Dear Saints;

Another amazing fact about those who believe on Jesus as their personal savior is that we have become "slaves to righteousness". Having crucified the old person we were as a natural descendent of Adam and created us brand new persons, we are not only "dead to sin" but we are also alive unto God as slaves to righteousness. In order to free us from the habit and power of sin and selfish dysfunction God killed the old persons we were and created us brand new in Christ. It is this foundational truth that is the heart of the gospel for believers. We are no longer the same person we have always thought of ourselves as. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10)

Our faith in the fact that we are dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God is the beginning of a new lifestyle of grace and truth rather than the natural lifestyle of law and lies. In Romans 6:14 we are assured that sin shall not have dominion over us because we are not under law, but under grace. We are guaranteed the ultimate victory by the grace of God who has made us servants of righteousness. We were the servants of sin and had no choice but to sin. But thanks be to God that when we believed the gospel he made us servants of righteousness. The real person God has made us to be in Christ has never, is not now, nor ever will sin! We are now slaves to righteousness!

By identifying us as slaves to righteousness Paul means to emphasize our new life in Christ as being much more than simply dead to sin. Glorious as that is, we are also alive unto God! Being a slave to righteousness means that we will always do what is right in the sight of God as we follow his personal leadership in our everyday life. Does that mean that we have no sin in our lives to contend with? Not at all. As long as we live in these natural bodies, we are in conflict with the residual conditioning of the old persons we were known as the flesh.

The first step in dealing with our flesh is to realize and accept by faith that we are not our flesh but brand new persons who are slaves to righteousness. We are not only to count on the fact that we are dead to sin, but we must also count on the fact that we are alive unto God. The practical way we do that is to yield ourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Our new lifestyle is not a negative life worrying about what is sin and what is not sin and trying hard not to sin. Our new lifestyle in grace and truth is a positive yielding ourselves as servants unto God. Yielding ourselves as those who are alive from the dead means that we have to believe that we were crucified with Christ and raised up as the new persons who are slaves to righteousness.

Instead of obsessing over our sin problem of the flesh, we focus our attention on who God has made us to be so that we can fulfill our high calling of God to love others like Christ. Rather than trying as hard as we can not to sin, we trust the indwelling Spirit to lead us in loving others as slaves to righteousness. Our new identity in Christ means that we are dead indeed to sin and alive unto God as slaves to righteousness. By his grace God has not only made us secure in his love for us, but also significant in giving us a job that only we can do. Believing we are slaves to righteousness encourages us to engage in those good works God has ordained for us to do. Following the personal leadership of the indwelling Spirit of God we are free to be Christ to others as slaves to righteousness.

John