Our Rescue Should Result in Obedience Because We Produce the Fruit of Who We Follow...

This week, we are looking at Paul's response to a second question that the members of a first century church asked when it comes to how followers of Jesus are to live their lives in light of God’s gracious rescue from selfishness and sin. And in the Apostle Paul’s answer to this question that we discovered the timeless truth that our rescue should result in obedience. Yesterday, we discovered that our rescue should result in obedience because we are slaves of the one we obey. Paul then continues to reveal a second reason why our rescue should result in obedience as he continues to answer their question in verse 19-20:

I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Paul begins verse 19 by explaining that he is taking this tone with the members of the church at Rome and speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. In other words, Paul is saying “I’m trying to keep things simple because there seems to be a lack of good judgment by you guys, based on the types of questions that you are asking.” Well that wasn’t a very nice thing to write. Paul then follows up his critique of their lack of good judgment with a command: “just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”

Here we see Paul commanding the members of the church at Rome, and us here today, to place ourselves at the disposal and be solely committed to living life in the relationship that we were created for by following Jesus. Instead of placing ourselves at the disposal of, and committing ourselves to serve selfishness and sin, we are to be solely committed to following Jesus. Paul then explains that the person who places themselves at the disposal of the moral corruption and lawless nature of selfishness and sin produces the fruit, or results of lawless words and actions.

However, the person who places themselves at the disposal, in a way that is solely committed to living life in the relationship that we were created for by following Jesus produces the fruit, or results of sanctification. As we discovered last week, sanctification, simply put, is the process by which we become like Christ in character and actions. This process, however, is both positional and progressive. Positionally, we are sanctified, or separated from the power of selfishness and sin at the moment we become followers of Jesus and set apart in a new relationship with Christ. However, as we continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus, we experience the progressive nature of sanctification as we become more like Jesus in character and conduct.

And it is here that we see the Apostle Paul provide for us a second reason why our rescue should result in obedience. And that second reason is that our rescue should result in obedience because we produce the fruit of who we follow. This morning, the timeless reality is that the way we live our lives produces fruit or results. Just as a wave runner or Jet Ski produces a wake as it travels down a river, our lives produce a wake. And just as the wake reveals the source of the wake, the results or the fruit of our lives reveal the source that drives our lives.

The person who places themselves at the disposal of the moral corruption and lawless nature of selfishness and sin produces the fruit, of lawless words and actions. And the person who places themselves at the disposal and is solely committed to living life in the relationship that we were created for by following Jesus produces the fruit of a life that reveals and reflects Christ in their character and conduct in increasing measure.

In verse 20, we see Paul provide the reason why our rescue should result in the fruit of Christ in our character and conduct: “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.” But what does that mean? Paul’s point here is that when a person places themselves at the disposal of the moral corruption and lawless nature of selfishness and sin, they are free from the control or the obligation to live a life that produces the fruit of being in a right relationship with God. However, the follower of Jesus who has placed themselves at the disposal and is solely committed to following Jesus is obligated to live a life of obedience that produces the fruit of being in a growing and maturing relationship with Christ.

Tomorrow, we will see Paul provide a third reason why our rescue should result in obedience. In the meantime, what does the wake of your life look like? What fruit does your life produce? Because we produce the fruit of who we follow.