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In this section, Paul continues to deal with the implications of justification through faith and in particular with the objection that justification through faith promotes sin. This objection takes the form of series of questions ( 6:1, 6:15; 7:7, 7:13). This section of chapter 6 begins with the second of those questions and Paul’s answer to it in verse 15: “May it not be.” Then in verse 16 he begins to give the reason for that answer and it will continue through chapter 7, verse 6. The reason for the answer has two parts: 6:16-23 and 7:1-6.

ROMANS 6:15-23.
15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  May it not be!  16. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, his slaves you are to whom you obey;  whether of sin to death or of obedience to righteousness?  17. But thanks be to God that you were slaves of sin but you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered;  18. and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness.  19. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.  For as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification.  20. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  21. Therefore, what fruit had you then, because of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death.  22. But now having been freed from sin and having been enslaved to God, you have your fruit to sanctification and the end eternal life.  23. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

6:15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  May it not be!

This verse contains two questions:

(1) “What then?”

(2) “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?”

The first question ties the second question to the statement in verse 14: “we are not under law, but under grace.” And the second question raises one of the major objections to Paul’s teaching of justification by grace through faith. The objection may be stated in the following way: justification by grace through faith promotes sin because it excludes the law, which is the only way to stop men from sinning. The objection continues: if men are not under the law, then there is no way to restrain men from sinning; there must be law to force men to be righteous. This is the objection behind the second question. And Paul’s reply to this underlying objection does not really start until chapter 7. But Paul’s answer to the second question in this verse is a vigorous “May it not be.” In the rest of this chapter, Paul gives the reason for his negative answer, focusing on the first part of this question: “Shall we sin?”

6:16. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, his slaves you are to whom you obey; whether of sin to death or of obedience to righteousness?

In this verse, Paul begins to give the reason for his negative answer to the second question in verse 15. He begins by asking a question: “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves unto obedience, his slaves you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?” This question focuses on the first part of the question in verse 15: “Shall we sin?” Paul is saying by his question that we do not have to sin, because we can choose to whom we want to be obedient; whether to sin or to righteousness.

6:17. But thanks be to God that you were slaves of sin but you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered;

In this verse, Paul expresses his thanks to God for his reader’s choice. They were slaves of sin but they became obedient from the heart to the form of teaching (the gospel) to which they were delivered. Note that Paul does not say that the form of teaching was delivered to them but rather they were delivered to the form of teaching. God is the implied agent of the passive voice of the verb “delivered.” God delivered them to the form of teaching and hence they are subject to it and slaves of it.

6:18. and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness.

In this verse, Paul continues his thought from the previous verse. And the result of their obedience to the form of teaching is that they, “having been freed from sin,” from the slavery of sin, “you have became the slaves of righteousness.”

6:19. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.  For as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification.

In the first part of this verse, Paul explains why he is explaining these profound spiritual truths in such human language: “because of the weakness of their flesh.” That is, because of the natural human difficulty of understanding abstract reasoning, Paul speaks to them in concrete, everyday terms, which in this case was slavery.

In the second part of this verse, he gives an exhortation:  “For as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness,  so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification.”  This exhortation reminds us of the exhortation in verse 13 of this chapter. The word “sanctification” is a translation of the Greek noun hagiasmos which means “the act of setting apart or consecrating something or someone to a god.” That which is set apart or consecrated is called “holy or sanctified.” The Greeks words that are translated by these words all have the same root. Paul is saying here that the presenting of their members as slaves to righteousness is an act of consecration to God, setting apart their members of their bodies to God.

6:20-22.
²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  21. Therefore, what fruit had you then, because of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death.  ²² But now having been freed from sin and having been enslaved to God,  you have your fruit to sanctification and the end eternal life.

In these verses, Paul explains the exhortation in the previous verse 19. He first explains in verse 20 what it meant to be a slave of sin or uncleanness. “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.”   In verse 21, Paul asks them, “What fruit did you have then?” When they were free from righteousness, the fruit of their freedom was uncleanness. They are now ashamed of that fruit of their freedom from righteousness. Why? “For the end of those things is death.” This is not spiritual or physical death, but eternal death (See verse 23).  In verse 22, Paul explains the second half of the exhortation in verse 19. Why should they present their members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification? Because they now, having been freed from sin and having been enslaved to God, have their fruit to sanctification and the end is eternal life. Having freed them from their slavery to sin as a slave master, and having made them slaves of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Spirit of God now sets them apart to God. They have this sanctification as the fruit or results of their presenting their members as slaves to righteousness and the end of this process is eternal life.

6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In this verse, Paul concludes his explanation of the exhortation in verse 19.  Paul here is not talking about the penalty of sin, but the wages that sin as a slave master pays at the end of its slavery; that wage is eternal death, eternal separation of God. In contrast, the free gift of God is eternal life. As a free gift, we do not have to earn it nor do we have to wait until it has been completely earned at the end of human life. It is now our present possession and will be ours through eternity. Why? Because this eternal life is “in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Having received Him and acknowledging Him as our Lord, we have that eternal life now and in eternity.

Romans 6:23 does not mean that sin must be punished and that death is the penalty of sin. The meaning of this verse must be determined by considering its context, the previous verses from 15 to 23. The context of this verse is not the law-court but slavery. In this context, sin is personified as a slavemaster. Verse 14 says that sin will no longer have dominion or lordship (kurieusei) over the Christian, because he is now under grace. Verse 16 speaks of yielding oneself as a slave – either to sin or to obedience [to God]. Verse 17 speaks of having been slaves to sin but now ( verse 18) being slaves of righteousness. Verses 20-21 asks what return did they get from the things that they did as slaves of sin. Paul says that the end of the slavery to sin is death. Verse 22 says that the end result of being a slave of God is eternal life. Then here in this verse 23 Paul summarizes his argument by saying that the wages of sin, that is, the wages paid by sin as a slavemaster, is death. But God does not pay wages, but gives a free gift, eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

It is very plain from verses Rom. 6:17 and 18 that the slavery of sin was a past experience for the Christian. He has now changed masters. If he had remained under his old master, sin, that master would have eventually paid off in only one kind of coin, death. But since they have changed masters, they are not now in a position to collect wages from the old master, sin. And it does not say that they get wages from their new master, God, but that they get a free gift, something that could not be earned, eternal life. What kind of death did they receive from their old master? They receive eternal death, eternal separation from God. That eternal death is meant here is clear from the second half this verse:  “…but the gift of God is eternal life …”

Death is more than just the end of physical life, the dissolution of the body, the cessation of physiological functions of this organism. Physical death is the separation of man’s spirit from his body. In this state of physical death, he awaits the judgment (Heb. 9:27). But death is more than the physical separation of man’s spirit from his body. It is also the separation, alienation of man’s spirit from God; this is spiritual death. It is the opposite of spiritual life which is knowing the true God personally as a living reality. Jesus said in His intercessory prayer,

“This is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”    (John 17:3)

This knowledge is not just knowledge about God but is knowledge of the true God in a personal relationship to God. Spiritual life is fellowship and communion with God; and spiritual death is the absence of this life. In this state, man thinks that God doesn’t exist, that God is dead. But it is not that God is dead; it is man himself that is dead.

Spiritual death not only affects the relationship of man to God, but also the relationship of man to his fellow man. Because of spiritual death, man is separated and alienated from his fellow man.

“^14b He who does not love remains in death.  ¹⁵ Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him”    (I John 3:14b-15).

Spiritual death is spiritual isolation from man as well as from God.  Spiritual death is the present reign of death over man. King Death separates man from God. The reign of King Death is not only exercised in the inevitable physical death of man; King Death rules every moment of man’s existence before the event of physical death. Spiritual death is the present reign of death which separates, alienates and isolates man from God. Just as man does not choose physical death, that is, whether he is going to die inevitably or not, so he does not choose spiritual death. Man is born into this world already spiritually dead. He is automatically under the reign of death. He has no choice about it. According to Romans 5:12, we receive death from our first parents, Adam and Eve. When they sinned, they died spiritually as well as physically. God said, when he gave them the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that in the day that they ate of it they would surely die (or literally, “dying, you will die”, Gen. 2:17). Since they did not die physically on that day, they must have died spiritually on that day. And this is clearly what happened because they hid themselves from the presence of God (Gen. 3:8). Their fellowship or communion with God was broken and this is spiritual death. Later, after they were driven out of the garden away from the tree of life, lest they eat of it and live forever (Gen. 3:22-24), they eventually died physically (Gen. 5:5). And this death, both spiritual and physical, was passed onto the whole race of Adam’s descendants, you and me.

Unless a man is delivered from spiritual death while physically alive, after physical death and the judgment, he will be eternally separated from God. This is eternal death, the second death (Rev. 20:14; 21:6-8; Matt. 7:21-23).

But God has done something about this reign of death over the human race. In His love for us, God sent His Son to enter into our death so that He might deliver us from the reign of death. On the cross, Jesus died not only physically but spiritually. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46) He was forsaken for us; He died for us. He tasted death for every man (Heb. 2:9). But God raised Him from the dead. That is why He died; Jesus died for us so that we might be raised from the dead with Him. He entered into our death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive with Him.

“⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ (by grace are you saved).”    (Eph. 2:4-5 NAS)

Christ’s death was our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection. We have been raised from the dead spiritually with and in Christ. We who have received Him are made alive with Him and in Him; we have passed from death into life. Jesus said,

“Truly, Truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life.”    (John 5:24)

God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves; He has made us who were dead spiritually alive. Jesus Christ acted as our representative, on our behalf and for our sakes. “For the love of Christ constraineth; because we thus judge, that one died for [on the behalf of] all, therefore all died” (II Cor. 5:14), that is, in Christ, who represents all. Adam acting as a representative brought the old creation under the reign of death. But Christ acting as our representative brought a new creation in which those “who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:17)

“²¹ For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  ²² For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”    (I Cor. 15:21-22).

“Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new”              (II Cor. 5:17).

Jesus said, “Because I live ye shall live also” (John 14:19).

In Romans 6:23, Paul is not here talking about spiritual or physical death but only about eternal death, the end result of the slavery of sin. the wages of sin. The wages is not paid by God but by sin as a slave-master. This slave-master is the false god that a man or woman chooses as their ultimate criterion of their choices and in which they trust. And that false god being opposed to the true God pays its worshippers with eternal separation from the true God. Romans 6:23 says nothing about the penalty of sin, that is, that sin must be punished. True, the end result of the slavery of sin is eternal death. But that does not mean that sin must be punished before the sin can be forgiven. If the sinner repents and turns from his idolatry and to the true God in faith, he will be freely forgiven. If he does repent and believe, he will not still be liable to be punished for his sins.

“²¹ But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has committed and keeps all my statues and does what is lawful and right, he shall live; he shall not die.  ²² None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him;  for the righteousness which he has done he shall live.  ²³ Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather he should turn from his way and live? … ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God; so turn, and live.”    (Ezek. 18:21-23,32; see also Ezek. 33:11)

Here is the error of legalistic understanding of death. It says that sin must always be punished even if the sinner repents and believes (trusts) God. This contradicts the plain and clear teaching of God’s Word (Ezek. 18:21-23; 33:10-20; Lam. 3:31-33; Isa. 55:6-7; II Chron. 7:14; II Pet. 3:9). Do not misunderstand what I am saying here. I am not saying that God does not punish sin. He does. This is not the error. The error is to say that God cannot forgive sin before or until he has punished sin. The error is that God must always punish sin before sin can be forgiven. That is, that before God can in love forgive the sinner, He must of necessity punish the sin. This is false. Man needs to be forgiven but paying the penalty of sin is not forgiveness. When sin is punished, it is not freely forgiven. The punishment of sin is the execution of the results of sin; forgiveness is free dismissal of the results of sin. If sin is forgiven, it is not punished and if sin is punished, it is not forgiven. Forgiveness through punishment is a contradiction. The punishment of sin is not forgiveness of sin and forgivenss of sin is not its punishment.

According to this legalistic teaching, this necessity of punishment is grounded in the justice of God. This justice requires, it is said, that the penalty must be paid before guilt can be removed. The guilt of sin cannot be freely forgiven, but only can be taken away by paying the penalty, which alone can satisfy justice. Justice demands that sin must be always punished. According to this legalistic theology, God is not free to forgive the repentant sinner until the sin is punished. God’s freedom is thus limited and his love is conditioned by his justice. As we will see, this legalistic concept of justice is a misunderstanding of the righteousness of God.

The legalistic preoccupation in Christian theology with death as the necessary penalty of sin has distorted the Biblical concept of spiritual death as separation from God and of eternal death as eternal separation from God. Separation from God is far more serious than the penal consequences of sin as God is more important than the law. But not only is death misunderstood but life is also misunderstood as the reward for meritorious works. Life as fellowship and communion with God, that is, a personal relationship to God, is lost sight of in the legalistic preoccupation with the law and its meritorious observance. Eternal life is not earned by meritorious works but is the gift of God. And this gift of life is not a thing, an “It”, but is a person, God’s Son; and he who has received the Son has that life.

“¹¹ And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son has not life.”    (I John 5:11-12)