Brief Summary:
Should
we conclude that it doesnt matter if we sin since we are not required to obey the law in order to be saved, but are saved apart from
personal merit?
By
no means!
We
are slaves of whatever power we willing obey whether we be
slaves
to sin or slaves to God
We
used to offer ourselves as willing slaves to sin, free from the control of
righteousness. In the same way we are now commanded to offer ourselves as
willing slaves to God
Detailed
Summary:
The kind of life led by those
who are truly justified (those who are not under law but under grace) is illustrated by comparing their service to God with the service of an obedient
(self-yielding) slave to a master (Romans
In Romans
If we are not
required to obey Gods law in order to be saved, then should we go on sinning,
since were not under law but under grace?
Since some might
reason in this manner, Paul asks:
Romans
The apostle then
answers with an emphatic NO! and shows why this cannot be:
Romans
We
demonstrate whom we belong to by whom we serve!
Romans 6:16a - Don't you know that
when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to
the one whom you obey--
There are only two
choices (Romans
6:16b) :
you are slaves to sin, which leads to death,
or [slaves to] to obedience, which leads to righteousness
If a man can live at peace with sin, he has no peace with
God. He is not justified!
Steele
and Thomas, Romans, p.50
If a man voluntarily sins, on the pretext that he is not
under law but under grace, it is a proof that the grace of God is not in him.
Haldane, Romans, p.258
Paul thanks God for the fact that the Romans, while they used to be slaves to sin, are now slaves to
righteousness - as demonstrated by the fact that they now obey
Gods teaching:
Romans
Perhaps concerned
that he might be misunderstood in comparing our relationship with God to slavery (a degrading and undesirable condition), Paul makes the following clarification:
Romans 6:19a - I put this in human terms
because you are weak in your natural selves.
In other words, human nature produces a weakness in
understanding that can only be overcome in this life by the use of (imperfect)
analogies.
Paul admonishes
the Romans to serve God in righteousness to the same degree that they once served sin in
unrighteousness.
Romans 6:19b-23 - Just as you used to
offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in
slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the
control of righteousness. What benefit
did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things
result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin
and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal
life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Note the contrast of the end rewards between these two types of servitude:
Servants of sin earn
eternal death for themselves
Servants of God
are given eternal life through Christ Jesus