It has been distressing being in the United States this past week and seeing reports of various public skirmishes. Officials in several states are calling for the removal of public monuments that have become controversial symbols of the Confederacy, driven by the national outcry over the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. that erupted during a protest organized by white nationalists. Systematic efforts are underway to remove vestiges of southern, civil war confederacy, specifically over the issue of slavery.
People come into the world confronted with a different kind of slavery. With the single exception of Jesus Christ, every human being born into this world has been born with a sinful nature. The natural, unredeemed person is under the tyranny of sin. It controls their thoughts, words, actions and total existence. Jesus declared that “everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8:34), and because every unsaved person is unable to commit anything but sin, every unsaved person is a slave of sin. It has often been noted that some black slaves willingly fought with their masters during the American Civil War. Not unlike sinners who oppose and reject the One who offers to save them, those slaves fought against the Union forces who wanted to emancipate them.
When we consider our own condition as redeemed in Christ, to realize that we are no longer slaves to sin, it should both comfort and guide us. We should be comforted to realize that we no longer have to continue to sin and we are liberated from the tyranny. Since this is the case, we must live as free men and women who show this liberty in our holy lives. This is also help us to understand and appropriately respond to the unregenerate. As Paul notes in Romans 6, the natural person is a willing slave of sin. People prove that truth every day of their lives as they reject the light of God that they have. Although unregenerate persons often want desperately to escape the unpleasant and destructive consequences of their sins, they do not want to relinquish the cherished sins themselves.
In Romans 6:17-22, Paul here explains and applies the principle he has just stated (v. 16), namely, that a person is a slave either to sin and Satan or free though righteousness to God. In doing so, he contrasts the three aspects of each of those two domains of servanthood: 1) Their Position (Romans 6:17–22), 2) Their Practice (Romans 6:19), and 3) Their Promise (Romans 6:20-22).
A person is a slave either to sin and Satan or free though righteousness to God through:
1) Their Position (Romans 6:17–18)
Romans 6:17–18 17 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, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (ESV)
Paul now dispels any idea that Christians stand in a situation of neutrality with respect to the master they are to serve. This verse and the following one reveal Paul’s conviction that they have already made the decision to follow a new master. But Paul does not praise the Roman church for having turned to God; he gives “thanks to God” for having brought them where they are today (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (Vol. 12–13, p. 205). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.)
Once, Paul says, “you who were once slaves of sin”; but now you “have become obedient from the heart to the standard/ pattern of teaching to which you were committed/handed over.” “You who were once” is expressed in the IMPERFECT TENSE of the VERB, which described their state of being in the past (slaves of sin) followed by an AORIST TENSE which asserts that their state of rebellion has ceased.( Utley, R. J. (1998). The Gospel according to Paul: Romans (Vol. Volume 5, Ro 6:17). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.)
You “have become obedient/obeyed” points to the time of conversion, when the Roman Christians first bowed the knee to Jesus the Lord. … Here, then, the focus is on the initial commitment of the Roman Christians to Christ as Lord, including both their “faith” in him and their submission to him. Paul uses “obedient” because he wants to underscore the aspect of submission to Christ as Lord of life that is part of becoming a Christian. (Moo, D. J. (1996). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 400). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)
Believers are saved solely by the grace and power of God. And by His grace, habitual disobedience to Him is in the past tense. Formerly, Paul says, you were once slaves of sin, but no more. Were translates an imperfect Greek tense, signifying an ongoing reality In other words, the unregenerate person is under the continual, unbroken slavery of sin. That is the universal position of the natural person, with no exceptions. No matter how outwardly moral, upright, or benevolent an unsaved person’s life may be, all that they think, say, and do emanates from a proud, sinful, ungodly heart (Ps. 14; Rom. 3:10-12). While all were slaves of sin, all were not slaves to the same sin; but whatever the sin, it alienates from God (Morris, L. (1988). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 262). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.).
That Paul is not speaking about merely outward righteousness is made clear from his declaration that the redeemed “have became obedient from the heart”. God works His salvation in a persons innermost being. Through the grace provided by His Son, God changes people’s very natures when they trust in Him. A person whose heart has not been changed has not been saved. Righteous living that issues from an obedient … heart is habitual. And just as God’s grace operates only through a trusting heart, His righteousness operates only through an obedient heart. As a Puritan Confession of Faith puts it, “The liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers under the gospel consists in their yielding obedience unto him, not out of slavish fear, but a child-like love, and willing mind.” (Moo, D. J. (1996). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 402). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).
Please turn to 1 Peter 1 (p.1014)
Faith and obedience are inescapably related. There is no saving faith in God apart from obedience to God, and there can be no godly obedience without godly faith. As the beautiful and popular hymn admonishes, “Trust and obey, there’s no other way.” Peter wrote to persecuted believers throughout the Roman world, in order that those who believe may “obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood” (a symbol referring to a covenant of obedience, see Ex. 24:1–8). Later in the epistle he admonished:
1 Peter 1:12–17 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. 13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile (ESV)
• The most dangerous place we can see ourselves as believers is thinking that we’ve arrived, or as v. 12 calls it “already perfect”. The best way to avoid this is to have a specific and clear goal to faith (v.14). To “press on” is a present tense verb calling for continuous effort. The effort is towards spiritual maturity (v.15). This involves greater Biblical knowledge effectively used in a wise way to minister to ourselves and others. One way we do this (v.17) is modeling this spiritual maturity.
Genuine faith not only is in God’s Son but in God’s truth (Jn. 14:6). Paul had confidence in the salvation of his readers in the church at Rome because they obeyed to the standard/that form of teaching to which [they] were committed. Paul does not say, “… the pattern of teaching which you accepted,” but (ascribing all the honor to God) “to which you were committed/handed over/delivered (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (Vol. 12–13, p. 205). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.) No believer, of course, comprehends all of God’s truth. Even the most mature and faithful Christian only begins to fathom the riches of God’s Word in this present life. But the desire to know and obey God’s truth is one of the surest marks of genuine salvation. From its inception, the early church was characterized by its devotion “to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42). And Jesus made it clear that those who obeyed His word were the true believers (John 8:31; 14:21, 23, 24; 15:10; etc.). The freedom brought by grace does not provide carte blanche to continue in sin. On the contrary, grace places the believer under obligation to holiness and growth in righteousness.( Mounce, R. H. (1995). Romans (Vol. 27, p. 157). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
There is a standard/form of truth. Form translates tupos, which was used of the molds into which molten metal for castings was poured. True saints are committed to this. Committed translates the aorist passive of paradidomi, which carries the basic meaning of delivery over to. It is true, of course, that, through its reading and preaching, God’s Word is delivered to believers. But Paul’s point here seems to be that the true believer is also delivered into God’s Word, His divine teaching. The idea is that when God makes a new spiritual creation of a believer, He casts the believer into the mold of divine truth. The Christian who faithfully obeys God’s Word becomes conformed to the truth of that Word, a living model of the gospel. The divine teaching to which a believer submits themselves in Jesus Christ stamps them with the authentic image of their Savior and Lord (2 Tim. 1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9, 2:1).
One who is obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which (they are committed) is one, who verse 18 describes as “having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness”. Paul’s concept of freedom is not that of autonomous self-direction but of deliverance from those enslaving powers that would prevent the human being from becoming what God intended. Let no one say, however, that the two bondages are on the same plane. The one is rigorous and relentless, leading to death; the other is joyous and satisfying, leading to life and peace. To be free from the bondage to sin is a great boon in itself. But life cannot be lived in a vacuum. Service to righteousness means positive achievement that adds meaning to life (Harrison, E. F. (1976). Romans. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Romans through Galatians (Vol. 10, p. 73). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.).
• When understanding being set free from sin, we must never think of ourselves of ceasing to sin (cf. v.12-13). But we are no longer enslaved to sin. The freedom that believers enjoy in Christ is the ultimate definition of liberty.
Illustration: ‘A number of runaway slaves came to an English settlement in Africa for shelter. When the English company found what these poor people were, they paid the price of every one to his owner, and let them all go free. A missionary belonging to the settlement said it was a touching sight when all the freed slaves came to church to thank God for their liberty. He wept for joy himself, as well he might. The Englishman with a great sum obtained the freedom of these slaves. But what has our Deliverer spent on His gift to us? “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.” We were not redeemed with silver and gold, “but with the precious blood of Christ.” ’(The Church Pulpit Commentary: Acts 11–Romans. (1908). (p. 268). London: J. Nisbet & Co.)
A person is a slave either to sin and Satan or free though righteousness to God through:
2) Their Practice (Romans 6:19)
Romans 6:19 19 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. (ESV)
Paul here changes the focus from position to practice, admonishing believers to make their living correspond to their new natures. Although it is still possible for Christians to sin, they no longer are bound by sin. Now they are free not to sin, and they should exercise that divinely-provided ability in obedience to their new Lord and Master.
Please turn to Romans 12 (p.947)
It is difficult to put divine principles and truths into terms that finite human minds can comprehend. In saying, I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations/the weakness of your flesh, Paul meant that the analogy of masters and slaves was used as an accommodation to his readers’ humanness. Natural limitations/Flesh is here used as a synonym for humanness, or mortality, and is equivalent to “the members of your body” in verse 13 and members at the end of verse 19. Natural limitations/Flesh is the human faculty influenced by sin, and as long as believers remain in their mortal bodies, sin still has a beachhead, a place to launch its attacks. The natural mind has the foolish tendency under a false show of logic to draw wrong conclusions from the great spiritual facts. All of us are prone to this tendency of making deductions that seem so sound and yet are so false and contradict the very facts from which we think we are drawing them. To act on them leads us into both false doctrine, as many examples show, and into all kinds of sins and sinful courses, as still more examples show (Lenski, R. C. H. (1936). The interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (p. 429). Columbus, Ohio: Lutheran Book Concern.)
That is why Paul admonishes believers:
Romans 12:1-3 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (ESV)
• This active effort in sanctification is worship, which seeks to live as a living sacrifice, continually dying to self and living to please God (v.1). When a believer’s mind is transformed (v.2) their thinking ability, moral reasoning and spiritual understanding are able to properly assess everything, and to accept only what conforms to the will of God. But our flesh tends to overestimate our human ability (v.3). Although the inner person of a believer has been transformed into the likeness of Christ, the outer person, represented by natural limitations/the flesh, is still subject to the defilement of sin.
Before salvation, believers were like the rest of fallen humanity, having no other desire or ability but to follow their natural bent to impurity and to lawlessness. Those two terms refer, respectively, to inward and outward sin. The unregenerate person is both internally and externally sinful, and as they live out their sinfulness it results in still more/further lawlessness. Like a cancer that reproduces itself until the whole body is destroyed, sin reproduces itself until the whole person is destroyed.
Because it is possible for them to resist sin and to live righteously, believers should now present their members as slaves to righteousness. And just as the life of sin leads to further sin, so the life of righteousness leads to further righteousness, whose ultimate end is complete sanctification. Committing ourselves as slaves to doing what is right before God (“righteousness”) results in living that is increasingly God-centered and world-renouncing. (Moo, D. J. (1996). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 405). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)
Quote: The late Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “As you go on living this righteous life, and practicing it with all your might and energy, and all your time … you will find that the process that went on before, in which you went on from bad to worse and became viler and viler, is entirely reversed. You will become cleaner and cleaner, and purer and purer, and holier and holier, and more and more conformed unto the image of the Son of God” (Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Romans: An Exposition of Chapter Six [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972], pp. 268–69).
No one stands still morally and spiritually. Just as unbelievers regress from sinfulness to greater sinfulness, a believer who is not growing in righteousness, though never falling back altogether out of righteousness, will slip further and further back into sin. God’s purpose in redeeming people from sin is not to give them freedom to do as they please but freedom to do as God pleases, which is to live righteously. When God commanded Pharaoh to let His people go, He also made clear His purpose for their deliverance: “that they may serve Me in the wilderness” (Ex. 7:16). God delivers people from enslavement to sin for the sole purpose of their becoming enslaved to Him and to His righteousness.
Finally, a person is a slave either to sin and Satan or free though righteousness to God through:
3) Their Promise (Romans 6:20–22)
Romans 6:20-22 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. (ESV)
Unsaved persons, who are slaves of sin, are free in regard to righteousness. That is, they have no connection to righteousness; it can make no demands on them since they possess neither the desire nor the ability to meet its requirements. They are controlled and ruled by sin, the master whom they are bound to serve. In that sense, they have no responsibility to righteousness, because they are powerless to meet its standards and demands. That is why it is foolish to preach moralistic reformation to sinners. They cannot reform their living until God transforms their lives. The answer to the problem of sin is not simply determination, discipline, reformation, legislation, or any other human endeavor. Victory comes through crucifixion and resurrection (Wiersbe, W. W. (1992). Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the New Testament (p. 384). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.).
Please turn to Philippians 3 (p.981)
Many unsaved people, of course, do not think their lives need reformation, much less transformation. The world is full of people who are decent, honest, law-abiding, helpful, and often very religious, who think their lives are exemplary. But Paul declares that apart from salvation through Jesus Christ, all people are slaves of sin and are free in regard to, that is, totally separated from and unrelated to, God’s standard of righteousness.
Paul describes his regard to his human ability in the flesh verse his divine confidence in vivid terms in Philippians 3
Philippians 3:3:11 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (ESV)
• Paul regards his prior human privileges and achievements as spiritual rubbish in comparison to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, and being spiritually justified (v.9) sanctified (v.10) and glorified (v.11) in Him.
In God’s sight, as verse 21 notes, there is absolutely no fruit/benefit that a can derive from the things they do apart from salvation, things of which after salvation they become ashamed. The only possible end/outcome of those things is death, the second death, which is spiritual death and eternal torment in hell. A former slave of a bad master would not want to return to that master; in the same way, no sensible person would want to return to a lifestyle the fruit of which was death (6:21). Paul has already established that sin brought death just as Christ’s obedience inaugurated righteousness (5:12–21). (Keener, C. S. (2009). Romans (p. 84). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.)
One of the marks of true salvation is a sense of being ashamed of one’s life before coming to Christ. Whether the previous life was marked by sordid immorality or great propriety, by heinous crimes or sacrificial service to others, by extreme selfishness or extreme generosity, it is a life about which the true believer can be nothing but ashamed. No matter how it may appear before the world, the life apart from God is a life apart from righteousness.
But finally, for those who have been set free from sin and have become slaves/enslaved to God through faith in Jesus Christ, as verse 22 notes, the fruit/benefit is sanctification and the end/outcome is eternal life. No good fruit is obtained for those who are slaves to sin, for the outcome of a sinful way of life is death. (Schreiner, T. R. (1998). Romans (Vol. 6, p. 340). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.)
In salvation God not only frees us from sin’s ultimate penalty but frees us from its present tyranny. Free from sin does not mean that a believer is no longer capable of sinning but that they are no longer enslaved to sin, no longer its helpless subject. The freedom from sin about which Paul is speaking here is not a long-range objective or an ultimate ideal but an already accomplished fact. Without exception, every person who trusts in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is free from sin and have become slaves/enslaved to God. Obviously some believers are more faithful and obedient than others, but Christians are equally free from bondage to sin and equally slaves/enslaved to God, equally granted sanctification and equally granted eternal life. Freedom is not a question of whether or not we would like to serve but the choice of which master we will serve. Righteousness leads to holiness; sin as a master promotes wickedness. Righteousness reverses the moral direction taken by sin and leads to sanctification. In both cases a process is under way. Christians who entertain sin find themselves in an ethical tug-of-war they are bound to lose. The answer to this conflict is practical; surrender your body to those activities that are good and pure rather than to those that defile. (Mounce, R. H. (1995). Romans (Vol. 27, p. 158). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
Jesus Christ calls to Himself those who are willing to be inwardly transformed by Him, who desire an entirely new nature that is created in His own holy likeness. He calls to Himself those who are willing to exchange their sinfulness for His holiness. He calls to Himself those who are willing to die with Him in order to be raised with Him, who are willing to relinquish slavery to their sin for slavery to His righteousness. And when people come to Him on His terms, He changes their destiny from eternal death to eternal life.
(Format Note: Outline & some base commentary from MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1991). Romans (pp. 340–355). Chicago: Moody Press.)
