VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE
By Elder Mark Green
“For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rm. 6.7).
There is a vast difference between being dead in sin and dead to sin. The difference is the matter of eternal life; those in the second state possess it and those in the first do not. Those who have not been born of the Spirit of God are dead in sin.
Paul says that God has quickened some “who were dead in trespasses and sins.” These people are in other places said by Paul to be “in the flesh,” which people “cannot please God.” It is not just a matter of their willingness to please God – and they have none – but it is a matter of ability; they are not able to do anything that pleases God; therefore, the only thing they are able to do is sin.
Those who are dead in sin are under the utter and absolute domination of sin. They are unable to do anything else. It is not a matter of their will (as the Arminians say) for them to come out from under this dominion of sin, but even their wills are in this bondage, for “there is none that seeketh after God” (Rm. 3.11). No one in this condition has any desire to please God.
They may engage in religious exercises, but they do so for entirely wrong and fleshly reasons, not in order to please the God of heaven. This is an involuntary servitude. This is not a condition they chose to be in (although they are perfectly content to be in it), but a condition in which they were conceived. David said that his mother conceived him “in sin” and that the wicked “are estranged (from God and righteousness) from the womb.”
Some men have been taken captive in battle and have become the servants of their captors to do their bidding in every particular. They are utter bondslaves to their captors – and so were we slaves to sin.
After regeneration, however, the condition changes. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (v. 6). This man has been born again; the body of sin has been destroyed.
Now, we need to be very careful here. Regeneration does not transport us from a condition in which we cannot do righteousness into one in which we cannot do any acts of sin; but it does translate us into the kingdom of God’s dear Son so that we are enabled to please God (do righteous acts) and have a desire to do so. All God’s children fit this description.
The problem, of course, is that “the body of this death” is still with us. We still have our old sinful natures to drag us down. The body of sin has been broken – we have been released from the utter and absolute dominion of sin – but we are still capable of committing sin and do so daily. We are capable of doing both righteousness and unrighteousness.
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (v. 16). Paul says that since our old man is crucified, we “should not serve sin.” We ought not to do it. Here is a servitude that is voluntary, something in which our wills are involved.
Being born again is not an automatic ticket to a completely righteous life. We have the ability to do right and a desire to do so, but in order that our conduct would be pleasing to God, we must put forth an effort in our servitude to Him. We are not robots, nor are we dead alien sinners. We are regenerated sinners, who are dead to sin, who have been released from its utter bondage, but who still are troubled by our sinful natures as long as we are in this life, and who must press forward if we are to serve God.
“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” If we give in to sin due to the weakness of our flesh and the temptations of Satan, then we have “yielded our instruments to sin.”
We have given up striving against that particular sin. Paul says we ought to “yield yourselves unto God.” God does not compel His children to obey Him like robots. He enables us to do right, teaches us to do so, commands us to do so and strengthens us to that end; but He does not irresistibly compel us to live an entirely righteous life. The experience of every child of God teaches us this truth. There is some “yielding” for us to do in this.
When the Spirit of God within us, and the evidences of God’s goodness around us, and the teachings of God’s holy writ all urge us to obey God, then we ought to yield to that. We ought to do it. We ought to walk in that strait and narrow path, and not give the members of our bodies over to sinful conduct. Anyone who says there is nothing for Old Baptists to do in the church never read this passage with experiential understanding. Paul has just given us a full-time job. – Editor