The Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans. (6:18-23) and the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (8:5-13)
In today’s epistle we hear the Apostle Paul’s words to the Christians at Rome. St. Paul would write these letters to the churches for many reasons. Sometimes he wrote to correct issues that were brewing. Sometimes he wrote to put the church in good order. Sometimes he wrote to teach or to clarify the teaching that these churches had received. Sometimes he wrote in order to check on the churches that he himself had planted. But above all else, he writes from a place of godly love, and concern for the people of these communities.
St. Paul in this 6th chapter of Romans uses the language of freedom and slavery. He uses it very naturally because the people lived in a time when such realities were quite natural. Slavery was common. Yet, as many of the great saints demonstrate to us, the Apostle Paul takes an earthly reality and he uses it to bring to light an even greater spiritual reality. He uses this language of freedom and slavery with a completely different purpose. In particular he speaks of being “set free from sin.”
In our world everyone seems to be fighting for a cause. People fight for freedom universally. Political freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of speech etc. Yet every earthly freedom is according to a Christian, a bit of a mirage. It masks a deeper and higher reality. The reality of our freedom is found in Christ. You don’t receive freedom in Christ until you are baptized. But once you are baptized it is as if someone paid off your debt. You weren’t freed to do whatever you please (although you may choose that path). You were bought at a price by Christ in order to be freed to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with your whole soul, mind, heart and strength.
St. Paul tells us that we are never actually free (not in the sense that we understand). We are always slaves but for the lack of a better word we “choose” our form of slavery. Sometimes people will want to come and talk about things they are dealing with, temptations they are having. They are sometimes irritated that the thing they are fascinated by or the activity they desire is not supported by the teaching of Christ and the Church. We have to realize that neither Christ nor the Church can stop you from choosing to go down a different path. God is love and because this is true, He gives us the freedom to choose a path. Even if we choose the path of destruction, Christ will allow us to go down that path. He will certainly try to find ways to correct us along the way and help us to repent and amend our way of live but ultimately, if we are firm in our desire for rebellion and if we choose a path that destroys our souls, the Lord will let us do so because He loves us completely. He cannot force us to love Him or to choose a particular path of life. Sometimes people so desperately desire this illusion of freedom that they chase it to their own peril. They run full speed ahead towards the edge of the cliff.
St. Paul writes, “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.” Meaning, they felt that they were free to do as they pleased with no consequences. They did not feel obligated to a moral way of life. Yet he continues, “But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.”
The members of the Roman church had once lived as pagans. They knew the life of prodigality and “freedom.” Yet at the end of that path they found that they were not only miserable but ashamed of what they had done and what they had become. In their love for personal freedom they found themselves completely enslaved and lacking the power to free themselves from their distorted way of life. They were stuck in lives that were fruitless and shallow and the only possible return from such a life was death, especially the death of the soul. Why? Because they lived a life apart from the love of God. To sin is to be distanced from God. To continue down a path of sin without repentance is to run away from life Himself.
Many are under the mistaken assumption that God punishes us, that He caused Adam and Eve to die. No my brothers and sisters. God warned them and He warns us of the consequences of choosing a path apart from Him. He warns us of choosing a life without Him. It won’t end well. It can’t end well. He knows this because He is the author of life and the author of us.
But St. Paul reminds the Christians that while they were slaves, they are now truly free with the freedom that only God can buy for you. He writes, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This is true freedom, to love God and serve Him with joy. But this freedom while it was free for each of us, was received as grace from God. It was not free for the Lord. He paid a very high price for us. He loved us so much that He died upon the cross for us, an innocent man condemned as a criminal. That was the price of our freedom. The Lord paid this with joy because He is the lover of mankind. He went along this path with joy out of His overwhelming love for you. Embrace this love as God has embraced you in His heart.
I will end with a quote from St. John of San Francisco who writes,
“…the Son of God came to earth and became man that He might lead man into heaven and make him once again a citizen of Paradise, returning to him his original state of sinlessness and wholeness and uniting him unto Himself.
This is accomplished by the action of Divine grace grated through the Church, but man’s effort is also required. God saves His fallen creature by His own love for him, but man’s love for his Creator is also necessary; without it he cannot by saved. Striving towards God and cleaving unto the Lord by its humble love, the human soul obtains power to cleanse itself from sin and to strengthen itself for the struggle to complete victory over sin.” + St. John the Wonderworker
May your freedom become an opportunity for complete victory to the glory of God. Amen.
