Romans
6:19-23 (NASB)
19I 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. 20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in
regard to righteousness. 21Therefore what benefit were you then deriving
from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things
is death. 22But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God,
you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal
life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Freedom!
The ideas of freedom and free will
are interesting ideas to understand. We
may think of freedom as being free will without any limitation, but this isn’t
precisely correct. We notice that there
are many limitations set on our will that we don’t usually consider. For instance, if you will to fly around the
room you will find that gravity restricts your will from reality. We may will to jump off of a 50 story
building and live, but the reality which we occupy will overcome our will
without much of a fight. We have seen an
example of the restricted will already in Romans in the first three
chapters. Try as we might, outside of
Jesus the non-believer cannot will anything that God can reward, or anything
that is truly good. The non-believer is
unable to be a part of the works of divine good. Our freedom in Christ isn’t autonomy; it is
freedom to rely on God as we were designed to.
We have the freedom to do what we were made to be, which is pleasing to
God and to glorify Him.
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.
Speaking
in human terms
Paul here makes it clear that he is
using a human analogy to describe a spiritual reality. The reality is that it is not a perfect
parallel and Paul is appealing to his readers’ see where the analogy to the
social institution of slavery breaks down, and not take it too far. The reason for this human analogy is given
“because of the weakness of your flesh.”
We have already established that life abiding in the Sin Nature is
slavery. It only brings the singular
outcome of death. Humans often blunder
into the wrong idea that if we can just keep some set of rules then we will not
be slaves to the Sin, but this is the problem that Paul is warning against, and
then he will devote all of chapter seven to that particular error.
Not
this…THAT!
Next we get a clarification of the
analogy with another clear, “Don’t do this anymore…do that instead.” Paul is setting up the dichotomy very
clearly. There are certain cases where
two things are possible (like walking and chewing gum) and other situations
where two things cannot be done simultaneously (like being in Denver and in
Fort Collins at the same time). Paul is
saying that presenting our members to Sin and presenting our members to God
cannot happen at the same time. Here
again, the exhortation of Scripture is not simply to “not sin” but rather
telling us to put our focus (present our members) to God rather than the Sin
Nature. The two are opposites and we
cannot continue to offer ourselves in obedience to the Sin nature And Offer
ourselves in Obedience to God through Jesus Christ. It is a one or the other, moment by moment,
act of our will.
Romans
6:20
For when you were slaves of sin, you
were free in regard to righteousness.
Free…but
from what?
As a citizen of the United States a
person is free from civic responsibility to England. A citizen of the US, living in the US, need
not concern himself with the taxes that he owes to the Commonwealth of England. Similarly the non-believer is free from any
obligation to the standard of God’s perfect righteousness. All actions can be evaluated and gauged in
relationship to self alone. The idea of
“getting away with something” may mean that it was “okay” for the
unbeliever. The only thing that may hold
them back is the possible consequence of something bothering their own
consciousness. Being free of the
absolute standard of God’s righteous character as a standard outside of
themselves their life and actions become relativistic in its outplay.
A
Word on Righteousness
Righteousness is the absolute
character of God. A person is
“righteous” or “unrighteous” in relationship to Him. For God, however, righteousness is a function
of His person and character. He cannot
be anything but righteous, all of the time.
He doesn’t uphold a standard, nor cling to a standard, He IS the
standard.
"The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are
just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.
Deuteronomy 32:4
So the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and
said, "The LORD is righteous."
2 Chronicles 12:6
Romans 6:21
Therefore what benefit were you then deriving
from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things
is death.
What
Benefit?
Often times we think of obedience to
the Sin Nature as more expedient, or productive in some way. We are tempted to think that things would
somehow be easier or better if we could just do it “the other way”. The World System encourages this. When the world system wants to justify
ungodliness pragmatism is usually the top reason it uses. Machiavelli coined the phrase “The end
justifies the means.” And the world has bought that premise hook, line and
sinker.
Ashamed
Undoubtedly, someone would be able to
say, “Yes, I was dishonest in that business deal – but look I made a bunch of
money!” however the question then comes down to what is of the greater
value. Before a person knows the Lord
“getting away with it” may be good enough.
However, once we are in a relationship with God He places His Spirit
within us. One of the consequences of
that indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit is that He convicts us of sin. This leads us to shame. We then see Christ’s words most clearly
illustrated in our own lives: "For what will it profit a man if he gains
the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for
his soul?” (Matthew 16:26) All of the
advantages in the world are meaningless if we are not in fellowship with
God. This plays out differently between
the non-believer and the believer:
The Non-Believer – The unbeliever is
free from righteousness, and may therefore pursue their own best good in every
situation as they perceive it, forsaking all others. However, the end of this road is an eternity
separated from God in Hell. And nothing
accrued on earth, whether time, money, fame, popularity or influence will bring
any comfort.
The Believer – The believer cannot ever
lose his relationship to God. However,
he will fall out of fellowship. The
believer who is abiding in his sin nature (called “carnal”, “worldly” or
“fleshly” in Scripture, see 1 Corinthians 3) is still indwelt by the Holy
Spirit, however, he doesn’t receive the comfort, peace and joy of that
union. The carnal Christian is the most
miserable person on earth.
And
the Outcome is…
The word “outcome” here is an
interesting one. It has the sense of
something being brought to maturity, or completed. The idea that abiding in the sin nature
somehow fulfills some short term goal, or meets some short term need is always
eclipsed by its final and eventual outcome which is always the same thing:
Death.
Death
As we have seen death is
separation. When we were said to have
died to the Sin Nature in 6:1-11 we noted that it does not mean termination,
but rather a separation from that Nature.
Here the separation is from fellowship with God. We see an interesting principle at play. Often times people’s major objection to
believing in Jesus is the imperfection of those who believe. Here we see that putting our faith in Christ
isn’t a “magic perfect pill” that makes the believer never sin again. It may surprise us to see this, but the
believer is capable of everything that the nonbeliever is capable of. The non-believer is not a child of God, is
not in Christ, and can only walk by the power of the Sin Nature. The believer is a Child of God, is
permanently and irreversibly in Christ, but can choose to walk by the power of
the sin nature. In either case the sin
nature is in no way changed, it produces shame, pain, loss, fear and
death. Anything that the unbeliever can
do, the believer can do. The believer,
however, has the ability to walk in the Spirit, and this whole chapter is an
exhortation that every believer should do just that.
Romans
6:22-23
22But now having been
freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in
sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23For the wages of
sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
Freed!
Paul repeats his claim again: We are
FREED from the Power of the Sin Nature.
This repetition should alert us to the incredible importance of this
reality. It is a point that needs to be
continually repeated because it is of such magnificent power and we so easily
are distracted from it. Having been
freed from the horribly yoke of the cruel master of the Sin Nature it would be
madness to run back to it and abide by it, but sadly we do this often as
believers.
Enslaved
to God
God is the new master in the life of
the believer. There is a reality of care
and ownership, as well as accountability at play here. Paul has already noted the shortcoming of the
analogy that he is using. We are not
only His servants, but also His children (John 1:12), His adopted children
(Roman adoption differed from our institution as it was a process by which an
adult son was accepted permanently and irreversibly as a member of the family –
Ephesians 1:5); the Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33), and friends (John
15:15).
Derived
for your Benefit
Here is a new reality. We are going to serve a master. Either the Sin Nature or God. However, there is a principle difference
between the masters. The end of every
action, word or deed done by the power of the sin nature is death, pain and
loss – short term benefits always lead to long term consequences that are bad
for us and others. However, in the
service of God we find that our actions, abiding in the Holy Spirit, are always
to the best of all. God is glorified by
them, and thus He benefits; we are edified, built up, and strengthened. We also receive life and peace because we are
function as we were meant to. Abiding in
the Spirit produces life and peace at every turn (Romans 8:6). We find that our service to the Lord is also
the best thing for us at every turn because it is who and what we were designed
to be.
Sanctification
This is another 10 point theological
word with a simple meaning. Often times
this has been described as “holification” or the “Making Holy in our
condition”. However, while that idea is
involved, the perspective needs some addressing. The idea behind the biblical use of this word
“sanctification” is the idea of something being set apart and dedicated to
God. It was used of priests and even the
furniture that were involved in a pagan temple.
Everything was “set apart” as being for Zeus or Apollo or some other
god. This is the idea present here. When we put our faith in Christ we were
positionally and eternally sanctified in Him forever. That is, He set us apart for Him and His
glory at that moment. There is an
ongoing process of sanctification as well, whereby more and more of our life
and conduct (in our daily condition) are also being set apart to Him, by the
power of the Life of Christ within us.
Paul then discusses the outcome (the coming to maturity) of this action
on the part of God, which is vital to us: eternal life.
Eternal
life
These words are the bane of the
person who would put forth the idea that salvation could be lost. The word “eternal” means beyond time or
space. Not subject to it. In the Greek understanding of this word it
wasn’t just something that lasts forever, but it is something that is not
subject to time. This eternal life would
not be eternal if it could be lost, stolen, taken or rejected. We may abuse it, we may take it for granted,
we may spiritually jump off a cliff, but the eternal life (if it is indeed
eternal) cannot be broken or removed. If
the Biblical authors wanted to convey “spiritual life” they would have allowed
for the possibility of its loss, however the idea that we are given eternal
life does not allow for that interpretation at all.
Salvation
Verses?
Romans 6:23 is often used as a verse
to illustrate the gospel. It is often
employed to explain the power of Salvation to unbelievers. However, while the application is correct,
that is not the direct context of this verse. The direct context of this verse
is talking about the sin nature in the life of the believer. In other words, this verse is talking about
Phase 2 of salvation (Sanctification) not phase 1 of Salvation
(Justification). This is a verse for
every believer every moment of their life on earth.
Wages
When are wages accrued? When a person works. Wages aren’t a present or a gift – they are
earned. Paul makes a very interesting
distinction of language here. When we
“work for it” we can only “earn” one thing – Death. Justification (Salvation from sin’s penalty)
came only through faith in Jesus by Grace.
Sanctification (Salvation from sin’s power) is exactly the same. It is also a free gift. We see here the reality of grace. If we can work for it, either by earning it,
or by paying it back, then it is not grace.
If that is our motivation then we don’t properly understand the
Christian life. The only wages that we
are good for is death, and that is what it pays out.
Free
Gift
Isn’t that redundant? Isn’t a gift always “free”? Paul is being specifically and intentionally
redundant here to help us to realize that this phase in our salvation, also, is
an expression of His grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. We must not fall into the trap of: “Jesus
saved you so you could work for it.” The
reality is that the Lord is turning us into something else, something new, and
He is not in the business of “fixing up the old.” On the contrary, “the old has gone the new
has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And every day we have the choice to either
abide in the Sin Nature which will result repeatedly in separation from
fellowship with God, or we will abide in Christ and the Gift that He has
already given all those who believe, and be motivated totally by gratitude.
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