The Bottom Line Romans 6:19–22 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. We are coming to the end of Romans 6 and therefore to the end of a very important Bible chapter dealing with the Christian life. Strangely, the chapter is something of a parenthesis, as I pointed out when we began to study it—just as the following chapter, Romans 7, is also a parenthesis. Paul had been talking about the permanent nature of salvation. This was his theme in chapter 5, and it is the dominant note of the magnificent eighth chapter that is still to come. Between these two chapters he has been exploring the errors of people who would say, on the one hand, “If salvation by the grace of God in Jesus Christ is a sure thing—if it cannot be lost—why should we not go on living a life of sin? We will be saved anyway” and, on the other hand, “If we are saved by the grace of God apart from the Old Testament law, why shouldn’t we be lawless?” In the verses immediately preceding the ones we will study here, the apostle has answered the first question by showing that being a Christian means being delivered from a slavery to sin so that we might become willing slaves of God, which is true freedom. We cannot go on serving the old master. This means that “being a Christian” and “not being a Christian” are two mutually exclusive categories. Therefore, once we have passed from our former unbelieving state and become a Christian, we have no choice but to go forward in the Christian life, which means serving God in holiness. John R. W. Stott puts it like this: Here then are two completely different lives, lives totally opposed to one another—the life of the old self, and the life of the new. They are what Jesus termed the broad road that leads to destruction, and the narrow road that leads to life. Paul calls them two slaveries. By birth we are slaves of sin; by grace and faith we have become slaves of God. The slavery of sin yields no return, except a steady, moral deterioration and finally death. The slavery of God yields the precious return of sanctification and finally eternal life. The argument of this section, then, is that our conversion—this act of yielding or surrender to God—leads to a status of slavery, and slavery involves obedience. Whom Will You Serve? Paul has been using the analogy of slavery to make his point, a fact he alludes to in verse 19, saying, “I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves.” And the point has been that in life we must serve either of two masters. Either we must serve sin, or we must serve God. There is no neutral ground. This is Paul’s main point. But do we really believe this? If we understood it and really believed it, would we sin as frequently or as easily as we sometimes do? Would we take sin lightly and be as casual in the pursuit of righteousness as we often are? The Doctrine of the Two Ways What Paul has been describing in these verses is the doctrine of the two ways, which is found throughout the Bible. The best-known statement of it is in the words of Jesus recorded in the Sermon on the Mount. The last section of that sermon lists a series of contrasts among which choices must be made: two gates and two roads, two trees and their two types of fruit, two houses and two foundations. The part regarding the two ways says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt. 7:13–14). The point is that a person can be on only one of these two roads, because the roads are entirely different and lead in opposite directions. The classic statement of the doctrine is in Psalm 1, which contains the very points Paul makes in Romans 6. It describes two different categories of people: “the wicked” and “the righteous.” The psalm shows the progression within each of these two categories. On the one hand, there is progression in wickedness. Those in the first category begin by “walk[ing] in the counsel of the wicked,” then “stand in the way of sinners” and finally “sit in the seat of mockers” (v. 1). In other words, they become increasingly settled in ungodliness by their practice of it. Moreover, their lives bear no fruit. They are barren plants, “like chaff that the wind blows away” (v. 4). On the other hand, there is progression in godliness. The righteous man’s “delight is in the law of the LORD,” and he produces lasting fruit; he is like a “tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers” (vv. 2–3). Finally, the psalm gives the ends of the two types of people: “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous” (v. 5), that is, the company of the righteous in heaven. “For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (v. 6). The end of the righteous is eternal life. The end of the wicked is judgment. It should be evident that this is exactly what Paul is saying in these verses, though his slavery analogy does not speak of scoundrels collecting by the gates of the city or the scattering of useless chaff at harvest time. Nor does he refer to the “slaves to God” as fruitful trees. But he does describe two different pathways. The first path starts with slavery to sin. It is the condition into which each of us is born, for none of us is born righteous. Sin is our cruel master; it drives us along. By ourselves we are unable to escape this harsh tyranny. This leads to “impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness” (v. 19). Impurity refers to sin as it affects the individual. It means personal defilement, particularly by sins that are opposed to chastity. Wickedness refers to violation of the divine or human laws. Robert Haldane says that the former “refers principally to the pollution, the other to the guilt of sin.” Moreover, this wickedness is progressive! The Greek text is particularly suggestive at this point, for it literally reads “you have yielded your members slaves … to wickedness unto wickedness.” In other words, sin is a downhill path, as Paul has already shown in Romans 1. Those who begin by walking in the counsel of the wicked soon find themselves standing in the way of sinners and eventually sitting in the seat of mockers. The end of this destructive path is death, which Paul mentions three times in this section (vv. 16, 21, 23). This does not mean physical death, since the righteous as well as the wicked experience physical death. It means the full penalty of sin, which is eternal punishment. The second path starts with slavery to God, which God accomplishes in us and which is actually freedom. This path leads to “righteousness,” and righteousness leads to “holiness” (v. 19). These words parallel the principle that “impurity” leads to “ever-increasing wickedness” and describe the contrary experience of one who has been claimed by God. “Righteousness” in this context means primarily righteous acts. “Holiness” is an inner state characterized by conformity to the will and character of God. The phrase “righteousness leading to holiness” teaches that the practice of outward godliness leads to inward godliness; that is, doing right things actually brings a person along the pathway of spiritual growth. The end of this healthy, developing path is eternal life (v. 22). In this context “eternal life” refers to the fruit, or end result, of a godly life, not the life itself or its reward. It refers to eternal fellowship with God, who is its source. Just Do It! The point of Paul’s analysis is to exhort Christians to live holy lives, though the application is made at the beginning of the paragraph rather than at the end: “Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer the parts of your body in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness” (v. 19b). What more can be said about this application? The first thing we notice is that it is an almost identical exhortation to the one found in verse 13 in the first half of the chapter. At that point Paul had already shown that the one who has become a Christian has died to sin and been made alive to God in Christ. His argument was that, because this is so, it is for us to recognize this change and act on it: “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ.” How are we to do that? What does it mean to count ourselves dead to sin but alive in Christ? The answer was: “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (v. 13). Notice that this is precisely what Paul says all over again in verse 19. He refers to the parts of our bodies and contrasts our former offering of them to sin with our present offering of them to righteousness. The only noticeable difference is that in verse 19 he speaks about slavery to sin versus slavery to righteousness, which fits in with the new analogy he is unfolding. Why does Paul repeat himself like this? Obviously to make the point that there is just no other way for us to grow in righteousness. There is no secret formula for holiness, no magic recipe. The only means is to realize what God has done for us and then discipline the parts of our bodies—our minds, eyes, ears, tongues, hands, and feet—to act accordingly. I cannot emphasize this point enough, because we live in a day in which Christian people are shirking hard work and are searching (if they even bother to search) for some easy solution or quick fix. We look for quick solutions in our physical and emotional lives on a regular basis. If we are depressed, we take in a movie, go shopping, or pop a pill. If we are having trouble with a personal relationship, we go to a weekend seminar to pick up pointers—or to a singles bar to pick up some new person. We Christians find it easy to carry this outlook into our spiritual lives. Some who do this look for a special “victory” formula (“let go and let God,” “take it by faith,” or some other handy slogan). Some search for a powerful emotional experience. Still others pray for miracles. But these are not God’s answers. God is not withholding something from us, some secret we need to seek or for which we should pray. God has already done everything necessary for our salvation and given us everything we need to live a consistent Christian life. So, if we fail to do it, it is either because we have not been taught what God has done and therefore do not know how to conduct ourselves as Christians, or we are just too sinful or lazy. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “You have already received ‘all things that pertain unto a life of godliness.’ You do not need another experience. You do not need some new gift. You have been given everything in Christ; you are ‘in him’ from the beginning of your Christian life. You are just a slacker and a cad, just lazy and indolent, indeed ‘a liar,’ if you are not living this life.” He says that this is the New Testament way of preaching holiness and sanctification, and he is right. Our Reasonable Service What is the bottom line? Lloyd-Jones spells it out in the six propositions. 1. The teaching about sanctification in verse 19, like the teaching in verses 11–13, is an exhortation. In fact, it is a command. Before our conversion we were under the control of sin, and sin commanded us to give the parts of our body to it for wicked acts. We obeyed sin in those days; we had to. Now we have passed under the command of God, and God commands us to offer our bodies to him for acts of righteousness. 2. Being an exhortation, the command to offer our bodies to God for his purposes is something we must do. Indeed, it is something we can do. If this command had been laid upon us prior to our conversion, we would not have been able to do it. We would have been non posse non peccare (“not able not to sin”), as Augustine said. But being freed from bondage to sin and having been made willing slaves of God by the new birth, we are now posse non peccare (“able not to sin”). To put it in positive terms, we are now able to obey God, do good works, and live righteous lives. 3. The command to yield the parts of our bodies as instruments of righteousness is based on something that has already happened to us. That is, something that has already happened, not something that may happen or will yet happen to us. Here is an exercise for you. Go through Romans 6 and underline the verbs that tell, in a past tense, what has happened to those of us who are Christians. You will find that you are underlining nearly every significant verb: “we died to sin” (v. 2); “all of us … were baptized into Christ Jesus … into his death” (v. 3); “we were therefore buried with him” (v. 4); “we have been united with him like this in his death” (v. 5); “our old self was crucified with him” (v. 6); “we died with Christ” (v. 8); “you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted” (v. 17); “you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (v. 18); “you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God” (v. 22). These verbs describe the experience of all who are truly Christians. It is because their experience can be described in these terms, because of what has already happened, that a life of holiness through the power of God is possible for them. 4. The New Testament approach to sanctification is therefore to get us to realize our position and act accordingly. The New Testament does not tell us to be what we will become. Rather, it tells us to be what we are. Lloyd-Jones says, “I cannot find anywhere in the New Testament, teaching which says, ‘Christ has been crucified for you; what remains now is that you should be crucified with Christ.’ That has been popular teaching; but it is not in the New Testament. Every man who is a Christian has already been crucified with Christ. … It is because that has already happened, it is because that is true of us, that this command … is addressed to us.” 5. This demand is utterly reasonable. In fact, anything contrary to it is unreasonable. Before we were saved, we served sin; that was consistent and reasonable. But now that we are converted, it is equally reasonable that we should serve God. Do you understand that Paul is reasoning with us here? A moment ago I said to look at Romans 6 for verbs that tell what has happened to us in our salvation. Now go back and look at it again, noting the deductions Paul draws from those actions: “We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?” (v. 2); “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (v. 5); “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires” (v. 12); “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace” (v. 14); “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (v. 15); “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 …” (v. 19b). The Bible says that if you are living a sinful life, your conduct is inconsistent with any Christian profession you might have made. If you claim to be a Christian, you must therefore straighten your life out, or you dare not long assume you are a true believer. That would be presumptuous! God forbid that any of us should continue sinning, thinking that grace will abound. 6. The failures we have in trying to live a holy life are due almost entirely to our failure to realize these truths or to our laziness or sin in failing to apply them to our conduct. Do you remember Jesus’ words about sanctification? He said in his prayer for his disciples: “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). This is identical doctrine to what we have in Paul’s writings. It is truth for today. Not long ago I was rereading an essay by C. S. Lewis called “The Weight of Glory.” As he ends this essay, Lewis urges us to think of people as eternal creatures who are daily becoming either more and more like God or more and more like the devil. He writes: It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. … There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. Lewis says that we would treat others better if we would learn to think of them in those terms. But if that is true of others, it is also obviously true of ourselves. What we do now has bearing on what we will one day be. And it works the other way, too. What we will be must determine what we do now. If we have been saved by Jesus and are going to be like Jesus, we must start living like him and for him, day by day. Boice, J. M. (1991–). Romans: The Reign of Grace (Vol. 2, pp. 697–704). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 03:19:24 +0000
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