This week I read about a teenager who was explaining to his father why he should be allowed to go see a movie at the theater. That particular movie had all of his favorite actors and it was “only” rated PG-13 because it merely suggested sex, but never really showed it. And the language wasn’t too bad – they only used the Lord’s name in vain three times. And there was only the usual violence – you know the kind where a building with a bunch of people in it gets blown up and a few people are killed with guns.
A little later that evening, the father asked his son if he would like some of the special brownies he had prepared. He explained that he had taken the favorite family recipe and added one new ingredient. When his son asked what that new ingredient was his father calmly responded “dog poop”. He went on to explain that there was only a little bit of dog poop in the brownies, but that all of the other ingredients were the same quality ingredients he always used.
Not surprisingly the son wanted nothing to do with those brownies and I think he got the message. So every time thereafter that his son asked to do something that he shouldn’t, the father merely asked him if he would like a special brownie.
For the last two weeks, we’ve explored the first 14 verses of Romans 6, where Paul answered the question “Since God is a God of grace, why don’t I just live a lifestyle of sin so that I can experience more of that grace?” Paul answered that question by pointing out that when we place our faith in Jesus, we are so closely united with Him that we die to sin in the same way Jesus did. So therefore, we have been freed from the power of sin and we have the ability to keep sin from reigning in our lives like that.
While that is absolutely a crucial passage of Scripture for us to understand and take to heart, I really doubt that most genuine Christians really take the position that one can be a disciple of Jesus and still live a lifestyle in which sin is allowed to reign consistently.
But the question that Paul poses in verse 15 is another matter altogether. It is much more likely we will conclude, like the teenager who wanted to go to that movie, that it might be possible to sin just a little bit and still be a “good Christian”. But as we’ll see this morning, Paul answers that question just as emphatically as he answered the question in verse 1.
So once again, take your Bibles and turn to Romans 6 and make sure you keep them handy and we study the next section of Paul’s letter. I’ll begin in verse 15:
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?
Normally I don’t try to bore you with a Greek grammar lesson any more than is absolutely necessary, but the verb tenses here in Romans 6 are so crucial to our understanding of what Paul is writing that I do need to call your attention to them. In particular, I want to compare the question Paul asks here in verse 15 to the one back in verse 1:
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
(Romans 6:1 ESV)
The verb “continue” is a present tense verb, so as we talked about a couple weeks ago, the question Paul is asking is whether a Christian can engage in a lifestyle of sin and still be a genuine disciple of Jesus.
But here in verse 15, the verb “sin” is what is known as an aorist tense verb. Without going into detail that basically means that it refers to a single act of sin rather than a continuous lifestyle. Essentially here is the question that Paul poses to his readers:
I understand that as a Christian I can’t continue in a lifestyle of sin, but since we’re under grace and not under law, isn’t it OK if I dabble in just a little bit of sin from time to time?
Although they might not actually verbalize it, I often see Christians whose live based on this similar question:
How much sin can I get away with and still be a Christian?
Once again, Paul doesn’t beat around the bush with his answer, giving the same exact answer he gave to the question in verse 1:
By no means!
But as I’ve mentioned frequently Paul doesn’t just give us an answer and move on to the next one. He is now going to give us an explanation of why the answer to that question is an emphatic “No!”. Let’s continue reading in verse 16:
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
(Romans 6:15-19 ESV)
Here is how I would summarize Paul’s message here:
A genuine disciple of Jesus
can’t go back to work
for his or her old boss
Paul is going to use a rather unusual and unexpected picture to explain his answer – that of slavery. You know that this is unexpected because Paul basically apologizes for using that illustration in verse 19 where he points out that he has been forced to use it because of the natural limitations of man’s thinking. So we need to remember that, like most metaphors, the one that Paul uses here is not perfect and we need to be careful not to carry it too far. But at the same time, it is also very helpful in explaining why a genuine disciple of Jesus can’t intentionally dabble in even a little bit of sin.
So, with that in mind, let’s see what this illustration shows us about…
WHY I CAN’T “DABBLE” IN SIN
Since Paul addresses this question very logically and methodically, we’ll just study this passage phrase by phrase.
1. I can serve only one master (v. 16)
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey…
Here is the picture I think Paul is trying to paint in the minds of his readers. He is asking them to imagine going down to the slave market and asking one of the slaves who his master is. Now when he answers, it’s kind of like with most of our political candidates – we have no idea if he is really telling the truth so we have to fact check him. But instead of watching videos of what he said in the past or pulling up his past Tweets, we just watch him for a while. And as we see whose commands he obeys, he either confirms or refutes the answer he gave us.
In effect what Paul is saying here is that everyone knows the way to tell who or what someone is enslaved to is to observe their actions and who they obey.
Because we are greatly influenced by the idea of political freedom in this country, I think we have a tendency to think that freedom means that we’re not in servitude to anything or anyone. But the point that Paul is making here in this section is that Jesus does give freedom, but that freedom is merely the ability for us to decide which master we are going to serve. As the great theologian Bob Dylan wrote in his song “Gotta Serve Somebody”:
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
I don’t know if Dylan got his lyrics from this passage. But they certainly express the same idea that Paul is conveying here. Everyone serves a master and no one can serve more than one master at a time. That idea certainly brings to mind these familiar words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount:
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other…
(Matthew 6:24 ESV)
So now that Paul has established the idea that everyone serves only one master, he moves on to his second point…
2. That master will be either self or Jesus (v. 16)
…either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness…
This is the only place in the entire New Testament where the Greek word that is translated “either” is used. It is an emphatic word that makes it absolutely clear that there are no other possible alternatives other than the two that are compared by the words “either” and “or”. So the idea here is that in a spiritual sense, every person ever born on this earth is either a slave of sin, which leads to death, or they are a slave to obedience, which leads to righteousness.
On the surface, there seems to be some disconnect between the first part of this phrase and how we would expect the second part of the phrase to read. We would expect for Paul to draw a more direct contrast with sin and death and Paul will do that in that last section of this chapter.
But as we often find with Paul, he’ll use several different words to describe the same concept in order to help his readers see that idea from several different angles. I think that is exactly what Paul does here. He uses the term “obedience” rather than “holiness” or some similar word as a contrast to “sin”. But if you really think about it that’s an entirely appropriate word to use because what is sin? It is obedience to self. And What is holiness? It is obedience to Jesus. So obedience to Jesus is indeed an appropriate contrast to sin.
More surprising is that Paul chooses to contrast death with righteousness rather than the expected contrast with life. As I said, Paul will make that contrast more directly at the end of this chapter. But in this verse he seems to be contrasting two ways of life here on earth. Since in the Bible, the idea of death is that of a separation rather than a cessation of existence, the idea here is that living as a slave of sin leads to a separation from God.
It is also important to note that there are two different ways that Paul uses the word “righteous” in Romans. The most common use refers to our position before God. And as Paul makes clear over and over the only way we can be positionally right before God is through faith in Jesus. But he also uses the word righteous to refer to our way of life here on earth. In that sense, which is how Paul uses it here, it describes holy living in which we consistently walk close to Jesus and live in obedience to Him.
3. God is the only one who can set me free from slavery to sin (vv. 17-18)
…But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness….
Here Paul reminds his readers that they should give thanks to God because He is the one who freed them slavery to sin and made it possible for them to become slaves to righteousness instead.
Verb tenses are important here again. The verb “were” is in the imperfect tense, which means that continually in the past his readers had been slaves to sin. This confirms what Paul has written previously in his letter about the fact that all are born with a sin nature. Before we put our faith in Jesus, we cannot help but serve sin because that is our nature.
But the verb “have become” is an aorist tense verb which points back to a specific point in time in the past. Again this is consistent with everything Paul has written up to this point. I’m going to come back to the phrase “standard of teaching” in a moment and talk more about its significance for us. But for now what I want you to see is that there was a specific time in the past that these Roman Christians had decided in their hearts to become obedient to the gospel. And, as we’ve seen the last two weeks, at that point they were united with Jesus and died to sin.
But what I really want to focus on is the verb “having been set free” in verse 18. The important thing about that verb is that it is a passive verb, which reinforces the consistent teaching of Paul throughout his letter that we can’t do anything to free ourselves from slavery to sin.
Instead, we were set free from slavery to sin at a tremendous cost to God. It required that His sinless Son, Jesus, take on all of our sin and die on the cross to pay the penalty for that sin and then rise from the grave to prove that He had victory over all that sin. So when I choose to sin, effectively what I am doing is trampling all over what Jesus has done for me in order to go back to work for my old boss and voluntarily become a slave to sin once again. And when I do that there are some serious consequences, because…
4. I will become more and more like whichever master I serve (v. 19)
…For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
As we’ve seen throughout this passage, Paul uses some different terms here to describe the same ideas that he has been writing about in this section. Instead of writing about being enslaved to sin, he now uses the term “impurity”. In Greek, it is a compound word that literally means “not clean” or “not purified”. It is included in Paul’s list of “works of the flesh” in Galatians 5, where he contrasts those to the fruit of the Spirit.
Paul reminds his readers that in the past, when they were still enslaved to sin and impurity, that slavery led to more and more “lawlessness”. I don’t think that any of us here would argue with that fact. I’m reminded here of a well-known (author unknown) saying:
Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.
The problem with deciding to “dabble” in sin is that when I do that I voluntarily place myself back into slavery to sin. In the terms we’ve used this morning, I go back to work for my old boss. And when I do that the inevitable result is that a little bit of sin eventually becomes a lot of sin.
On the other hand, after having been freed from slavery to sin, if I present my entire life – body, soul, and spirit – as a slave of righteousness, the result is “sanctification”. That is one of those theological words we throw around a lot that I think a lot of people don’t really have a good handle on. The word simply means “set apart” and it comes from the same root word from which we get our English words “holy” and “saint”.
Like salvation, there are three separate aspects of sanctification:
1) In the past, at the moment I placed my faith in Jesus, I became “set apart” to Him. That is why Paul called all disciples of Jesus “saints”. That term does not describe a special class of disciples who have been given that title by the church, but rather it applies to everyone who has placed his or her faith in Jesus.
2) In the present, I am continuing to be set apart and Jesus continues to make me more and more like Him. This is a process.
3) In the future, I will be completely sanctified and set free not only from the penalty and the power of sin, but also from the presence of sin.
It is the second, present aspect of sanctification that Paul has in mind here. When I present – present tense, continuous action – my life to God because I am a slave of righteousness, then He continues to work out His holiness in my life.
Hopefully you understand a bit better why I said earlier…
A genuine disciple of Jesus
can’t go back to work
for his or her old boss
Every single time that I attempt to “dabble” in sin, I put myself right back in slavery to my old boss – sin. And the result is that instead of becoming more and more holy, I become more and more lawless.
Let’s close by making this really practical. Let me share just two important implications for my life.
IMPLICATIONS FOR ME
1. Move from a decision to delight
We appropriately talk a lot about the importance of making a decision to become a disciple of Jesus by putting our faith in Him. But, as we discussed last week, in order to mature as a disciple, we need to move from just a decision in our mind to a delight in our hearts. That’s why Paul writes about becoming “obedient from the heart” in verse 17.
When I was taking seminary classes, I was exposed to a number of Bible scholars who could study the Bible in its original languages and dissect it like a biologist dissects an animal. But it was clear from the conclusions that they arrived at, that the Bible text never really impacted their hearts.
I really like what Pastor John Piper had to say about this implication:
I said at the beginning it is people whose Christianity is a group of ideas about Christ, not an experience of the preciousness of Christ. Their Christianity is all truth and no treasure. All "choices" and no cherishing. All logic about Christ and no love for Christ. All "decision" and no delight. And O how many people there are who come to church and are in this category!
I don’t think it’s possible for a Christian who truly delights in Jesus to ever ask, “How much sin can I get away with and still be a Christian?”. That kind of thinking should never enter our minds. When we obey from the heart, we don’t just obey grudgingly or reluctantly or just on the outside to impress others with how spiritual we are. Instead, we obey gladly and cheerfully from the inside because we want God to get glory.
2. Let God’s Word mold me instead of trying to mold it
I told you earlier that I would come back to the phrase “the standard of teaching”. The word translated “standard” there means a “pattern” or a “model”. It was used to describe a mold into which clay or wax was pressed that it might take the exact shape of that mold.
What a great picture this is for a disciple of Jesus! The idea here is that the gospel is truth in the form of a mold. We were poured into that gospel truth with the idea that our lives would be molded by that truth so that we would come out of that mold in the exact image of the gospel. It is this verse that is the foundation for the overall title of this sermon series – “Romans – A Gospel Shaped Life”.
As we submit our lives to the teaching of the gospel that is found in the pages of the Bible, that teaching will gradually change us over time and through the process of sanctification we talked about earlier, make us to look more and more like Jesus.
But the problem is that non-Christians, and even many Christians are attempting instead to take the Bible and try to make it conform to their old, sin nature. They take passages out of context and twist them to excuse, or even condone their sin. But as we’ve seen, that only leads to even more sin, not to righteousness.
A genuine disciple of Jesus
can’t go back to work
for his or her old boss
God’s grace does give us freedom. But that does not mean that we have a choice of whether or not to serve a master – it only gives us freedom to choose which master we will serve. Grace means freedom to serve the Lord, not to sin against Him.
That means that a genuine disciple of Jesus can no more dabble in just a little sin than they would eat a brownie that contains just a little dog poop.
Share with someone else:
• What would you say to a Christian who says it is OK to dabble in just a little bit of sin as long as it doesn’t become a lifestyle?
• What is the difference between making a decision for Jesus and delighting in Him?
