“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 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” (Rom. 6:15-18, ESV).
Free to Obey
The chapter began with the rhetorical question, “Are we to continue [present tense] in sin,” followed by an emphasis on freedom. Here the question is repeated but slightly altered, “Are we to sin [aorist tense],” followed by an emphasis on servitude. The subtle difference may simply be between the habitual lifestyle of sin and any violation of the “law.”
If the intention of the law was to direct people to live righteously in line with God’s will (cf. 2:17-18; 3:1-2; 7:7, 12, 14), and if “we are not under law,” are we then left with no standard of morality so that sin is reinvigorated? Once again Paul responds, “By no means!” Freedom from sin is not freedom to sin, which would otherwise be a total misconception of freedom “under grace” apart from the law.
Although Christians are free from the old Mosaic system as a means of justification, it is entirely untrue that there are no obligations to the divine will under grace. Obedience continues to be inextricably linked to faith as a fundamental requisite within the new-covenant system of grace. In fact, the sixth chapter of Romans appears to be a concerted effort to reaffirm the essential role of “obedience of faith” (1:5; 16:26).1
To “present yourselves … as obedient slaves” is a willful choice of being completely devoted in service. The choice is between “sin” unto [εἰς] “death,” or “obedience” unto [εἰς] “righteousness.” Paul is thankful to God that the Romans have chosen the latter, involving the “standard” [τύπος] (cf. 5:14), “pattern” or “model,”2 of “teaching” [διδαχή], the body of doctrine mutually accepted and followed by first-century churches of Christ (16:16). This is “the doctrine [διδαχή] that you have been taught …” (16:17), the pattern of instruction “to which you were committed” [παραδίδωμι], “delivered” (ASV, N/KJV), “handed over” (CSB), “entrusted” (ISV, NASB 2020, NRSV); “has now claimed your allegiance” (NIV).
The teaching of Jesus and the apostles, especially in terms of the demands of discipleship, the ethical requirements of the faith, and the principles that must guide believers in their relations one to the other and to the world became in time so definite and fixed that one could go from one area of the church to another and find the same general pattern. The law was a fixed, definite entity with precepts and prohibitions. Grace has its norms also.”3
This obedient faith emanated from the “heart” [καρδία], the physical, mental, and spiritual core and impetus of action,4 and was necessary for “having been set free from sin” (cf. v. 22; 8:2) and to “have become slaves of righteousness.”
Slaves to a New Master
“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” (Rom. 6:19).
Paul has been using the familiar analogy (“in human terms,” cf. 3:5; Gal. 3:15) of slavery in the Roman world5 to illustrate the past bondage to sin and current obligation to righteousness. Allusion to “your natural limitations” is lit. “your weakness of the flesh,” which Paul acknowledges for himself in the next chapter. While moral impediments may be suggested, it particularly conveys “the difficulties of apprehension, from defective spiritual experience, which prevent the understanding of its deeper truths.”6 This is not intellectual ineptness but limitations fostered by corrupt moral character (cf. 8:5-7; 1 Cor. 2:14; 3:1-3). Not only is this “weakness in the capacity to understand,” but “the proneness of self-deception and to forgetting the obligations imposed by grace.”7
In the past the Romans had given themselves over to “impurity” (cf. 1:24) and increasing “lawlessness” (cf. 4:7) but have now changed masters to “righteousness” (cf. 1:17) unto “sanctification.”8 The noun “sanctification,” used in Romans only here and in v. 22 (with its verbal form in 15:16), refers to the process of making or becoming holy, “set apart for God and separated by life and conduct from the unbelieving world …”9 It is cognate with the adjectival “holy” or “set apart,” as well as “holiness” and “saints” (1:7; 8:27; 12:13; 15:25, 26, 31; 16:2, 15).
Wages of Sin Vs. Gift of God
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 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. 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. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:20-23).
As former “slaves of sin,” so-called “freedom” was essentially “free in regard to righteousness,” when sin was the master rather than the righteous ways of God. Using agricultural imagery (cf. 1:13; 15:28), “fruit” (vv. 21-22) here refers to “the conduct of one’s life in the realm either of salvation or of damnation.”10 Fortunately the Roman saints are “now ashamed” (cf. 1:16) of their past sinfulness that led only to “death” (cf. 5:12–6:16), something earned and thus deserved as “wages.”11 Now, having been “set free from sin” (cf. v. 18), they have submitted themselves as “slaves of God” producing a different kind of “fruit,”12 namely “sanctification,” a new and holy way of life, “and its end, eternal life” (cf. 2:7; 5:21), which is unearned and undeserved as “the free gift of God” (cf. 5:15-16) “in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Conclusion
We are accountable for our own decisions and actions, as God allows us freedom to choose. He calls us to exercise our freedom responsibly by rendering ourselves completely to his will. He offers us freedom from ourselves and from the master of sin, so we may wholeheartedly obey him. We are thus free from sin’s control and free to obey God in humble service to his righteousness.
--Kevin L. Moore
Endnotes:
1 C. K. Barrett, Romans 131. “Against those who might object that the abandonment of the law as a code of conduct (cf. 6:14, 15; 7:1-6) leads to license, Paul argues that the gospel itself provides sufficient ethical guidance for Christians. Through the renewal of the mind that the gospel makes possible, Christians can know and do the will of God (12:2) …” (D. J. Moo, Romans 746).
2 Acts 7:44; 1 Cor. 10:16, 11; Phil. 3:17; 1 Thess. 1:7; 2 Thess. 3:9; 1 Tim. 4:12; Tit. 2:7; Heb. 8:5; 1 Pet. 5:3. In Gal. 6:16 Paul pronounces a blessing on those who walk according to the κανών (“rule” or “standard”), derived from a Semitic word for stalk or reed that came to be used for “measuring rod,” thus a “standard” or “rule.” The English word “canon” is derived from this word, referring to a list of titles of various works or the collection of documents themselves, in particular the biblical canon.
3 E. F. Harrison, “Romans” 73.
4 See Psa. 9:1; 13:5; 86:12; 111:1; 119:2, 7, 10, 34, 58, 69, 145; 138:1; Prov. 3:1; 4:23; Matt. 12:34-35; 15:18-19; 18:35; Eph. 6:6; Philem. 20; Heb. 10:22.
5 During the first century AD approx. 16-20 percent were reportedly slaves within a population of about 60 million (W. V. Harris, “Towards a Study of the Roman Slave Trade” MAAR 36:117-40); some estimates are as high as 33-40 percent (K. R. Bradley, Slavery and Society 33). See K. L. Moore, “Households and Slavery,” Moore Perspective (24 July 2019), <Link>.
6 W. Sanday and H. C. Headlam, Romans 169.
7 H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., EDNT 1:170; R. Mohrlang, Romans 106.
8 Cf. 1 Cor. 1:30; 1 Thess. 4:3, 4, 7; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Tim. 2:15; outside of Paul only Heb. 12:14; 1 Pet. 1:2. Compare 1 Pet. 4:1-5.
9 R. C. Kelcy, Thessalonians 83.
10 H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., EDNT 2:252.
11 Cf. Luke 3:14; 1 Cor. 9:7; 2 Cor. 11:8.
12 See also Gal. 3:22-23; Eph. 5:9; Phil. 1:11; Heb. 12:11; Jas. 3:17-18.
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