You'll Have To See Jesus About That.

 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should not longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:5-7)

          In The Renewed Mind, Larry Christenson tells a parable about a person who rented a place from a nasty landlord. He treated the tenants horribly, entered the property and did as he pleased with the tenant’s belongings, and extorted more money from them and did nothing to care for the property. Another landlord bought the property and told the tenant that they could live there for free and promised he would take care of the property. One day, the old landlord came demanding his rent.
      This is an illustration of our situation. We have a new landlord. He has paid all our bills. He even has us over to dinner on a regular basis. Sometimes, any of a number of old landlords come along demanding payment, but since they no longer own the building, we are under no obligation to pay. It would be silly if we did pay. He can threaten all he wants, all we need to do (as Mr. Christenson pointed out) is say, “You’ll have to see Jesus about that.” The old landlords can be insistent, but that’s where being persistent comes in.
         The real problem is when the old landlords show up looking good, smelling good, and offering us bribes instead of extorting payments (that comes later in the form of blackmail.) “All this you can have…”
          To this, too, we need to learn to say, “You’ll have to see Jesus about that.” We are free. It is foolish to give up freedom for “all this” because once you give up your freedom, “all this” either disappears or turns out to be worth a lot less.