Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Romans · About this commentary
Slaves of Righteousness
Romans 6:15-19
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! · WEB
Freedom from every master is exposed as a fiction — obedience makes ownership — and the transfer of service is credited to God with thanks.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
The slander returns in its second form Romans 6:1, and this time the answer is an observation about how obedience works: don't you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey? Romans 6:16.
The principle closes the imagined third option. The objector pictures a person under grace as masterless — free to sin occasionally, belonging to no one. The verse replies that obedience itself constitutes ownership: whoever you obey, that you serve, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness. There is no neutral ground between the two armies of verse 13 — only two services, each with a destination attached. Freedom in the absolute sense, service to nothing, is not on the menu of human existence; the only question is the master.
Then the thanksgiving that carries the chapter's warmth: but thanks be to God that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered Romans 6:17.
Every phrase repays attention. The obedience is from the heart — the new service is not a second slavery of dread but a willing one; the heart chapter 1 darkened Romans 1:21 now obeys gladly. The object is that form of teaching — the gospel as a mold into which the person was poured, taking its shape. And the passive is startling: to which you were delivered — not the teaching delivered to you, but you delivered to the teaching, handed over to the truth as to a new owner. The whole transfer is credited to God, which is why it opens with thanks.
Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness Romans 6:18 — both verbs passive, both done to them. And verse 19 apologizes for the metaphor even while pressing it: I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Slavery is an inadequate figure for belonging to God — sonship is coming Romans 8:15 — but it is exact about one thing: totality. As completely as the members once served uncleanness, even so now — the same wholeheartedness, aimed at sanctification.
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