Romans 6:15-23 “Life and Death”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁵Therefore, what [shall we say]? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!  ¹⁶Do you not know that to whom you are offering yourselves [to be] servants into obedience, you are servants to whom you are obeying, whether of sin into death or of obedience into righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks [be] to God that [although] you were being servants of the sin, yet you obeyed out of heart into a form of teaching to which you were delivered, ¹⁸and ones set free from the sin, you were enslaved to the righteousness. 

¹⁹I am speaking [as a] man because of the weakness of your flesh, for, just as you presented your members servants to the uncleanness and the lawlessness into the lawlessness, thus now present your members servants to the righteousness into holiness. ²⁰For, when you were being servants of the sin, you were being free ones to the righteousness. ²¹Therefore, what fruit were you having upon those things of which you are now being ashamed? For the end of those things [is] death. ²²But now, [being] ones set free from the sin and enslaved to God, you are having your fruit into holiness and the end [is] eternal life. ²³For the wages of the sin [are] death, but the free gift of God [is] eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6 has definitely been a different sort of study for me. There is this huge part of me that still doesn’t understand why we even need to talk about all of this. This question, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” seems like such an absurdity to me, I don’t know why it even needs to be addressed. Paul’s answer in v.1 and again here in v.15 is the same, “May it never be!” What he’s saying is, “That’s absurd!”

I agree.

So why talk about it?

Once again, I’m very aware that Paul is a little more qualified than me to decide what should or should not be included in Scripture! This worm is “darkening counsel without knowledge.” However, as I study, I can’t escape this feeling like “this is a waste of time.” Obviously, I’m missing something here. There is some wisdom which is eluding me. There is something I don’t understand about what needs to be said.

All of that said, still this is for me a wonderful passage of scripture just to ponder and enjoy its truth. Although I can’t seem to understand why it all needs to be said to somehow defend grace, yet what is said is for me personally glorious truth.

What do I mean? For me, the glory of even being a Christian, a Christ-follower, is precisely this contrast of death vs. life and slavery vs. freedom. That is Paul’s entire point here. Sin leads to slavery and death, but Jesus gives to us freedom and life. These are exactly the two issues that led me to desire Christ in my life to start with. Like most young people, I was quite sure I knew what I wanted in life and what would make me “happy.” I thought I knew what “freedom” was. However, the harder I chased what I thought was life, the more I found myself dying, the more I found myself a slave. And I didn’t like it!

To this day, my soul still throbs with the words, “I’m sick of dying!” and “I’m sick of being a slave!” I don’t want to die anymore. I want to live. And I don’t want to be a slave, I want to be free. Jesus steps in and says, “I offer you life, that you may have it more abundantly!” and “If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed!” “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free!” And the life he offers is not just a few more years on planet earth, it is eternal life. Better yet, is my own realization those words can be translated, “the life which is eternal.” My soul thrills with those words. It’s not just a matter that faith in Jesus means someday I’ll go to Heaven. What thrills me is that I am already enjoying “the life which is eternal.” This is life.

I could go on and on. I crawled to Him begging for life and freedom and He not only gave me those, but He poured them out in such a flood, my soul can’t even comprehend it all. Here I am at the other end of life about to celebrate 40 years of marriage with the most beautiful princess who ever walked the face of the earth! I have three wonderful children, each of whom I am tremendously proud. If that were not enough, I now also have four grandchildren! I have a great job working with a lot of really nice people, a beautiful house in a great city and a wonderful church to attend. Again and again and again, the Lord shows me truth from the Bible that truly does “set me free.” It is freedom itself just to know all that really matters is to love God and love people…all day every day. I learned that from Him. I could have never figured that out on my own.

And He not only shows me what is right, He also empowers me to actually do it! I love knowing it’s true that I am not brave, but He makes me brave. I love constantly being keenly aware “I can’t,” yet finding I can! Jesus said, “I offer you life,” and boy does He know how to deliver on His promises!

I guess all of this is why I struggle to understand why we even need to answer the question, “Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace?” That seems so utterly absurd, why even answer it? As Paul says, “How shall we who died to sin, live any longer in it?” He asks in v.21, “What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!” No kidding! Who wants to go back to dying??? Even as I think these thoughts, my own heart just runs back to the praise, “I cried unto the Lord, and He answered by setting me free!” I guess I don’t understand the question, but I sure do like the answer!

On a few exegetical notes, it is interesting to me that this is in several places a rather difficult passage to translate. Particularly in vv.16 and 18, the Greek just doesn’t seem to flow logically. Expositors offer their own reasons for why this is so, but I would suggest it is simply the perennial problem of people speaking 2,100 years ago and halfway round the world, and us listening in. Even from one modern language to another, it can be difficult to translate without paraphrasing what they’re saying. How much more so with ancient languages? As usual, of course, their meaning is clear enough. It’s just challenging when one is trying to be as faithful as possible directly to the text itself.

Then I want to say I find it very encouraging that this whole passage, when studied in its context, completely supports our good old fashioned Reformed doctrine of progressive sanctification. Clearly, we who have died with Christ, yet still need to be presenting the members of our bodies as servants of righteousness. I love that Paul describes true believers as those who “obeyed from the heart.” Jesus told the woman at the well, “God is a Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” It’s more of His freedom that He enables us to actually worship Him literally from our hearts. The Pharisees may have been happy to “keep the rules” but us believers get to enjoy a real heart relationship with God!

I guess I could go on and on. There are lots of other interesting exegetical points to ponder, but I think I will content myself to just conclude with praising God for the simple truth of v.23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life!”