Reference: Romans 6:11-18
Looking up the definition for the word servant we find that it means to serve someone or something. Applying this fact to the spiritual realm we can say that a person is either a servant of sin or either a servant of righteousness. Allow me please to inform you that we can't possibly be a servant to both. The apostle Paul makes this a clear fact by telling us that when we were servants of sin then we are at the same time free from righteousness. I am quite sure that there are a great deal of people today who think that a person can be a christian and yet be a partaker of sin, but friend your believing this very plainly proves the fact that you do not truly know what a servant of righteousness is, nor do you know what true righteousness consists of . If we want to know the truth of the matter then we must have an understanding of what it means to be a servant of sin and also what it means to be a servant of righteousness.
Now it's utterly impossible for a person to be a servant of sin and a servant of righteousness at the same time. If you are a person who believes that a christian yet partakes of sin in their life, then you are a person who believes that we can be servants to both sin and righteousness at the same time. Now to be a servant of sin simply means that a person is under the law and automatically lives a life of sin. Now a life of sin consists of both good and evil deeds.
These good and evil deeds is the life that humankind fell into when Adam and Eve partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now what most people fail to understand is the fact that the good that man became partaker of is absolutely not the righteousness that we become servants of when we have been made free from the power and life of sin. Paul plainly tells us in Romans 6:20 that when we were the servants of sin, we were free from righteousness. Now being a servant of sin simply means that we are servants of what the Bible calls the good and evil deeds of which man fell into when he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now to say that a true christian will yet commit sin, but does not practice sin meaning they do not make it a habitual way of life is in reality saying that a christian partakes of both sin and righteousness. The Bible plainly tells us that being free from sin we become servants of righteousness. Now the same could be said in the opposition by saying that when we are free from righteousenss, then we are the servants of sin. We can't possibly be servants of both sin and righteousness at the same time. People who believe that christians still partake of sin, but do not make sin a habitual way of life are actually being deceived by trying to cultivate the natural good in them and keeping the evil at a minimum. This condition is only being aware of the fruits of both good and evil that man fell into in the garden of Eden.
To become a servant of righteousness means that we are freed from our natural way of life and we then became a servant of what the Bible calls the righteousness of God. God's righteousness is certainly not a life consisting of both righteous and unrighteous deeds like many think today. God's righteousness, of which a child of God becomes a servant of, is the very life that Christ lived as he was in the flesh on this earth. God's way of life was revealed in and through Christ. To think that a christian life is a life of both righteous and unrighteous deeds is actually saying that Christ partook of sin.
Now we know that Christ was a servant of righteousness and did not commit sin whatsoever. Why then can't people see the fact that to be a servant of righteousness plainly reveals the fact that sin will not be committed in the true child of God's life? To say that a person will yet partake of sin and still be a christian is saying God's righteousness consists of unrighteous deeds.
Now the word of God very plainly reveals that Jesus Christ did no sin. This life that Christ lived is what the Bible calls God's righteous way of life or better known as God's righteousness. To become a servant of righteousness as the word of God reveals it simply means and refers to the very righteousness that Christ lived and revealed when he was on this earth. Now friend can you deny this fact? If you believe that the righteousness that a true child of God becomes a servant of is the righteousness that Christ lived and revealed, then you can't possibly believe that the true child of God will yet partake of sin no matter if it's not in a habitual way or not. I say this because the life that Christ lived was a perfect way of life without sin. Now we know that Almighty God is perfect and holy. Is it not a fact that the son will bear the attributes of the father? How can a person that commits sin be a son of a perfect and holy God?
The Bible tells us that sin absolutely will not have dominion over us, but yet many will say and teach the sin-you-must doctrine. What these people are totally ignorant of is what God's righteousness is as revealed in the gospel. We are imputed God's righteousness as we walk in and receive the truth of the gospel. Now friend how can you even attempt to think that a life that may consist of a few sins now and then be the righteousness of God that his word reveals?
When God sets a person free from a life of sin they can live the righteous life just as easy as they did the sinful life. Nobody has to struggle to live a sinful life. This come very natural. As long as a person is held in bondage to sin they can't help obey its persuasive influence. But when Christ sets a person free from the power of sin they then possess a power over sin's power. It is the power that enables a child of God to cease from and stay away from sin.
Paul asked the question if we can sin if we are not under the law but under grace, and of course he says, "God Forbid!" The law has no power over a person who is under grace. To be under the law's power means that you will sin and this is because sin will have dominion over you causing you to commit acts of unrighteous deeds. The law has power over a man as long as he may live, but when he comes to Christ, he dies out to the law's power and Christ becomes his life. Romans 7:4-6 describes this perfectly. My friend you are a servant either of sin or righteousness.