Why Slick Willie Just Got Wet
whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?—Without doubt, obedience is the steppingstone to righteousness; disobedience, to unrighteousness. To obey Jesus Christ, the Lord, is to be his servants. If we obey him, by the obedience to him we come to the state of righteousness into life. [The two words, “whether” and “or,” show that life has but two ways open, one or the other of which every man must choose; there is no middle course.]
17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin,—[As it is the apostle’s object to show that believers cannot live in sin, inasmuch as they have become the servants of another master, he applies the general truth stated in the preceding verses more directly to his immediate readers, and gives thanks to God that they, being emancipated from their former bondage, are now bound to a master whose service is perfect liberty.]
ye became obedient from the heart—The heart is the inner, spiritual man, embracing the will, the intellect, and the affections. The obedience from the heart requires that the mind, the will, and the affections should all enter into the service. The mind must be enlightened, the will guided, and the affections enlisted before the form of teaching can be obeyed. A peculiarity of the dispensation of Christ is that the service must be from the heart—that is, an outward performance without the desire of the heart to obey God is not acceptable. All service, then, must spring from the desire to obey God. It is the leading motive of all service. Honor and obedience to God from the heart are much the same. God said: “Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” (1 Sam. 2:30.) We become servants of righteousness and servants of God by obeying him. The desire to obey God, then, underlies all service, all ends, desires, motive; the desire to obey God underlies even the desire to enter into Christ. We wish to enter into Christ that we may obey him. Then the desire to obey God must be present in, and lead to, all service to God. Nothing we do is acceptable to God unless it is done that we may obey and know him. It is the leading motive that underlies all motives. Other motives may be absent without invalidating service, but no service is acceptable where this desire to obey God is absent. When we rightly understand God, the desire of salvation is the desire to obey him. Peter says: “Seeing ye have purified yours souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently.” (1 Pet. 1:22.) The one leading motive and desire that is essential to all service that we render to God is the desire to obey him as Lord of heaven and earth. We can desire to obey him only as we believe and trust him. Then obedience to the gospel means doing the things that bring us into Christ and commit and obligate us to do the whole will of God. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance from sin, and burial out of self puts us in Christ, and binds us to a life of service to him, and are the obedience of the gospel.
to that form of teaching—The teaching was that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and raised again for our justification. The form of teaching includes the dying to sin as well as the burial and resurrection to life. We die to sin and are quickened by faith; we are buried through baptism, and rise in Christ Jesus to walk in the newness of life imparted through faith, just as the principle of life is imparted by begettal, but it can enjoy no distinct and personal life until it is delivered into the new state suited to the development of life. Obedience to the form of teaching includes the quickening through faith, the death to sin, the burial and resurrection through baptism into a new life in Christ. This binds to an obedience to all the laws and regulations of the Christian religion that fit us for enjoying the blessings of heaven.
whereunto ye were delivered;—[The imagery here used is taken from the custom of delivering slaves from one master to another. Sin is before Paul’s mind as a master to whom the disciples had been slaves, and he conceives of them now as delivered from this master to the form of teaching to become henceforth obedient to it.]
18 and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness.—And being made free from sin and the rule of sin, by the form of teaching into which they were cast, by being buried with Christ in baptism and raised again in newness of life, they had become the servants of righteousness. They were by their burial out of self into death with Christ, and their resurrection to walk in a newness of life, freed from sin and the rule of sin, and became obligated to the life of righteousness in Christ.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh:—He illustrated the truths he taught by examples familiar to man on account of the weakness of the flesh.
for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.—Because as in the days past, before they believed, as they presented their members as servants to sin to work uncleanness and from one stage or degree of iniquity to another, in the same way they were to present their members as servants to righteousness to work out their sanctification.
20 For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness.—When they were unbelievers and serving sin, they felt no obligation to do righteousness. [To be free as to righteousness is to be free in the sense only in which a servant, while bound to one master, is free from another.]
21 What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed?—[The fact that when they looked back over their past lives they felt ashamed of the sins in which they had formerly delighted shows the deep change that had taken place in their minds, and implies how sincere and thorough their repentance had been. Moreover, if they had derived no benefit from their past sins, but, on the contrary, felt ashamed of them, they could certainly have no reason for returning to them; and this is what Paul is seeking to guard them against. The issue he is making with them is that they are not to sin because under grace.]
for the end of those things is death.—The end of the fruit we bear out of Christ is death. But even in Christ, at least of those who have entered Christ, some bear evil fruit, some good. To bear evil fruit, or to fail to bear good fruit in Christ, is to be separated from Christ and the end of this is to be burned up.