Introduction
An Old Testament passage about a Hebrew slave, unsettling at first glance, actually hides a stunning portrait of God's grace. In Exodus 21, Moses lays out the law for release from servitude after six years. What looks like a simple social rule becomes, once you read it in the light of Christ, a picture of what God is doing in your life. The Bible is Christ centered: every passage exists to tell you about the love of God shown in Jesus Christ. This text is no exception. It speaks to you of God's unconditional love for you. Through this man who became a slave because of a hard turn in life, Olivier Comtesse draws out four markers of grace. Four markers that can, this morning, change the way you stand before your God.
Sermon Outline
1. God repairs life's hard turns
- The Hebrew slave in this passage was not captured from another nation: he became a slave because of a debt taken on after a hard turn in life.
- Brought into today's world: consumer loans that can never be paid off, addictions to alcohol, medication, or drugs, depression, the loss of a child, a dysfunctional family, a toxic circle of people around you.
- Some hard turns come from our own bad choices, others do not: the world has been made unjust by sin.
- God takes charge of our hard turns, but there is also a place for responsibility: on earth, our actions carry consequences we are called to own, even though in heaven we are fully forgiven in Jesus.
- That responsibility has a limit in time: six years, then in the seventh year the slave walks out free, no matter the size of the debt. God's will is that there is always an end to your hardship, always a horizon ahead.
2. Grace leaves you free
- After seven years, the slave has a choice: leave or stay. God does not turn you into a robot.
- You are not remote controlled by the Holy Spirit: you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, with the choice to obey him or not, to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit or the fruit of the flesh.
- Your dishwasher never tells you "I love you": it has no choice. You can love because you are free to say no.
- Grace has freedom as its counterpart: without freedom, there is no love possible.
- Turning back is possible, but with clear consequences: you leave the house the way you came in, you lose the blessings you had gained, your old nature regains its grip, and you become again the person you used to hate.
3. Faith is not magic, faith is a choice
- Faith is not some mystical thing that falls on you out of nowhere: it is a process, a road, an experience that leads to a decision.
- Over six years the slave learned to know his master: he experienced his kindness, his protection, his security, his love. He is no longer a servant, he has become a friend.
- Staying in the house is not only a decision driven by fear of falling back: it is a decision grounded in love.
- To strengthen your relationship with God, you need to accept being loved by him. That is what Paul asks for in his prayer: to grasp the width, the length, the depth, and the height of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3).
- The slave's priorities are clear: "I love my master, my wife, and my children." He stays for who his master is, not only for the blessings received, because blessings can stop for a season.
4. Your choice is sealed publicly, and it must be renewed
- The master brings the slave to the door, before God and before witnesses: the commitment is recorded, nearly irrevocable. This points to baptism, a public commitment.
- The commitment is visible: an awl pierces the ear. Like a wedding ring, this mark recalls not only the commitment but the reason it was made.
- Remembrance is a powerful weapon: this is why the patriarchs built altars, why God established feasts, why Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, why we get baptized.
- The commitment must be renewed: otherwise it closes up again, like an ear piercing you stop wearing. Faith then turns into religion.
- There are moments when you are called to let yourself be "pierced again": to come back to the door, to tell your God once more "I choose to remain your child," and to reseal the covenant.
Key Takeaways
- Your God is the God who repairs life's hard turns, whatever they are: nothing is stronger than his grace.
- With God, everything has a limit: your trial, your mistakes, your failures, the injustice you suffer. There is always a seventh year coming.
- Grace does not turn you into a robot: it leaves you free, because without freedom there is no true love.
- Faith is not a mystical feeling but a decision grounded in a journey, in the experience of your master's goodness and love.
- The Christian commitment is sealed publicly (baptism) and must be renewed regularly, or the living relationship slides into mere religion.
Personal Application
- What hard turn in life is holding you captive today? Can you lay before God both the part of the responsibility that is yours and the hope of a seventh year of freedom?
- Where do you stand with your freedom before God: do you obey him as a child who loves, or are you waiting for him to "force" you into something you no longer want to choose?
- What is your faith resting on right now: passing emotions, or the concrete experience that your master is good?
- Do you stay attached to God for what he gives you, or for who he is? What would happen if the blessings stopped for a while?
- Does your baptismal commitment need to be renewed? Is there an area of your life where the "piercing" has closed up, where a living relationship has slipped into routine religion?
Scriptures Referenced
Frequently Asked Questions
How can a text about slavery speak of God's grace?
Exodus 21 does not endorse slavery the way we picture it today. The text regulates a situation where a Hebrew, in debt, temporarily becomes the servant of another Hebrew. The law of Moses limits the servitude to six years and provides for automatic release in the seventh year, no matter the size of the debt. This structure becomes a picture of what God does for us: he takes charge of our hard turns, sets a limit on our trial, leaves us free, and seals a public covenant with those who choose to remain in his house.
If God forgives me, why must I still bear the consequences of my wrongs?
The sermon draws a distinction between two dimensions. In heaven, the one who repents is fully forgiven: covered by the blood of Jesus, clothed in his righteousness, God no longer sees the wrongs but the work of Christ. On earth, however, our actions carry consequences we are called to own. The example given: someone who commits an offense can be forgiven by God and still have to answer before human justice. This responsibility does not contradict grace, it works alongside it.
What does it mean to renew your commitment to God?
This is not about a second conversion. Baptism, received once, remains a reality. But the commitment of the heart, like an ear piercing you stop wearing, can close up over the years, through wounds and routine. Renewing your commitment means coming back regularly to the door, saying "yes" again to your master, letting the Holy Spirit pierce you anew, and resealing a living covenant wherever it had been sliding into mere religion.
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