Whose Servant Are You? | GRACE, THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL by Andrew Wommack

Whose Servant Are You?

As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:21

Sin once reigned unto death, but now grace reigns unto eternal life. Grace now reigns! When you begin to understand the grace of God, it allows eternal life to function in you the same way that the Old Testament law made lust revive and come through you.

Yielded to Satan or Jesus?

What then? shall we sin [commit sinful actions], because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

Romans 6:15

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Then Paul went into the second reason for living holy:

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Romans 6:16

If you live an unholy life, you’re giving Satan access to you.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I [Jesus] am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

John 10:10

Jesus came to give us abundant life, but the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Since Satan is the author of sin, when we yield to it, we’re yielding to him.

Again, the number one reason a born-again believer doesn’t live in sin is because it’s not our nature to do so now. If you knew this truth, you’d live holier accidentally than you ever have on purpose. You’d begin to understand that holiness doesn’t make God move in your life, but a lack of holiness will give Satan access to you—which you don’t want. God may still love you, but you’ll be trying to run the race all weighted down. If you’re dragging a hundred extra pounds, you might not even finish the race. That’s the way it is with sin.

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The Effects of Sin

Technically, you could go live in sin. But what would that do? Would it make God reject you? No. But it might make you reject God because it’ll harden your heart. Hebrews 3:13 says that your heart can become hardened “through the deceitfulness of sin.” Sin will slow you down. Satan will put problems in your life. Sickness and disease can come upon you through living in sin. Jesus told that to certain people, as the impotent (sick) man at the pool of Bethesda to whom He said, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14).

Some sickness—but not all—is related to sin. For instance, you could go live in adultery and God would still love you, but you will have opened up a huge door into your life for the devil, sexually transmitted diseases, emotional wounds, and a whole bunch of other things to come upon you. God would still love you the same, but sin will take its toll on your life.

Certain large media ministers went out and lived in sexual immorality and misap-propriated funds, among other things. It’s possible that these people were truly born again and really loved God, but they just got caught up in sin. I don’t know their hearts, but if that’s true, then God still loves them based on grace. But the devil made sure they paid dearly for their sin.

These are powerful truths, but they’re so contrary to the way people think today!

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They lost their ministries and their families. It cost them respect and honor. In some cases, they’ve had to spend time in jail. They’ve suffered ridicule and shame, guilt and condemnation. Although that sin hurt them tremendously, it’s not God admin-istering “punishment.” They gave place to the devil, who then came in and stripped them. Satan is the one who caused them such grief and agony.

Servant of Righteousness

I am free from sin, but not to sin. Anyone who understands the Gospel isn’t going to just go live in sin.

The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.

Titus 2:11,12

God’s grace teaches us to live a holy life. Grace doesn’t lead people into sin. Somebody might say, “Yeah, but I know this one person who heard about grace and then went and lived in sin.” Not everyone who has heard the message of grace is going to be perfect. In the same way, not every person who has heard the message of guilt and condemnation is perfect. Either way, we’re going to fall and come short at times. But the grace of God will ultimately break the dominion of sin if it’s truly

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understood. People who comprehend and receive God’s grace aren’t emboldened to sin, but rather are freed from sin. These are powerful truths, but they’re so contrary to the way people think today!

God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Romans 6:17

We were bound, like a slave, to that old

nature. But now, through Jesus, we’ve

been delivered.

Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Romans 6:18,19

Whatever we’ve done, we need to see ourselves clean and forgiven through Christ.

Paul was saying, “I’m giving you an earthly example so you can better understand. In the same way that you were a slave to your old nature and sin, you need to see yourself now as a slave to your new nature and holiness. Recognize the truth and start seeing yourself righteous and holy in Christ. In the same way that this old attitude produced uncleanness in your life, this new

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attitude will produce holiness in your life if you could just see that your old nature is now dead and gone. If you could just understand how clean and pure you really are now in God’s sight, you wouldn’t go out and live in sin.”

How Do You See Yourself?

One reason some people live in sexual immorality is because they see themselves as corrupted and defiled. They aren’t seeing themselves as pure. They could break free if they ever understood that through Jesus they’ve been cleansed.

I was ministering to a woman once along these lines. She struggled with sexual immorality, but not all of it had been her choice. Some of it was rape, incest, and things like that. She felt defiled. So because she saw herself as defiled—even from when she was a little girl—it became like a self-fulfilling prophecy in her life. She was going out and reliving this defile-ment by giving in to sexual immorality.

While praying for her, the Lord gave me a picture to share with her. He told me to tell her that He saw her in the spirit clean and pure—just like a bride in total white and completely virginal. I started sharing these things with her for the purpose of letting her see herself that way. If she received this view of herself, it would break this dominion of sin.

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Just like a lost person’s good actions cannot change their sin nature, neither can a born-again believer’s sinful actions change their righteous nature.
WHOSE SERVANT ARE YOU?

When a woman sees herself as a prostitute, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whatever we’ve done, we need to see ourselves clean and forgiven through Christ. If we can see that, there’s no way we’ll take the members of

Christ—this holiness God has given us— and just go prostitute it again. This is the point Paul was making.

“Free from Sin”

When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

Romans 6:20

Before you were born again, you were a slave to that old sin nature. No matter

how good you acted or how much you limited actions of sin, it didn’t change your

unholy nature. You were “free from righteousness.” That didn’t mean that before you were born again you couldn’t do anything right. That’s not the case. Some lost people are very good people. It just meant that all your righteous acts couldn’t change your nature. You were by nature a child of the devil. (Eph. 2:3.)

What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

Romans 6:21

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Back when you were letting your sin nature dominate and control you, there was a lot of fruit—sinful actions and all the death that came with them.

Now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end ever-lasting life.

Romans 6:22

When you were lost, you were a servant to sin (v. 20). Now that you’re born again, you’re a servant of God (v. 22). The sin nature is now dead and gone, and you have a brand-new spirit. Being “free from righteousness” (v. 20) means that as a lost person you could do some right things, but you couldn’t change your sinful nature. Being “free from sin” (v. 22) means just the opposite—that even though you can commit some sinful actions, you cannot change your righteous nature. Did you get that?

Actions Don’t Change Your Nature

Of course, a Christian can commit acts of sin. Many scrip-tures talk about this. But what Paul was saying is that just like a lost person’s good actions cannot change their sin nature, neither can a born-again believer’s sinful actions change their righteous nature.

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Many Christians have accepted one side of this truth, but not the other. They know that someone’s sinful nature cannot be changed just by doing good. But then, sad to say, they think that they can change and defile their born-again righteous nature by their actions of sin. This passage of scripture refutes this incon-sistency. No more can you defile your born-again righteous nature by your acts of sin than you could perfect your sin nature by your acts of righteousness. If your acts of righteousness as a lost person couldn’t change your sinful nature, then neither can your acts of sin as a Christian change your righteous nature. That’s awesome!

I know this is raising many valid questions like, “Is this saying that when we sin, we don’t lose our salvation?” I don’t have space to adequately answer that here. So I recommend to you my teachings, “Security of the Believer” and “Complete Forgiveness,” in addition to the one I’ve already mentioned entitled “Identity in Christ.” This is a powerful, powerful truth!

“Well, Andrew, I understand that I was dead in sin up until being born again. I can also believe that I received a brand-new, righteous nature the moment I was saved. But I’ve sinned since then and my nature is corrupted once again.” Wrong! Your nature doesn’t become corrupted every time you sin any more than your nature became righteous every time you did some-thing holy before you were born again. That’s what these verses are communicating.

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Jesus is right now.
spirit, we are as
In our born-again
GRACE, THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL

Romans 6:22 goes on to say, “Ye have your fruit unto holiness.” Holiness is a fruit of salvation, not a root of salvation. Holiness is a by-product of relationship with God, not a way to obtain it. Holiness doesn’t earn us anything from God. It’s just the natural result of understanding our

right standing with Him.

We’ve been corrupted through thinking things contrary to the Gospel. If we could just break free from a performance mentality to truly understand God’s grace, we’d wind up living holier accidentally than we ever have on purpose. Once we’re born again, it’s just our nature to start living holy!