Romans 6:19-23 - Slaves vs. Free

19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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You Are Free From Sin!

V. 19 - “speaking in human terms” - Paul is using physical examples of slavery to get the point across to the readers. We all understand slavery. In the United States slavery literally tore the nation asunder. The Civil War was fought because some factions wanted to retain or increase the number of states where slave holding was legal. They demanded the right to decide that for their states. The end of the war decided that no state in the United States of America would be a ‘slave state’. That subject and the ramifications of the treatment of fellow human beings has dogged this nation and our politics ever since.

Understand: if you are owned by another man, you are in his control. Your freedom, if any, is limited to what he will allow. When you are controlled by sin, you are slaves to sin. You have no freedom to live and act righteously. If you are owned by sin, you cannot be God’s child.

Understand: When you volunteer to be Christ’s body, you have given yourself to Him, to God. You are free from sin. Living righteously does not happen automatically. Each day you must resist Satan and turn to Jesus. That is the difference between being a slave to sin, and being a slave to righteousness: you get to choose! You can choose well, or choose poorly. The Holy Spirit is given to you to empower you to choose Christ’s way and not Satan’s. When the old nature is dead and gone, you will be like Jesus, and in the presence of God the Father, God Almighty. If you choose poorly, He has provided confession and repentance to forgive your sin and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. (See: 1 John 1:9).

“you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness” - Again, “presented” is too wimpy: you yielded yourself. You gave your allegiance to sin to be used as the old sin nature felt wont to do. The result: you lived in sin. You lived in rebellion to God. The Jews were in active rebellion, having been given the commands of God. They knew what they were to do, and chose to do the opposite. The Gentiles, in this case the Romans to whom Paul was writing (and now, Paul is writing to us as we read this letter), were operating in ignorance (at least, operating in ignorance of the Law and Prophets). Paul has posited that even without the Law and Prophets we can know of God - See Romans 1:18-32.

“now present your members as slaves to righteousness” - An exhortation: yield yourself to Jesus, surrender to righteousness. Volunteer to give up everything you have to Christ the Lord. The metaphor of ‘bond-slave’ fits here.

“Resulting in sanctification” - The Easton Bible Dictionary defines “sanctification involves more than a mere moral reformation of character, brought about by the power of the truth: it is the work of the Holy Spirit bringing the whole nature more and more under the influences of the new gracious principles implanted in the soul in regeneration. In other words, sanctification is the carrying on to perfection the work begun in regeneration, and it extends to the whole man.” Unger’s Bible Dictionary says, “The dominant idea of sanctification, therefore, is separation from the secular and sinful, and setting apart for a sacred purpose.” Peter quotes Lev. 11:44-45, “Be holy because I am holy.” The Holy Spirit works in you as you grow in Christ so you can be as holy as is our Lord.

V. 20 - “free in regard to righteousness”- This is not referring to free to be righteous. Paul is saying they are living in freedom from righteousness! There is an atheist group in the United States, named “Freedom From Religion”. This group claims the U.S. Constitution demands there can be no reference to a religion in the United States, especially any reference to Christianity (particularly in any government, quasi-, or semi-governmental activity). They have twisted “freedom of religion” to reflect their negative and corrupt attitudes. They have refused to recognize our freedoms only exist if the people are moral and religious.

V. 21 - “what benefit were you then deriving” - What do we gain if we are enslaved to sin (and we are) before we believed in Christ? We do not gain eternal life. We do not gain righteousness. We do not gain peace with God, or an abundant life. I cannot claim that sinning is a big plus. See Jam. 1:13-15 - “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
Lust leads to sin. Sin leads to death. Remember, the second death, which separates us from God forever, is the end result of rejecting Christ as Lord and Savior. All will die the physical death. Some will not be separated from God, because they have accepted His gift.

V. 22 - “you derive your benefit” - Eternal life. This is not relegated to the future only, sometimes referred to as “pie-in-the-sky”. Jesus came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. (See John 10:10). We are set apart for Christ’s glory.

V. 23 - “the wages of sin is death” - There is no other end for the natural man. Without Christ there is no hope. Our life actions grow out of our belief system, the way we run our lives. The natural man is enslaved to sin (this chapter of Romans is dedicated to explaining that premise). Sin separates us from Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Because we are enslaved to sin, we have earned the penalty.

“the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” - We cannot earn salvation. Jesus taught this. Paul preaches this. If we could earn it, Christ’s sacrifice is unnecessary. We do not pay for it. We cannot pay for it. This reminds me of the story of a man looking at luxury yachts. He asked the price of the ship. An onlooker commented, “If he feels he has to ask what it costs, he can’t afford it.” Our salvation is not free, Christ paid the full cost. Our salvation is free to us, because Christ was the perfect sacrifice that met God’s perfect justice.

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end of chapter

 

Romans 6:15-18 - Obey

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

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This is the fourth of four concepts of turning your life over to Jesus Christ and living for Him. The first: Know - mental acceptance that Jesus Christ died for your sin. Second: Reckon/Consider - based on that knowledge, orient your life and behavior following Him. Third: Yield - surrender control of your life to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Fourth: Obey - Make your life-decisions based on His commands, and follow them daily.

- - - Slave to the One You Obey - - -

V. 15 - “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” - This is the same question asked in verse 6:1 - “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” Isn’t it logical? If Jesus’ grace covers all our sins, let’s sin a lot so we can get a lot of grace. Doesn’t it make sense? A lot of sin means a lot of grace. Well... Paul’s response:

“May it never be!” - Paul poses this rhetorical question, and answers it. Someone who does not understand the relationship of our sin nature and our sins would ask this kind of question. The sins we commit are the proof (evidence, or manifestation) of our sin nature. We did not earn our sin nature because of the sins we do. This is different than our U.S. legal system, in which we are innocent until proven guilty. (We are criminals if we are convicted of committing crimes. We are presumed innocent until... ) In this world, we are sinners until the Lord Jesus Christ gives us a new sinless nature. See John 3:36 - “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life, but God's wrath remains on him.”

V. 16 - “Do you not know” - How could they not know about slavery? I think that slaves may have been far more common than paid workers in the Roman and Greek culture. God instructed the Jews to never own another Jew as a slave. Technically, a Jew was not a slave in Jewish culture, but a ‘hired hand’ working to pay off a debt. (See: Exo. 21:2-6; Lev. 25:39ff; Deut. 15:16-18.) A Jew, having served to pay the debt, could decide to stay with the ‘master’ - voluntary servitude. They went through a ceremony in which a hole was punched in the servant’s earlobe, after which the servant served for life. The term ‘bond-servant’ may refer to this voluntary service.

“when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience” - A slave’s life was not entirely his own. There may be a few moments during the day when a slave was not at the master’s beck-and-call. There are fewer moments that a slave can choose to disobey his master.
Now in most cases, no one voluntarily becomes another’s slave. (See ‘bond-slave’ notes above.) Just because you volunteer does not give you the right to be disobedient to your master. When you ‘present’ yourself, you have ‘yielded’ your rights to your master.

“Slaves of the one whom you obey” - Your actions demonstrate what you believe.

“Either sin... or righteousness” - The choice is the natural man (sin) which is inherited from Adam, or the new man (righteousness) gifted to you by Christ. You will obey one or the other.

V. 17 - “You became obedient from the heart” - Even though you are a sinner, you chose to follow to Jesus! As Paul says in this letter later: “because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation.” (Rom. 10:9-10). God knows the changes in us start with the heart of man. From Ezekiel: “I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies and I will give them tender hearts,” (Eze. 11:19 )

V. 18 - “Slaves of righteousness” - If you are no longer slaves of sin because of your faith in Christ Jesus, your citizenship has been changed from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of light. (See: Col. 1:13) Committing your life into Christ’s hands and being faithful to Him, means you are committing to obey Him. He is righteous - the very definition of righteousness - and now you are slaves to righteousness.

I think we struggle with the idea of being slaves to anything or anyone. The history of slavery in the United States a mixed bag - there is the horror of slavery in which people were ‘owned’ by another; there is the glory of a Civil War in which slavery was eliminated as a government sanctioned activity. Slavery still exists in this world, in the 21st century but not in the United States. Slavery is anathema here.

Who or what you believe controls the ways you make decisions. You are a ‘slave’ to that control system. Praise God that Jesus Christ is your savior, and your master!

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Romans 6:12-14 - Yield

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

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This is the third of four concepts of turning your life over to Jesus Christ and living for Him. The first: Know - mental acceptance that Jesus Christ died for your sin. Second: Reckon/Consider - based on that knowledge, orient your life and behavior following Him. Third: Yield - surrender control of your life to Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

- - - Present Yourselves - - -

V. 12 - “Therefore...” - Since you know your old self died in Christ, (See: Rom. 6:4-12, above) and you know sin has died in Christ, and you now consider (that is, you reckon, or plan) your life and actions based on that knowledge, and you obey that planning...

“do not let sin reign in your mortal body” - As long as you live in this world, in this physical (mortal) body you will be tempted to sin. By the power of the Holy Spirit you can opt to not sin. By relying on Christ and the Holy Spirit to guide and help you, sin will no longer control.

You have options!

This is not a one-time event, but an ongoing situation - do not let sin have unending control of your life!

V. 13 - “And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin” - This is continuation of the thought started in verse 12 - don’t let sin reign. In addition to ending the reign of sin, stop letting your body be used by sin. Andrew Klavan, from “The Daily Wire”, has said on his podcast that our physical bodies are a manifestation of our soul and spirit. I think that description fits what God is saying through Paul in these verses.

The physical acts of sin are show what your soul and spirit believe.

You believe that Jesus died for your sin and is your savior. Good! So quit acting as if He doesn’t exist and didn’t sacrifice Himself for you! Break that pattern of sinful behavior.

“present yourselves to God” - There are negative and a positive aspects to this train of thought. The negative is yielding your body to sin. The positive is yielding your body to God. Both are an act of will - “I will not submit to God’s commands,” or, “I will submit to God’s commands and follow His ways.”
When knights pledged their allegiance to a king, they offered their sword to the king. On bended knee they held the sword in the palms of their open hands to the king. They yeilded themselves to the king. Similarly, Robert E. Lee offered his sword to Ulysses S. Grant when he surrendered at Appomattox Court House. In addition, Lee's army surrendered their weapons to the Union Army. This is picture of "yield" - no more fighting, pledging allegiance.

Our lives are not a game of “Pooh Sticks”. (In the Winnie the Pooh stories, they play a game with Christopher Robin called “Pooh Sticks”. They drop sticks off a bridge over a stream on the upper side, and then run to the other side of the bridge to see what the current has done with the sticks.) We are not dropped into the stream of life to then just float along bounced around by the stones and currents in the stream. We are active participants by the decisions we make. Peter says it this way, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.’" (1 Pet. 1:14-16) Other letters by Paul, James and John echo this thought: Choose Jesus!

V. 14 - “For sin shall not be master over you” - The “For” in this sentence points us back to this reasoning:

• Do not let sin reign (v. 12)
• Yield yourselves to God, because (v. 13)
• You are in Christ (v. 11)
• He (Jesus) lives for God, (v. 10)
• So you can live for God (v. 12)

Which all lead us to what follows: Sin shall not be master over you. You are no longer slaves to sin - it has no control over you. 

That is the big picture here: You are free. You can choose between the two options.

“You are not under law but under grace” - Up to this point in the letter, Paul has mentioned ‘grace’ at least 10 times. He compares the obligation of the law to the gift of grace.

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Romans 6:9-11 - Reckon / Consider

9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

- - - Make Life Decisions Based On... - - -

V. 9 - “death no longer is master over Him.” - He is Risen! (Response: “He is Risen, Indeed.”)  Christ is re-born to eternal life.

We, too, in Him are re-born. Eternal life means death has been defeated, it holds no sway any longer.

This is the strong message of the New Covenant. (See the following: Matt. 16:21, 28:6; Mk. 16:6; John 21:14; Acts 2:32, 13:30; 1 Cor. 15:4; 2 Cor. 4:14; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; 2 Tim. 2:8; 1 Pet. 1:21)

At the end of time, when Christ returns and all is judged, death will be banished forever. Death has been defeated. (See: Rev. 20:6, 14; 21:4)

V. 10 - “He died to sin once for all” - Past, present, and future; All men, every woman; all creatures great and small - Christ’s sacrifice paid in full for it all. This is a radical concept. Most cultures have transcendent beings they worship, whether pagan deities or the Lord God of Judeo-Christian faith. Most religious practices involve repetitive attempts to appease the gods, so harm won’t come upon the believers. A common belief is that bad things happen to you because the gods are angry. Another facet is to appease the gods so they will do something good for you.

Repeated offerings and sacrifices are part of the Jewish practice - look through the book of Leviticus. These religious practices were not quite the same as the pagan worship of pagan gods. God had told the Israelites - repeatedly - He loves them. If they would remain faithful to Him, and show that faithfulness through the worship, He would continue to bless them. The Jews did not earn His love - He decided long before they became a nation, a people. The Lord God, the Holy God of Israel, is not capricious - a God who must be mollified. 

That being said: God gave the Law to make them better people! The Ten Commandments are in opposition to the way of life of those nations around them (and the one from which they escaped - Egypt). (See: Exo. 20:3-17) The first four Laws concern human-God relationships. The next six Laws concern human-human relationships. 

The sacrifices were not to merely appease God so that He would be good to them. The sacrifices were to help the Israelites to know the penalty for their sins had been paid. There was nothing they could do to work their way into God’s favor. But they could sacrifice a totally innocent animal. God would accept that innocent animal as sufficient to not give them the punishment they deserved. 

He is a loving and compassionate God who blesses those who believe in Him. He has provided salvation for us, even though we don’t deserve, nor can we earn it. He has given a gift to all through His Son.

“the life that He lives, He lives to God” - Jesus was tempted as we are, yet was without sin. His resurrection to eternal life with the Father is the guarantee of our salvation. He died to pay for our sin - one perfect life for all imperfect humans. His life is empowered by God, and is lived in His presence. There is no other power or being, physical or spiritual, that can separate Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

V. 11 - “Even so “ That being said - Christ’s death defeated the power of sin and His resurrection to eternal life proves it - you no longer need to be beset and harassed by sin! Based on that knowledge, you now can live in the power of His resurrection.

“Consider yourselves” - This is a ‘command’ (I would not be adamant that this is a command like “You shall love the Lord with all your heart...”). Since you are Christ’s own, you can now start to make life decisions based on Christ’s guidance.
A new paradigm! If you are Christ’s own, and believe you are His, you can live you life by His power and through guidance from the Holy Spirit. You are His: so live like it is so! This does not mean be an ‘actor’, putting on a mask, hiding your true self. You are a new person, live as that new person.

- - - Two Choices - - -

There is a word used often in relation to immigrants - “assimilate”. If you migrate to a country, and want to become a citizen then you must learn and accept the new country’s laws and customs. For example, we want immigrants from Mexico or Honduras to become Americans, as in United-States-of-America-Americans. They may have come from Mexico, that is their former culture and history, but we want them to become Americans, not Mexicans-living-in-America. It is fine to celebrate your heritage; it helps you remember your family origins. Learn our language, learn our laws, learn how our political system works (it is different than 90% of other countries), how our government functions. That is assimilation.
Assimilation is what is expected of us when we accept Christ as Lord and Savior. We are now citizens of His heavenly kingdom.

“Dead to sin, but alive to God”- you get to make the decision, or decisions each day. Whether you decide to follow Jesus’s guidelines, or decide not, you make the decision. Even if you just slide through life, making no overt decisions, you are making decisions. Do you want to continue on the way you have, or do you want to make a change for the better - for the way Jesus Christ would have you live? 

There are only two choices - live according to Jesus, or not.

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Romans 6:5-8 - Know

5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

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This next section of the letter gives us hope based on our life in Jesus. In this treatise on Christian Faith, Paul has hammered his themes - he doesn’t just make a point, he comes at it from multiple angles. Paul says we fall short of the glory of God - and shows how for Jews and Gentiles have fallen, and in how many ways. Paul says we cannot earn our salvation - and demonstrates with multiple examples.
He will do the same with the next information - that believing in Christ is far more than a belief system, it is change of life!
We have been transferred through Christ’s death and resurrection to His eternal life - we are immersed in His death, symbolized and realized by baptism. We share in His eternal life - symbolized and realized by being raised up in the act of baptism. Death and life in one simple act!

- - - No Longer Slaves to Sin - - -

V. 5 - “For if...” - Paul is setting up these truths, and shows how both are true.

“United with Him in the likeness of His death“ - The word “likeness” is easily misunderstood. When I think of “likeness”, I imagine a painting, or drawing, or sculpture - i.e., “that painting looks just like you. An excellent ‘likeness’!” That is a pale approximation of what Paul is talking about. Look at verse three again - we are immersed in His death. We are united with Jesus - not stuck to Him with superglue; not a doppelgänger similarity, but we will be innately like Him, the same quality, we are re-born with it in us. This makes Jesus’ statement, “You must be born again” so marvelous (See: John 3:3-7). Christ died on the cross to defeat sin and pay for sin. We completely share in that death when we believe He is Lord and Savior.

This is all God’s doing. I do not know how God transports my soul and spirit from this body of sin into the new incorruptible body. That is way, way above my level of understanding, and abilities. I know that without Jesus I am condemned to this body of death. I am most happy to share in Christ’s death in order to gain His life. I do not have to suffer separation from God in order to attain this. Jesus did that for me, for all of us. If I am separated from God because of my sin, there is nothing I can do, no price I can pay, that will earn or buy my way back to Him. Only a perfect sacrifice could pay the price - Jesus is that perfect payment.

“also be in the likeness of His resurrection” - God, through Jesus Christ delivers us from sin, and transfers us into His kingdom of light. (See: Col. 1:12-14). On the cross, there was the plaintive cry, “Why have you forsaken me?”. (See: Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34) As the separation occurred, Jesus, who had spent all eternity with the Heavenly Father and the Holy Sprit died to them. At the ascension His glory shown through - Jesus, resurrected to glory and power to be on the throne with God, Justified and sanctified, Holy and blameless - Savior.  (See: Mark 16:19; Luke 24:50, 51; Acts 1:9-13).

And we shall be just like Him (1 John 3:2). Again, not just in close proximity, not just a big fan or a groupie. We are God’s children. Jesus’ qualities of holiness and sinlessness are ours. We are re-born with His righteousness in us, not our own. His proximity to God the Father is ours. We will see God face-to-face - remember, Moses was told no man does this and survives (See: Exo. 33:20, 23) - we have gone from death to eternal life.
Jesus did not say the resurrection would happen to him, but that He is the resurrection! (See: John 11:25, 26)

V. 6 - “Knowing this” - The ‘this’ is His death and resurrection are ours as well.

“old self was crucified with Him” - Another way of saying we are immersed in Christ’s death, or united with Him. Praise God that we do not need to physically die as Christ did in order to be re-born to newness of life. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18) Our old self is corrupt (See: Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9). Our old nature, or flesh (that which we inherited from Adam), is incapable of living wholly for God. (Eph. 2:3). The old nature cannot live in eternity with God because it is imperfect. In our mind we are merely ‘imperfect’! That is a completely inadequate description to compare ourselves with God. 

“our body of sin might be done away with” - This old ‘imperfect’ body is destined for destruction, not living in the presence of a Holy God. Another possible reading of ‘body of sin’ is the collection of all your sinful ‘works’. Jesus’ death covered all your sin, that is, your ‘body of work’ - this second reading is probably a stretch... However, we know that the sinful person cannot live in eternity with our Holy God Almighty. That burden of sin must be stripped away. Only the new self - filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit, cleansed by the powerful work of Jesus on the cross, guaranteed by His resurrection - that self can live forever with God. That self can see God face-to-face!

“so that we would no longer be slaves to sin” - Our sins are manifestation of our sin nature, not the cause of our sin nature. This body of sin, our physical body has been infected by Adam’s original sin, and daily demonstrates our sin. As long as we live in these bodies, we will be beset by sin. We cannot get away from sin. We may not seek to commit sin moment by moment, but are aware of the lure and power of sin - we can not deny it.

We are re-born with a new nature when we believe in Christ. There are then two natures within us - the old sin nature and new sinless nature. The old sin nature dies when the body dies - either at your physical passing, or when you are raptured at Christ’s triumphant return! Each decision you make is made under influence of these natures - which are opposed to each other. The new nature is guided by the Holy Spirit, the old nature is not. Each decision you make is a choice of which influence you will follow. 

That is why Paul can say you would “no longer be slaves to sin” - the Holy Spirit will not lead you to sin. For this reason we must be aware of the Holy Spirit in us, in our lives. The Holy Spirit will never mislead you, to give you wrong information or guidance that would lead you to sin. We can be filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit. This is the path to living an abundant life Jesus has promised. 

V. 7 - “for he who has died is freed from sin.” - If this statement was a stand-alone it would be enigmatic. There seems to be several meanings buried in these few words. I think, “Really? Only when I die will I be free?” However, this verse is the continuation of verses 5 and 6: i.e., we are united with Him in death and life and are crucified with Him so our sinful bodies and nature are dead - so death frees us from sin. That is both here and now, and especially in eternity.
But someone will say, “How can this be, since I still sin?” The old nature is ‘dead man walking’. We are not enslaved to it any longer. We have the opportunity to NOT SIN!

V. 8 - “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,” - We will live forever in Him. (See: John 5:25; 6:51, 56, 57)

We are not called to live in ignorance. God does not expect us to follow blindly. He has been clear, telling us the more we know of Him and His salvation for us, the better we can live for and obey Him.
You can know you are His own, and are saved, and can live accordingly.

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