Romans 6:15-18 (NIV)
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 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–whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Some in the Church, even in far-off Rome, were teaching that sin was unavoidable for the Christian, and just had to be accepted, and was no big deal anyway, since we are under grace. But Paul now comes against that teaching with all the force of his formidable logic. Paul begins by using his statement in verse 14 (NIV), “sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace,” as a launchpad for the next stage of his argument, which extends all the way thought chapter 8.
In this section, Paul uses the illustration of a bondservant, someone who willingly goes into servitude to someone else., In this case, there are two, and only two, possible masters: sin and obedience.
Notice that the two masters are not good and evil, philosophical poles of right and wrong. Instead they are volitional opposites. Obedience is choosing to obey God’s requirements and mandates, whereas sin is the opposite – choosing to disobey, to rebel against God’s authority.
A person is free to choose which master they will serve, but service to each master leads to end points that are also polar opposites. If a person chooses to serve sin, rebellion, disobedience, they are following a path that leads to death, not just physical death, but spiritual death, and eternal separation from God. If, on the other hand, a person chooses to serve obedience, to know and to do everything that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:20b), that path leads to righteousness, and ultimately to life.
The choice is each person’s to make. But Paul focuses on the positive here. Even though the Roman Christians had once chosen to be slaves to sin in their pagan days, they had now chosen a different master: obedience. And they were now living in obedience to the commands of Jesus that they had been taught, and so were experiencing the outcome of true righteousness in their lives.
Some might be confused by the seeming conflict between no longer being under the law but under grace, and still needing to choose obedience. But the difference is that being under the law meant being responsible for one’s own salvation, based purely on how well they could conform themselves to God’s character by their own effort. That was a hopeless challenge designed, even in the early days, to drive people to God in repentance and surrender, so that they could be made righteous by God.
But in light of the cross, the key to righteousness is not slavish obedience to an external set of rules, but genuine transformation sparked by grace, and facilitated by the Holy Spirit. This results in obedience that is fueled by love and thankfulness instead of by fear. By choosing the path of transformation through faith in Jesus, a person can live in genuine obedience, resulting in life.
Father, as You point out, in Matthew 28:20b, even Jesus required that His followers be taught to obey everything that He commanded, a clear contradiction to the philosophy that since we are under grace, no obedience is required. I am amazed that such a deceptive philosophy was already being taught at that early stage of the Church. But I am also grateful that, since it was, Paul was able to write such a simple and powerful exposition on why it was untenable for those in the Church, both in his own day and in ours. Thank You for Your clear guidance on this vital issue. Amen.