Whose Servant are You? A Meditation on Romans 6, for the first Sunday in Epiphany

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?

Epiphany is a season which reflects on the revelation of God made known to the world, and is a natural transition from Advent (season of preparation for God's prophesied arrival) and Christmas (season of God with Us as the Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ).  Here in Epiphany we reflect on who God has revealed Himself to be, who He has shown us to be, and the work of salvation He has accomplished for us on our behalf.  While it is certainly true that no finite human mind will ever fully grasp the infinite mind of God, we should expect that when God chooses to reveal Himself to us, He will teach us things He wants us to understand.  Just because we cannot know or understand the totality of God, doesn't mean that God can't teach us what we need to know.

Among those things He teaches us, and that our readings reflect on this Sunday, is the link between Baptism, Repentance, and a living, saving faith in Jesus.  In the Gospel text from Matthew 3, we read of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist-- a baptism which Jesus did not need of Himself, having no sin to repent of in either His human or divine natures, but a baptism which He would bless and establish for all His disciples who would come after Him.  At the end of Matthew's Gospel, the risen Jesus sends His Apostles out into the world to make disciples by baptizing (in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and teaching (everything that Jesus had taught them, and which we have now as the Scriptural writings of the Prophets and Apostles).  This same baptism is referred to by Paul in his letter to the Christians at Rome, pointing out the very real unity Christians have with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus through that baptism which He instituted and sanctified.  Such great things as the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation could not come through human works, and so we know that these gifts of grace which come through Holy Baptism are His works rather than ours.  Baptism is not something that people do, but something Jesus does through His servants in His Church, by His Word and Spirit.  This is why the Church has always greatly valued Baptism as a sacred mystery-- a Sacrament-- by which Jesus binds people to Himself, and the Vicarious Atonement of his Cross.  What Baptism accomplishes is a real union with Jesus by the power of Jesus' Word and the Holy Spirit, and not just a human work of proclamation or reflection.  Jesus is real, as are His promises and His Spirit, and His Word accomplishes what He sends it out to do.

In Romans 6, however, we find that there are other realities we must also be aware of.  Sin is also real, as is the devil who temps us into slavery by it.  In our fallen state, before the Word of Christ comes to us, we are enslaved to the devil and compelled by him and our fallen nature to do wicked, stupid, and unnatural things.  Our hearts are darkened to what is good, and we chase the phantasms of our own deluded minds, our own twisted passions, and our own corrupted pride.  In such a state the devil plays us like a drum, exciting our passions and fanning our proclivities to evil, all the while knowing that he leads us inexorably toward death and hell-- a work of insane rage and rebellion against the Creator who he has repudiated, and in whose image all mankind are made.  It is from this slavery to sin, death, and the devil that Jesus rescues us by His life, death, and resurrection, as He delivers to us forgiveness, life, and salvation by His grace which we receive by faith in Him.  This Gospel of salvation, the reconciliation of fallen man with our holy God for the sake of Jesus' sacrifice upon His Cross, pulls us out of our slavery to the devil leading to death, and makes us servants of God leading to eternal life.  Again, this not some philosophical concept or academic proposition, but a reality we cannot escape:  we are either slaves to the devil through sin, death, and hell, or we are servants of God  by grace through faith in Jesus Christ unto eternal life.  Today, every human being in all the world, at this very moment, is either one or the other-- you and I included.  We can only either be servants of our God, the Author of Life and all that is beautiful, good, and eternal... or rebels against him, the pawns of unspeakable evil, destined together for the fires of hell's eternal prison.  For every person that has ever lived or ever shall live, this is the reality they must face, either in this world or the next.

Our world, our communities, and our churches, desperately need this Epiphany.  They need to know who they are, who God is, and what He has spoken to them.  For the pagan world, under the diabolical sway of the evil one, constantly driven from one exhausting and unfulfilling  passion to the next, they need to know that there is forgiveness, life, peace, and salvation for them in Jesus-- that the twisted paths upon which they tread lead only to misery, death, and hell, but that the path of life, liberty, hope, and joy is in Jesus Christ alone.  As Jesus is the only Savior who has died for the sins of the world, reconciling the fallen world to the Father through His Cross, and giving the grace He earned for us freely by faith in Him, no other path can lead to eternal life.  God so loved our fallen, pagan world that He sent His Son to die for it, and sent His people to preach His Gospel of faith and repentance in Jesus that all might live in Him, rather than die in condemnation with the devil.

Our churches need this Epiphany, too.  Too long have our fellowships deceived themselves into thinking that accommodation to the pagan world and its demonic puppet master would have no real or lasting consequence for their people.  Too long have they taught their people that sin has no real significance when everyone in the culture is doing it.  Too long have they sought the praise of secular institutions, dreaming that the accolades and accreditations of sinful men would be worthy substitutes for faithfulness to the eternal Word of God.  Today the western churches shrink at alarming rates, having lost their saltiness in a corrupt world, no longer slowing its decay.  They have taught their people to become slaves to the same sins which pervert and torment the secular world, such that many in the world cannot see a meaningful difference between the secular paths of death inside the church from those outside it.  They need to hear God again speaking to them through His Word given through His Prophets and Apostles, that regardless of the denominational signs on the doors or the trappings decorating the building, the way of life is Jesus and none other.  They need to hear that what they teach matters, both for themselves and those whom they lead either into life-giving fellowship with Jesus or death-giving slavery to the devil.  They must be reminded that the praise of the world led by Lucifer will never give them what Jesus offers freely through His Word, and that they must choose which path they will follow, whose servants they will be, and to which ends they will go.

So, too, do each of us need this great Epiphany.  For the pagan enslaved in the snares of death, Jesus comes to you with His urgent call to repent of your wickedness, and in faith cling to Him and His Word, so that you might believe and be baptized unto eternal life in Him.  For the Christian who has compromised with the world and become enslaved once again to the evil one through sin, Jesus calls just as urgently to you for faith and repentance, that the blessing of your baptism might be restored, and your feet placed once again on the path of life.  And to everyone in our decadent and self-impressed civilization, who have forgotten or never known that sin has real and eternal consequences, Jesus calls out with truth in love that no one might live in slavery to sin, death, hell, and the devil anymore.  Hear the Word of the Lord as He calls to you today, that you might turn from the ways of death, and live in Him forever.  Amen.