 |  |
Keeping this facts in mind we can now look at the Apostle's argument more closely
and we quote from The New International Version:
"Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather
offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the
parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your
master, because you are not under law, but under grace" (6: 13-14, N.I.V.).
Because God has broken the domination of sin, the believer can now hand over
himself to Him rather than yield to slavery. He is not like a "dead man brought to life" as
100: K. Barrett expresses it. A master has no further authority over a dead slave: he is
freed by death. In the same way the believer is freed from the mastery of sin because he
has died (in Christ) to it and now has "newness of life" in which to live with all its
blessedness. He is now "under grace" (verse 14) and it is the grace of God which
strengthens him and so enables him, now a free man, to become faithful and fruitful
servant of God.
Paul now comes back to the antinominian argument of verse 1:
"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no
means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as
slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which
leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that,
though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to
which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to
righteousness" (6: 15-18, N.I.V.).
From what we have seen, the argument of the Apostle is surely clear to the objector
who thinks that a practice of sin and a state of grace can be combined. As F. F. Bruce
comments, "to make being `under grace' an excuse for sinning is a sign that one is not
really `under grace' at all". Those who are "in Christ" and united to Him, will be
concerned to render glad obedience to His will and this will characterize their lives. They
now will wholeheartedly obey Him Who is not only their Saviour but their Lord (6: 17).
The illustration that Paul has given concerning slavery is a human one, he informs us,
in order to help the Roman Christians to understand the vital doctrine of identification
with the risen Christ and its practical outcome (verse 19). Again he contrasts their lives
as unsaved pagans with the new one in Christ:
"The point of the matter is this: just as in the past you offered your members to
uncleanness and iniquity as their slaves (with the result of producing iniquity), so now
offer your members to righteousness as its slaves (the result of this will be sanctification).
These are mutually exclusive attitudes; for when you were slaves of sin you were free
men in respect of righteousness (and what fruit did you reap of that?--things of which
you now are ashamed, for their end is death). But now you have been freed from sin, and
have become slaves to God. Accordingly your fruit proves to be sanctification, and the
ultimate result will be eternal life. For the wages paid by sin is death: but the gift freely
given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (6: 19-23, 100: K. Barrett).