I'm a slave!

So I recently had the opportunity to do a devotion on "slavery" in the bible. Slavery to what? To our flesh and to Christ. What does it mean to be free in Christ? This is what I felt like sharing, what I have learned through scripture.

In Romans, starting with chapter 7 verse 14:

¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^a]">[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God's law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Paul ends this part of his teaching in a very awesome way: “So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s Law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of Sin.”

When we are re-born into the Body of Christ, by accepting, believing and Confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, we also adopt a new Law to live by. This law is life through the spirit. We can read about what it means to live a life "in the spirit" in Romans 8. Bound to the law of God, and the spirit, we are slaves to that law. We realize that “nothing is good lives in me, in our sinful nature”. We “have the desire to do what is good, but cannot carry it out” because of the law of Sin we are also slave to. The question is, who are we going to let be our master? Are we slaves to our Flesh, our Sin? Or to Christ? The Law of God? Truly as Christians, it is our goal to get to a place in our walk with God where we can call upon Him to give us the discipline and determination to shut down our flesh. To be self-controlled. This is what “living by the law of the spirit” looks like: Romans 8:5-11:
⁵Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶The mind of sinful man^a]">[a] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; ⁷the sinful mind^b]">[b] is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. ⁸Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

⁹You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Because we have accepted that Christ has risen, we are forgiven, and he now has “lordship over our lives”. Our sinful nature cannot control us any longer, if we truly have Christ living in us. We are dead to our sin, alive by our spirit. Our spirit in christ, now fuels our bodies, which have died. So sick. So, throughout your day, keep you mind on the spirit, and check and see if you are, in fact, living by that law, a slave to Christ. Remember the fruits of the spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Goodness, Faithfulness and Self-Control. So, "since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit, Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." [Galatians 5:25-26]

-Aaron