Grace is free and more than a little wild, and this is why we are given the gift of being the servants or bond-slaves of the Lord. The grace of God is absolutely consistent with God’s holy character, and this is why His well-favored sons and daughters are free, and more than a little wild.
God delights in this kind of paradox. Slavery to righteousness is freedom from sin. Freedom in sin is the worst kind of slavery. You are going to serve someone. May be the devil, or it may be the Lord, as Dylan sang, but it will be someone. As you reflect on these things, don’t kid yourself. The apostle Peter warns us about the devil, and he did not say that the devil is a roaring lion, seeking whom he may bite or nip. He is seeking prey to devour (1 Pet. 5:8).
The sinfulness of sin is not found in an abstraction, or in the breaking of some moralistic rule, but is rather a direct function of having a bad attitude about being with God, learning to be like Him. If we want to be with Him, involved in what He is doing, the way He is doing it, then we are in fellowship with Him. If we want to avoid Him, hiding our sin away in our little dramas, our fits of temper, our petulance, or our self-pity, then we are out of fellowship with Him.
If such is the case, we have come now to our time of corporate confession. Here is the perfect opportunity to put it right. What better time? When you get on your knees, just place that little self-idol, whatever it is, on the floor in front of you. As you pray, let go of it, surrender it, and just leave it there when you get back up. It was kind of ugly anyway.