By: Curtis Baker
Last week, as we observed the analogy between the life of Israel and our own life in God, we saw how, once we are delivered from slavery through an “exodus” moment, the struggle in our life does not end. For Israel, after they were delivered through the waters of the Red Sea, they wrestled 40 years in the wilderness before being able to enter the promise land. For us, after we experience our exodus through the waters of baptism, we then enter into the wilderness of our own lives, where just like Israel, we learn what it means to be a slave to God rather than a slave to sin.
On the surface, neither one of these options looks too appealing. After all, when one talks about slavery, one is talking about something that is universally condemned as an appalling act of oppression. This would certainly be true of Israel’s slavery in Egypt, and also true of our slavery to sin. Slavery of this sort brings death. However, when we offer ourselves up as slaves to God, while it is true that we are learning to carry out his will rather than our will, it is also true that slavery to God leads to life and true freedom. That cannot be said about any other kind of slavery, physical or spiritual.
So how does one offer up their life as a slave to God rather than a slave to sin? Paul does not address this question specifically in this writing, but some practical guidance here might be helpful.
One of the things that the church has learned through experience over its many years of existence is that taking on sin in a head-on battle is rarely a wise thing to do. Sin is rooted in our habits (what Paul calls our “flesh”), and habits have a way of destroying our willpower. For example, have you ever tried to go on a diet and break your habit of eating unhealthy foods? If you are like me, you have tried a number of times and failed. Why? Because our eating is rooted in our habits, and habits, more times than not, are stronger than our willpower. The same is true in regard to our battles with lust, greed, anger, pride, and so on.
Because we have all grown up in a world that is immersed in sin, we learn sinful habits in a number of ways. Mostly, we absorb our sinful habits from our environment around us, which then leads us to choose to continue those habits, which finally leads to the state of being a slave to sin. Most of this happens without us being aware of it. So the movement away from enslavement to sin is one that must be consciously taken. But we cannot assume that we will just have the willpower not to sin when the moment is upon us. Just like athletes cannot perform their amazing feat without first training to do so, so also in the spiritual life can we not expect to be able to resist sin in the moment of crisis. We must train ourselves to be godly (1 Tim 4:7).
Any time a person goes into training, they take indirect actions in order to enable themselves to do what they can’t do by willpower alone. For example, if a baseball player wants to be able to hit home runs on a regular basis, he does not just get up to the plate and decide he is going to hit a home run. More than likely, he won’t be able to do it. But if he begins to train in the gym, taking actions which will strengthen his arms and increase the rotation of his hips, soon enough he will be enabled to do what he could not have done by direct effort. The same is true when we train for godliness. If we decide we don’t want to be greedy any more, we can’t simply decide by our own will power not to do that. Circumstances and habits will defeat us. Instead, we must take indirect actions that will train us not to be greedy–like giving more money away, or setting a limit on how much you are going to spend. Disciplines like these help us to live the godly life that does not come naturally. Of course, all of this must be and will be assisted by God’s grace. Throughout history, the church has recognized a number of disciplines that are helpful in training in godliness. Over the next several weeks we will take a brief look at these. God bless!
(Don’t forget to join me for A Message From the Heart radio program Sunday evening at 8:00pm on KJAK 92.7FM, or streaming live at www.kjak.com) (curtisbaker@hotmail.com)
Write to: P.O. Box 157, Slaton, TX 79364
