Romans 6

When a Christian dies to sin, his old sinful desires should die also. And in their place should come a new desire from the Holy Spirit—the desire to please and obey God. And from this new desire new behavior must arise as well.

13 Paul wrote in verse 12: Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Here in verse 13, he says essentially the same thing: Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness. Now God is the ruler of our life; therefore, all the parts of our bodies belong to Him. The parts of our body are to be used as instruments of righteousness. Therefore, we must offer our bodies to God completely and continuously (see Romans 12:1 and comment).

14 Paul implies in this verse that sin is the master of those under law—that is, those under the authority of the law.³⁰ Why should that be? The reason is this. The law says, “Obey,” but it doesn’t give man the power to obey. The law says, “Do this, do that,” but man can’t do all that the law says. Therefore, in effect, he ends up breaking the law—and that is sin. For those under law, there is no way to avoid sinning. Thus sin becomes their master. They cannot escape. And for this reason, those under the law are without forgiveness, without hope.³¹

But then Paul reminds us that we are not under law, we are under grace. That is, through God’s mercy we have received forgiveness of sin. And not only that, we have also received new power for overcoming sin, so that we might live righteously in God’s sight.

Perhaps someone is wondering why Paul, in these first six chapters of Romans, has talked so much about the Jewish law. Why should we Gentiles care about the Jewish law? The reason is that the Jewish law is only one example of many kinds of law that people follow. In every religion of the world there is some kind of law or set of rules and rituals that people are required to follow. And so the same problems that the Jews had in living under the Jewish law apply in a general way to the followers of all other religions also.

We must not think, however, that the Jewish law is just like the laws and rituals of other religions. That is not so. The Jewish law was given by God Himself; the laws of most other religions are manmade. Nevertheless, the Jews and the followers of other religions are similar in this respect: they both believe that obedience to law and ritual is the means of obtaining salvation and they place their hope in it. And this is their mistake. They remain under law. As long as men remain under law, they cannot be under grace; and if they are not under grace, they cannot be saved.

No man—whether he is a Jew or whether he is the follower of some other religion—can obtain salvation through the works of any law or ritual. Only by God’s grace received through faith in Jesus Christ can man be saved (see Ephesians 2:8-9 and comment).

15 Since we who believe in Christ are no longer under law (verse 14), we will not be punished according to the law. Since we are now free of punishment, some might be tempted to say: “Let’s sin! We can get away with it!” But Paul says to such athought: By no means! (see verses 1-2 and comment).

16 When we sin, we become slaves to sin. When we obey God, we become “slaves” of God—or, as Paul says in verse 18, slaves to righteousness (see Matthew 6:24; John 8:34).

Who do we obey—sin or God? The one we obey will be the one whose slave we are. The proof of whose slave we are comes from seeing who we obey. If we say we are God’s slaves but do not obey His commands, we are liars. The proof that we are Christians is demonstrated by our obedience to God (see 1 John 2:3-6 and comment).

Here a question arises. Paul has said that we are not under law (verse 14). But here Paul says that we must obey God. Isn’t that like being “under law”? One moment Paul says that we are no longer under the authority of God’s law; but the next moment he says that we must remain under the authority of God. What’s the difference?

There is a big difference. To be under law—that is, under the authority of God’s law—means to be under the punishment or condemnation of the law. Those under the authority of the law will be condemned by the law, because they can never fully obey the law.

To be under the authority of God Himself, however, is completely different. To be under the authority of God means to be under grace (verse 14). It means that through faith in Christ there is forgiveness of sin and deliverance from the punishment of the law. It means that when we stumble and fall, all we need to do is repent of our sin, and we will be cleansed and restored (see 1 John 1:9 and comment).

To be under the authority of God means another thing. It means to be under the authority of the Holy Spirit. And it is the Holy Spirit who gives us the desire to obey God’s commands, and then, more important, gives us the power to obey them.

Thus we can see that being under God’s authority is totally different from being under the law’s authority. Under God, we receive both forgiveness of sin and the power to overcome sin. Under law, we receive no forgiveness and no power; only condemnation.

However, let us remember: we must remain under God’s authority, we must obey His commands. Even though we are free from the condemnation of God’s law, we are not free from God!

17-18 The Roman Christians had wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which [they] were entrusted; that is, they had obeyed the teachings of Paul and the other apostles. Because they obeyed, Paul tells them that they have been set free from sin.

But they have not been set free from God. Men are either slaves to sin (verse 17), or slaves to righteousness (verse 18)—that is, slaves of God. We are one or the other. And we cannot be both at the same time (Matthew 6:24). Therefore, since we have to be someone’s slaves, it’s much better to be slaves of God! He is loving and mercif ul. He is also all-powerful. And He gives all of His “slaves” a reward—eternal life! (verses 22-23).

The slaves of sin receive another kind of “reward”—namely, eternal death (verses 21,23).

Some people may be troubled by Paul’s use of the word “slave.” Paul uses the word “slave” only as an illustration. We are not only God’s “slaves”; we are also His children and heirs.

In one way we are like slaves, because we are under God’s authority. But in another way we are God’s children, free members of His family.

19 When Paul calls the Roman Christians weak in [their] natural selves, he means that they are weak in understanding. In order to help them more easily understand his teaching, Paul has tried to put things in human terms; that is, he has used words from common everyday experience, such as the word “slave.”

In the second part of this verse, Paul repeats the thought of verse 13.

20 We cannot be slaves of two masters at the same time. If we are the slave of one, that means we will be free from the other. Here Paul reminds the Romans that it was the same for them. When they were slaves to sin, they remained free from the control of righteousness.

21 We can choose which master we want to serve. We are free to choose. Let us, therefore, choose that master who gives the best reward!

Christians are free from slavery to sin; nevertheless, from time to time they act like slaves of sin. That is, Christians from time to time misuse their freedom to choose their own master. Sometimes they choose the wrong master—they choose to serve sin, or Satan. “Let that not be!” Paul exhorts us (see verse 6 and comment).

There is absolutely no advantage in being a slave to sin. Sin leads only to death (verse 23).

22 But there is great advantage in being a slave of God! First, it leads to holiness; and without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). Second, being a slave of God leads to eternal life (verse 23).

23 Men work and earn wages. When we sin, we earn sin’s “wages.” But eternal life (or salvation) is not something we earn by our own work or effort. That is a gift from God. Men don’t “earn” gifts. Rather, gifts are freely given, according to the love and pleasure of the giver—that is, according to grace. Eternal life is a gift of God’s grace. It is given to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. It was He who bought the gift for us; He paid for it with His own blood. Paul sums it up in his letter to the Ephesians: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).