To Be Sold As a Slave

Paul goes on,

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

That’s a very vivid picture, if I may pause for a moment, because in the culture of the Roman Empire, when an army captured prisoners from another nation, very frequently they were sold as slaves in the slave market. And the soldiers took the price.

When a person was being sold as a slave, they would stand on a block with a post behind them, and a spear was thrust out from the post over their head. So, to be sold as a slave was to be sold ‘under’ a spear. That was the phrase.

So Paul says,

“I am carnal, sold under sin.”

My sin is the spear that’s stretched out over my head that causes me to be sold as a slave.