But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.
Romans 6:17-18
Remember, the context for slavery in this portion of Paul’s letter is to emphasize obedience.
Note the order Paul displays here: after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.
This is a critical principle of Christianity; God must initiate a change in us before we can come to Christ because we are slaves to sin. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul would go as far as to say; we are dead in our sins (Ref Eph. 2:1). The dead cannot bring themselves back to life, just ask Lazarus.
This is God’s grace on full display.
God did not wait for us to get better, He changed our hearts while we were in service to sin. He brought us from death to life. This is precisely the regenerative calling that Jesus spoke of in John.
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on
the last day.
John 6:44
It is never about what we DO and always about what has been DONE for us.
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