I don't do these things and I still do sin. Paul even goes as far to say that sin will not be a master over us because we are under grace, if sin cannot be our master then we cannot be a slave to sin. Verse 16 goes on to say that if you are a slave to sin it will result in death, if we are a slave to sin we will die and this cannot describe a believer because the rest of scripture would not support such an argument. If your a slave to obedience (through faith) it will result in righteousness. Now we are slaves to righteousness (vs. 18). We cannot be a slave to sin because we are now a slave to righteousness (vs. 20). Christ has freed us from sin, and as a result we are now enslaved to God, what's the result? sanctification and the outcome is eternal life (vs. 22). What I get from this chapter of Romans is that Christ has freed us from the bondage of sin and now it is our responsibility to get rid of all of the sin that we have been learning and loving our whole lives. Our sin is there, our hearts love it, and our hearts are going to hold on to it for as long as it can. Christ is at work in our lives and He's going to continually work in our lives to root it out, kill it. Romans 7:15-16 talk of our conflicting natures how we do what we don't want, don't do what we want to do. These conflicting natures are at war against one another (vs. 23) The good news is that we are not condemned by Christ because "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death (8:2) "He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh (vs. 3b-4) If I say that believers can fall back into slavery to sin I'm saying that Christ did not condemn sin in the flesh and that the requirement of the Law has not been fulfilled.

I can't understand how someone can read this book and come up with that another response to 6:12-16. If you just read this book and see what Paul is getting at I don't see how you can find support for and believe that believers can fall into slavery to sin. If I wanted to I could read verses 12, 13, and 16 and come up with such a doctrine, but, as I'm sure you'd agree, we cannot approach scripture this way. We have to read the Bible and try to understand what the author is trying to relate to us, we have to understand the Bible from the perspective from which it was written. I can't take my experiences and what's happened to me throughout my life and try to figure out how the Bible would fit into that mindset. If I had a friend who was living as a Christian for 20 years and apparently "walked away from the faith" I couldn't go to the Bible and try to figure out how it would fit into "my experience." I can't look at the world and see how it acts and then go to the Bible and try to figure out what it would say about how I should live according to the world. I have to read the Bible and read it and try and figure out what it says. Romans 6 says that I am not a slave to sin, that Christ has ensured this with His death, now I'm a slave to righteousness/God, that if I'm living as a slave to sin would then I have no assurance of salvation, and that it's my responsibility to live in such a way that says that I am a slave to righteousness/God. That's what it says and I can't let anything outside of the Bible affect my view of what Romans 6 says. If I do let something affect my view of Romans 6 that's not a part of the Bible then Scripture is not sufficient for all things, Hebrews 4:12 is not true, God is a liar, and now I have nothing but myself to live for. I've been criticized, by you, for letting what I read and hear affect what I believe, so what Charles Stanley says is irrelevant, in the end I could give one iota about what Charles Stanley says, I want to know what the Bible says. If all he did was give his view without expositing Scripture and giving a few verses here and there to support his argument than we cannot trust such a man. We need men like John MacArthur who don't give their opinions but teach straight from Scripture in the context of what the author is writing and don't pick and choose which verses they are going to use. I'm not saying Charles Stanley did this I haven't heard the message that you heard, but if he used Romans 6:12,13, and 16 to support his argument without looking at the rest of the chapter, then, well, I am accusing him of doing this.

The fact of the matter is the Bible is sufficient for all things and it's all we need to know the truth, nothing else, besides pastors and teachers devoted to the truth and what the Bible says, not what we believe. We need to remember that God is not like us and He doesn't think like us, so often we approach Him with our wisdom, and quite frankly every time we do that we end up with heresy. Arius, the father of Arianism, approached the Trinity with man's wisdom and he ended up denying the deity of Christ. He couldn't understand the idea of God being three distinct persons, each person being fully God, and there being only one God so he decided that he'd say one of those persons wasn't fully God. Such is the foolishness of man's wisdom. I can't understand how my friend of 20 years would walk away from the faith so I come up with a doctrine that would support my experience, we can't do that. The Bible says that He has no assurance of salvation and that we're suppose to treat him as a non-Christian. I don't like it either, my flesh doesn't any way, but God's Word says what it says and God's Word is good so I will rejoice and be glad because I know that my God is being glorified by my friends sinfulness. I can pray for my friend and hopefully God will bring him through this trial and sanctify him through it all, but in the meantime I have to pray and present the Gospel to this friend of mine and hope that it rekindles his first love.

I believe the issue here is whether or not Christ is our Lord as believers. I think this is something else that is made evident by Romans 6. Christ is making disciples, people that follow Him and obey his commandments. If someone doesn't act like a Christian they have no assurance of their salvation. If someone believes in Christ, then they have repented of their sin, without repentence there's nothing to be saved from. If someone is truly repentent of sin they will not turn back to it. Believers do sin, but sin is not the master, Christ is their master, they're slaves to righteousness. This may be an issue to be dealt with later. I do believe that I've shown that Romans 6 cannot be talking about anything else besides the fact that Christ died on the cross to free of from sin and he did it once and for all. Believers are slaves to righteousness and unbelievers are slaves to unrighteousness.