Romans ~ Part 17

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As I’ve stressed in my previous post, our journey to comprehend the profound significance of Sha’ul’s Letter to the Romans is not just a study but a crucial cornerstone of our faith.

Freedom from Sin ~ Part 2

If you are experiencing conflict at home, remember that Romans 6 calls us to live as instruments of righteousness. When disagreements arise, take a moment before responding—ask yourself if your reaction reflects God’s love and grace or if it’s merely a response to hurt. Make a commitment to implement ‘grace-filled conversations’ in which both parties express their feelings without interruption. This practice invites God’s presence into your discussions, fostering peace and understanding, ultimately transforming how conflicts are resolved in your household.

Grace Requires Submission

¹² Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal bodies so that it makes you obey its desires; ¹³ and do not offer any part of yourselves to sin as an instrument for wickedness. On the contrary, offer yourselves to God as people alive from the dead and your various parts to God as instruments for righteousness.

The Believer, as a member of the new kingdom, must not offer any help to the old king (HaSatan, sin, death) and his kingdom. We are still slaves, but now we have a new Master. Note that Sha’ul continues the personification of sin as a king (complete with a kingdom and subjects) who seeks to extend his rule. There is a spiritual war between these two kingdoms. We must give ourselves as weapons to be used in this warfare on the side of the rightful King. Aiding and abetting the enemy is treason.

¹⁴ For sin will not have authority over you because you are not under legalism but under grace.

Sin personified has been in view since 5:20–21. Sin is no longer the Believer’s ruler. Sin gained its power by using the law, but the Believer is under the rule of grace rather than law.

Slavery to Righteousness

¹⁵ Therefore, what conclusion should we reach? “Let’s go on sinning because we’re not under legalism but under grace”? Heaven forbid!

The perverse suggestion of Romans 3:5–8 and 6:1–2 is restated a third way. The following verses are another of Sha’ul’s extended analogies. People have a choice about which master they will serve.

¹⁶ Don’t you know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, then, of the one whom you are obeying, you are slaves—whether of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to being made righteous? ¹⁷ By God’s grace, you, who were once slaves to sin, obeyed from your heart the pattern of teaching to which you were exposed; ¹⁸ and after you had been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. ¹⁹ (I am using popular language because your human nature is so weak.) For just as you used to offer your various parts as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led to more lawlessness; so now offer your various parts as slaves to righteousness, which leads to being made holy, set apart for God.

Sha’ul expounds on Yeshua’s saying, “No one can be slave to two masters” (Mattityahu 6:24). The slaves to sin (v. 17; compare Yochanan 8:34) get no benefit (v. 21) but earn their wages, death (v. 23). But when enslaved to righteousness (v. 18), eternal life is what one receives as a free gift from God (v. 23). Such slavery is true freedom.

Grace Brings Life

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relationship to righteousness; ²¹ but what benefit did you derive from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end result of those things was death. ²² However, now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you do get the benefit—it consists in being made holy, set apart for God, and its end result is eternal life. ²³ For what one earns from sin is death; but eternal life is what one receives as a free gift from God, in union with the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord. ^[1]

Verse 23 is Sha’ul’s classic expression of the idea that the only place you can work your way to is hell; no one can work his way to heaven. To reach heaven, one must acknowledge the futility of striving in one’s own strength and accept God’s free gift of eternal life as being offered in union with the Messiah Yeshua our Lord by His grace when one responds with faith or trust.

Our next post will examine the theme: Freedom from the Law.

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^[1] Romans 6:12–23.