When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

Romans 6:20-22

In Paul’s metaphor here, there was no choice, we all were slaves to one master or the other. As slaves of sin, we do sinful things that lead to an inevitable, earthly death. As slaves of God, however, we work to satisfy our Lord and Master. Fortunately, what satisfies him is also what saves us. Our wages are holiness and our end is not death but eternal life.

So we are slaves, but we are free to choose our master. We can choose a master who heals or one who kills, one who wears us down or one who builds us up. We can choose life or death.

Ethan Kirl