Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

An overview of chapter 6 before we go into the verse by verse study.

What does Romans chapter 6 mean?

In Romans 6, Paul tackles the question of why Christians should not continue to sin once we have been declared righteous by God because of our faith in Christ. It’s a good question. After all, Paul’s recent teaching declared that we are no longer under the law of Moses, and God’s grace will always increase to cover our sinfulness. Knowing nothing but that, it’s reasonable to ask why Christians shouldn’t indulge in our desire to sin.

Paul’s first answer is that we don’t have to do what sin tells us to do any longer, so why would we keep doing it? He then reveals more information about what happens when a person comes to faith in Christ on a spiritual level. We experience a spiritual death—to sin, rather than to God—and rebirth that parallels Jesus’ own physical death and resurrection. We are raised to a new spiritual life. In fact, by faith in Christ, we become so closely connected to Him that this particular spiritual death is a death to sin itself. The reason we are not slaves to sin any longer is because our old self was crucified. Dead men are freed from their old masters. Sin can’t tell us what to do any more. We are literally dead to sin in Christ (Romans 6:1–11).

Paul seems to say that we still have a daily choice to make, however. We have been freed from the penalty of sin. We are forgiven. We have also been freed from the authority and power of sin. What we haven’t fully lost is our desire to sin. Sin still attracts us. The old habits and ways of thinking still come naturally to us. That’s why Paul tells us to stop giving our bodies over to be used by sin and to give them over, instead, to be used by God for righteousness. We’re alive now. Why live like sin still owns us (Romans 6:12–14)?

Paul gives another reason we should not continue freely sinning once we are in Christ. That leads to a lifestyle of volunteer slavery. Instead, we should live as if we were slaves to righteousness, because in a sense, we are. Serving righteousness is who we are now. We used to be free from slavery to righteousness, but where did that get us, Paul asks. Sin always leads to sin and death, remember? Let it go and serve righteousness. The result of righteousness, given freely to us in Jesus Christ, is to become like Christ and experience eternal life. Live for that, Paul urges us, instead of for the things of death that sin brings (Romans 6:15–23).

Verse by Verse

Verse 1: What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Paul begins this chapter by posing a question about the implications of the statements that ended chapter 5. There, he wrote that where sin increased, God’s grace “super-increased.” That is, as sin increased, so did God’s grace abound to cover the sin of all those who trusted in Christ’s death to cover their sin. We literally cannot out-sin the grace of God.

What does that mean, though, for those who have been reconciled to God through faith in Christ? What are Christians supposed to do about sin now that we are Christians? As Paul asks here, should we just keep sinning so that God’s grace can just keep increasing? This seems to have been a common criticism of Paul’s teaching, as it is one he refutes often in his writings (Romans 3:8; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:19–24). It’s a frequent charge against Christianity, even today, suggesting that the gospel is really just a license to sin. In the following verse, Paul will answer this slanderous charge with an emphatic “no!”

Verse 2: By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Paul asked a strange-sounding question in the previous verse about something he wrote at the end of chapter 5. There he said that as sin increased, God’s grace for those who trusted in Christ’s death for their sin increased even more. In that way, God’s grace always reigns over sin. We cannot out-sin God’s grace and forgiveness. So, Paul asked, should we just keep sinning now that we are believers in Jesus in order to keep increasing God’s grace?

He answers here with, “By no means!” This is the same use of the Greek phrase mē genoito that Paul often uses in response to posing ridiculous questions as a teaching tool. In short, Christians should not keep sinning to increase the grace of God. In fact, Christians should not keep sinning willfully and intentionally, at all. Elsewhere in Scripture, we’re given more details on why a life of persistent, willful sin is actually inconsistent with those who have truly been saved (Galatians 5:19–24; 1 John 3:6–9).

Paul responds to this question with another question: How can people who died to sin still live in it? This raises a whole new aspect of Paul’s gospel message. As he will show in upcoming verses, all people who come to God in faith, believing in Christ’s death in their place on the cross to pay for their sin, are said to have “died with Christ” in a sense. More specifically, we are said to have died to sin in that moment.

Paul will expand this thought, but the idea is this: Those who are not in Christ live under the rule of sin. They cannot avoid sinning. It is the only option on the menu. Christ’s death on the cross to pay for our sin, however, broke sin’s rule over our lives. We now have the power, in Christ, to stop sinning. We have not lost our desire to sin, however.

Verse 3: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Paul has asked if Christians, those who have received God’s free gift of the forgiveness of our sin through faith in Christ, should keep sinning. No, we should not, he has responded. He poses a counter-question to explain why: can those who have died to sin keep living in sin? His implied answer is again “no.”

What does it mean that we have died to sin, though? Part of that answer is found in the question of this verse. All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.

Paul does not seem to be talking about water baptism here. From the context of the chapter, we take him to mean a kind of baptism that happens when the Holy Spirit comes into a person at the time he or she becomes a Christian. In that “spirit baptism,” a new believer is spiritually baptized into Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:13). We enter into Christ’s identity, in a sense, becoming so closely attached to Him that God gives us credit for Christ’s righteousness and accepts Christ’s payment for our sin. That baptism places us, our whole self, in Christ. Water baptism, on the other hand, is an outward sign of that spirit baptism. For those who practice believer’s baptism, it is a public declaration to the world around us that we belong to Christ and to belong with all the others who belong to Him, as well (Acts 10:44–48).

So, then, Paul says here that when a person trusts in Christ for salvation, that person is baptized in the Holy Spirit into Christ’s death. We die with Him. This death somehow breaks sin’s rule over us and frees us from our need to obey our sinful desires. Those urges do not entirely vanish, however.

Verse 4: We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Paul is introducing a collection of teachings about what happens when a person trusts in Christ for his or her salvation. In the previous verse, he wrote that Christians have been baptized into Christ Jesus and into His death. This seems to mean that, through the Holy Spirit, a person who comes to faith in Christ experiences a spiritual baptism that takes us into Christ Himself (1 Corinthians 12:13). We become so closely identified with Him that God gives us credit for Christ’s righteousness and accepts His death as payment for our sin.

Paul has also said that on that spiritual level we were baptized into Christ’s death on the cross. Now he writes that we were also buried with Him into death. Paul means to communicate that a real spiritual transaction took place when we were saved. On a spiritual level, we experienced death and burial with Christ. Then God gloriously raised us from that spiritual death just as He raised Christ from physical death. The Father did all of this so we would be able to walk in, to experience for the first time, spiritual life.

This is a huge and mysterious idea, but it is at the heart of what it means to truly be a Christian. Those who come to God through faith in Christ do not merely sign some documents and get their Jesus card. A real, spiritual transformation takes place inside of us. We do not remain the same as we were before. We come to life for the first time (Ephesians 2:5), and God means for us to participate in this new life in a meaningful way. This is not only profound, it helps to explain why a life of persistent and willful sin is incompatible with a profession of faith in Christ (Galatians 5:19–24; 1 John 3:6–9).

Verse 5: For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

This passage explains why the idea of salvation by grace through faith is not a license or excuse to sin. Paul has just said a remarkable thing in the previous verse. Those who come to God through faith in Christ experience rebirth on a spiritual level. Through the Holy Spirit, God responds to our faith in Christ by causing us to die with Christ, spiritually, and to be buried in that same spiritual sense. Then we are raised to new spiritual life as He was raised to a new physical life by the Father.

Paul means for us to understand that we are newly alive, spiritually, in Christ. That’s not all, though. This verse says that since we have been united with Christ in a spiritual death like this, we will also be united with Him in a physical resurrection like the one He experienced. In other words, we will also come back to life after we die physically instead of staying in the grave (2 Corinthians 4:14).

Verse 6: We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Paul began this chapter by asking if believers in Jesus—those who have been saved through their faith—should go on sinning to somehow increase God’s grace. He said no, but then he backed up to explain some things about what happened to us when we trusted in Christ for our salvation from sin. For one thing, we died with Christ, in a spiritual sense, and then we were resurrected spiritually to new life. We are not the same spiritually dead people we were before (Ephesians 2:5).

Now Paul adds a new layer of understanding to what exactly happened to us when we died spiritually with Christ. He writes that we also experienced a crucifixion. Our “old self,” the one that existed in sin and self-reliance before we were in Christ, was spiritually crucified in the same way that Christ was physically crucified on the cross. In response to our faith, God mysteriously, powerfully put to death our old self that was under the rule and power of sin.

When the old self was crucified, the “body of sin” was brought to nothing or done away with. Paul pictures sin as having a body, as an entity that controlled us before we were in Christ. Now that sin’s body has been removed in the spiritual crucifixion of our old self, however, sin is not in charge of us any longer. We were slaves to sin, and we have now been freed from its power and authority in our lives.

Does that mean we don’t want to do sinful things anymore? Paul will show that the “want” to sin remains. The requirement to sin is gone, however. We can never be compelled to sin again, because Christ has rescued us from that slave owner. Now we can only volunteer to sin. This is consistent with other New Testament passages, which describe a saved person’s life as imperfect (1 John 1:9–10), but not marked by pervasive, deliberate sins (Galatians 5:19–24; 1 John 3:6–9).

Verse 7: For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Paul has described a startling and strange idea in the previous verse, though it is truly joyful once we understand it. The big idea is this: Those who are not in Christ live under the control of sin. They are compelled to sin, to serve self in all the ways that are against God’s direction for us. When someone comes to God by faith in Christ, however, that person actually experiences a spiritual death. Specifically, their “old self” is spiritually crucified, as Christ was physically crucified. The slave-driver of sin is done away with in that crucifixion. That person is literally freed from the power of sin to control his or her life.

So Paul writes in this verse that one who has died in this way, being spiritually crucified with Christ, has been set free from sin. Sin is not in charge of our lives any longer. It can no longer compel us to do it our way instead of God’s way. It will become clear in the following verses that we have not lost our desire to sin, but it no longer controls us. Now if we sin, we are simply giving in to temptations and old habits.

Paul will show us why we should not continue to do so.

Verse 8: Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

The word “if” near the start of this verse can be read as “since,” as a reference to those who are in Christ. As Paul showed in the previous verse, our faith in Christ began with a spirit-baptism into Christ. This caused us to be so closely identified with Him that God gives us credit for His righteousness and takes His death as payment for our sin.

In that sense, we died with Christ on a spiritual level and were resurrected to a new spiritual life. We are spiritually alive for the first time ever (Ephesians 2:5). Paul now writes that because we died with Christ in that way, we will also live with Him. It’s unclear if Paul is referring to living in Christ now as spiritually-resurrected people or living with Christ for eternity as physically-resurrected people. However, both are true, and both might be indicated by this verse. God intends for us to live this new spiritual life He has given to us with Christ. And we definitely look forward to the day we will be physically brought back to life to spend eternity with Christ.

Verse 9: We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

Paul reveals an essential truth about Christ’s physical death on the cross, as well as His resurrection from death by God’s power. Christ’s death was a one-time occurrence. It can never happen again. God defeated death when Christ left behind the grave, and it can never drag Him back again. Paul wrote in the previous chapter that Adam’s sin introduced sin and death into the world. In truth, death reigned over all who came from Adam. It had dominion, or authority, over humanity. Every person had to submit to it eventually.

Christ, too, submitted to death on the cross, but once He was resurrected, death no longer had any power over Him. The resurrection set Christ free from the authority of death. In the same way, we who are “dead” to sin through faith in Christ are no longer forced to submit to sin. Further, this separation from the power of sin is permanent; death can never again reign over the life of a believer. This does not mean we are incapable of sin (1 John 1:9–10), but it does mean we are never obligated to it (1 Corinthians 10:13), and those who have been saved will not live in incessant sin (Galatians 5:19–24; 1 John 3:6–9).

Verse 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

Christ is both our Savior and our role model. Paul has revealed in this chapter that when we put our faith in Him for our salvation from sin, we experienced a spiritual death with Him. Spiritually speaking, we died, were buried, and were then resurrected to a new spiritual life. The same will eventually happen for those who are in Christ physically, as well.

Now Paul is showing, in Christ’s example, what will happen for us. Christ died to sin. Of course, He did not die to His own sin, for Christ never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). He died to pay for the sins of all those who trust in Him. He died once for all (Hebrews 9:26). It was a one-time payment for the sins of others, including past, present, and future sins. Christ does not need to go back to the cross every time someone sins again. He has finished the job of dying for the sins of humanity. It’s over.

Now that Christ is resurrected, He lives again “to God.” In other words, Christ’s continued purpose is to live, to keep living, as God and for God’s glory forever. He has no other agenda. Our new lives in Christ, with Christ, therefore, are headed in the same direction.

Verse 11: So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul has described Jesus’ death on the cross for the sins of humanity as a one-time, once-for-all event. He submitted to death in that moment, but once He was resurrected, death was defeated. It no longer had any hold over Him. Jesus was free from death forever. Since, spiritually speaking, those who trust in Christ for their salvation also died, were buried, and then were resurrected to new spiritual life, we are on the same path that Jesus is. We are so closely identified with Christ now that God gives us credit for Christ’s righteousness and takes the payment of His death for our sin. Christ literally “is our life” (Colossians 3:4).

Paul now writes that we must change the way we think about ourselves. We must no longer think of ourselves as self-reliant, self-serving, independent operators. Instead, as people in Christ, we must think of ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.

What does it mean that we are dead to sin? Paul explained it in verse 6. Our old self was crucified with Christ and the “body of sin” that held us as slaves was done away with. We have been freed from sin’s power. In that sense, we are dead to sin. It can’t compel us to do wrong (1 Corinthians 10:13), though we have not lost the desire to sin (1 John 1:9–10). That’s why we must keep reminding ourselves that we are dead to sin, as Paul will show in the following verses.

Verse 12: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

In the previous verse, Paul told us to think of ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in the same way that Christ is dead to sin and alive to God. Now he tells us not to let sin reign or rule in our current, mortal bodies. We must not let sin make us obey it.

This strikes some readers as confusing. Hasn’t Paul said that we are dead to sin (Romans 6:1)? Hasn’t he told us that the “body of sin” has been done away with (Romans 6:6) and that we have been set free from sin by dying with Christ when we trusted in Him (Romans 6:7)? So how could sin possibly rule in us or make us obey its passions? The simple answer is this: We have been freed from the authority of sin over us, but we have not lost the desire to sin. In short, sin still appeals to us. It’s easy for us to forget, or even to disbelieve, that we never again have to do any sinful thing (1 Corinthians 10:13). We are not slaves to sin. We can only volunteer.

Paul commands us to have that conversation with ourselves on an ongoing basis. He commands us to engage in that battle with our desires. Don’t let sin tell you what to do, he writes. For the saved Christian believer, sinful desires are not the boss anymore. Christians should not give over control to those urges.

Verse 13: Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

Paul has made abundantly clear that those of us in Christ must engage in a kind of battle with ourselves. We have been freed, through our spiritual death and resurrection with Christ, from the power of sin. Our old self has been crucified spiritually in the same way that Christ was crucified spiritually. The result is that sin no longer has any authority over us. We have been set free.

We have not, however, lost our desire to sin. We still want to sin, at times, even knowing how destructive our sin is. Paul has commanded us not to volunteer to sin, not to let it take control of our bodies. Now he puts an even finer point on his command. We must not present our members, any part of our bodies, for sin to use to do unrighteous things.

Notice something about that command: It insists that we have control over what we do with our own bodies. Christ’s death and the power of God’s spirit gives us that control. Those who are saved can only sin by choosing to do so.

Instead, Paul writes, we must present our bodies to God to be used for righteousness. In fact, we should do it on purpose like people who have been brought from death to life. How do we do that? We start by continually reminding ourselves that we have actually and genuinely been brought from death to life. That is who we are now, and that’s the life we are destined to lead.

Verse 14: For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

The context of this passage is the spiritual condition of those who are saved. Paul’s remarks here are about those who have expressed saving faith in Christ, not to the entire human race (Romans 5:1). Paul concludes his commands to not allow sin to tell us what to do. He again reminds the reader that sin has no authority in our lives any longer. Those without Christ, standing on their own merits apart from God, are compelled to sin. As we once were, they are slaves to sin. Because Christ rescued us, that’s not who we are any more. Sin is not the boss of us.

Now Paul adds a surprising thought. We are not under sin’s authority because we are not under the law. In some sense, being under the law revealed how powerless we were against our own desires to sin. Instead, Paul writes, we are under grace. Because of God’s grace, we are no longer compelled to sin.

Verse 15: What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

Paul asks a strange question in light of what he just wrote in the previous verses. He has said that sin has no dominion or authority over us because we are not under the law but under God’s grace through faith in Christ.

Now he asks if we should sin, or choose to continue to sin, for that reason? In other words, does the fact that we are no longer compelled to sin mean that we are somehow free to indulge in sin without fighting our desires to do so? This seems to have been a criticism levelled at Paul more than once (Romans 3:8; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:19–24), and one that misguided people often levy at Christianity today. Paul provides his common response to ridiculous questions: “By no means!” This is from a Greek phrase, mē genoito, which is the equivalent of “of course not,” or “heaven forbid!”

Paul will go on to show that our freedom from the authority of sin should cause us to resist and reject our sinful desires, not to take lightly God’s grace and forgiveness by indulging them.

Verse 16: Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Paul has made clear that our responsibility as Christians is to use our freedom from the power of sin to stop sinning. Christ has rescued us from slavery to sin. It’s not our master any longer.

Now, though, Paul shows that we become slaves of whomever we continue to obey. Sin leads to death. Obedience leads to righteousness. We choose which one to obey and become the slave of that one. Paul seems to be showing that we are in an ongoing battle to serve the right master. Our choices matter because we are either contributing to death or to righteousness.

Scripture presents salvation as a moment which saves us from the eternal penalty of sin (Romans 3:21–25), and the enslaving power of sin (Romans 6:7–11). However, it does not make us sinless (1 John 1:9–10). Those who express saving faith in Christ will not live in constant, deliberate sin (Galatians 5:19–24; 1 John 3:6–9), though they will always be subject to temptation and error in this earthly life (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Verse 17: But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,

Paul has been warning the Christians in Rome not to volunteer to sin. They have been freed from the authority of and slavery to sin. It is not in command of their bodies any longer, thanks to Christ’s death for their sin on the cross and their spiritual death with Him when they were saved.

Now Paul changes his tone and acknowledges that his Christian readers in Rome have become obedient from their hearts, meaning that they have sincerely committed themselves to obeying. Obeying what? They have become obedient to a standard—or pattern—of teaching. This phrase uses the Greek term typon, used of the mark made by a hammer, or the surface used to imprint an image. This is a set of doctrines to which these Roman Christian have been entrusted, or “committed,” or “handed over.”

What Paul is describing is this: The Roman Christians came to faith in Christ at some point. They became Christians. In that moment, sin lost its true power over them. They stopped being slaves to sin. God—and, in a sense, those who led these new believers to Christ—handed them over to the teaching of God’s truth by their leaders. The new Christians became obedient to that teaching instead of living as slaves to sin.

This is the pattern of the church, God’s plan for Christians since the very beginning. Acts 2:42 describes the earliest Christians as being devoted to the apostles’ teaching. Even today, those who trust in Christ are meant to devote themselves to obeying the teachings of God’s Word.

Verse 18: and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Paul is thanking God for the change that has taken place in the lives of the Christians in Rome, to whom he is writing. They were once slaves to their sinful desires, as we all once were. Now, though, they have become obedient from their hearts and committed to obey the teaching of God’s truth. In fact, Paul now writes, they have become the slaves of righteousness.

By this, Paul means that the Roman Christians are presenting themselves—their bodies and minds—to God to be used to accomplish His righteous purposes. It sounds odd to the modern mind, that Paul would describe this commitment to be used by God for righteous purposes as “slavery.” And yet, Paul began this letter by describing himself as a “slave” of Christ, using the Greek word doulos: a bond-servant. His terminology in this verse uses the same root word. Still, Paul seems to say in the following verses that even this version of “slavery” is not the best concept to describe this commitment to serve God’s righteousness. Instead, he uses this “human term” because of our limited ability to fully understand this change in our allegiance.

Verse 19: I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

In the previous verse, Paul wrote that Christians have been set free from sin, and have become “slaves” of righteousness. Now he seems to suggest the concept of slavery is not a perfect description of our allegiance, in Christ, to God’s righteousness as our new “master.” He writes that he uses this “human term” because of the limitation in our ability to fully understand what it means to be under the authority of righteousness.

“Slavery” is a charged term in modern society, but it carried a very different meaning in the ancient world. The “chattel slavery” which treats human beings as animals or literal property was not the norm, in that era. Still, there were some who were enslaved in that kind of bondage, so perhaps Paul wants to be sure none of his readers picture our relationship with God in terms of a fearful or degrading experience. Rather, he acknowledges that his metaphor is not exactly a perfect fit, though he will continue to use it.

As he refines the idea, Paul will make clear that Christians are absolutely under the full authority of God to be used for His purposes. However, God remains a loving Father and does not compel us to act against our will. He is always Master, and He is ever calling believers to obey Him.

Paul makes it clear that God wants us to choose obedience to Him. Why else would we need to be told to do so? He commands those in Christ to present their members—bodies, minds, will, etc.—as slaves in the service of righteousness. He tells us to do this in the same way that we once presented ourselves as slaves to impurity and lawlessness.

Paul describes those who are not in Christ as under compulsion to serve sin. They must obey their sinful desires. That is their work. The result of that work? More and more lawlessness. That is, they succeed in creating more sin in their lives and in the world.

Those in Christ, on the other hand, are used by God to serve righteousness. What comes from that, Paul writes, is sanctification or holiness. The New Testament often uses the word “sanctification” to describe the process of being made holy, of becoming like Christ. God uses our service to righteousness to contribute to that process.

Verse 20: For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Paul has posed only two possible realities for human beings. Initially, we are all slaves to sin, meaning we are under compulsion to obey our sinful desires. Those who express saving faith in Christ, on the other hand, are “slaves to righteousness,” meaning we are so closely connected to Christ that it is becoming our nature to serve righteousness.

This leaves no room for a third option. Human beings cannot be morally independent or neutral. No moral choices exist other than serving sin or serving righteousness. This is consistent with the rest of Scripture, which depicts only two eternal categories of humanity: sinners who are saved by grace through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8; Revelation 22:1–5), and sinners who reject God and are separated from Him forever (John 12:48; Revelation 20:11–15).

Now Paul considers the advantages of either option. As in other parts of this book, he speaks from the perspective of a saved believer—his “we” means those who are Christians, not all men. Here Paul writes that when we were slaves of sin, before trusting in Christ and becoming Christians, we were free in regard to righteousness. Since we had no identity in Christ, we had no mandate or calling to do what was right. That was a “freedom,” in a sense, Paul writes. He will show in the following verses that such autonomy comes at a high cost.

Verse 21: But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

“And how did that turn out?” That’s the question Paul is asking about his statement from the previous verse. There, he wrote that before his readers became Christians, they were free from righteousness. That is, they had no requirement, no compulsion, to do what was right in the eyes of God. Some may see this freedom from righteousness as a valuable thing, but Paul immediately shows that it always leads to shame and death instead of the joyful life we might imagine. Paul challenges his readers to describe what they actually got from living free of righteousness. What fruit did that produce? What results came from that?

The lasting result from living free from the control of righteousness is shame. All of us who once indulged in being free from righteousness before we trusted in Christ may feel shame about the consequences that came from serving our sinful desires. This is a good kind of “shame,” a right evaluation of the pain created by our sinful choices.

Even more lasting for those who continue to live free from righteousness is death. All sin leads eventually to death and separation from God in hell. Death is the ultimate “fruit” of living free from the control of righteousness.

Verse 22:But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

Shame and death. Paul described those as the consequences, or “fruit,” of a life lived free of the control of righteousness. Slavery to sin always leads to shame and, eventually, death. Paul’s readers in Rome, however, left that life behind. Through faith in Christ and by God’s grace, they had been set free from their slavery to sin. They had been loosed from the compulsion to serve their sinful desires.

Now they had become “slaves of God.” Paul has previously described this same state as being “slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:18). Paul began this letter by describing himself as a slave or servant of Christ Jesus, using the word of his day for a person who entered freely into a master/slave relationship with another. While not a perfect analogy—as Paul himself noted (Romans 6:19)—it’s useful to make the point at hand.

Paul now writes that, by trusting in Christ for our salvation, we have entered into that same relationship with God. Our identity is so closely connected to Christ that we are being changed to people who are bound to do what is right. This is who we are now. This is good news. Why? Because the “fruit”—the natural consequence—of serving righteousness is sanctification and eternal life. This is opposed to the shame and death which follow from serving sin.

Sanctification, translated sometimes as “holiness,” is the process of being changed in our inner selves to become more and more like Christ. We are not fully there (1 John 1:9–10), but because we now belong to God, we are on the way. He is changing us (1 John 3:2).

Ultimately, the result of this path we are on in Christ will be eternal life. We will participate in the glories of God forever (Romans 5:2).

Verse 23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul sums up this section of his letter, and the entire gospel, in this one famous verse. He compares the two types of lives he has been describing. Those without Christ are slaves to sin. Their work of sinfulness earns a paycheck of death. In other words, they earn eternal death, eternal separation from God. No matter how good a person may think they are, their work can never be good enough (Isaiah 64:6), and ultimately, they have only themselves to blame for sinning against God (Romans 1:18–20; 3:10, 23).

There is another way, however. Paul has described the possibility that we can become servants of righteousness by trusting in Christ. This is not something we can do on our own. He wrote in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. No, eternal life can only be given; it cannot be earned by human beings (Ephesians 2:8–9).

Paul describes eternal life as God’s free gift in Christ Jesus our Lord. When we trust in Christ, God gives us credit for Christ’s perfect, sinless life and accepts the payment of Christ’s death for our sin. The result, eternal life with Him, sharing in His glory, is given to us as a gift.

Paul seems to be asking, “Which life do you want?”