Romans 6.15-23-The Christian Is Free And Obligated To Be A Slave Of Righteousness
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday July 13, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:15-23-The Christian Is Free And Obligated To Be A Slave Of Righteousness
Lesson # 195
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:1.
As we noted in our overview of Romans chapter six, the main theme of this chapter is the Christian’s freedom from the tyranny of the sin nature.
The chapter can be divided into two sections.
The first appears in Romans 6:1-14 and teaches that the justified sinner is dead to the sin nature but alive in Christ as a result of his union with Christ in His death and resurrection.
The second appears in Romans 6:15-23 and teaches that the believer is now obligated and free to be a slave of righteousness now that he has been identified with Christ.
The first paragraph (verses 1-14) emphasizes the negative aspect of this transfer, namely, the freedom from the sin nature whereas the second (verses 15-23) emphasizes the positive, namely, living in the righteousness of God.
The second explains or elaborates on the first by using the imagery of slavery, which would appeal to the frame of reference of Paul’s audience since slavery was an institution in Rome in the first century.
Romans 6:1-14, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 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, 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 for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts 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. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
In Romans 6:1-14, Paul responded to any possible misconception concerning his teaching in Romans 5:20 that where sin increased God’s grace abounded all the more by arguing that Christ died to set the believer from the tyranny of the sin nature and not so the believer could still be its slave.
Romans 5:20, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”
Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
Now, in the same way, in Romans 6:15-23, Paul responds to any possible misconceptions concerning his teaching in Romans 6:14 that the believer is under grace and not under the authority of the Law.
Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
He argues in Romans 6:15-23 that Christ died to free the believer from the Law so that the believer could be a slave to God and His righteousness since the Law was designed to reveal to sinners the infinite gulf between them and a holy God and to lead them to the Savior.
The Law was not designed to deliver them from the power of the sin nature, which only Christ could do.
Thus far in our studies of the book of Romans, Paul has taught us that the law in the form of the entire Old Testament canon was given, not as the way of deliverance, but actually condemned the human race (3:19).
The law makes the sinner aware of sin in his life (3:20).
The introduction of the Law increased the transgression of Adam in the sense that the Law exposed man’s sinful nature to disobey the revealed will of God and in fact stimulated man’s sinful nature to disobey the revealed will of God.
The apostle Paul teaches in Romans 4:15 that the purpose of the Law was to bring about wrath but where there is no law, there is no violation.
No one will ever be justified by obedience to the law because of the presence of the sin nature (3:20).
In Romans 7:8, Paul teaches that sin brought about all kinds of lust through the commandment and that it is dead apart from law (7:8).
He taught in Romans 7:11 that it was ‘through the commandment’ that the sin nature deceived him and killed him.
In Romans 7:5, Paul taught that sinful passions of the human race work through the law.
Paul taught that the law is weak through the human flesh since it contains the sin nature (8:3).
Paul teaches outside of the book of Romans that the law never justifies people (Gal. 2:16; 3:11).
He teaches that the law is sin’s strength (1 Cor. 15:56).
Ultimately, the purpose of the Law was to lead people to Christ (Gal. 3:24).
Those under the law were in need of redemption and Christ came to be under the law in order to redeem those under the law (Gal. 4:5).
Therefore, Paul’s rhetorical question in Romans 6:1 addresses a false inference from his teaching in Romans 5:20 that since the Law was added to increase the trespass of Adam, we ought to have a sinful lifestyle so as to give God more opportunities to express His grace in the form of forgiveness of sins.
Whereas, Paul’s rhetorical question in Romans 6:15 addresses a possible false inference from his teaching in Romans 6:14 that if the Christian is no longer under the authority of the Law, then it does not really matter if the Christian sins.
The answer to both rhetorical questions is a resounding and emphatic no from the apostle Paul.
Sin has consequences for the believer, namely loss of fellowship with God, not salvation and divine discipline if he maintains a sinful lifestyle.
The Christian is not free to do anything he wants rather he is free to serve his new master, God and in fact the Christian is obligated to do so.
Therefore, true freedom means to be set free from the bondage of the sin nature in order to live in a manner that reflects the character and nature of God.
Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
The fact that Christ set the believer free from the tyranny of the sin nature and the condemnation of the Law obligates the believer to obey his new master, God and His righteousness.
In response to any possible objections to his teaching in Romans 6:14 by those Jews who insist that the Law is necessary to restrain sin, Paul teaches that the release of Christians from the Law was a necessary step in dethroning the sin nature’s reign in the Christian’s life.
In Romans 6:15-23, Paul teaches that even though the Christian is under the authority and dominion of God’s grace policy, he is still obligated to obey God.
He also states that even though the Christian is under grace, he is either obeying the desires of the sin nature and putting himself back under the tyrannical rulership of the sin nature and temporal spiritual death or he is obeying the Word of God and living under the dominion of Christ and a slave to God’s righteousness.
Therefore, Paul teaches in this passage that the Christian is either living under the power of the sin nature or the power of God and he will either be serving the sin nature, which leads to temporal death, i.e. loss of fellowship (not salvation) or serving God, which leads to experiencing eternal life in time.
Romans 6:15-23, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 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? 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. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 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. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Therefore, Romans 6:15-23 emphasizes Christian slavery meaning that the Christian is either experiencing deliverance from slavery to the sin nature and experiencing the freedom of being a slave to God and His righteousness or he is not.