"Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.'"
John 8:34

Excuse me? A slave to sin? You sure about that Jesus? I feel pretty free. I feel like I can do whatever I want. I can chose to do that sin, but I could chose not to also. You see, Jesus, I've got this thing called free will that you must not know about.

This sound familiar? In some ways, I'm sure it does. Now, of course, we don't really sit there and lecture Jesus in such a condescending tone as what I just wrote---but it's a common argument for many people claiming to be Christians. We are enamored with this idea of being free agents, having free will. We do. Yet we don't.

I'm not saying you can't chose to wear your red shirt; or to eat chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla; or to date this girl or that one; or any of those petty things. You're free to do that. Go for it. Wear your red shirt, buy some chocolate ice cream, and get some vanilla for that girl you took out on a date. But don't try to claim you can chose to stop sinning whenever you'd like. That argument simply won't stand, at least not if Jesus is in the room.

People---Christians---get quite offended, angry, and indignant when someone else brings up the idea that they can't choose as freely as they'd like to think. But, there is no arguing the fact because Jesus is the one who talked about it. If you sin, then you are a slave to sin. Paul teaches that "all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God..." (Romans 3:23). All. That includes who? You. And me. We have all sinned. Therefore, we are all slaves to sin. We have no choice in the matter. We are enslaved to the lust of our eyes, the lust of our flesh, the pride within our hearts, the selfishness, the anger, and all the other detestable things that make up our sinful nature. Paul echoes Christ's words in Romans 6 saying "...you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (v.16)

So there are two options, as far as this blog is concerned: you're a slave to sin, or you formerly were. So, tomorrow, we're going to look at what happened to you to change that, or what needs to happen to you to change that and, as Paul said, be "slaves of...obedience, which leads to righteousness."

Grace and peace-