Romans 6:15-19
15What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
I've expected the Christian life to get easier, but there is nothing easy about slavery. Don't get me wrong, there is certainly joy to be found in a life lived for the Lord, certainly more than a life lived for the fulfillment of sinful desires, but I always thought that if I truly loved the Lord that tasks set before me wouldn't be tiresome at all. However, work is still work. For instance, as much as I love my job, as much as I find joy in it daily, there are tasks that I don't want to do, things I rather not be burdened with or bothered by, but when I took the job, I agreed to the whole package, not just the things that I find fun or interesting.
Romans 7:4 - 6
4Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.
So it is with the Christian life, there are parts of it that will always be work. A Christian works not to gain salvation, but because salvation has already been given through Christ. I used to think that this meant that a Christian is so full of the joy of his salvation and the power of the Holy Spirit that good works just naturally overflow and spill out of him. While there is some truth to this, this is certainly not true of all (or even most) of one's works. Some work takes real effort. Some tasks are completed, not out of joy, but because we've become slaves to righteousness, because we've been redemned by a new Master. All works are still the result of salvation, some come from the joy within us and others come because, like it or not, Christ has given us new marching orders.
The difference between salvery to sin and slavery to righteousness is that any work done for Christ will eventually (at the very least in eternity if not here on earth) result in joy. On the other hand slavery to sin, even if temporarily pleasurable, ultimately leads to death, both here on earth and in eternity.
So, if I know all of this to be true, why is it still a struggle to live for Him instead of sin? Paul put it better than I ever could:
Romans 7:15 - 25
15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
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