Brand New Boss

The sermon titles have been sounding like country songs lately — and if we're keeping the theme, the alternate title this week is "Take This Job and Shove It." Pastor Brian looked back over the bosses he's worked for: one who ran a taco line like a NASCAR pit crew on his climb up a very short corporate ladder, one whose claim to fame was a beer on every hole of a round of golf, and one in his thirties who made a habit of flirting with the young women on staff.

Before we get too comfortable judging a few managers from twenty-some years ago, ambition, escape, and lust don't need a Taco Bell or a golf course to show up. They do just fine in respectable people — even church people. Nobody gets to be their own boss. And no, "Take This Job and Shove It" doesn't work here. You can't quit sin. You have to be set free from it.

Paul's first answer in Romans 6 was about who we are: our old self was crucified with Christ, and we've been raised to walk in newness of life. Then came one of the most freeing sentences in the letter: "sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." But good news gets twisted. Someone hears "not under law" and thinks "no rules," or hears "under grace" and thinks "no consequences." In verse 15, the question gets personal: can I make an exception, just this once, since grace has me covered?

In O Brother, Where Art Thou, Everett looks around a car carrying two freshly baptized friends and a man who has sold his soul to the devil, and declares that he alone remains "unaffiliated." It's a funny line, but he couldn't be more wrong. According to Paul, there's no such thing.

A myth is something people assume so often that nobody stops to check it. Plenty of decent folks believe they can stand in the middle: good to their neighbor, just not "holy rollers." But Paul uses the language of slavery, which his first-century readers understood all too well, to make the point unmistakable. A slave belonged to his master, and his whole purpose was defined by that master. There are only two masters, and our default is the master of sin. We were "by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:3).

The second option is to be a slave of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But Paul is not saying, "Obey hard enough and God will take you." Slaves don't buy their way into a new household — they're bought. We are saved by grace through faith, not by works, and created for good works (Ephesians 2:8–10). Obedience isn't how you get a new Master. It's how you show you have one. So if someone watched your week, would it be clear which master you answer to?

Paul begins with thanks: "Thanks be to God." Not "thanks be to God, with our help." Jesus "gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness" (Titus 2:14) — He paid the price, and now we belong to Him. The hallmark of that new ownership is obedience "from the heart." Jonah eventually did what God said, but he was never happy about it. His obedience came from his feet. Ours comes from a new heart, and only God can give it.

Verse 17 literally says believers were handed over to the teaching — like clay pressed into a gospel mold. You don't get to reshape the mold or change the definitions. And for Paul, this is the very definition of freedom: "having been set free from sin, [you] have become slaves of righteousness." Freedom isn't a spiritual free-for-all. It's having a new and infinitely greater Master. So where are you obeying like Jonah? Don't fake a better attitude — go back to "thanks be to God," and ask Him for the heart only He can give.

Obedience never stands still. Lawlessness leads to more lawlessness: a little lie demands a bigger one, and David's glance at Bathsheba escalated into conspiracy and murder (James 1:14–15). But the opposite is true as well. Pursuing obedience has a cumulative effect too — sanctification, the Spirit's work of making us more and more like Jesus.

So present your members. Eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). A mouth that builds others up (Ephesians 4:29). Ears quick to hear (James 1:19). Hands that work as for the Lord (Colossians 3:23). Feet that carry the gospel (Romans 10:15). And a mind that refuses the world's mold (Romans 12:1–2). A slave belongs entirely to his master — and you're not doing this alone. The One who gave you a new heart empowers you to live under your new Master.

Everybody has a boss. If you've thought of yourself as unaffiliated — decent, good to your neighbor, but never actually trusting Christ — there is no neutral ground. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). You can't work your way out, but you can be set free. Turn from sin and trust the One who died for you and rose again.

If you belong to Jesus but have been picking up a few shifts for the old boss, don't keep managing it. Tell God the truth — He is faithful and just to forgive (1 John 1:9) — and present your members back to the One who bought you. And if you honestly can't say whose you are, don't leave guessing. You don't have to clean yourself up to come to a new Master. You come just as you are, and He does the changing.