Commentary - Romans 6:15-23

Bird's-eye view

In this crucial passage, the Apostle Paul confronts a diabolical misunderstanding of grace. Having established that we are justified by faith apart from works and are dead to sin in Christ, he anticipates the twisted logic that might follow: "If we are under grace, not law, why not sin all the more?" Paul demolishes this suggestion with a robust assertion of spiritual reality. He argues that every human being is a slave to something. There is no autonomous middle ground. You are either a slave to sin, which pays its wages with death, or you have been graciously transferred into a new and glorious servitude to God, which results in righteousness, sanctification, and eternal life. The Christian life is not a declaration of independence, but rather a joyful, Spirit-empowered change of masters. Paul uses the stark metaphor of slavery to make it inescapably clear that grace does not give us a license to sin; it breaks sin's power and enlists us in the service of a new and better King.

The argument pivots on the idea of obedience. Your true master is the one you actually obey. Before Christ, we were slaves of sin, and we obediently presented the members of our body to impurity and lawlessness. But through the gospel, we have been set free from that cruel master and have become slaves of righteousness. This is not a theoretical shift, but a radical reorientation of our entire being, accomplished by God, which we are now called to live out. Paul concludes with one of the most famous summaries in all of Scripture, contrasting the earned wages of sin (death) with the free gift of God (eternal life).

Outline

Context In Romans

This passage is the second time Paul has had to swat down the heresy of antinomianism, the idea that God's law has no bearing on the Christian life. In Romans 6:1, he asked, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Here in verse 15, he asks a similar question: "Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?" The first question deals with the abuse of grace in justification, and the second deals with the abuse of grace in sanctification. This section builds directly on the foundation of Romans 6:1-14, where Paul established that through baptism, we are united to Christ in His death and resurrection. Because we have died to sin's reign, we are no longer under its dominion. This passage, then, is the practical application of that indicative reality. Because you are dead to sin and alive to God, therefore you must not present your members to sin, but rather present yourselves as willing slaves to righteousness. This sets the stage for chapter 7, where Paul will explore the ongoing struggle with indwelling sin in the life of the believer, a struggle that is only resolved by the power of the Spirit described in chapter 8.

Key Issues

The Glorious Slavery

Our modern, democratic sensibilities recoil at the word "slave." For us, it conjures images of oppression, coercion, and the stripping of human dignity. Freedom is the ultimate good, and slavery is the ultimate evil. But the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, picks up this very metaphor and uses it to describe the Christian life. He is not commending the chattel slavery of the Roman Empire; he is using a powerful, universally understood concept to teach a profound spiritual truth: there is no such thing as absolute autonomy. Every man serves a master.

The unbeliever prides himself on his freedom. He is his own man, the captain of his soul. Paul says this is a delusion. He is in fact a slave to sin. He may not think of it that way, but his patterns of behavior, his desires, and his ultimate destiny are all dictated by his master, Sin. The Christian, by contrast, is one who has been liberated from that cruel and destructive bondage. But what is he liberated to? Not to a state of untethered independence, but to a new and glorious slavery. He has been bought with a price, the blood of Christ, and now belongs to God. This is the great paradox of the gospel: true freedom is found only in total submission to our rightful Lord. Our former slavery led to lawlessness and death. Our new slavery leads to holiness and life. It is a slavery where the Master loves us, died for us, and commands us for our ultimate good and His ultimate glory. It is a slavery that is, in fact, our liberation.

Verse by Verse Commentary

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

Paul once again anticipates the libertine objection. If we are not "under law," meaning we are not under the Mosaic covenant as a system of earning righteousness, but are instead "under grace," does this mean the moral constraints are off? Can we sin with impunity? Paul's response is an explosive negative: Me genoito! Absolutely not. Perish the thought. It is a moral and theological absurdity. To use the grace that frees you from sin's penalty as a justification for indulging in sin's practice is to fundamentally misunderstand the entire nature of salvation.

16 Do you not know that when you go on presenting yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

Paul appeals to a self-evident principle of life, a bit of spiritual common sense. You can tell who a man's master is by watching who he obeys. The act of continually presenting yourself in obedience to a power demonstrates your servitude to that power. He lays out the only two options available to mankind. There is no third way, no neutral territory. You are either a slave of sin, and the end of that road is death. Or you are a slave of "obedience," which is here personified as a master, and the end of that road is righteousness. Your allegiance is revealed by your actions.

17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were given over,

Paul breaks into thanksgiving. He is celebrating a past reality in the lives of the Roman believers. He says, "you were slaves of sin." The verb tense is crucial; that is their past identity, not their present one. What broke them out of that slavery? Two things. First, an internal change: they "obeyed from the heart." This was not mere external compliance, but a genuine, heartfelt turning. Second, they obeyed an external, objective standard: "that pattern of teaching." The gospel is not a vague sentiment; it is a body of truth, a form of doctrine. The Greek here is potent; it suggests they were handed over to this teaching as if being poured into a mold. The gospel reshapes the believer into its own image.

18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Here is the great exchange in its starkest terms. The moment you were emancipated from sin, you were simultaneously indentured to righteousness. Freedom from sin is not freedom to do whatever you want; it is freedom to do what is right. It is a transfer of ownership. One master is deposed, and another is enthroned. This is not something we achieve; it is a status conferred on us by God in our salvation. We were "made" slaves of righteousness.

19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

Paul acknowledges that the slavery metaphor is an earthly one, an analogy to help our weak human understanding grasp a profound spiritual reality. He then presses the analogy. He says, "Look back at your old life." You all know how to be a slave. You took your "members," your body parts, your faculties, your eyes, hands, feet, and mind, and you dedicated them to the service of impurity and lawlessness. And what was the result? It was a downward spiral: lawlessness led to "further lawlessness." Now, Paul says, apply that same principle of dedicated service to your new Master. Take those same members and consciously, deliberately "present" them as slaves to righteousness. The result will be an upward spiral: righteousness leads to "sanctification," or growing holiness.

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

This is a chilling statement. Paul describes the state of the unbeliever. As a slave of sin, he was "free" from righteousness. This doesn't mean he was free to choose righteousness; it means righteousness had no claim on him, no jurisdiction over him. He was outside its realm entirely. He did not have to worry about pleasing God because he was entirely owned and operated by another power. It is the freedom of a corpse to be free from the concerns of the living.

21 Therefore what benefit were you then having from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

Paul asks a rhetorical question to drive the point home. Look back on that old life of "freedom" from righteousness. What was the "benefit"? What fruit did it produce? The answer is nothing but shame. The things they once reveled in, they now look back on with godly regret. And beyond the shame, what is the final destination, the ultimate harvest of that life? The "end," the final outcome, is death. It was a raw deal from start to finish.

22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit, leading to sanctification, and the end, eternal life.

Here is the glorious contrast. "But now..." The gospel has intervened. Having been freed from sin's tyranny and now "enslaved to God," the Christian life produces a completely different kind of fruit. The present benefit, the harvest we are reaping right now, is sanctification, a life of increasing holiness. And the final outcome, the "end" of this new path, is not death but eternal life. The bargain could not be more different.

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

Paul concludes with this masterful summary. Notice the stark contrast is not just between death and life, but between how they are obtained. Death is "wages." It is what sin earns. It is a paycheck for a life of rebellion. It is deserved, calculated, and paid in full. But eternal life is a charisma, a gracious gift. It is not earned. It cannot be deserved. It is freely bestowed by God. And this gift is not given in a vacuum; it is given "in Christ Jesus our Lord." He is the one who earned the wages of our sin on the cross, so that we might receive the free gift of His eternal life. Everything depends on Him.

Application

The teaching of this passage must be applied with rigor to our lives. The modern church is awash in a sentimental, low-demand version of grace that Paul would not recognize. We are tempted to think of our freedom in Christ as the freedom to construct a lifestyle that suits us, with Jesus as a helpful accessory. Paul says this is nonsense. We have been bought with a price. We are not our own. We are slaves.

This means we must be ruthless with the lie of personal autonomy. Every day, we must consciously ask the question, "Which master am I obeying right now?" When you choose what to look at on the internet, you are presenting your eyes as a slave to righteousness or to impurity. When you decide how to speak to your spouse, you are presenting your tongue as a slave to God or to sin. When you decide how to spend your time and money, you are presenting your resources to the service of lawlessness or sanctification. There is no neutral gear.

The good news is that this is not a grim duty. Our new Master is the Lord of life, and His service is perfect freedom. The commands He gives are not burdensome, but are the very path to our flourishing. The slavery Paul describes is not a return to bondage, but the joyful allegiance of a liberated people to their glorious King. We should therefore thank God that we are no longer free to destroy ourselves, but have been graciously enslaved to the one whose service means righteousness, holiness, and life everlasting.