Romans 6.16-The Christian Is Either A Slave To The Sin Nature Or A Slave To Obedience
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday July 16, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:16-The Christian Is Either A Slave To The Sin Nature Or A Slave To Obedience
Lesson # 197
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:15.
This evening we will study of Romans 6:16, in which Paul poses a rhetorical question to two groups of Christians in Rome.
The first are those Jewish believers who might object to his teaching in Romans 6:14 by insisting that the Mosaic Law is necessary to restrain sin.
The second are those Gentile Christians who might erroneously conclude that since they under God’s grace policy that this now gives them a license to sin.
If you recall, in Romans 6:15, in response to these two groups, 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.
Therefore, the rhetorical question in Romans 6:16 continues Paul’s response in Romans 6:15 to these two groups of Christians.
Thus, in Romans 6:16, Paul poses another rhetorical question that continues to address a possible false inference from his teaching in Romans 6:14 and emphasizes that there is no compromise with sin now that the Christian is no longer under the Law but under God’s grace policy.
He is either a slave to the sin nature, which results in temporal spiritual death, i.e. loss of fellowship with God or he is a slave to obedience to the Father’s will, which results in the believer experiencing the divine righteousness imputed to him the moment he exercised faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.
Paul’s rhetorical question in Romans 6:16 appeals to his reader’s frame of reference who were Romans in that it makes mention of the obedience of a slave to his master, which would be familiar imagery to his readers since slavery was a Roman institution.
Romans 6:15-16, “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?”
“Do you know not” is composed of the emphatic negative adverb ou (ou)) (oo), “not” and the second person plural perfect active indicative form of the verb oida (oi‚da) (oy-da), “do you know.”
The verb oida and the emphatic negative adverb ou mean, “are you totally unaware concerning the fact?”
Together, they indicate that the believers in Rome would emphatically not be unfamiliar with or would reject as a fact or would be ignorant of the fact that a person is a slave to whom he renders obedience.
They indicate that the believers in Rome would readily accept as fact or acknowledge that a person is a slave to the one whom he renders obedience.
The second person plural form of the verb refers to two groups of Christians: (1) Legalistic Jewish Christians (2) Licentious Gentile Christians.
Romans 6:16, “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?”
“When you present” is the verb paristemi (parivsthmi) (par-is-tay-mee), which means, “to place yourself at another’s disposal.”
“Yourselves” is the reflexive personal pronoun heautou (e(autou) (heh-ow-too), which refers again to legalistic Jewish believers and licentious Gentile Christians.
“To someone” is the relative pronoun hos (o^$) (hos), which refers to no particular person who receives obedience from another.
“As slaves” is the noun doulos (doulo$) (doo-los), which referred to someone who belonged by nature to someone else and not himself and had his will bound up in the will of another who has power over him.
Paul’s use of the noun doulos in Romans 6:16 is significant since it was a word used with reference to slavery, which in the first century of the Roman Empire was a major institution.
“For obedience” is composed of the preposition eis (ei)$) (ice), “for” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun hupakoe (u(pakohv) (hoop-ak-o-ay), “obedience.”
These two words indicate that obedience is the purpose here for which a person places himself at the disposal of another.
“You are” is the verb eimi (ei)miv) (i-mee), which means, “to belong to a particular class of individuals” that is identified by the noun doulos as slaves.
“Slaves” is the once again the noun doulos (doulo$) (doo-los).
Romans 6:16, “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?”
“Either…or” expresses the contrast between being a slave to the desires of the sin nature with that of being a slave to obedience to the Father’s will.
“Of sin” is the noun hamartia (a(martiva) (ham-ar-tee-ah), which refers to the sin nature, which is being personified as indicated by Paul’s use of the nouns doulos and hupakoe as well as the verb hupakouo.
Paul is ascribing the human function of being a master over slaves to the sin nature.
“Resulting in death” is composed of the preposition eis (ei)$) (ice), “resulting in” and the accusative masculine singular form of the noun thanatos (qavnato$) (than-at-os), “death.”
In Romans 6:16, the apostle Paul is speaking to Christians in the context of fellowship with God, which is synonymous with “experiential sanctification.”
Therefore, thanatos can not possibly refer to the second death in the eternal lake of fire since this is exclusively for those who reject Jesus Christ as Savior.
It also does not refer to physical death since the human body would die apart from human volition because it is corrupted by the sin nature, which results in the deterioration and eventual decomposition of the human body.
Furthermore, Paul is again speaking with respect to the spiritual life of the believers in Rome or in other words, their fellowship with God, which is synonymous with “experiential sanctification.”
Neither, does thanatos refer to “real spiritual death” since that takes place apart from human volition and is the result of God the Father imputing Adam’s original sin in the Garden of Eden to every human being at physical birth.
Rather, the noun thanatos refers to “temporal spiritual death,” which is simply loss of fellowship with God in time.
“Temporal spiritual death” or “loss of fellowship” with God takes place when the believer commits mental, verbal or overt acts of sin as a result of obeying the desires of the sin nature.
In Romans 6:16, the preposition eis and the accusative form of the noun thanatos indicates that “temporal spiritual death” or “loss of fellowship with God” is the result of obeying the sin nature.
Romans 6:16, “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?”
“Of obedience” is the noun hupakoe (u(pakohv) (hoop-ak-o-ay), which contains the figure of metonymy meaning that obedience is put for obedience to the Father’s will.
“Resulting in righteousness” is composed of the preposition eis (ei)$) (ice), “resulting in” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun dikaiosune (dikaiosuvnh) (dik-ah-yos-oo-nay), “of righteousness.”
In Romans 6:16, the noun dikaiosune does not refer to the imputation of divine righteousness to the sinner the moment he trusts in Jesus Christ as his Savior since in context Paul is addressing the subject of experiencing sanctification or in other words, fellowship with God, which takes place after being declared justified.
Neither does the word refer to righteousness in the “ultimate” sense in a resurrection body since Paul is addressing his readers’ volitional responsibility and obligation to obey God and the resurrection, i.e. rapture of the church will take place apart from the believer’s volition.
Rather, the noun dikaiosune refers to the believer experiencing the righteousness of God, which was imputed to him by God the Father the moment he exercised faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior.
The preposition eis and the accusative form of the noun dikaiosune indicate that the believer will experience the righteousness of God “as a result of” obeying the Father’s will.
Therefore, in Romans 6:16, Paul demonstrates to the legalistic Jewish Christian and licentious Gentile Christian that there is no compromise with sin now that the Christian is no longer under the Law but under God’s grace policy and that sin still has consequences for the Christian under grace.
Either, the Christian will experience the righteousness of God as a result of obedience to the Father’s will or he will experience temporal spiritual death as a result of committing sin as a result of obeying the sin nature.