Slaves Of Christ | The Institute for Creation Research

Slaves Of Christ

“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22).

There are several words translated “servants” in the New Testament, but the most common is doulos, as in our text, and its actual meaning is “bondservants,” or “slaves.” Its root meaning is to tie or bind and was commonly applied to the slaves in the Roman empire at the time of Christ.

The apostle Paul had reminded the Roman Christians that they “were the slaves of sin” (Romans 6:17) before they had been saved, having “yielded your members slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity” (v.19). In Christ, however, “being then made free from sin, ye became the slaves of righteousness” (v.18). Those who are slaves to sin will ultimately receive the wages of sin, which is death (v.23), but the wages (or “fruit”) of righteousness is holiness and everlasting life, as Paul answers us in our text.

Thus it is not a burden, but a high privilege to “become slaves to God.” Paul even called himself, though an apostle, a “slave of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1; etc.), and so did James, Peter, Jude, and John (James 1:1; II Peter 1:1; Jude 1; Revelation 1:1). We are certainly no better than they, to say the least, so we also need to recognize that if we are genuine Christians, we are slaves of Christ. Since “ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men” (I Corinthians 7:23), much less “slaves of sin,” but of Christ.

This means, of course, that we belong to Him, and He has the right to do as He wills with His own. We have been “bought with a price” (I Corinthians 6:20), and we owe Him full obedience. As a slave is expected to respond to the voice of his lord, so we must hear and obey His word, without equivocation. “So now yield your members slaves to righteousness unto holiness” (Romans 6:19). HMM

The Latest
NEWS
Distant Galaxies Continue to Challenge the Big Bang
Recently, a team of scientists released data collected from 800,000 galaxies at different distances from Earth, all lying within the same narrow slice...

NEWS
Did Teeth First Evolve as Sensory Tissue?
One of the mysteries of evolution (there are so many) is the origin of teeth. The past few years have witnessed a remarkable flurry of research...

NEWS
''The Flood of Death'': A Mass Dino Grave in Canada
Paleontologists in Alberta, Canada, have recently unearthed “a mass grave on a monumental scale.”1 The BBC story speaks of Thousands...

CREATION PODCAST
The 100th Episode of The Creation Podcast! | Let's Talk About...
What role do in-person events play for a creation science ministry? How can you host an event through ICR? Are these events still important...

NEWS
Bone, Skin, Claw Lasted…150 Million Years?
Experts and educators have long assumed Archaeopteryx represents a transition from theropod dinosaurs to modern birds. All of this speculation depends...

NEWS
How Did Earth Get Its Water?
Earth’s oceans contain 321 million cubic miles (1.335 billion cubic kilometers) of water. The moon causes ebb and flow of tides twice in a 24-hour...

NEWS
New Fossil Discovery Upends Animal Evolution...Again
Reptiles belong to a group of animals called amniotes that also include birds and mammals. A new Australian fossil discovery of a clawed amniote demonstrates...

NEWS
100% Cicada Fossil
Cicadas are an unusual-looking insect belonging to the order Hemiptera (the true bugs, including bed bugs and aphids). If you live in the eastern United...

CREATION PODCAST
Earth’s Origins: Science, Theology, and a New Geology Textbook...
Since the late eighteenth century, most scientists have argued for a uniformitarian view of Earth’s history. They claim the world...

NEWS
June 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from...