Romans 6:15-23

A Glorious Enslavement

In Romans 5 & 6 Paul has been reminding you just how glorious your salvation truly is in Christ.  Not only have you been delivered from the guilt and condemnation of your sin and rebellion before the Holy God through resting in Christ's work on your behalf, but you have also been delivered from the power of sin through faith in Christ so that you may now walk in obedience and in holiness before the Holy God.

Chap. 6 is divided into two sections, each one responding to a potential objection that would be raised by Paul's readers to a statement he previously made.  In v. 1, Paul responds to a possible objection, that he surely heard many times in his missionary journeys, to a statement he made in 5:20-21 about the law (READ).  If God's unconditional, free grace abounds to us even when our sin increases through the law, then doesn't the abundance of God's grace in Christ lead to greater sin?

But Paul in no way reverses his declaration of God's free grace.  Instead, he answers the objection by reminding us who we are in Christ and how through the gospel we have been set free from the oppressive control and mastery of sin in our lives.  You have been raised up in Christ to live a new life before God in Christ (vv. 8-11 READ).  And instead of giving over your life in service to sin, you now are able to give up your life in service to God. 

But then Paul ends the first section in v. 14 with yet another potentially controversial statement about the law (READ).  There is something about your former relationship "under the law" that produced and intensified the power of sin in your life -- as Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:56

"the power of sin is the law."  Paul will unpack this relationship in chaps. 7-8.

Now notice once again, Paul does not begin to suddenly reverse his declaration about our relationship to the law in order to answer the potential objection.  Rather, he once again proves his statement in 5:20 and 6:14 by answering the objection with more grace. 

Those who have been joined to Christ by faith live in a new age where grace, not the law of Moses, reigns over your life.  Therefore, your life is no longer directly regulated by the law as were the lives of the Jews.  But according to the Jews, if our lives are not directly regulated by law, then such freedom would produce a life of sin.  If you remove the boundaries of the law from one's life, then they will pour over into all sorts of indulgences and licentiousness known to man.

But to argue in this way is to completely miss the new kind of life we now have in Christ.  God's grace is not only a liberating power which frees us from the oppression of life under the law, but the power and reign of God's grace is the only effective instrument to destroy sin in our lives.  What the law could not and can not do, God's grace has super-abounded (READ 5:20-21).

The law can never produce fidelity before God.  But God's grace renews our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus so that we now long to obey God in Christ Jesus.  In other words, we have become sons and daughters of God so that God has sent forth His Spirit into our hearts crying, "Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:4-7).

So why is it NOT true that sin will just break forth into our lives, like a raging river through a weakened dam, if we are no longer "under the law"? 

Well, here Paul once again introduces the analogy of slavery that would have been well known throughout the whole Roman Empire, even to those who were not Christians (v. 16).  Whenever anyone gives himself over completely and totally to someone or something before long he or she realizes that they have become a slave to that something or someone. 

To submit to some other power through habitual obedience leads to a condition of slavery.  We all know this to be true.  The more and more you obey some urge or desire, the easier and easier it is to serve that desire so that it becomes your master and controls your life.  It doesn't matter what that desire is -- it may even begin as something rather innocent -- and before long it controls your life.  There is a humorous, yet bone-chilling, example of this in C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters where the senior demon is trying to encourage his young apprentice to use even "small sins" to tempt his patient.  Screwtape affectionately reassures Wormwood:

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness.  But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy [God].  It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing.  Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.  Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts (SL # 12).

You see, Paul has to remind us, even as Christians, that we have been set free from the slavery of sin through our union with Christ and therefore we must be constantly vigil not to yield to the seductive siren call of temptation so that even though we are no longer slaves to sin, that we also no longer live as if we are slaves to sin.

There are only two ways of life for a man, service to sin that leads to death or service to God that leads to life and righteousness.  And so why would you put your life in service to sin and death when you have been raised up in Christ to live to God?  This is why though we are no longer "under the law" that sin does not break free in our life!  That is no longer our life.  That old life of service to sin has been put to death and we have been raised into a new life in Christ in service to God. 

If the restraints and shackles of the law are now removed it doesn't matter because we are no longer the old man we once were.  We are new in Christ and now we have a new desire to live a life that is pleasing to God.  The old shackles of the law are no longer needed.  We now live under the reign of God's grace.

In v. 17, Paul makes this abundantly clear -- Thanks be to God! -- that you became obedient from the heart!  Wow!  Paul clearly states who it was who put you into this new relationship with God.  God has transferred you into this new life in Christ and that life is so complete that Paul can say, "you once were slaves to sin, but now you have obeyed a new form or pattern of teaching."  What is that new form?  "You are no longer under law, but under grace!" 

God is completely sovereign in handing you over to the gospel of grace.  And it is to that gospel that you were made to submit and bow your knee in faith and it is to the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified that you continue to submit your life to God in Christ.

Again, in v. 18, Paul reminds you that you have already been freed from the enslaving power of sin AND that you have now been enslaved to God.  But wait a minute?  How can Paul go from telling us that we have been set free from one master and glory in that freedom and then turn right around and glory in the fact that we have now been enslaved to a new master?

Can we truly glory in our new found enslavement to Christ?

Paul often speaks of himself in the most endearing ways as a bond-slave of Christ (cf. Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Gal. 1:10; Tit. 1:1) and even in one place as the "prisoner of Christ Jesus" (Phile. 1:1).  But why?  Why would Paul speak joyfully of being enslaved to Christ?

Because as Paul says in Phil. 2:

Have this mind in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God . . . emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant (Phil. 2:5-7).    

A new, glorious life of slavery is the new life of the believer because it is the life of Christ in which you are now living.  His life has become your life.  As He became your bond-servant, your slave to serve you, even to the point of giving up His life in service to you, now you are filling up the sufferings of Christ in your daily walk. 

And it is only as we give up our lives -- truly die to ourselves -- that we take up our new life in Christ, bound to God in Christ, that we truly taste freedom -- freedom to now grow up in the fullness of Christ. 

We have been set free from the power of sin so that we might now be servants to a new power through which God is conforming you into the glorious image of His Son.  As Paul says in 2 Cor.:

To this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:15-18).

It is now through this new and powerful relationship, which has been won for us in Christ that we are living out and being conformed into the likeness of Christ:

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me (Gal. 2:20).

Now in v. 19, Paul turns in this one verse, from reminding you who you are in Christ, to tell you why he has been using the imagery of slavery to describe the Christian life.  Paul does not won't you to get the idea that the Christian life of total submission under the grace of God is just as degrading, fearful, and confining as the old life "under the law."

His use of the imagery of slavery is totally positive.  He says, in the same way that a slave is to give all of himself -- all of his members -- in complete service to his master -- so we too are to radically give every part of our being over in single-minded devotion and service to Christ.  This is the life of the Christian life:

To deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow after Christ.  It is to loose our life so that in Christ we find life.  It is to decrease, that He alone might increase.  It is to glory in the fact that our lives are "jars of clay" so that the surpassing greatness of the power of God will be displayed to His glory alone.  We boast in our weaknesses so that the power of Christ might dwell in us.  For when I am weak . . . then I am strong in Christ.

You see Paul's picture.  As unbelievers you pursued the idols of this life with complete abandonment.  You set for yourselves the goals of life in temporary things like yourself, pride, money, lust, pleasure, and power.  Paul says that now that you are in Christ and you serve a new, glorious master now serve Him with that same zeal and abandonment. 

In vv. 20-23, once again Paul returns to reminding you who you are in Christ.  He contrasts your new life in Christ with your old life in Adam.  As an unbeliever, you were certainly free -- you thought to yourself, "there is no way that I will ever become a Christian and be like those Christians who are shackled and bound to have to obey God."  You were right!  You were indeed free -- free from the righteousness of God (v. 20).  You were so bound to sin that you could never do anything right before God.  Even your best works were polluted with sin and rebellion.  As Paul says in v. 21, and look at what your so-called "freedom" produced:  death.  As slaves to sin you were free from living a life that pleases God and you lived daily, breathing the air of your own condemnation without even knowing it.

Your only hope was that God would extend His sovereign scepter of mercy towards you and embrace you in His electing love and bring you to Himself in Christ.  And this he has done having freed you from the bondage of sin, with the wages of death, and He has bound you to Himself freely giving you the gift of eternal life (vv. 22-23). 

Notice how Paul brings this whole chap. to one glorious conclusion:  The way you lived your life you earned your wage, death.  In other words, you got what you worked hard for. 

But by God's mercy and love you received the free gift of eternal life.  In other words, you got what someone else worked for you.  And just as God sovereignly put you into Christ, so God is going to sovereignly conform you into His image.  

Now do you see the glorious point that Paul is making concerning your salvation?  The answer to walking in obedience to God is not by simply living your daily life trying to refrain from certain kinds of bad behavior.  And it is not by simply replacing the bad behavior with good, moral behavior.  Paul is completely rejecting such thinking.

The absolute key to living a life that is Christ-like is to remember who you are in Christ.  Set you mind on Christ and that He is your life.  The gospel is the key!  And you have to daily preach the gospel to yourself.

Remember the problem of the old "slavery mentality" that we spoke about?  If you never deal with the "slavery mindset" by reminding yourself that you have been set free in Christ, reminding yourself who you are in Christ, then all the changes in your behavior will be temporary and will lead to a life of complete frustration.  You will never grow in Christ by simply changing your behavior. 

To put it another way:  If you never clearly think and remind yourself that Christ has crucified and buried who you once were in Adam and you have been raised to the new man, Christ, to walk in the newness of life, then you will continually live a joyless, fruitless, Pharisaical life. 

The gospel is the key to living the Christian life.  It is by resting in Christ that you have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and it is under the reign of His grace that you now live in the kingdom of His marvelous light.  And it is that grace -- the gospel -- that is producing in you a life that is alive to God and producing the fruit of Christ-centered obedience which will find its glorious consummation because of Christ in the free gift of eternal life. 

Amen! -SDG-