Romans 6.18b-The Roman Christians Were Enslaved To God Through Obedience To The Gospel
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday July 22, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:18b-The Roman Christians Were Enslaved To God Through Obedience To The Gospel
Lesson # 200
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:15.
This evening we will study Romans 6:18b, in which the apostle Paul teaches the Christians in Rome that they were enslaved to God through their obedience to the gospel.
Romans 6:15-18, “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.”
In Romans 6:18, “and” is the “adjunctive” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which not only connects Paul’s previous thought with the one to follow in this verse but it also introduces an additional reason why Paul thanked the Father.
As we noted in our study of Romans 6:17, Paul thanks the Father because the Roman believers were once perpetual slaves to the sin nature but then they obeyed the gospel, which Paul identifies as that “form of teaching.”
Now, in Romans 6:18, the conjunction de introduces an additional reason why Paul thanked the Father, namely, when they obeyed the gospel they were set free from the sin nature and became servants of righteousness instead.
Romans 6:18, “And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”
“You became slaves” is the verb douloo (doulovw) (doo-lo-o), which is used in a figurative meaning, “to be enslaved.”
The verb conveys the idea of “enslaving” someone, “to make another or oneself a slave or a subject.”
It does not convey the same sense of a word that we saw in Romans 6:6, the verb douleuo, which refers to carrying out the duties of a slave or servant or to the relationship between a slave and master.
Romans 6:6, “This we are very familiar with through instruction, namely, that our old man was crucified with Him in order that the sinful body would be deprived of its power with the result that we are no longer in a perpetual state of being slaves (douleuo) to the sin nature.”
Douleuo word group refers to the status or the condition of a slave or the attitude of one whereas the douloo word group refers to “enslaving” someone,” or “to make another or oneself a slave.”
In Romans 6:18, the verb douloo is used with the articular form of the noun dikaiosune, “righteousness.”
It is personifying the noun dikaiosune, “righteousness.”
Together, they indicate that when the Roman Christians obeyed the gospel and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, they were freed from the tyranny of the sin nature while at the same time “they were enslaved to righteousness.”
This “enslavement to righteousness” took place at the same time that the believer was “set free from the tyranny of the sin nature” in that both took place the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
When this took place the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit placed them in a permanent and eternal union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, His spiritual and physical deaths as well as His resurrection and session.
The aorist tense of the verb is an “ingressive” aorist emphasizing the “entrance” of these Roman Christians “into a new state” of being enslaved to righteousness because they were freed from the tyranny of the sin nature through the baptism of the Spirit when they were declared justified through faith in Christ.
The passive voice of the verb means that when the Roman Christians as the subject obeyed the gospel, they received the action of being enslaved to righteousness by the unexpressed agency of God the Holy Spirit.
Although the Holy Spirit is not explicitly mentioned as the agency enslaving the Christian to righteousness when they obeyed the gospel and believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior, a comparison of Romans 6:1-10 and 1 Corinthians 12:13 make clear that He was the member of the Trinity that performed this act.
The moment a sinner is declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ, the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit identifies them with Christ in His spiritual death (Romans 6:3), His physical death (Romans 6:4-7) and His burial (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12).
He also identifies the Christian with Christ in His resurrection (Romans 6:5; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1) and His session (Ephesians 2:6).
This is called the “baptism of the Spirit” and it sets the Christian free from his indwelling sin nature and makes them a slave of righteousness instead.
The “baptism of the Spirit” takes place exclusively during the dispensation of the church age and is accomplished at the moment of salvation when the omnipotence of the Spirit places the believer in a eternal union with Christ, thus identifying the believer positionally with Christ in His death, resurrection and session.
This “identification” with Christ means that at the moment of salvation, the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit causes the believer to become identical and united with the Lord Jesus Christ and also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Consequently, the Christian is enslaved to righteousness.
Romans 6:18, “And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”
“Of righteousness” is the noun dikaiosune (dikaiosuvnh) (dik-ah-yos-oo-nay), which is being personified by the verb douloo, which we translated “became slaves.”
It is set in contrast to the noun hamartia, which refers to the sin nature.
It too is being personified but by the verb eleutheroo, which we translated, “all of you having been set free.”
These two verbs eleutheroo and douloo both appear in Romans 6:22.
The former speaks again of the believer being freed from the tyranny of the sin nature and the latter speaks of the believer being enslaved to God.
Romans 6:22, “But now having been freed (eleutheroo) from sin and enslaved (douloo) to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”
Therefore, it is quite clear from the context, that dikaiosune in Romans 6:18 is synonymous with God as indicated by the fact that douloo is personifying it and that the verb douloo is used in Romans 6:22 with reference to God.
Paul is actually employing the figure of metonymy of effect where the righteousness of God is put for God Himself who is the source of the Christians’ righteousness since the righteousness of God was imputed to the Christian the moment he exercised faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior.
1 Corinthians 1:30, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.”
In fact, as we noted earlier in our study of dikaiosune, in Romans 1:17, the noun refers to the righteousness of God in the Person of Christ since Paul writes that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God and in Romans 1:3-4 he writes that the gospel message centers upon the Person of Christ.
Romans 1:16-17, “For I am never ashamed of the gospel for it is as an eternal spiritual truth God’s power resulting in deliverance for the benefit of everyone who as an eternal spiritual truth believe, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. For by means of it, the righteousness originating from God is as an eternal spiritual truth revealed from faith to faith. Just as it stands written for all of eternity, ‘But the righteous shall choose for himself to live by means of faith.’”
Romans 1:1-4, “Paul, a slave owned by Christ who is Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel originating from God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son, who was born as a descendant of David with respect to His human nature. The One demonstrated as the Son of God by means of divine power with respect to a nature characterized by holiness because of the resurrection from the dead ones, Jesus Christ, our Lord.”
The righteousness of Christ refers to the character of Christ having perfect integrity in the sense that His character is perfectly sound, perfectly adhering to the will of God, which is upright, honest, perfectly whole, undiminished, sound, unimpaired and in perfect condition.
The righteousness of Christ refers to the character of Christ having perfect virtue in the sense that His character is perfect moral excellence, goodness, and His conduct is conformed perfectly to the will of God.
The righteousness of God the Father refers to His perfect integrity in that His character is upright, honest, perfectly whole, undiminished, sound, unimpaired and in perfect condition.
It refers to the Father’s perfect virtue in that His character is perfect moral excellence, goodness, and His conduct is conformed perfectly to His own perfect standards and what He has promised to men.
The Christian can experience this imputed righteousness of God by appropriating by faith the teaching of Romans 6 that he has been crucified with Christ and has died with Him and has been raised with Him, which was accomplished through the baptism of the Spirit.