SLAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

1. “And having been set free from sin, YOU BECAME SLAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
2. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as SLAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR HOLINESS.”
   Romans 6:18,19 (NKJV)

• If you have been set free from sin, you become a slave of righteousness.

• What is being set free from sin?
  ~ Being set free from sin is to acknowledge that Jesus died for your sin and resurrected for your justification—to be made right with God (Romans 4:25).
  ~ You believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead and you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9,10).
• Whoever takes the step above has been set free from sin.
• If you have taken the step, you are a slave of righteousness.
• Before you took the step, when you were living in sin, you were a slave of sin, uncleanness, and of lawlessness (Romans 6:19,20).

• Now in Christ

• Now that you have come to Christ, you need to present your members [body] as slaves of righteousness for holiness—unto sanctification, separation to the Lord.
• It is difficult for many who claim to be born again to walk in the newness of life (Romans 6:4).
• The difficult aspect of Christian life for some of those who claim to be born again is reckoning or considering themselves dead to sin (Romans 6:12).
• If you reckon, consider or count, yourself dead to sin, you will not allow sin to reign in your mortal body. You will not obey your flesh, body, in its lusts.
• When your flesh lusts for sin, you will not satisfy, gratify, your flesh.

• Walking in the Spirit

• A believer in Christ should walk in the Spirit. You will not fulfil the lust of the flesh if you walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16).
• When you walk in the Spirit, you fulfil the righteous requirement of the law and you please God.

1. “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
2. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
   Romans 8:4,8 (NKJV)

• Therefore, to live a godly life in this ungodly world, you have to walk in the Spirit.

• The Holy Spirit is given us to help navigate our way through the oceans of life.
• You cannot please God with the arm of flesh; you can only do, please Him, by the help of the Holy Spirit.

1. “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
2. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
3. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
4. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
   Romans 8:11-14 (NKJV)

• We are called to worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:22,24).

• To worship God in spirit means to be submissive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit who resides on the inside of you—your spirit-man.
• Remember, human-being is a spirit, has a soul and lives in a body. And the Holy Spirit resides in the spirit, inward man, of the believers in Christ (2 Corinthians 4:16).
• If you are born again and have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God resides on the inside of you, in the person of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:12; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16).
• Therefore, there should be a fellowship, communion, rapport between your spirit and the Holy Spirit who resides in you.
• Through your spirit: Your soul, that is, mind; and your body, are subdued. Your spirit dominates and controls both your mind and the flesh.
• For this to happen, you renew your mind, make your mind clean, through the study of God's Word; thus, the flesh be subdued—tamed (Romans 12:2).
• To walk in the Spirit is to simply allow the Holy Spirit to take over the control of your life.
• If you allow the control of the Holy Spirit, you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).

• Take note: Read and study the Word for your soul, mind, to be renewed and saved (James 1:21; Romans 12:2).

• Present your body as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1).
• Presentation of your body could be done when your mind has been renewed (Ephesians 4:23).
• Renewing of mind is done by you as an individual through the study of God's Word—no other person can do it for you.
• When you renew your mind, the way you think changes, and you learn to know God's Will for you. You no longer yield to the flesh in its lusts.
• Renewing of mind is a work, a responsibility to take, thus any number of believers do not want to do it. It takes discipline to study God's Word and practice it.

• If your mind is not renewed and flesh not subdued, you will not be able to walk in the Spirit. You cannot but fulfil the lusts of the flesh in such a state (Galatians 5:16).

• By walking in the Spirit, you live in line with the Word, you live a holy life, thus you please God.
• If you do not live to please God you cannot get the best of Him. God's plans for your life may be hidden to you, since you are not in good rapport with the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-12).
• You can only know God's plans for your life when you have a good relationship with the Holy Spirit.
• And knowing His plans makes you fulfil. Fulfilment simply means accomplishing God's plans, and in it is joy and blessings.

• You will not fail in Jesus' name.
Peace!