Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 6:15
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
15 23. The same subject. Illustration from slavery
15. What then? ] This takes up the question of Rom 6:1, and introduces the explicit answer, for which the passages between have fully prepared us. The form of the question here, as there, helps further to fix the reference of Rom 6:14 to justification. Sin was there said to have “no dominion” over the believer, in such a sense as to give (momentary) colour to such a question; therefore we now are shewn that the “dominion” there referred to was one of claim, not of influence.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
What then? shall we sin … – The apostle proceeds to notice an objection which might be suggested. If Christians are not under the law, which forbids all sin, but are under grace, which pardons sin, will it not follow that they will feel themselves released from obligation to be holy? Will they not commit sin freely, since the system of grace is one which contemplates pardon, and which will lead them to believe that they may be forgiven to any extent? This Consequence has been drawn by many professing Christians; and it was well therefore, for the apostle to guard against it.
God forbid – Note, Rom 3:4.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 6:15
What then?
Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?
The doctrines of grace do not lead to sin
1. Grace is the soul of the gospel: without it the gospel is dead. Grace is the music of the gospel; without it the gospel is silent as to all comfort. From the A to the Z in the heavenly alphabet everything in salvation is all of free favour, nothing of merit. By grace are ye saved through faith, etc.
2. No sooner is this doctrine set forth, however, than men begin to cavil at it; it is so humbling to human pride. God alone is exalted in the sovereignty of His mercy; this is not pleasant to the great minds of our philosophers and the broad phylacteries of our moralists. Straightway comes the objection that such doctrine must lead to licentiousness.
3. Now I admit that some turned the grace of God into lasciviousness; but cannot every truth be perverted? Is there not an almost infinite ingenuity in wicked men for making evil out of good? But let us act like rational men. We do not find fault with ropes because men have hanged themselves; nor do we destroy the wares of Sheffield because edged tools are the murderers instruments.
4. Looking back in history I see upon its pages a refutation of the oft-repeated calumny. Who were the men that held these doctrines most firmly? Men like Owen, Charnock, Manton, Howe, and Cromwell. What kind of men were these? Every historian will tell you that the greatest fault was that they were too precise for their generation, so that they were called Puritans. And if we are ever to see a godly England we must have a gospelised England. The gospel of the grace of God promotes real holiness.
I. The salvation which it beings is salvation from the power of sin. What we mean by salvation is deliverance from the love of habit and desire of sin. Now if that boon is the gift of Divine grace, in what way will it produce sin? The worse men are the more gladly would we see them embracing this truth, for they most need it.
II. Its principle of love has been found to possess very great power over men. In the infancy of history nations dream that crime can be put down by severity, but experience corrects the error. Our forefathers dreaded forgery, and made it a capital offence. Yet the constant use of the gallows was never sufficient to stamp out the crime. But some offences have almost ceased when the penalty has been lightened.
1. Love makes sin infamous. If one should rob another it would be sufficiently bad; but suppose a man robbed a friend who had helped him often when he was in need, everyone would say that his crime was most disgraceful.
2. Love has a great constraining power towards the highest form of virtue. Deeds to which a man could not be compelled on the ground of law, men have cheerfully done because of love. Would our brave seamen man the lifeboat to obey an Act of Parliament? Remember Rom 5:7-8. Goodness wins the heart, and one is ready to die for the kind and generous. Look how men have thrown away their lives for great leaders. The wounded French soldier, when the surgeon, searching for the bullet cut deeply, cried out, A little lower and you will touch the Emperor. Love to Jesus creates a heroism of which law knows nothing. All Church history is a proof of this.
3. Love, too, has often changed the most unworthy. We have often heard of the soldier who had been flogged and imprisoned, and yet would get drunk and misbehave himself. At last the commanding officer said, I have tried almost everything, I will try one thing more. You seem incorrigible, but I will freely forgive you. The man was greatly moved by this, and became a good soldier. A man woke up one morning from his drunken sleep and saw his only child getting his breakfast. Coming to his senses he said to her, Millie, why do you stay with me? She answered, Because you are my father, and I love you. He looked at himself, and saw what a ragged, good-for-nothing creature he was, and he answered her, Millie, do you really love me? The child cried, Yes, father, and I will never leave you, because when mother died she said, Millie, stick to your father, and always pray for him, and one of these days he will give up drink and be a good father to you; so I will never leave you. Is it wonderful that Millies father became a Christian? According to our moralists she should have said, You are a horrible wretch f I have stuck to you long enough; I must now leave you, or else I shall be encouraging other fathers to get drunk. Under such dealing I fear Millies father would have drank himself into perdition. But the power of love made a better man of him. Hear another story. There lived in Cheapside one who feared God and attended the secret meetings of the saints; and near him there dwelt a poor cobbler, whose wants were often relieved by the merchant; but the man, from hope of reward, laid an information against his kind friend on the score of religion. This accusation would have brought the merchant to death by burning if he had not found a means of escape. Returning, the injured man behaved more liberally than ever. The cobbler, however, avoided him, but one day was obliged to meet him, and the Christian man asked him gently, Why do you shun me? I know all that you did to injure me, but I never had an angry thought against you. Let us be friends. Do you marvel that they clasped hands and that ere long the poor man was found at the Lollards meeting? The Lord knows that bad as men are the key of their hearts hangs on the nail of love.
III. Its operations are connected with a special revelation of the evil of sin. Iniquity is made to be exceeding bitter before or when it is forgiven. A burnt child dreads the fire. By the operations of grace we are made weary of sin; we loathe both it and its imaginary pleasures. It is a thing accursed, even as Amalek was to Israel.
IV. It makes a man a new creature in Christ Jesus. His ignorance is removed, his affections are changed, his understanding is enlightened, his will is subdued, his desires are refined, his life is changed–in fact, he is as one newborn, to whom all things have become new. All beings live according to their nature, and the regenerated man works out the holy instincts of his renewed mind. A new heart makes all the difference. Given a new nature, and then all the propensities run in a different way.
V. It provides cleansing through atonement. The blood of Jesus sanctifies as well as pardons. The sinner learns that his free pardon cost the life of his best Friend. What! live in the sin which slew Jesus? Impossible! Thus you see that the gifts of free grace, when handed down by a pierced hand, are never likely to suggest self-indulgence in sin, but the very reverse.
VI. It secures daily helps from Gods Holy Spirit. Who deigns to dwell in every man whom God has saved by His grace.
1. He leads believers to be much in prayer, and what a power for holiness is found in this.
2. The renewed man is also quickened in conscience; so that things which heretofore did not strike him as sinful are seen in a clearer light, and are consequently condemned.
3. The good Spirit leads us into high and hallowed intercourse with God, and I defy a man to live upon the mount with God and then come down to transgress like men of the world. Thou art of another race; thy speech betrayeth thee. The perfume of the ivory palaces will be about thee, and men will know that thou hast been in other haunts than theirs.
VII. It elevates the entire man.
1. What do men most think about? Bread and butter, house rent, and clothes, and are as children playing with little sand heaps on the seashore; but the believer in free grace walks among hills and mountains, and his mental stature rises with his surroundings, and he becomes a thoughtful being, communing with sublimities. The man has now obtained a different view of himself. He says, I am one of Gods chosen, joint heir with Jesus Christ, and as such I cannot be godless, nor live for the common objects of life.
2. He rises in the object of his pursuit. He feels that he is born for Divine purposes, and he feels that God has loved him that His love may flow forth to others. Gods choice of any one man has a bearing upon all the rest. We are each one as a lamp kindled that we may shine in the dark and light up other lamps.
3. New hopes come crowding on him. His immortal spirit enjoys glimpses of the endless. As God has loved him in time he believes that the like love will bless him in eternity. Conclusion: A profligate son had been a grief to his father; he had robbed and disgraced him, and at last brought his grey hairs in sorrow to the grave. He attended his fathers funeral and stayed to hear the will read, having fully made up his mind that he was cut off with a shilling; and he meant to make it very unpleasant for the rest of the family. To his great astonishment the will ran something like this: As for my son Richard, though he has wasted my substance and grieved my heart, I would have him know that I consider him still to be my own dear child, and, in token of my undying love, I leave him the same share as the rest of his brothers. He left the room mastered by the surprising love of his father. Said he to the executor, You surely did not read correctly? Yes, I did: there it stands. Then I feel ready to curse myself that I ever grieved my dear old father. Oh, that I could fetch him back again! Love was born in that base heart by an unexpected display of love. May not your case be similar? Our Lord Jesus Christ is dead, but He has left it in His will that the chief of sinners are objects of His choicest mercy. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. Shall we sin because we are not under the law] Shall we abuse our high and holy calling because we are not under that law which makes no provision for pardon, but are under that Gospel which has opened the fountain to wash away all sin and defilement? Shall we sin because grace abounds? Shall we do evil that good may come of it? This be far from us!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
What then? doth it follow from hence that we are lawless, and may live as we list?
God forbid: q.d. No, by no means, the premises afford no such conclusion; though we are not under the curse and rigour of the law, yet we are under its directions and discipline: the gospel allows of sin no more than the law. The apostle is careful, both here and elsewhere, to prevent licentiousness, or the abuse of Christian liberty: see Gal 5:13; 1Pe 2:16; see Rom 6:1, and See Poole on “Rom 6:1“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15, 16. What then? . . . Know yenotit is a dictate of common sense.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
What then? shall we sin,…. Does it follow from hence, that therefore we may sin, and go on and continue in it,
because we are not under the law, but under grace? here the apostle meets with an objection of the adversary, saying, that if men are not under the law, and are free from all obligation to it, then they may live as they list; nor can they be chargeable with sin, or that be objected to them; since where there is no law, there is no transgression, and sin is not imputed where there is no law; and if they are under grace, or in the love and favour of God, from which there is no separation, then they cannot be damned, do what they will: but this objection proceeds upon a mistaken sense of the phrase, “under the law”; for believers, though they are not under the law as the ministry of Moses, yet they are under it, as it is in the hands of Christ; and though not under its curse, yet under obligation to obedience to it, from principles of love and grace; and a transgression of it is sin in them, as in others; and which is taken notice of by God, and visited with stripes in a: fatherly way, though his loving kindness is not removed: and to argue from the unchangeableness of God’s grace, or the doctrines of it, as encouraging licentiousness, is greatly to abuse the grace of God, and manifestly betrays such persons to be ignorant of it and its influence; since nothing more powerfully engages to a love of holiness, and hatred of sin; wherefore the apostle, answers to this objection in his usual way,
God forbid; signifying his abhorrence of everything of this kind.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
What then? ( ?). Another turn in the argument about the excess of grace.
Shall we sin? (?). First aorist active deliberative subjunctive of . “Shall we commit sin” (occasional acts of sin as opposed to the life of sin as raised by in verse 1)?
Because (). The same reason as in verse 1 and taken up from the very words in verse 14. Surely, the objector says, we may take a night off now and then and sin a little bit “since we are under grace.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “What then?” (ti oun) “What therefore,” what course of conduct should we pursue in the light of this revelation of free grace and its eternal benefits to every believer?
2) “Shall we sin,” (hamartesamen) “May we sin”; Are we permitted to sin, yield to sin without any consequence? Do we approve or sanction sins of the flesh? As some in derision falsely charge those believing in eternal life as a fact, not a farce, for every believer, Rom 3:8; Rom 6:1-2; Joh 5:24.
3) “Because we are not under the law,” (hoti ouk esmen hupo nomon) “Because we do not exist under law,” or the jurisdiction of Moses law with its harsh penalties. Certainly not, for the Eternal Moral principal of sowing and reaping was not terminated in Moses Law, Gal 6:7-8.
4) “But under grace,” (alla hupo Charin) “But (in contrast) under the rule of grace? With its superabounding benefits, beyond one’s sinning needs, Rom 5:15; Rom 5:20-21; Gal 5:18; Eph 2:8-10.
5) “God forbid,” (me genoito) “May it not (ever) be so;” God’s Word condemns sin in the lives of the saved and calls for confession of such sin, day by day, Mat 6:12; 1Jn 1:8-9. Yet Abraham, David, Jonah, and Peter were great men of God who deliberately sinned as children of God, were chastened for their sins, confessed and turned from them. They did not lose their eternal life. God chastens his children for their sins to call them back to service, Heb 12:5-9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
15. What then? As the wisdom of the flesh is ever clamorous against the mysteries of God, it was necessary for the Apostle to subjoin what might anticipate an objection: for since the law is the rule of life, and has been given to guide men, we think that when it is removed all discipline immediately falls to the ground, that restraints are taken away, in a word, that there remains no distinction or difference between good and evil. But we are much deceived if we think, that the righteousness which God approves of in his law is abolished, when the law is abrogated; for the abrogation is by no means to be applied to the precepts which teach the right way of living, as Christ confirms and sanctions these and does not abrogate them; but the right view is, that nothing is taken away but the curse, to which all men without grace are subject. But though Paul does not distinctly express this, yet he indirectly intimates it.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Text
Rom. 6:15-23. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid. Rom. 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Rom. 6:17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; Rom. 6:18 and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. Rom. 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. Rom. 6:20 For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. Rom. 6:21 What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. Rom. 6:22 But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
REALIZING ROMANS, Rom. 6:15-23
250.
Being free from the law could offer license to sin. How?
251.
We cannot continue in sin even though free from the law because we belong to the one whom we serve. Who is this?
252.
Not only do we belong to our master, but we receive wages from him. Tell what wages each master gives.
130.
Who are the two kings described and what relationship to them do we hold?
131.
What relation do Rom. 6:13-14 bear to the rest of the section?
253.
What is the righteousness of Rom. 6:16 b?
254.
What obedience from the heart is described in Rom. 6:17?
255.
We were obedient to a form of teaching. What was it?
256.
In what sense are we free from sin, as in Rom. 6:18 a?
257.
Are we to be slaves to righteousness?
258.
What portion of this discussion was spoken after the manner of men? In what way?
259.
Explain the expression, infirmity of flesh, as in Rom. 6:19 a?
260.
Is it possible to offer ourselves as servants to Satan even after we have become Christians?
261.
Notice in Rom. 6:19 b that sin never lessens its hold on man, it rather grows. What warning is in this?
262.
What is the outcome of serving righteousness? What is sanctification?
263.
Give the meaning of the word free, as in Rom. 6:20 a.
264.
Paul seems to place the subject of service to Satan on a practical level in Rom. 6:21. Can you explain how?
265.
What marvelous advantage do we have in Christ? See it and believe ityea, live it!as in Rom. 6:22.
266.
How does Rom. 6:23 sum up the whole section? Or does it?
Paraphrase
Rom. 6:15-23. What then do we teach? That we will sin, because we are not under law but under grace? By no means. Our account of law and grace demonstrates, that we cannot possibly teach any such doctrine.
Rom. 6:16 This however we say, that even under the gospel ye may be the slaves of sin or of righteousness, as ye choose: only ye should consider, that to whatsoever master ye make yourselves slaves to give him obedience, ye are his slaves whom ye obey, and must be contented both with his work and with his wages, whether it be of sin, whose service ends in death, or of the obedience of faith, whose service ends in righteousness.
Rom. 6:17 By thus speaking, I do not insinuate that ye have made yourselves slaves to sin; on the contrary, I thank God, that although formerly ye were the slaves of sin, ye have willingly obeyed the mould of doctrine into which ye were cast at your baptism:
Rom. 6:18 And that being set free from the slavery of sin by your faith, ye have voluntarily become the slaves of righteousness, whom therefore ye ought to obey.
Rom. 6:19 I speak according to the customs of men respecting slaves, on account of the weakness of your understanding in spiritual matters, that I may give you a just idea of the influence which sinful lusts have had over you formerly, and of the influence which holy affections ought now to have. Wherefore, as in your unbelieving state ye presented your members servile instruments to unclean affections, and to unjust desires, to work wickedness; so now present your members servile instruments to righteousness, to work holiness.
Rom. 6:20 To devote yourselves to the service of righteousness, without serving sin at all, is reasonable: For when ye were slaves of sin, ye were free men as to righteousness; ye gave no obedience to righteousness.
Rom. 6:21 And what advantage did ye then reap from those base actions with which ye served sin, and of which ye are now ashamed? Instead of being profited, ye have been hurt by them; for the reward of all such things is death eternal.
Rom. 6:22 But now being set free from sin, both in respect of its power and punishment, and having become the servants of God, your state is entirely changed; ye are real free men, and ye have holiness as your service, and, as the reward thereof, everlasting life.
Rom. 6:23 For the wages which sin gives to its slaves is eternal death; but the gracious gift which God bestows on his servants is everlasting life; a reward gratuitously bestowed through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Summary
It is not true that we may sin because under favor, and not under law. We are to sin in no case and for no end. If we attempt to serve sin we become slaves to it, and in the end will be condemned to eternal death; but, on the other hand, if we are obedient to Christ, the effect will be release from all our sins. Though formerly sinners, we have now sincerely obeyed the gospel; and the consequence is freedom from all sins. Being thus freed, we are now living in holiness. When slaves to sin we were, in a sense, free from righteousness; and so now, being servants to righteousness, we are free from sin. We owe it nothing, and cannot serve it. Indeed as we derived no benefit from our former sins, it would be manifest folly to return to them again. The end would be death, and by this we must be restrained. But we can no longer serve sin; for we are now servants of God, and are living holy lives. We cannot serve both. The result of serving God will be everlasting life, which we cannot afford to forfeit. The end of serving sin is eternal death.
Comment
2.
Objection Concerning Freedom from the Law. Rom. 6:15 to Rom. 7:6
Objection Stated: Since you have said we are not under law (Rom. 6:14) but under the favor of God, what is to restrain us from continuing in sin?
The soundness of this thought is repudiated (Rom. 6:15). Then follow the reasons for the disavowal:
a.
Reason Number One. Rom. 6:16-19
(1) The first answer to the objection is found in Rom. 6:16 through Rom. 6:19. The thought of this answer is, Shall we continue in sin simply because we are free from the law, continue in unrighteousness because we are now living under the covenant of Gods grace? God forbid. Do you realize the application of a very well known fact to this situation? You are acquainted with the fact that when you become a bond-servant of another that you are bound to your master. When you obey, you are obeying your master. In a very real sense you belong to this man and as long as you remain in his service and obey him you are his property. Well, now, apply this thought to sin. If you obey the lusts or desires of sin are you not then a bondservant to sin? Remember too, that if the master of any slave were to suffer any disaster the slave suffers with him. If the master were to move the slave would move with him; they abide together in whatever place the master occupies. Now think a moment: what is the end of Satan and sin? You know it is the lake of fire, the second death. If you are then the slave of sin, what will be your final end? If on the other hand you choose not to obey sin but rather to obey Christ you will be given the end of obedience to him, i.e., justification here and eternal life hereafter, Rom. 6:16
(2) But thanks be to God this is not the situation at all (giving the persons addressed the greatest benefit of the doubt), for the picture I have just drawn is a portrayal of your former condition and action. You were one time indeed the bondservants to sin, yet you escaped this bondage by dying out to sin and being baptized for the remission of your sins. Yes, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching of which we have just been speaking (Rom. 6:1-4); and thus having become free from sin you have become bondservants to righteousness. Just as your bondservice to sin was a voluntary service, so is your righteousness. Rom. 6:17-18
(3) I have used words which describe the everyday things of your life in metaphorically portraying this spiritual truth, so says the apostle. But I have only done so because you in your present state of weakness in comprehending spiritual matters would not have understood it if I spoke to you in any other way. Rom. 6:19 a
132.
State the second objection.
133.
Give the first answer.
134.
What bearing do Rom. 6:17-18 have to the objection?
135.
What is the thought of Rom. 6:19 a?
(4) One final word in this answer comes from the apostle. Still using the metaphor of the slave, Paul says: As you formerly came to the tyrant sin and offered him your hands, your feet, your mind, as his servants to be used in acts and thoughts of uncleanness and iniquity, so now come to Christ and present these same members as his servants in acts of righteousness to the end that you may be holy. In so doing, you will be set aside as Gods possession. Rom. 6:19 b
b.
Reason Number Two. Rom. 6:20-23
(1) While yet maintaining the thought of the relationship of a slave to his master, Paul introduces another reason why freedom from the law does not give license for sin. He suggests this thought: It is true that while you were living in sin you were free from any obligation to live a righteous life. (I see by your thinking that you would fain return to that position and yet have the hope provided by Christ.) Yet, what pleasure did you derive from your life of sin? Did it yield any peaceable fruit? In participating in those things of which you are now ashamed, did Satan give you any real satisfaction? The answer is self-evident. And after all, the end of such rebellion is eternal death. Rom. 6:20-21
(2) But now let us lift our eyes from our past and look at the present. We are free from sin and are servants of God. What fruit do we have in this service? Ah, yes, the blessed fruit of sanctification, the benefits of a Christian that are to be found in the sanctified or holy life he lives. All of those elements of character that come as a result of living wholeheartedly for Christ are the fruit of holiness. cf. Rom. 6:1-5; 2Pe. 1:5-8. The end of this life of joy and peace is eternal life. Rom. 6:22
(3) How true it is in viewing the whole subject of living in and for sin that the wages of sin is death. After we have faithfully served sin and Satan, suffering all the time under the galling yoke, we will finally be paid for our service with eternal death. But the free gift of God, not something for which we must work, no, not by works but the free gift freely bestowed, is eternal life. But this gift is only given through Jesus Christ and in obedience to him. Rom. 6:23
We cannot continue in sin even if we are delivered from the law, for a life of sin pays off with eternal death.
136.
How does Rom. 6:19 b relate to the answer found in Rom. 6:16-19?
137.
What is the second answer as found in Rom. 6:20-23?
138.
How does Rom. 6:22 relate to what is said in Rom. 6:20-21?
139.
Show how Rom. 6:23 is a conclusion to the answer given in Rom. 6:20-22.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(15) The Apostle returns to a difficulty very similar to that which presented itself at the beginning of the chapter. The answer is couched under a slightly different metaphor. It is no longer death to the one, life to the other, but freedom from the one, service to the other. These are correlative terms. Freedom from sin implies service to God, just as freedom from God means service to sin. The same idea of service and freedom will be found worked out in Joh. 8:32-34; Joh. 8:36, and in Gal. 5:1.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(15-23) Free forgiveness! What does that mean? Freedom to sin? Far from it. That were to return into the old slavery. To yield to sin is to be the servant or slave of sin with its consequencedeath. On the other hand, obedience and righteousness go together. Happily you have escaped from sin, and taken service with righteousness. Service, I say, using a plain human figure to suit your imperfect and carnal apprehension of spiritual things. Exchange the service of uncleanness for that of righteousness. I appeal to your own experience. You found that sin brought you no pay from your master but death. Now you are started upon a road that leads to sanctification and eternal life. This will be given you, not as wages, but as the free gift of God in Christ.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Shall we sin Shall we make the very grace that redeems us from sin the occasion for sin?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!’
Once again Paul poses a question. He had once been under the Law and he had discovered that it was a parlous situation to be in. The Law had in practise been his be all and end all. But as he had struggled to obey it, it had put him under a huge burden, and had only resulted in his sinning more. It had not freed him from sin, but had rather involved him in it. It had made him more and more deeply aware of his sinfulness. And it had made him despair. He thus knew that being ‘under the Law’, seeing it as the main determinant which controlled his life, did not stop men from sinning. Rather it contributed to sin.
In contrast, when he had come ‘under grace’ and had discovered that he could become acceptable to God through the righteousness of Christ, he had been full of gratitude. This had become the main determinant which controlled his life. He had wholeheartedly devoted himself to God. From that moment he had only wanted to be pleasing to God. Far from making him feel free to sin, it had delivered him from sin’s power and control. And then the Law had become what it had always been intended to be, an indication of what was pleasing to God (Jas 1:23-25). No wonder then that he cries out, ‘Certainly not!’
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
We Are Therefore No Longer To Be Servants Of Sin, But Servants Of Righteousness And Of God, No Longer Earning Death As Our Wages, But Receiving The Free Gift Of Eternal Life In Christ Jesus Our Lord (6:15-23).
The question now is, ‘If we are not under the Law but under grace, does that mean that we can sin freely?’ To those who understand what it means to be ‘under grace’ the question answers itself. As has already been emphasised to be ‘under grace’ is to be within the sphere of the loving activity of God which is at work to deliver us from sin (Rom 5:2). It is to be accepted as righteous before God through the righteousness of the One Who died for us (Rom 5:15). It is to be enjoying the new life that He has given us (Rom 5:17). It is to be under His formative care (Rom 5:20). It is to have died with Christ and be living with Him in newness of life (Rom 6:1-11). It is to acknowledge His rights over us. How can someone who is in that position easily sin? To sin easily would simply indicate that we are not God’s servants at all. For what we are ‘under’ is demonstrated by whom we obey.
So Paul answers the question in terms of servitude. The test of what you are under is determined by ‘who’ you obey, whether sin (which results in death) or obedience (which results in righteousness); whether uncleanness and deep iniquity, or righteousness; whether sin or God. And the end of the one is death, whilst the end of the other is righteousness and life.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Sanctification thru Liberty In Christ After we reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God (Rom 6:1-14), we must then understand that we are free from the Law (Rom 6:15 to Rom 7:6).
Rom 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Rom 6:15
Rom 6:16 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?
Rom 6:16
Rom 6:16 “whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” Comments – The phrase “of sin unto death” tells us that a born again believer can become a servant of sin after having been reconciled to God. This bondage to sin will result in death. This means that a person in sin will go to Hell since death in this passage of Scripture refers to spiritual separation from God. The application of the term death is made clear a few verses later in Rom 6:21 by saying that the end of a sinners’ lifestyle before he was saved is death, which means eternal separation from God in Hell. This definition of death stands in direct contrast to eternal life described in Rom 6:22. Thus, the wages of sin, whether as a sinner or a born-again believer, all results in death, according to Rom 6:23. This fact is restated again in Rom 8:13.
Rom 6:21-23, “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death . 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.”
Rom 8:13, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”
Rom 6:17 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.
Rom 6:17
[169] Kurt Aland, Matthew Black, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce M. Metzger, M. Robinson, and Allen Wikgren, The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition (with Morphology) (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1993, 2006), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), Romans 6:17.
Rom 6:17 Comments – Servants of sin are those who are enslaved and in bondage to sin. While we were in bondage to sin, we yielded our hearts unto God when we heart the call of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While we were unable to love and serve Him because of our bondage to a sinful lifestyle. He reached down and set us free (Rom 6:18) and filled us with the Holy Spirit, all because we yielded our hearts to Him while weak and bound.
Rom 6:18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Rom 6:18
[170] Wayne Johnson, “Sunday School Lesson on Romans 6:1-23,” First Assembly of God, Panama City, Florida, 10 October 2010.
Scripture References – Note:
Gal 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
Rom 6:19 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.
Rom 6:19
Paul is teaching a spiritual truth using a natural illustration. In the Roman world that Paul was writing, slavery was a common sight. It was not uncommon to observe a slave being sold to a new master, and receiving new compensation and conditions of service.
Rom 6:20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Rom 6:21 Rom 6:21
Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Rom 6:23 Rom 6:23
Luk 3:14, “And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.”
1Co 9:7, “Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?”
2Co 11:8, “I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.”
Comments – The penalty of sin is death. Each person must die for the sins he commits. You can either die in Christ (Rom 6:3), or die in the second death of eternal judgment. The first death is physical death, but the second death is eternal separation from God.
Rom 6:3, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?”
Rom 6:23 “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” – Comments – We are no longer in sin, but have been freed from sin. Therefore, we do not have to die for the wages of our sin because we have been made free from sin (Rom 6:22).
Rom 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
Rom 7:2 Rom 7:2
Rom 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Rom 7:4 Rom 7:4
Rom 6:5-6, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”
Rom 7:4 Comments – Since we died with Jesus (Rom 6:5-6, Gal 2:20), it is through Jesus that we have died to the law, no longer under its power. Now we can remarry, and the resurrected Jesus is the one to whom we have been given in marriage (2Co 11:2).
Gal 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
2Co 11:2, “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
How did we become dead to the Law? By the body of Christ which was sacrificed on Calvary. We were crucified with Jesus on Calvary (Gal 2:20). There we died, slain by the law.
Gal 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
We were dead in trespasses and sins, held in bondage by the law. In the law of sin and death, we had no hope of coming out by ourselves. Jesus came, took the penalty of sin and death away with Him on the Cross. Therefore, we are no longer in bondage to the Law because it killed us. Now, Jesus makes us alive again, He rose again and took us for His bride. Bless the Lord, Oh, my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name!
Illustration – While studying through what Jesus did for us on Calvary, the story never grows old. It is like watching a favorite show on television. Although you know the outcome, you anticipate the danger scenes and when the final victory comes, you sigh and wipe your brow, having been caught up in the action once more.
Scripture References – Note similar verses:
Eph 2:15, “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;”
Col 2:14, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”
1Pe 2:24, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
Rom 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
Rom 7:5
Rom 8:9, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”
Yet, as Christians “in the flesh,” we can still live “after the flesh.” Note the differences of the two words “in” and “after.”
Rom 8:13, “For if ye live after the flesh , ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”
Rom 7:5 “the motions of sins” Comment – The motions of sins refers to fleshy passions towards sins.
Rom 7:5 “which were by the law” Comments – By the law was the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20). That is, sinful passions are realized by the understanding of God’s law of righteous living.
Rom 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin .”
Sin comes through the Law:
1Jn 3:4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
Rom 4:15, “Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.”
Therefore, if there is no law, there is no sin. Rom 7:9, “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.”
Rom 7:5 “did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death” Comments – The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Sin brings forth death (Jas 1:15). In other words, the fruit of sin is death.
Rom 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Jas 1:15, “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
Rom 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Rom 7:6
Rom 7:25, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God ; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Rom 7:1-6 Comments – Dead to the Law – The phrase “the Law” in this passage refers to the Mosaic Law; yet, Gentiles were never under the Mosaic Law. However, the Gentiles had the works of the Law written in their hearts (Rom 2:12-15).
Rom 2:12-15, “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts , their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Service of Righteousness.
The impelling power of this service:
v. 15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the Law, but under grace? God forbid!
v. 16. 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?
v. 17. 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.
v. 18. Being, then, made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. The apostle finds it necessary once more to obviate a possible misunderstanding, a false conclusion which might be made from the statement that we are under grace. What then? What is the situation? How do matters stand? Shall we sin since we are not under the Law, but under grace, because the rule of the Law does not extend over us, but only the pleasant reign of grace? Are we to commit sin because our life is not governed by statutes in the Old Testament sense of the term, but inspired by the sense of what we owe to the free pardoning mercy of God? Shall we transgress the holy will of God because we are given the assurance that God justifies the ungodly through the merits of Christ? And again comes the apostle’s horrified: By no means! And he substantiates his emphatic rejection of the idea: Do you not know that you are slaves unto obedience to him to whom you offer yourselves as slaves, whether it be as slaves of sin unto death or as servants of obedience unto righteousness? If a person voluntarily places himself under the dominion of another and of his own free will yields him his obedience, he enters into slavery; he no longer has liberty to do as he pleases, but is obliged to do what his lord demands of him; and he is bound to this lord, he cannot leave him at his own pleasure. This general rule Paul now applies in the case of sinners and in the case of believers. He that has yielded himself to the service of sin is the slave of sin; he is under its power, in its bondage. He may hate his master, his reason and conscience may argue and protest against it, but the subjection is continued and absolute. And the end of this slavery is death, spiritual and eternal death: Rom 6:23; Joh 8:34. On the other hand, if a person becomes the servant of obedience to God unto righteousness, if he gives to God that obedience which is due to Him and should properly be rendered by all men. if he performs in all things what the obedience of God demands of him, then the result will be a righteousness of life, a conformity to the will, to the image of God: the habit of an upright life, approved by God.
The apostle feels certain, he assumes in the case of all his readers, that they have entered into the obedience of God and are living in that state of righteousness which is well pleasing to the Lord. And therefore his heart overflows with a doxology: Thanks be to God that you were the servants of sin, that that condition of shameful slavery is past forever, but have now given full obedience from the heart to the form of doctrine which was delivered to you, or rather, unto which you were delivered, to emphasize the fact that there was no merit on their part. In conversion the believers renounce the bondage of sin. and they give full and free obedience, they yield themselves in voluntary and sincere submission to the type of doctrine to which they have been delivered, to the evangelical truth in that form as it appeared in the preaching of Paul, the form which the preaching in the Christian Church should exhibit at all times. The obedience to the Christian doctrine is nothing but faith, for faith is obedience to the Gospel and therefore to Christ. And this voluntary obedience of faith is a gift of God, for which all thanks and praise must be given to God, and to Him alone. And now the apostle draws the conclusion from the preceding: But being set free, being emancipated from sin, you have become servants to righteousness. Sin was a despotic master, a slave-driver. But by the grace of God the believers are set free from sin’s galling tyranny and at the same time made subject to righteousness, servants of righteousness. They are now committed to righteousness, their whole life is devoted to righteousness, the righteousness of life becomes, as it were, their second nature. And this subjection of the Christians to God and to the obedience of faith, which results in true sanctification, is the essence of true spiritual liberty. Joh 8:36.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Rom 6:15 . ] sc [1454] ; what is then the state of the case? Comp Rom 3:9 . Shall this Christian position of ours be misused for sinning?
With the reading the sense would be purely future: shall we sin? will this case occur with us? But with the proper reading Paul asks: Are we to sin? deliberative subjunctive as in Rom 6:1 . To the . . . in Rom 6:1 our stands related as a climax; not merely the state of perseverance in sin, but every sinful action is to be abhorred; the former from the pre-Christian time, the latter in the Christian state of grace.
. . [1456] ] emphatic repetition. Bornemann, a [1457] Xen. Mem. iv. 3, 17, Schol. in Luc. p. xxxix.
[1454] c. scilicet .
[1456] . . . .
[1457] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Rom 6:15-23 . This , does not therefore give us freedom to sin . From the . , namely, the inference of freedom to sin might very easily he drawn by immoral Christians (comp Rom 6:1 ), which would be exactly the reverse of what the Apostle wished to establish by that proposition ( . . . . Rom 6:14 ). Paul therefore proposes to himself this possible inference and negatives it (Rom 6:15 ), and then gives in Rom 6:16 ff. its refutation. Accordingly Rom 6:15-23 form only an ethico-polemical preliminary to the positive illustration of the proposition, “ye are not under the law, but under grace,” which begins in ch. 7.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Ver. 15. Shall we sin, because, &c. ] Some Antinomian libertines would persuade men that God is never displeased with his people, though they fall into adultery, or the like sin, no, not with a fatherly displeasure; that God never chastiseth his people for any sin, no, not with a fatherly chastisement; that God seeth no sin in his elect; that the very being of their sin is abolished out of God’s sight; that they cannot sin, or if they do, it is not they, but “sin that dwelleth in them,” &c. What is this but to “turn the grace of God into wantonness,” which there hence becometh the savour of death to death unto them; like as Moses’ rod, cast on the ground, turned to a serpent; or as dead men’s bodies, when the marrow melteth, do bring forth serpents? Corruptio optimi pessima.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15 23. ] The being under grace (free from the condemnation of sin) and not under the law, is no encouragement to sin: for ( Rom 6:16-19 ) we have renounced the service of sin, and have become the servants of righteousness: and ( Rom 6:20-23 ) the consequences of the service of sin are terrible and fatal, whereas those of the service of righteousness are blessed and glorious .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
15. ] (sc. ); = ; Rom 6:1 .
] Must we imagine that we may sin ? may we sin ? the aor. because he is speaking of committing acts of sin [not of a habit of living in sin, although that would be induced by such acts]: on the deliberative subjunctive, see Rom 6:1 .
This question is not, any more than that of Rom 6:1 , put into the mouth of an objector, but is part of the Apostle’s own discourse, arising out of what has preceded, and answered by him in the following verses.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 6:15 . ; deliberative: are we to sin because our life is not ruled by statutes, but inspired by the sense of what we owe to that free pardoning mercy of God? Are we to sin because God justifies the ungodly at the Cross?
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rom 6:15-19
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Rom 6:15 This second supposed question (diatribe) is similar to Rom 6:1. Both answer different questions about the Christian’s relation to sin. Rom 6:1 deals with grace not being used as a license to sin, while Rom 6:15 deals with the Christian’s need to fight, or resist, individual acts of sin. Also, at the same time the believer must serve God now with the same enthusiasm with which he previously served sin (cf. Rom 6:14).
NASB, NKJV,
TEV”Shall we sin”
NRSV”Should we sin”
NJB”that we are free to sin”
The Williams and Phillips translations both translate this aorist active subjunctive as a present active subjunctive similar to Rom 6:1. This is not the proper focus. Notice the alternate translations
1. KJV, ASV, NIV “shall we sin?”
2. The Centenary Translation “Shall we commit an act of sin?”
3. RSV “are we to sin?”
This question is emphatic in Greek and expected a “yes” answer. This was Paul’s diatribe method of communicating truth. This verse expresses false theology! Paul answered this by his characteristic “May it never be.” Paul’s gospel of the radical free grace of God was misunderstood and abused by many false teachers.
Rom 6:16 The question expects a “yes” response. Humans serve something or someone. Who reigns in your life, sin or God? Who humans obey shows who they serve (cf. Gal 6:7-8).
Rom 6:17 “But thanks be to God” Paul often breaks out into praise to God. His writings flow from his prayers and his prayers from his knowledge of the gospel. See Special Topic: Paul’s Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving to God at Rom 7:25.
“you were. . .you became” This is the imperfect tense of the verb, “to be,” which described their state of being in the past (slaves of sin) followed by an aorist tense which asserts that their state of rebellion has ceased.
“You became obedient from your heart to that form of teaching” In context, this refers to their justification by grace through faith, which must lead to daily Christlikeness.
The term “teaching” referred to Apostolic teaching or the gospel.
“heart” See Special Topic: Heart at Rom 1:24.
NASB”that form of teaching to which you were committed”
NKJV”that form of doctrine to which you were delivered”
NRSV, NIV”to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted”
TEV”the truth found in the teaching you received”
NJB”to the pattern of teaching to which you were introduced”
This thought is parallel to 1Co 15:1 and refers to the gospel truths that these believers heard and received. The gospel is
1. a person to welcome
2. truths about that person to believe
3. a life like that person’s to live!
“form” See Special Topic below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: FORM (TUPOS)
Rom 6:18 “having been freed from sin” This is an aorist passive participle. The gospel has freed believers by the agency of the Spirit through the work of Christ. Believers have been freed both from the penalty of sin (justification) and the tyranny of sin (sanctification, cf. Rom 6:7; Rom 6:22). One day they will be free from the presence of sin (glorification, cf. Rom 8:29-30).
“you became the slaves of righteousness” This is an aorist passive indicative, “you became enslaved to righteousness.” See Special Topic at Rom 1:17. Believers are freed from sin to serve God (cf. Rom 6:14; Rom 6:19; Rom 6:22; Rom 7:4; Rom 8:2)! The goal of free grace is a godly life. Justification is both a legal pronouncement and an impetus for personal righteousness. God wants to save us and change us so as to reach others! Grace does not stop with individual believer’s salvation (cf. Mat 28:18-20; Luk 24:47; Act 1:8).
Rom 6:19 “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh” Paul is addressing the believers at Rome. Is he addressing a local problem he had heard about (jealousy among Jewish believers and Gentile believers) or is he asserting a truth about all believers? Paul used this phrase earlier in Rom 3:5, as he does in Gal 3:15.
Rom 6:19 is parallel to Rom 6:16. Paul repeats his theological points for emphasis.
Some would say this phrase means that Paul was apologizing for using a slave metaphor. However, “because of the weakness of your flesh” does not fit this interpretation. Slavery was not viewed as an evil by first century society, especially in Rome. It was simply the culture of its day. Two thirds of the Roman world were slaves.
“flesh” See Special Topic at Rom 1:3.
“resulting in sanctification” This is the goal of justification (cf. Rom 6:22). The NT used this term in two theological senses related to salvation.
1. positional sanctification, which is the gift of God (objective aspect) given at salvation along with justification through faith in Christ (cf. Act 26:18; 1Co 1:2; 1Co 6:11; Eph 5:26-27; 1Th 5:23; 2Th 2:13; Heb 10:10; Heb 13:12; 1Pe 1:2)
2. progressive sanctification which is also the work of God through the Holy Spirit whereby the believer’s life is transformed into the image and maturity of Christ (subjective aspect, cf. 2Co 7:1; 1Th 4:3; 1Th 4:7; 1Ti 2:15; 2Ti 2:21; Heb 12:10; Heb 12:14)
See Special Topic: Sanctification at Rom 6:4.
Sanctification is both a gift and a command! It is a position (standing) and an activity (lifestyle)! It is an indicative (a statement) and an imperative (a command)! It comes at the beginning but does not mature until the end (cf. Php 1:6; Php 2:12-13).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Shall we = are we to.
sin. Compare Rom 2:12 App-128.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15-23.] The being under grace (free from the condemnation of sin) and not under the law, is no encouragement to sin: for (Rom 6:16-19) we have renounced the service of sin, and have become the servants of righteousness: and (Rom 6:20-23) the consequences of the service of sin are terrible and fatal, whereas those of the service of righteousness are blessed and glorious.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 6:15. , under) ch. Rom 7:2; Rom 7:14.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 6:15
Rom 6:15
What then?-He has just concluded his argument, in which he shows that a man who has died with Christ cannot live in sin. He now returns to the question in verse 1 put in different form: shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid.-This would defeat the rule of grace to deliver from sin and the consequences of sin, death, and ruin. [Because we are not under the law some have concluded that they are without restraint, but nothing could be farther from the truth; for although we are not under the law, we can sin, which clearly implies that we are under law in some sense. The truth is that we are under law while under grace, for to be under grace is to be under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2), which is the gospel. Hence, to be under grace does not exclude law. It is to be without it in one sense, but to be under it in another. The full force of the question, therefore, is: May we sin because we are not under the law, which condemns sin and makes no provision for pardoning it; but under grace, which, though we sin, provides for remitting it?]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
What then
The old relation to the law and sin, and the new relation to Christ and life are illustrated by the effect of death upon servitude Rom 6:16-23 and marriage Rom 7:1-6.
(1) The old servitude was nominally to the law, but, since the law had no delivering power, the real master continued to be sin in the nature. The end was death. The law could not give life, and “sin” (here personified as the old self) is in itself deathful. But death in another form, ie., crucifixion with Christ, has intervened to free the servant from his double bondage to sin (Rom 6:6; Rom 6:7), and to the law Rom 7:4; Rom 7:6
(2) This effect of death is further illustrated by widowhood. Death dissolves the marriage relation Rom 7:1-3. As natural death frees a wife from the law of her husband, so crucifixion with Christ sets the believer free from the law. (See Scofield “Gal 3:24”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
What: Rom 3:9
shall we: Rom 6:1, Rom 6:2, 1Co 9:20, 1Co 9:21, 2Co 7:1, Gal 2:17, Gal 2:18, Eph 2:8-10, Tit 2:11-14, Jud 1:4
Reciprocal: 1Ki 21:3 – The Lord Mat 5:19 – shall teach Rom 2:4 – despisest Rom 3:4 – God forbid Rom 3:8 – Let us Rom 6:14 – under Rom 7:6 – But Rom 7:7 – What Rom 11:7 – What then 1Co 6:15 – God Gal 3:23 – under Gal 5:18 – ye are Phi 1:18 – What 1Jo 2:1 – that
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
:15
Rom 6:15. This is the same in thought as that set forth in verse 1.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 6:15. What then? shall we sin, etc. This objection has been raised ever since. It is not precisely the same as that suggested in Rom 6:1 : there the objection was that free pardon would encourage us to continue in sin; here the objection is that freedom from the law leads to freedom in sinning. The connection with chap. 7, as well as the entire argument of chaps. 6-8, points to sanctification by grace, and forbids an exclusive reference to the grace of justification.
Let it never be; as usual. The denial is expanded in what follows. The legal heart makes the objection; but the loyal heart makes this indignant denial.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here the apostle starts an objection, which some licentious person might be ready to make: “If we are not under the law which condemns sin, but under the covenant of grace which allows the pardon, and promises the forgiveness of sin, why may we not then go on in sin, and continue in sin, forbidden by the law, seeing we are not under the law?” The apostle rejects such a suggestion with his usual note of detestation, God forbid.
From hence we may learn, That it is an high abuse of the covenant of grace, to suppose or imagine, that it countenances any licentiousness, or allows any liberty to sin. The design of the new covenant is to recover from sin, not to encourage any to continue in sin.
Learn , 2. That such doctrines and inferences are to be abhorred, which from the grace of God, in mitigating the law, would infer an utter abrogation of the law, denying that it hath a directive regulation power over a believer. True, we are delivered from the curse and condemnatory sentence of the law, from the severity and rigorous exactions of the law: But to refuse obedience to the law, under pretence of Christain liberty; to sin because we are not under the law, but under grace; is a turning the grace of God into wantonness, and to use our Christian liberty as an occasion to the flesh.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Rom 6:15-18. What then are we to infer? Shall we sin Go on in our transgressions; because we are not under the law Under the law of Moses, or any mere legal dispensation which forbids sin, but gives no strength against it; but under grace A dispensation perfectly the reverse, offering pardon to the most guilty, holiness to the most depraved, and strength to the most weak and helpless! God forbid That we should draw any inference so odious and destructive. Know ye not Is it necessary to inform you; that to whom ye yield Greek, , present yourselves servants to obey his commands, his servants ye are whom ye obey Not his whose name you may bear, without practically acknowledging his authority; but his to whom ye are in fact obedient, to whom you are subject, and whose will you do. By the expression, ye present yourselves servants, the apostle taught the Romans, that grace does not destroy human liberty. It was still in their own power to choose whether they would present themselves slaves to sin, or servants to righteousness. Whether of sin unto death Which will bring you to eternal death; or of obedience To God and his gospel; unto righteousness True and evangelical, and which will certainly be rewarded with eternal life. But God be thanked that ye were That is, although, or whereas, you were once the servants of sin A bondage this now passed and gone; ye have now obeyed Not in profession alone, but from the heart, that form of doctrine which was delivered to you Greek, , literally, the model of doctrine into which, as into a mould, you were delivered; for the word , rendered form, among other things, signifies a mould, into which melted metals are poured to receive the form of the mould: and the apostle here represents the gospel doctrine as a mould, into which the Roman believers were delivered, in order to their being formed anew, and conformed to the gospel in all its doctrines, precepts, and promises: and he thanks God, that from the heart, that is, most willingly and sincerely, they had yielded to the forming efficacy of that doctrine, and were made new creatures both in principle and practice. The allusion is not only beautiful, but conveys a very instructive admonition: intimating, that our minds made all pliant and ductile, should be conformed to the nature and design of the gospel, as liquid metals take the figure of the mould into which they are cast. Being then made free from sin Set at liberty from its power and dominion; ye became servants of righteousness At once enabled and obliged to lead a life of true piety and exemplary goodness. The word , here rendered being made free, is the word by which the act of giving a slave his liberty was signified, called by the Romans emancipation.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fourteenth Passage (6:15-23). The Power of the new Principle of Sanctification to deliver from Sin.
The new principle had just been laid down. The apostle had found it in the object of justifying faith. But could a principle so spiritual, apart from every external and positive rule, take hold of the will with power enough to rule it thoroughly? To this natural objection, formulated in Rom 6:15, St. Paul answers as follows: by the acceptance of grace a new master has been substituted for the former, sin (Rom 6:16-19); and the believer feels himself obliged to serve this new master with the more fidelity because he rewards his servants by communicating life to them, whereas the former master pays his by giving them death (Rom 6:20-23). Thus it is proved that the new principle is clothed with sufficient, though purely internal authority, to control the believer’s entire life.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid. [In the last section Paul showed that sin was not justified, even though it causes God’s goodness to abound. In this section he shows that freedom from the law does not justify freedom in sinning. As usual, he presents the proposition, denies its validity, and expands his denial in what follows.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
15. What then? May we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? It could not be so. This is one of Satans heretical phases of sanctification, persuading people that when they are free from the law, they can violate it with impunity. Ever and anon he catches a lot of fanatics on that hook. Well does Paul settle the question summarily by a positive negation. Such a conclusion is preposterously false, from the simple fact that this glorious freedom actually identifies you with the Lawgiver, making you a subordinate in the divine administration, helping God in the maintenance of law and order throughout the universe. Hence the gross incompatibility of the slightest disharmony with the law on your part. The children of the King are free from the law; yet they are the paragon exemplars of legal obedience, conservatism and loyalty. When your will is lost in Gods will, you enjoy the very freedom of God Himself, who is perfectly free to do everything good and nothing bad. This is the very climax of perfect liberty.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 15
Shall we sin? shall we go on sinning, without scruple, because we are delivered, as stated in the Romans 6:14, from the retributive power of sin?
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
SECTION 19 EXPERIENCE PROVES HOW BAD IS THE SERVICE OF SIN
CH. 6:15-23
What then? Let us sin because we are not under law but under grace? Be it not so. Know ye not that, to whom ye present yourselves servants for obedience, his servants ye are, of him whom ye obey, whether of sin for death or of obedience for righteousness? But thanks to God that ye were servants of sin, but ye obeyed from the heart the type of teaching to which ye were given up. And, having been made free from sin, ye were made servants to righteousness. After the manner of men I speak, because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as ye presented the members of your body, as servants, to uncleanness and to lawlessness, for lawlessness, so now present the members of your body, as servants, to righteousness for sanctification. For, when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. What fruit had ye at that time from the things of which ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, having been made free from sin and having been made servants to God, ye have your fruit, for sanctification; and the end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death: but Gods gift of grace is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The two courses set before us in Rom 6:13, Paul will now further describe, and will thus give good reasons why we should refuse the one and choose the other.
Rom 6:15. What then? as in Rom 6:1. Does anyone say, Let us sin because God treats us not on principles of strict law but of undeserved grace? This is another objection, in addition to that in Rom 6:1, to the Gospel. This last reveals the favour of God to our race; and, relying on His favour, some have carelessly run into sin.
Rom 6:16. They who thus sin know not what they do.
Present yourselves: thrust prominently forward to recall the same words in Rom 6:13. The natural order would be, Do ye not know that ye are servants of him to whom ye present yourselves etc. This verse implies the universal principle that if we obey a man we so far make ourselves his servants and use our powers to work out his purposes. So Aristotle, Nic. Ethics bk. viii. 11. 6: The servant (slave) is a living instrument; the instrument, a lifeless servant. Therefore, before we do the bidding of another, we must inquire who he is and what are his purposes.
Servant, or slave: so Rom 1:1 : one who acts habitually at the bidding of another, his lord; cp. Mat 8:9 : a cognate verb in Rom 6:6. It was the common word for Greek and Roman slaves: hence the contrast with made free in Rom 6:18; Rom 6:20; Rom 6:22; cp. 1Co 7:21-22; 1Co 12:13; Gal 3:28; Eph 6:8; Col 3:11; Rev 6:15. In contrast to a freeman, the slave was compelled to do the bidding of his lord.
For obedience: purpose for which one gives himself up to be. a slave. This is emphasised by the repetition, whom ye obey.
Whether of sin or of obedience: the only alternative. That to commit sin is to be a slave of sin, Christ solemnly asserts in Joh 8:34.
Death: not of the body, which is not a result of our own sin, but of the whole man: so Rom 6:21; Rom 6:23; Rom 8:13; Rev 20:14; cp. Mat 10:28. It is the destruction of Rom 2:12; Php 3:19; the final penalty of sin. All sin tends inevitably to death: therefore, in Pauls personification, they who commit sin may be said to surrender themselves to the abstract principle of sin in order to work out death. On the other hand, obedience, also personified, tends always to righteousness, i.e. to conformity with the moral law. See under Rom 1:17. This verse implies that the only alternative is either to commit sin and thus work out its constant tendency, death, or to obey God and thus act in harmony with that which the moral law requires.
Rom 6:17. Review of the past, in the light of Rom 6:16, and evoking thanks to God.
Ye were slaves etc.: their former bondage, by its contrast with their present liberty, itself calls forth gratitude.
Type: as in Rom 5:14.
Type of teaching: in outline, like the mark (Joh 20:25) made by iron on clay. The English word stamp is used in a similar way.
Given-up: as in Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28; Rom 4:25, and especially Act 14:26. These words imply that the obedience of the Roman Christians was submission to the Gospel in that form in which, by the Providence of God, it had been preached to them. Practically it was the Gospel as preached to Gentiles, (cp. Rom 1:5; Act 17:30,) in contrast to Jewish perversions; but not in contrast to the teaching of other apostles. For we cannot conceive Paul thanking God that the Romans heard the Gospel from men taught by himself rather than from the disciples of Peter or John.
The patriarchs, and the Israelites under Moses and afterwards under the prophets, were handed over to other types of teaching.
Rom 6:18. Further description of the change. Being dead to sin, they were made free from sin. Paul here assumes that his readers have made the reckoning to which in Rom 6:11 he exhorted them.
Made-servants, literally enslaved, to righteousness: cp. 1Co 7:22, the freeman, having been called, is a slave of Christ. The whole context (see my note) and the sustained contrast of slave and freeman demand some such rendering. We are not hired servants who can leave their masters employ. For we are Christs by creation and ransom; and are therefore bound to Him by a tie we cannot break. Yet we are free: for His service is our delight.
Servants to righteousness: bound by loyalty to Christ to do that which the moral law demands.
Rom 6:19. After the manner of men: cp. Rom 3:5. It might seem improper to describe the servants of Christ by the common term for slaves. But Paul teaches divine truth by the words of common life; and here warns us to distinguish between the outward form and the underlying truth. This warning holds good for the whole Bible: to men God always speaks as men do.
Flesh: see note under Rom 8:11.
Weakness of your flesh: inability to understand, arising from the limitations of bodily life, which always tend to warp our mental vision; and from the peculiar limitations of the Roman Christians. Paul uses a comparison made needful by their only partial emancipation from the intellectual rule of flesh and blood.
Now follows, as a reason for the foregoing warning, an exhortation closely parallel to that in Rom 6:13.
Just as so now: the past affording a pattern, in an opposite direction, for the present. Instead of weapons, as in Rom 6:13, we have here servants, or slaves: used as a neuter adjective.
Uncleanness lawlessness: further personifications parallel to, and specifying, sin in Rom 6:16. They remind us that sin defiles, and forces into antagonism to the Law, those who obey it.
For lawlessness: in order to do that which the Law forbids: parallel to for death in Rom 6:16. Sin leads, first to defilement and lawlessness, and then to death.
To righteousness: as in Rom 6:18.
Sanctification: the act of making holy: so Rom 6:22; 1Co 1:30; 1Th 4:3-4; 1Th 4:7; 2Th 2:13; 1Ti 2:15; Heb 12:14; 1Pe 1:2. See note under Rom 1:7. As claimed by God, all Christians are already objectively holy: so Rom 1:7. Paul now bids his readers to lay their various bodily powers upon the altar of God to do His work in harmony with the moral law, in order that thus they may become subjectively holy: for sanctification. Cp. 1Co 7:34; 1Th 5:23.
Rom 6:20-22. A comparison of the two kinds of service, based on experience.
Free in regard of righteousness: if there is any bondage in doing right, they were free from it. They have therefore given the service of sin a fair trial.
What fruit? what good result, as an organic outworking of certain actions? See under Rom 1:13. The actions are past, but the shame still remains: ye are now ashamed. Paul passes in silence over the answer which memory and conscience are compelled to give; and states the reason why his readers reaped no harvest from the fields of shame in which they toiled.
The end: the final outworking in which influences attain their goal: so Rom 6:22; Rom 10:4; 1Co 15:24; 2Co 11:15; Php 3:19. Inasmuch as influences which have attained their full result cease to operate-otherwise they have not attained their full result-the word sometimes connotes the idea of cessation. So Luk 1:33. But the idea of a goal attained is always present. The final outworking of those things to which Paul refers is death: as in Rom 6:16. His readers gathered no fruit from their former actions: for they trod a path whose end is death.
Rom 6:22. Their present position, in joyful contrast to their former fruitless toil.
Having-been-made-free having-been-made-servants: solemn repetition, from Rom 6:19.
Ye have your fruit: the good results of your toil are your abiding possession: cp. Php 1:22.
For sanctification: as in Rom 6:19 : direction and tendency of these good results. They tend towards the devotion of our powers to the service of God.
The end: in conspicuous antithesis to the same words in Rom 6:21.
Eternal life: see under Rom 2:7. It recalls Rom 5:21. Notice in solemn contrast, in Rom 6:21-22, the two poles of N.T. eschatology: death eternal life.
Rom 6:23. Compact restatement of the foregoing contrast.
Wages: so Luk 3:14; 1Co 9:7; 2Co 11:8 : the common term for the pay and rations of a soldier, thus recalling Rom 6:13. They who serve in the army of sin receive death in return for their service.
Gift-of-grace: recalling the same word in Rom 5:15-16.
Death is the just wages of sin: but eternal life is a gift of the undeserved favour of God.
In Christ Jesus: as in Rom 6:11. Eternal life is ours in virtue of His death and resurrection, and by vital union with the dead and risen One.
Our Lord: the Master whom we serve. This addition (contrast Rom 6:11) recalls the idea of service, and the contrast of masters, which run through Rom 6:12-23. In each case, the end is in harmony with the nature of the master obeyed.
The contrast of past and present in Rom 6:16-23 is a very powerful motive for avoiding all sin, and is therefore a complete answer to the question in Rom 6:15. To commit sin, is to place our bodily faculties at the disposal of an unseen power absolutely and actively hostile to God and tending always to death, a murderer from the beginning. On the other hand, the consecration of our faculties to the service of God produces for us good and abiding results culminating in eternal life. To commit sin, and thus to abandon the service of God, because God treats us, not on principles of mere justice, but with undeserved favour, is to destroy ourselves simply because we have power to do so.
CHAPTER VI. deals with one subject, the believers relation to his former life of sin, in answer to the question of Rom 6:1. We must not continue in sin in order to work out the gracious purposes of God: for His purpose is that our former life of sin be buried in the grave of Christ and that we henceforth share His resurrection life: Rom 6:2-10. Paul then teaches how this purpose of God may be accomplished in us, viz. by reckoning it to be here and now achieved in us by inward union with Christ; and urges us to claim the fulfilment of this purpose: Rom 6:11-13. To this he encourages us, in Rom 6:14, by pointing to our altered relation to God; and gives, in Rom 6:16-23, a very strong motive for unreserved consecration to the service of God. The chapter concludes with words almost the same as those at the end of Romans 5. But how vast the progress we have made. Each chapter brings us within view of life eternal. But, as a consequence of the reign of grace through Christ, announced in Romans 5., we have now an inward and vital union with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection, resulting in complete deliverance from the service of sin and in a life of unreserved devotion to God like that of Christ. In Romans 5, we had justification, knowledge of Gods love to us, and a joyful hope of glory: we are now sharers of the holy and immortal life of Christ.
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
6:15 {8} What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
(8) To be under the law and under sin signifies the same thing, with respect to whose who are not sanctified, and on the other hand to be under grace and righteousness is in harmony with those that are regenerated. Now these are contraries, so that one cannot agree with the other: therefore let righteousness expel sin.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. Slavery to righteousness 6:15-23
In the first part of this chapter Paul explained that Christ has broken the bonds of sin that enslave the Christian (Rom 6:1-14). In the second part he warned that even though we are free we can become enslaved to sin by yielding to temptation (Rom 6:15-23; cf. Joh 8:34). Rather we should voluntarily yield ourselves as slaves to righteousness.
"Three words summarize the reasons for our yielding: favor (Rom 6:14-15), freedom (Rom 6:16-20), and fruit (Rom 6:21-23)." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:533.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Paul’s question here is not a repetition of Rom 6:1. There he asked if we could "continue in sin" or "go on sinning." Here he said, Shall we "sin?" There he was looking at continual sinning. Here he dealt with specific acts of sin. A sinful lifestyle and acts of sin are both inappropriate for a believer who is living under God’s gracious authority.
"Surely, the objector says, we may take a night off now and then and sin a little bit ’since we are under grace.’" [Note: Robertson, 4:364.]