Romans 6:19-23 (NIV)
I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. 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.
Paul finishes this part of his exposition on sin and righteousness by reemphasizing that sin is a choice that is made. The image is again of a bondservant, not a captured slave, a victim, but one who willingly offers themselves to servitude for a perceived benefit. In this case, those who sin are shown as willing to make themselves slaves to sin. It is an act of the will that, again, leads to impurity, and a downward spiral into deeper sin and wickedness, the original slippery slope.
On the other hand, Paul is urging the Romans to now offer themselves just as freely, just as completely, to serve righteousness as a bondservant. The end result of this choice is holiness, which leads to eternal life. Paul emphasizes that in each case, it is the individual’s choice whom they will serve. And again, it is a choice between two and only two masters. Each person must choose to serve one or the other.
Paul encourages each person to look back, to remember their lives before Jesus, when they were serving sin, something that they now looked back on with shame. They believed at the time that they weren’t enslaved at all but were free from any mastery other than their own.
But the fact is, the freedom that they were promised was a lie. And looking back, it was easy to see that they were actually trapped in a deep cycle of ever-increasing sin and depravity which led inexorably to death.
But now that they had surrendered themselves to Jesus as His bondservants, they could see that that servitude actually produces true freedom, freedom to choose the right actions, thoughts and attitudes consistently (righteousness), which leads to genuine holiness of heart and life, resulting in eternal life.
The first half of verse 23, “For the wages of sin is death” is often used as one of the first stops on the “Roman Road” of evangelism, but it really needs to be read (and memorized) not only as a whole sentence, but in the context of Paul’s exposition. It is not just a statement of fact, but a careful and concise laying out of the two paths, their polar opposite destinations, and a heartfelt urging for people to choose well which path they will follow.
Father, it is interesting to note that Paul isn’t writing this letter to evangelize the Roman Christians, but to encourage those who were already Christians to not let themselves be drawn back to their old master with the false promise of freedom. They had chosen a new master when they accepted salvation from Jesus, and now they needed to commit themselves fully to that path, and to the righteousness and holiness made possible by that choice which would ultimately lead them to eternal life. Many today believe that they can choose to be totally free, to be their own master, to live without any constraints. But that freedom is, as You point out, an illusion. Those people are actually enslaved to sin and are on the path to death. Help us, Lord, to communicate these solid truths, not only to those who are lost so that they can repent, choose the better master, and be saved, but to any brothers or sisters who are wavering, so that they can clearly see the only two paths, the only two masters that are available, and can choose to stay on the right track, the path and master that lead to eternal life. Amen.