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All through the epistle to the Romans two classes of believers are in view: the
Gentile, who had never been under the law (called "the uncircumcision"), and the Jew
who had been under the law (called "the circumcision"). These two companies, although
saved by the same great Sacrifice, and by the same faith, through the same grace,
nevertheless had their own separate problems. It was no great matter of conscience to the
saved Gentile as to whether the food he ate was "clean" or "unclean" in the eyes of the
Levitical law, but it was a matter of great concern to the saved Jew, and this matter is
dealt with in Rom. 14:
So with this question of the dominion of sin, death and law. The problems of both
Jew and Gentile were much the same when the matter was limited to the dominion of sin
and death, and consequently the opening section (Rom. 6: 1-14) which deals with this
twofold dominion is not divided into two parts, one for Gentile believers, and one for
Jewish believers. The second section, however, deals with the dominion of law. This
would not be a special matter of conscience for the Gentile, and could be explained along
the lines of the setting free of slaves, a matter to them of everyday occurrence; but to the
Jew, though a believer, anything which appeared to set aside the law of God was looked
upon with suspicion and considered almost blasphemy. Consequently this second section
is divided into two parts. To the Gentile he speaks after the manner of men; to the Jew
he speaks to those who acknowledge the law. To the Gentile he uses the figure of master
and slave; to the Jew the figure of husband and wife. In both cases he brings the fact of
death to bear upon the claims of the master or husband, and to both he reveals the
glorious possibilities of life.
To appreciate the apostle's line of teaching here we must acquaint ourselves with the
law that governed these two classes--slaves and wives. The law of Moses legislated for
the slave and his freedom, but to those addressed in Rom. 6: there is a more particular
appeal to the manners and customs of their own day. This matter is so important that we
propose breaking off the exposition of the passage here, in order to give a series of
quotations on the question of the manumission (the "setting free by a legal process") of
slaves, from Deissman's "Light from the Ancient East":--
"I refer to the metaphor of our redemption by Christ from the slavery of sin, the law,
and idols--a metaphor influenced by the customs and technical formulć of sacred
manumissions in antiquity."
"Inscriptions at Delphi have been the principal means of enlightening us concerning
the nature and ritual of manumission with a religious object in ancient times."
"Between the Greek usage and the practice of the early Church there stands St. Paul,
who made the ancient custom the basis of his profoundest contemplations about Christ.
What was this custom? Among the various ways in which the manumission of a slave
could take place by ancient law, we find the solemn rite of fictitious purchase of the slave
by some divinity. The owner comes with the slave to the temple, sells him there to the
god, and receives the purchase money from the temple treasury, the slave having
previously paid it there out of his savings. The slave is now the property of the god; not,
however, a slave of the temple, but a protégé of the god. Against all the world, especially
his former master, he is a completely free man; at the utmost a few pious obligations to