Recently in America, we celebrated a holiday called Juneteenth. It commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. June 19, 1865, was the announcement of General Order Number 3 by the Union Army Gordon Granger proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas. Slavery is a horrible thing for anyone. It’s not original to America it’s been around as far back as biblical times, and unfortunately, it is still being practiced all over the world. In our current age, many young men and women are bought and sold into slavery for sexual uses. Human tracking is a horrible illegal problem all over the world. Yet, there is another slavery that has affected everyone. The color of your skin, the origin of your country, or the wealth you have does not exempt you from this slavery. This slavery puts all of us on equal ground. It is the slavery to sin.
It is this slavery to sin that causes one person to think they are better than others and can use them as they wish. It is the sin of pride that produces these actions. Psalms 10:2 teaches us that those who persecute or take advantage of the poor or helpless are full of pride. He thinks himself superior to others. In Proverbs 8:13 we are reminded that God hates pride. God will judge the wicked, proud person in his time.
Psalm 10:2 “The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.”
Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”
While we all think we are free because another person does not own us, we are all a slave to either Christ or Satan. This law was set from the beginning of time. Those who think they yield to neither are automatically yielding to Satan, and their destiny is hell unless they surrender to Jesus as their Lord. From the moment Adam sinned he broke the law that God had given them and became a slave to his sinful nature. Romans 6:16 teaches us that whoever we obey, we are their servant. Here he is talking about either Satan or God. In verses 17 and 18, Paul is thanking God that while we were servants of sin, when we obey from the heart and follow Christ, we become servants of righteousness.
Romans 6:16-18 “Do you not know that 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? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of 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.”
Even after we have chosen Christ as our Master, we still have the challenge to follow our Master wholeheartedly. Paul teaches us in Romans chapter 7 that sometimes our old sinful nature raises its head and tries to take over. He says the things he wants to do he does not do, but the things he hates he does. When we give our hearts to Jesus, we don’t automatically become giant Christians. We are on the road to sanctification. This is the process of becoming more like Jesus. Our old master doesn’t give up on trying to win us back until we die. His goal is to sift us as wheat, to destroy us as stated in I Peter 5:8. When we sin after we have given our lives to Jesus, it should grieve us greatly. We have disobeyed our Master. A Master that paid a great price for us. A Master that is also grieved when we sin.
Romans 7:15 “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”
I Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
I love Romans 8:1 because it assures me that when I become a slave to Jesus, I am no longer in bondage to Satan. I am not condemned to hell I am free from the penalty that sin brings. It no longer has control over me.
Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Jesus is the only Master that offers freedom. Satan and any other master requires bondage. With Jesus, we have freedom from the penalty of sin. We have the offer of eternal life that is perfect with God. We have the Holy Spirit living within us to help us overcome the desire to sin. He becomes our advocate and we become God’s child. This servanthood offers us a family relationship with other believers. No other master offers all that Jesus offers. No matter how the world treats us, whether it be prison and persecution for our faith, rejection by those we love, or even physical pain that can’t be relieved, we have a Master that is a good Master in every way. I can celebrate my emancipation every day because I am emancipated for all eternity with Jesus as my Master!
