Main Idea: When Adam and Eve sinned, they became slaves to sin and all their descendants are stuck in the same cage. Jesus sets people free from the cage of sin.
Key Verse: “…God be thanked…you were slaves of sin…and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18 NKJV).
Illustration: What does it mean to say that Christ has redeemed us? The word “redeem” means “to buy back.”
In the beginning of time, Adam and Eve were created free. They were made in God’s image and as children of God they walked in complete freedom. They were spiritual alive.
But, Satan came and tempted them and when they disobeyed God they became slaves to sin. It was like they walked into a big cage and they shut the door behind themselves. When they entered the cage of sin, they died spiritually.
When Adam and Eve had children, the children were also born as slaves. The children of Adam and Eve were not born free, they were born into the cage of sin just like their parents. Their children are also spiritually dead.
Sometimes it seems harsh to say that all have sinned because when you see an innocent newborn baby and you think, “That baby has never sinned. How can the child be a sinner?” But once I visited a women’s prison and I met a mother with a baby. The baby never committed a crime but it is born inside the prison because of the crime of its mother. Did the baby do anything wrong? No, but because of the condition and circumstances of its mother it was born inside the prison.
As the baby grows up, it does not learn to be good and kind and generous. Instead it learns to behave just like a prisoner, angry and fighting and scheming and it becomes just like the other prisoners. Why? Because that is its environment. That’s the way we are as sinners in a sinful world. We learn to hate. We learn to get even. We learn to be afraid
Today, all humans are slaves to sin. Adam and Eve became slaves voluntarily but the rest of us were born slaves. The children of slaves are born slaves. The child of a sinner is born in sin. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we were born sinners.
The problem with the cage of slavery is that you cannot open the slave door from the inside, you can only open the slave door from the outside. A slave can’t free himself. Adam and Eve walked into the slave cage and closed the door behind themselves. How much does a slave get paid for his work? Nothing. He can never save enough money to be able to ransom himself. The slave cannot work hard enough to get out of slavery. The harder he works, the more valuable he is as a slave.
It is impossible for one slave to free another slave. This is why men like Buddha, Mohammad, or Joseph Smith can never set anyone free from the slavery of sin.
Only someone on the outside of the cage can open the door to let the slaves out. This is why Jesus came from heaven to earth. In order to open the cage, Jesus could not be born as a child of Adam because all of Adam’s children are slaves. Jesus is the Son of God. He was born as a Son of God, not as a Son of Adam. Jesus came into our prison from the outside. He had done nothing wrong but He came into our prison so He could open the door so we could get out of the slave cage.
When Jesus died on the cross, He went to hell and He took the keys to death and hell away from the slave master, Satan. Jesus took the keys to the slave market and opened the door of the slave cage. Now anyone who wants to walk out of the slave cage can do so. Some people choose to stay enslaved to sin, but some people choose to trust Jesus for their salvation. When you get saved, Jesus sets you free from sin and you become spiritually alive. All you have to do is walk out. Jesus opened the door for you.
