Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Six
CHRISTIAN LIBERTY
Scripture Reading: verses 15-23
WHAT THEN? SHALL WE SIN, BECAUSE WE ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE? GOD FORBID. KNOW YE NOT, THAT TO WHOM YE YIELD YOURSELVES SERVANTS TO OBEY, HIS SERVANTS YE ARE TO WHOM YE OBEY; WHETHER OF SIN UNTO DEATH, OR OF OBEDIENCE UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS? BUT GOD BE THANKED, THAT YE WERE THE SERVANTS OF SIN, BUT YE HAVE OBEYED FROM THE HEART THAT FORM OF DOCTRINE WHICH WAS DELIVERED YOU. BEING THEN MADE FREE FROM SIN, YE BECAME THE SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. I SPEAK AFTER THE MANNER OF MEN BECAUSE OF THE INFIRMITY OF YOUR FLESH: FOR AS YE HAVE YIELDED YOUR MEMBERS SERVANTS TO UNCLEANNESS AND TO INIQUITY UNTO INIQUITY; EVEN SO NOW YIELD YOUR MEMBERS SERVANTS TO RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO HOLINESS. FOR WHEN YE WERE THE SERVANTS OF SIN, YE WERE FREE FROM RIGHTEOUSNESS. WHAT FRUIT HAD YE THEN IN THOSE THINGS WHEREOF YE ARE NOW ASHAMED? FOR THE END OF THOSE THINGS IS DEATH. BUT NOW BEING MADE FREE FROM SIN, AND BECOME SERVANTS TO GOD, YE HAVE YOUR FRUIT UNTO HOLINESS, AND THE END EVERLASTING LIFE. FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH; BUT THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.
As lawyer for the defense, Paul is still speaking on behalf of the criminal. Step by step he takes us through this legal argument, contrasting the domination of sin with the reign of grace and indicating the logical lines along which both of these servitudes lead.
Throughout this passage, the way this contrast is presented is exceedingly interesting. First Paul brings the pardoned criminal into relief, no longer under law but under grace. This does not mean he is now at liberty to break the law, or break any of God’s requirements for him as a creature. The grace of God has pardoned him for his offences, setting him up in business, so to speak, in a realm where all his debts have been paid and he has been given a new lease on property which at one time had been condemned. In other words, he is set free from the claims against him and is allowed to march forth into the land of liberty. The power of a broken law is no longer held as a threat over his head, because he is walking in the sunshine of God’s grace. Will he then take advantage of his liberty by going forth to commit sin as freely as he had done before? Paul says: “God forbid.” Then he presents the striking contrast between the servitude of sin and the servitude under the grace of God: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.” The lawyer is indicating the new liberty accorded to the pardoned criminal is not a liberty to do as he pleases, or to exercise the natural impulses of his fallen nature which would lead him once more into sin. It is a liberty to go into a new service where he shall be a bondslave to the One who has spared his life and forgiven his sins. Instead of being the servitude of law, controlled by the terms of the Law of Moses, “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not,” it will be the servitude of love and grace, where the controlling force on him will be the gratitude of his heart for having been set free from so great condemnation. Now this new servitude, this new bondage will be just as virulent, stringent, and binding as was his former bondage to sin, but it is in the opposite direction; instead of being “of sin unto death,” it is “of obedience unto righteousness.” Instead of doing the wrong thing by impulse, he now has a new life in the risen Savior whose dynamic shall be that he holds his instincts toward sin in subjection, while allowing free reign to his instincts to obey God.
Many of us have a mistaken idea concerning liberty. Liberty in the Christian faith, bestowed by God’s grace, is not a liberty to do as we please according to the old sinful order; it is a liberty to do as God pleases. This is forcefully illustrated in God’s dealings with His people in the land of Egypt in the days of Moses. God’s command to Pharaoh was: “Let my people go that they may serve me.” It was not to let them go to wander at their own will in the wilderness, as they unfortunately did. God’s plan was that they might escape the evil servitude of the taskmasters of Egypt and come under the blessed servitude and bondage of His own love and care in the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey and endless blessings for them. This is precisely what is presented in Romans 6. Formerly this pardoned criminal, who now stands before the courtroom, was in the land of the Pharaohs and the cruel taskmasters, and the only prospect offered him in the land of bondage was escape by death. But as He did in the land of Egypt, God has intervened, making a way of escape. First, He has pardoned the sinner on the basis of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The lamb has been slain and the blood sprinkled upon the doorposts; those who accept that way of salvation are set free from God’s condemnation. Not only so, but God has bidden His people to march out of the land of death, and by mighty power has given them a new lease on life on the other side of the Red Sea, which was a type of the death and resurrection of our Lord. Why did He bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? It was that they might serve Him in a bondage just as real as that of Egypt. However, the contrast was that their bondage in Egypt was under sinful taskmasters who were crushing them under the heel of their power; their only outlook was toward death. On the other side of the Red Sea their bondage was to serve God acceptably, and in so doing to find endless joy and life forevermore. Thus, we have the two servitudes, the two spheres of bondage. So Paul says:
God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Like Israel, true believers on the Lord Jesus have put shoes on their feet and taken their staff in hand, prepared to march out of the region of death into the region of life.
Verse 20 says: “For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.” God could never expect the Israelites to serve Him acceptably while under the taskmasters in Egypt; and we should not think that we can serve God acceptably while in the region of death. We must be born again. We must come to the realization that the Lord Jesus is our Savior, who has delivered us out of the power of death, bringing us new life through His death and resurrection. Then Paul declares:
The end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants [or bondslaves] to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If we go on in sin, our expectation is death.
On the other hand, if we serve God we can be fully assured of eternal life, not as a result of our service, not as something which we earn, but as a free gift handed to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.
