Sunday School Notes: Romans 6:14b-23

^14b For you are not under the Law but under grace. ¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin, since we are not under the Law but under grace? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves unto obedience, you are slaves to whom you obey, either of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God, for you were slaves of sin, but you obeyed from the heart unto that type of teaching to which you were handed over; ¹⁸ and having been set free from sin, you were enslaved to righteousness. ¹⁹ (I speak in human terms on account of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you presented your parts as slaves to uncleanness and to lawlessness unto lawlessness, now in the same way present your parts as slaves to righteousness unto holiness. ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. ²¹ What fruit, therefore, did you have then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the result of those [is] death. ²² But now, having been set free from sin and being enslaved to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the result: eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin [is] death, but the free gift of God [is] eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The main theme of our discussion from this past Sunday was slavery to sin versus slavery to righteousness–ultimately, slavery to Christ. Verse 23, which is often used in evangelistic settings, is, in fact, addressed here to believers, and draws a distinction between the way of sin and the way of life in Christ. The first is earned, and every person, as a result of their sin and disobedience, has earned their fair wage: eternal death. However, eternal life, which no-one can earn, is given as a free gift. This concept of the free gift of life, which comes through Christ who makes us righteous, is tied to the topic of slavery in this passage.

We started with the end of verse 14, since this leads into the discussion. I have translated the Greek nomos as “Law” (i.e., the Mosaic Law), but it could equally be translated “law.” Indeed, Paul could be contrasting general attempts to attain righteousness by means of works with the grace of God that provides righteousness to us, and thus using “law” in this general sense. But I think there is at least a hint of “Law” intended here, bearing in mind Paul’s audience, and the fact that the Jewish Christians in the Roman church considered the Law as something that set them apart from the others. We have already seen how the Law served not to justify but, in fact, to amplify sin. Since the Law presents God’s righteous standard in plain language, it holds us more accountable, and hence our sin is all the greater because we know better. So, if we are “under the Law,” we are under greater guilt for our sin. However, being “under grace,” the guilt of our sin has been placed on Christ. He has paid the penalty for it, and no amount of Law-keeping or works on our part can add or take away from that.

Paul starts the next section with a question similar to the one in verse 1: shall we sin since we are under grace, not under the Law (or under law)? Again, it’s a question that might naturally flow from the statement in verse 14, and the preceding argument. In the succeeding verses, Paul makes a similar case as he did before, except this time, instead of talking about dying to sin and rising with Christ, he talks about slavery to sin versus slavery to God.

There were two types of slavery in the ancient world. One was an enforced slavery where, perhaps, a Roman army would capture land and subjugate the people. Some people were born into such slavery, their parents having been enslaved for one reason or another. Another form of slavery was voluntary, often as a means of paying off debt. If someone owed a lot of money to someone else and was unable to repay him, that person could enter into a time of voluntary slavery until the person owed determined the debt had been repaid. It is probably this latter kind that is in mind in Romans 6.

It is interesting to note that Paul only presents two possible scenarios: you are a slave to sin, or a slave to God. He doesn’t give the option of not being a slave to anyone. This means that those who are not Christians are, whether they believe it or not, slaves to sin. Sin is their master, and they are obliged–and, in fact, more than willing–to heed its every command. Such people often believe themselves to be free to do whatever they want. They are, however, unable to do anything other than what their sin-enslaved hearts desire; in other words, they are incapable of doing anything that pleases God. This doesn’t mean they are not, by God’s grace, incapable of doing good things. It means that those good things are, in fact, contrary to the orientation of their nature, and they are a stench in God’s nostrils. The Christian, however, is a slave to God, and, therefore free to please God. He can also sin, but because the Christian has a new nature, sin is contrary to that nature, and it grieves his heart. The God-enslaved person does not want to serve sin, and hates it when he falls to the temptation to give sin mastery, if only for a brief season.

The parenthetical note in verse 19 could be understood in a couple of ways. One is to look at it as an introduction to what he is about to say. Paul has presented to his readers the idea that they are no longer slaves to sin; they have been freed from that bondage, and are now slaves to God. He then tells them that, because of their weak flesh, they may not grasp the implications of this, so he will spell it out: present your parts as slaves to righteousness. Alternatively, Paul may be cognizant of the fact that slavery rarely, if ever, has a positive connotation–at least humanly speaking. He wants his readers not to let their fleshly understanding of “slavery” stop them from grasping the positive nature of slavery when it is to God, and not to sin.

In verse 20, Paul says that when his readers were slaves to sin, they were “free from righteousness.” In other words, they felt no obligation toward righteousness, and, indeed, had no desire to be righteous. Honoring God in their thoughts and actions was not a part of their worldview. This meant that everything they did was ultimately sin, since they were serving sin, and so the fruit of their actions was death–spiritual death. But Christ has broken the bondage of sin. They are now enslaved to God, which is true freedom. Now their actions, adorned as they are by the grace of God through Christ, result in holiness, or sanctification, and ultimately eternal life. This is not to say our actions in Christ earn us eternal life, but it is because of Christ that, by grace, we can please God to Whom we are now enslaved. Everything we say and do now instead of producing death in our lives actually serves to sanctify us. And the end result is eternal life–and all because of the free gift of Christ’s righteousness purchased for us on Calvary.

As with last week’s notes, this is just scratching at the surface of the discussion we had. Please feel free to add to it, or discuss in the comments, especially if you were there.

Program Note: There will not be a Romans study this coming Sunday due to a guest speaker coming to give a presentation to the Sunday School groups. This means there will be no Sunday School Notes next Tuesday. We will pick up the Romans study with Romans 7 on February 19th.

UPDATE: There has been a change of plan: the Romans study will proceed as normal on Sunday, with notes to follow next Tuesday.