Romans 6.19a-Paul Appeals To The Roman Believers' Frame Of Reference By Using The Analogy of Slavery
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday July 23, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:19a-Paul Appeals To The Roman Believers’ Frame Of Reference By Using The Analogy Of Slavery
Lesson # 201
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:15.
This evening we will begin to study Romans 6:19, in which the apostle Paul commands the believers in Rome to present the members of their bodies as slaves to righteousness just as they presented the members of their bodies as slaves to impurity and lawlessness prior to being declared justified through faith in Christ.
In this passage, Paul informs them that he is appealing to their human frame of reference by using the analogy of slavery throughout this chapter since slavery was an institution in the Roman Empire in the first century when Paul penned this epistle.
Romans 6:15-19, “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.”
“I am speaking” is the verb lego (levgw) (leg-o), which means, “to speak” with emphasis upon the content of what Paul communicated in writing in Romans 6:1-18.
Romans 6:19 is a parenthetical explanation of why Paul is using slavery imagery to portray the Christian.
Romans 6:19, “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.”
“In human terms” is the adjective anthropinos (a)nqrwvpino$) (anth-ro-pee-nos), which indicates that Paul was appealing to his readers’ “human frame of reference” in that they were familiar with slavery since it was an institution in the Roman Empire in the first century.
“Because of” is the preposition dia (diaV) (dee-ah), which functions as a marker of cause indicating the “reason why” Paul appealed to his readers’ human frame of reference by employing the slavery analogy in the preceding verses.
“The weakness” is the noun astheneia (a)sqevneia) (as-then-i-ah), which means, “weakness” in a two fold sense: (1) the sense of insensitivity and difficulty in comprehending spiritual truths. (2) the temptation to live independently of the will of God.
Both are the result of Paul’s readers possessing the old Adamic sin nature that is resident in the genetic structure of the human body as indicated by his use of the noun sarx, “flesh.”
That astheneia denotes weakness in the sense of insensitivity and difficulty in comprehending spiritual truths is indicated by the context since the use of the slavery analogy by Paul was to help his readers understand the spiritual meaning and significance of their new union with Christ and being under His headship.
That the word denotes weakness in the sense of the temptation to live independently of the will of God is indicated by the context since Paul’s slavery analogy taught Paul’s readers that they are now free and obligated to live exclusively for the will of their new master, God.
“Of your flesh” is composed of the noun sarx (savrc) (sarx), “flesh” and the personal pronoun humeis (u(mei$) (hoo-mice), “of your.”
The noun sarx means, “flesh” is synonymous with the expression to soma tes hamartias, “the sinful body” that appears in Romans 6:6 and denotes that the sin nature is located or resident in the genetic structure of the human body.
Thus, far in Romans chapter six, Paul has used various expressions for the sin nature with each emphasizing the sin nature from a different perspective.
For example, in Romans 6:6, he employed three different terms to designate the sin nature with each having a different emphasis.
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 to the sin nature.”
The first expression ho palaios anthropos, “the old man” referred to the sin nature but from the perspective of its point of origin, namely, the transgression of Adam.
The second is to soma tes hamartias, “the sinful body,” which speaks of the sin nature from the perspective of its location, namely, in the genetic structure of the human body.
The third is te hamartia, “the sin nature,” which is personified and speaks of the sin nature from the perspective of its rulership over the sinner.
This second use is synonymous with the noun sarx in Romans 6:19.
This third use in Romans 6:6 appears also in Romans 6:7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 18.
Romans 6:19, “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.”
Thus far, we have seen that throughout Romans chapter six, Paul has been personifying the sin nature as an old slave master of the Christian.
The Christian has been set free from the sin nature’s authority and dominion by the physical and spiritual deaths of Christ.
Beginning in verse 15, Paul contrasted the old slave master, the sin nature with the new master, God who as to His nature is righteousness.
Now, in verse 19, he reminds his readers that he was arguing from their human frame of reference because of the weakness of their sin nature that causes them difficulties in understanding spiritual truths.
In Romans chapter six, Paul compares the believer’s situation to that of a free person on the one hand and to a slave on the other.
This illustration was designed to help his readers comprehend his point and to help them in their walk with the Lord.
It would help them experience deliverance from their sin nature since this spiritual truth would appeal to their human frame of reference.
The statement “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh” is a parenthetic apology since Paul knows that there were certain aspects of slavery, namely, cruelty that he would not want his readers to attribute to God and their relationship to Him.
But he found it necessary to use the slavery analogy in order to help his readers experience deliverance and victory over their sin natures.
Paul is aware of the fact that the slavery imagery that he employs in Romans chapter six could be misconstrued or misinterpreted to mean that the Christian way of life bears the same characteristics of humiliation, fear, confinement and cruelty that were typical many times of secular slavery.
However, the Christian way of life does mean that the Christian is to serve God as his new master, which requires absolute and unquestioned obedience.
Thus, by employing the slavery analogy, Paul makes this point very clear.
With this statement, Paul is saying that he does not believe that the Christians’ relationship contains all the characteristics of slavery in the Roman Empire but that he is simply using the illustration of slavery in order to emphasize with his readers the importance of obeying God rather than the desires of their old sin nature.
The slavery analogy was simply an appeal to his readers’ human frame of reference.
He is not so much apologizing for using the slavery illustration as explaining why he used it since it would make very clear to his readers the importance of obeying God.