Sometimes when people play games or other team activities, they need to divide a larger group of people into two smaller teams. One way to do that is by using what is sometimes called a schoolyard pick. Two captains are chosen and they take turns in picking people from the larger group to be on their team. Usually, people who are stronger, more skilled or closer friends with the captains are chosen first, while those who might be smaller, not as skilled or less popular are left to the end. It might not be a perfect way to choose teams, but the schoolyard pick can help divide a larger group into two smaller groups of people.
What might it be like if the two captains weren’t picking the people on their teams, but the people in the larger group could decide whose team they wanted to be on? Instead of being told whose team they would be on, what might happen if people had the freedom to decide for themselves which team they wanted to give their talents and abilities to?
This is one way we can understand Paul’s words in this week’s New Testament reading, Romans 6:12-23. He is asking his readers to think about whose team they are on and to whom they want to give their lives. Paul uses the example of slavery which was a common practice in his time. Paul isn’t saying that slavery is good, but that he is “using an example from everyday life” (v19 NIV) that his readers were familiar with to help the Christians in Rome understand what he is saying. We can think about his illustration of “slavery” as asking who the Roman Christians wanted to serve with their lives – sin or righteousness? In a more modern setting, we can think about Paul’s words as a schoolyard pick in which there are two teams we can join and play for. The captain of one side is sin. The captain of the other is righteousness. Paul asks us, whose team do we want to be on, and who do we want to serve with our lives: Team Sin, which leads ultimately to death, or Team Righteousness, which leads us to freedom and life in Christ?
This might seem like a very easy decision to make. Why would we join a team that has sin as its captain when it leads us into death, and has already been defeated by Team Righteousness which gives us life through Jesus’ resurrection? On the one hand, it seems obvious. However, Team Sin is often a lot more subtle than we can sometimes realize.
Paul alerts us to the subtleties of Team Sin in verse 16 when he writes,
Surely you know that you become the slaves of whatever you give yourselves to. Anything or anyone you follow will be your master. You can follow sin, or you can obey God. Following sin brings spiritual death, but obeying God makes you right with him. (ERV)
They key to understanding what Paul is saying is in the words, “you become the slaves of whatever you give yourselves to.” The New Testament Greek word which is translated as “give yourselves to” in the East-to-Read Version, “offer yourselves to” in the New International Version and “choose to obey” in the New Living Translation literally means “stand beside”. This is why we can think about Paul’s message using the illustration of picking sides. Paul is saying that anything in life that we “stand beside,” “give ourselves to,” “offer ourselves to” or “choose to obey” can become our master and we can become its slave. Whatever captain we decide to stand with and play for becomes our master and we spend our lives playing for that team.
For example, if we make our work the most important thing in our lives, we “stand beside” work as our team captain. It can become our master and control our lives. If we “stand beside” Team Material Possessions, then the things we own and buy can become our master as we give our lives to buying more things. If we make popularity, control, social media or gaming the main thing in our lives by standing beside them, then these things can take over our lives, and we can lose our freedom. Anything in this world that we stand beside, give our lives to, or offer ourselves to as the most important thing to us can end up owning us, controlling us, and enslaving us, because they can demand more and more from us.
Team Righteousness is different. Instead of making demands on us, it gives grace and life to us. Jesus gives us freedom because he has done everything to set us free from the control of sin and the things of this world that want to control us. Jesus liberated us through his sinless life, innocent death and resurrection to new life. In ancient cultures, slaves could be set free if someone paid a ransom for them. Jesus has paid the ransom for us by giving his life in exchange for ours. Jesus’ death on the cross redeems us by paying the price that was needed to set us free from slavery to sin and death. The ransom Jesus paid on the cross is sort of like the ultimate transfer fee with which he buys us back from the control of Team Sin and gives us a place on Team Righteousness with him. Paul’s point in this reading and in other places in his letters is that we have been set free from slavery to sin and death by God’s grace through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection for us. Now Paul asks us to decide whether we will use the freedom Jesus has given us to stand on the side of sin and death, or on the side of righteousness which leads us into new life both now and forever?
When we stand on Team Righteousness, we also stand in a different relationship with the things of this world. When we stand beside Jesus, those things that can become our masters now become our servants. Our work, our possessions, our relationships with other people, our leisure time, social media and gaming can all become things that serve us instead of us spending our lives serving them. We can see them as good gifts from God, using them for our good as well as for the good of others. We can embrace them as gifts from a God who loves us and wants the best for us and use them to serve the One who sets us free from the things of this world that would control us by his grace in Jesus.
We can decide whose team we want to stand on because of the freedom Jesus has given us. We are no longer slaves to sin because Jesus has paid our ransom and set us free through his life, death and resurrection for us. The question Paul puts to us in this reading is how will we use the freedom God has given us in Jesus? Will we use it to stand on Team Sin which leads to death? Or will we stand with Jesus our Redeemer on Team Righteousness? Because through Jesus’ resurrection, we can know where we can find life and which team wins.
More to think about or discuss:
- Have you even been involved in a schoolyard pick where people have picked others to be on their side or team? What was it like for you? What could it have been like if you could pick the side you wanted to be on?
- Which sounds better to you: standing on team sin or righteousness and giving yourself to that team? Why does that sound better to you? What might that look like in your life?
- What are you giving yourself to in your life? Is that leading you into greater freedom or grace in Jesus?
Pastor Eugene Online 
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