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
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...

CREATION.LIVE PODCAST
Getting the Gospel into People's Hands | Creation.Live Podcast:...
Can God use an atheist airline pilot to reach other nations with the truth of the Gospel? The answer, obviously, is yes.   Host...

NEWS
Chimp Genome Markedly Different from Human
An oft-repeated claim of evolutionary propaganda is that chimpanzee and human DNA are 98.5% identical. This high level of DNA similarity, which has...

NEWS
''73-Million-Year-Old'' Alaskan Salmon
Fish evolution remains an enigma. Evolutionists can only say fish first “appeared” over a half-billion years ago.1 Creationists...

NEWS
God's Memorial Day
“And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of...

NEWS
The Origin of Eukaryotes
Eukaryotes are multicellular organisms that contain diverse differentiated cell types. Within almost every cell there are subcellular compartments called...

CREATION PODCAST
Water vs. Wind: The Controversial Coconino | The Creation Podcast:...
Welcome to the sixth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old...

NEWS
Fossil Fish Finally Filmed
The bizarre lobe-finned coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) “that flourished some 350 million years ago”1 continues to be a thorn...