Romans 6.20-A Slave Of Sin Is Free In Regard To Righteousness
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday July 24, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:20-A Slave Of Sin Is Freed In Regard To Righteousness
Lesson # 202
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:15.
In Romans 6:20, the apostle Paul teaches the Roman Christians that prior to being declared justified through faith in Christ, when they were in a perpetual state of being slaves to the sin nature, they were free with respect to righteousness.
Romans 6:15-20, “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.”
Romans 6:20 contains much of the same language as Romans 6:17 in that both say that prior to their conversion, the Roman Christian were slaves to the sin nature.
Thus, we can see that Romans 6:20 is reiterating the fact that prior to being declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ, the Roman Christians were in a perpetual state of being slaves to the sin nature.
Romans 6:20, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.”
“For” is the “explanatory” use of the post-positive conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces the final paragraph of Romans chapter six, namely, verses 20-23 that presents “an explanation” for the command issued by Paul in Romans 6:19.
In Romans 6:19, he 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.
Therefore, in Romans 6:20, Paul employs the conjunction gar in order to introduce the final paragraph of Romans 6 that presents “an explanation” for the command that appears in Romans 6:19.
It introduces a paragraph that serves to “explain why” the Roman Christians should obey the command to place their members as slaves at the disposal of and with respect to God who as to His nature is righteousness.
In this final paragraph of chapter six, Paul reminds the Roman Christians of their new position and status of being in union and identification with Christ.
As was the case in verse 18, in verse 20, he reminds his readers that they were formerly perpetual slaves to the sin nature.
Then, instead of completing this temporal clause by describing his readers’ present status of being in union with Christ, which he eventually does in verse 22, Paul temporarily breaks off the temporal clause and inserts a parenthesis that contains a rhetorical question in verse 21, which he answers.
In verse 21, with this rhetorical question, he reminds them of an implication of their status prior to being entered into union with Christ, namely, they were actions prior to their conversion served only to perpetuate their status of being spiritually dead.
Romans 6:20, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.”
“When” is temporal conjunction hote (o%ti) (hot-eh), which introduces a temporal clause that describes the Roman Christians’ status prior to being declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
“You were” is the second person plural imperfect active indicative form of the verb eimi (ei)miv) (i-mee), which refers to “belonging to those members of the human race” that are slaves to the sin nature as indicated by the expression douloi tes hamartias, “slaves of sin.”
The imperfect tense of the verb is a “stative customary imperfect” denotes that prior to being declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, the Roman believers existed in the “perpetual” or “ongoing” state of being slaves to their old indwelling Adamic sin nature.
“Slaves” is the noun doulos (doulo$) (doo-los), which in Greek thought referred to someone who belonged by nature to someone else and not himself and had his will bound up in the will of another who has power over him.
The word personifies the sin nature, which is denoted by the noun hamartia.
Together, they paint a picture that would appeal to the frame of reference of the Roman Christians since slavery was a major institution in Rome.
These two words portray the Roman Christians prior to being declared justified as slaves to the sin nature.
Romans 6:20, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.”
“Of sin” is the articular genitive feminine singular form of the noun hamartia (a(martiva) (ham-ar-tee-ah), which refers to the sin nature.
As we noted, the sin nature is being personified as indicated by Paul’s use of the noun doulos.
This means that Paul is ascribing the human function of being a master over slaves to the sin nature.
“You were” is the second person plural imperfect active indicative form of the verb eimi (ei)miv) (i-mee), which denotes that the prior to their conversion to Christianity, the Roman Christians “belong to a particular class of individuals” that were free but with respect to God and His righteousness.
The imperfect tense of the verb is a “stative customary imperfect” denotes that prior to their conversion, the Roman believers existed in the “perpetual” or “ongoing” state of being free with respect to righteousness or in other words, free from serving God exclusively and performing actions that conformed to His will.
“Free” is the adjective eleutheros (e)leuvqero$) (el-yoo-ther-os), which is used to describe the status of the Roman Christians prior to being declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as being spiritually dead having no capacity whatsoever to understand, respond and perform the will of God.
It describes them as living “independently” of God and implies a principle that the Lord Jesus Christ taught, namely, that you cannot serve two masters (Compare Matthew 6:24).
Therefore, the adjective eleutheros implies that prior to their conversion the Roman Christians were serving only the sin nature exclusively.
The word describes the Roman Christians prior to their conversion to Christianity as “totally depraved.”
“Total depravity” means not only that the corruption has extended has extended to all aspects of man’s nature, to his entire being as well but also that because of that corruption mankind has no merit with God.
The implications of depravity are critical in relation to salvation in that man has no ability whatsoever to save himself or justify himself before a holy God.
The concept of total depravity does not mean that mankind cannot perform actions that are good or helpful to others or in God’s sight.
Total depravity means that man has absolutely no merit with God since he does not measure up to God’s perfect standards.
It also means that man’s conscience has been affected by the Fall of Adam so that it cannot be a safe and reliable guide.
Nor, does total depravity mean that people will indulge in every form of sin or any sin to the greatest extent possible.
In Romans 1:18-32, Paul demonstrates that the Gentiles are unrighteous and totally depraved by virtue of their sinful conduct and failure to worship God in light of God’s self-revelation in creation as well as their failure to obey the moral law inherent within them.
In Romans 2:1-29, he demonstrates that the Jews are unrighteous and totally depraved as well as manifested in their failure to obey perfectly the written Law of God and committing the same sins that the Gentiles committed.
In Romans 3:9-20, Paul summarizes his statements in Romans 1:18-2:29 and teaches the totally depravity and universal unrighteousness of mankind, both Jew and Gentile.
Job 15:14-16, “What is man, that he should be pure, or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in His sight; How much less one who is detestable and corrupt, man, who drinks iniquity like water!”
Romans 6:20, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.”
“In regard to righteousness” is the articular dative feminine singular form of the noun dikaiosune (dikaiosuvnh) (dik-ah-yos-oo-nay), which refers once again to God the Father since its articular construction is “anaphoric” meaning that the word was used in verse 19 and that its meaning in that verse is retained here in verse 20.
The argument, which is implied in Romans 6:20 is that the Roman Christians were now equally free and obligated from the dominion and tyranny of the sin nature because they were released from its bondage the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ and were entered into union with Christ and identified with Him in His death and resurrection through the baptism of the Spirit.