Friday DIVE – September 26, 2025- Romans 6:12-23

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CONTEXT

Romans 5:10-11

What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?   ² Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?   ³ Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?   ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  

⁵ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,  ⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away^{[rendered inoperative]} with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.   ⁷ For he who has died has been freed^[cleared] from sin.   ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,  ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him.   ¹⁰ For the death that He died,  He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.   ¹¹ Likewise you also, reckon^[consider] yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  

Romans 6:12-14

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  ¹³ And do not present your members as instruments^[weapons]  of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  ¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.   

According to Barclay …

THE PRACTICE OF THE FAITH ( Romans 6:12-14 )

There is no more typical transition in Paul than that between this passage and the preceding one. The passage which went before was the writing of a mystic. It spoke of the mystical union between the Christian and Christ which came in baptism. It spoke of the way in which a Christian should live so close to Christ that all his life can be said to be lived in him. And now, after the mystical experience, comes the practical demand. Christianity is not an emotional experience; it is a way of life.  The Christian is not meant to luxuriate in an experience however wonderful; he is meant to go out and live a certain kind of life in the teeth of the world’s attacks and problems. It is common in the world of religious life to sit in church and feel a wave of feeling sweep over us. It is a not uncommon experience, when we sit alone, to feel Christ very near. But the Christianity which has stopped there, has stopped half-way. That emotion must be translated into action. Christianity can never be only an experience of the inner being; it must be a life in the marketplace.

When a man goes out into the world, he is confronted with an awesome situation. As Paul thinks of it, both God and sin are looking for weapons to use. God cannot work without men. If he wants a word spoken, he has to get a man to speak it. If he wants a deed done, he has to get a man to do it. If he wants a person encouraged, he has to get a man to do the lifting up. It is the same with sin; every man has to be given the push into it. Sin is looking for men who will by their words or example seduce others into sinning. It is as if Paul was saying: “In this world there is an eternal battle between sin and God; choose your side.” We are faced with the tremendous alternative of making ourselves weapons in the hand of God or weapons in the hand of sin.

A man may well say: “Such a choice is too much for me. I am bound to fail.” Paul’s answer is: “Don’t be discouraged and don’t be despairing; sin will not lord it over you.” Why? Because we are no longer under law but under grace. Why should that make all the difference? Because we are no longer trying to satisfy the demands of law but are trying to be worthy of the gifts of love. We are no longer regarding God as the stern judge; we are regarding him as the lover of the souls of men. There is no inspiration in all the world like love. Who ever went out from the presence of his loved one without the burning desire to be a better person?   The Christian life is no longer a burden to be borne; it is a privilege to be lived up to.   As Denney put it: “It is not restraint but inspiration which liberates from sin; not Mount Sinai but Mount Calvary which makes saints.” Many a man has been saved from sin, not because of the regulations of the law, but because he could not bear to hurt or grieve or disappoint someone whom he loved and someone who, he knew, loved him. At best, the law restrains a man through fear; but love redeems him by inspiring him to be better than his best. The inspiration of the Christian comes, not from the fear of what God will do to him, but from the inspiration of what God has done for him.

Romans 6:15

¹⁵ What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  Certainly not!   

According to Barclay …

To a certain type of mind the doctrine of free grace is always a temptation to say, “If forgiveness is as easy and as inevitable as all that, if God’s one desire is to forgive men and if his grace is wide enough to cover every spot and stain, why worry about sin?  Why not do as we like?  It will be all the same in the end.”

Paul’s response:  “Certainly not!”

Paul goes on to explain why …

Romans 6:16-18

¹⁶ Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?   

¹⁷ But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered^[entrusted].   ¹⁸ And having been set free from sin, you became  slaves of righteousness.    

• You were slaves of sin
• You have been set free from sin
• You became slaves of righteousness. (You are now slaves of righteousness.)
  • What does it mean to be a slave of righteousness?
• Here’s what Barclay said …
  • Paul counters this argument by using a vivid picture.  He says: “Once you gave yourselves to sin as its slave; when you did that, righteousness had no claim over you.  But now you have given yourselves to God as the slave of righteousness; and so sin has no claim over you.”
  • To understand this, we must understand the status of the slave.
  • When we think of a servant, in our sense of the word, we think of a man who gives a certain agreed part of his time to his master and who receives a certain agreed wage for doing so.
    • Within that agreed time he is at the disposal, and in the command, of his master.
    • But, when that time ends, he is free to do as he likes.
    • During his working hours he belongs to his master, but in his free time he belongs to himself.
  • But, in Paul’s time, the status of the slave was quite different.
    • Literally he had no time which belonged to himself; every single moment belonged to his master.
    • He was his master’s absolutely exclusive possession.
  • That is the picture that is in Paul’s mind. He says: “At one time you were the slave of sin.  Sin had exclusive possession of you.  At that time you could not talk of anything else but sinning.  But now you have taken God as your master and he has exclusive possession of you.  Now you cannot even talk about sinning; you must talk about nothing but holiness.”
  • Notice, too, that Paul said they obeyed a “form of doctrine” that had been delivered to them.
    • What does that mean?
    • How do others understand it?
• Here’s what Barclay said about that …
  • But Paul has something more to say, “You took a spontaneous decision to obey the pattern of the teaching to which you were committed.” In other words, he is saving, “You knew what you were doing, and you did it of your own free will.”  This is interesting.   Remember that this passage has arisen from a discussion of baptism.  This therefore means that baptism was instructed baptism.  Now we have already seen that baptism in the early Church was adult baptism and confession of faith.  It is, then, quite clear that no man was ever allowed into the Christian Church on a moment of emotion.  He was instructed; he had to know what he was doing; he was shown what Christ offered and demanded.  Then, and then only, could he take the decision to come in.   
  • When a man wishes to become a member of the great Benedictine order of monks he is accepted for a year on probation. During all that time the clothes which he wore in the world hang in his cell. At any time he can put off his monk’s habit, put on his worldly clothes, and walk out, and no one will think any the worse of him. Only at the end of the year are his clothes finally taken away. It is with open eyes and a full appreciation of what he is doing that he must enter the order.   
  • It is so with Christianity. Jesus does not want followers who have not stopped to count the cost. He does not want a man to express an impermanent loyalty on the crest of a wave of emotion. The Church has a duty to present the faith in all the riches of its offer and the heights of its demands to those who wish to become its members. (Daily Study Bible)

Romans 6:19

¹⁹ I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.  For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members  as  slaves of righteousness for holiness^{[unto sanctification]}.    

According to Barclay … 

Paul actually apologizes for using this picture. He says: “I am only using a human analogy so that your human minds can understand it.” He apologized because he did not like to compare the Christian life to any kind of slavery. But the one thing that this picture does show is that the Christian can have no master but God. He cannot give a part of his life to God, and another part to the world. With God it is all — or nothing.  So long as man keeps some part of his life without God, he is not really a Christian.  A Christian is a man who has given complete control of his life to Christ, holding nothing back. No man who has done that can ever think of using grace as an excuse for sin.

Romans 6:20-21

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death. 

According to Barclay … 

Paul draws a distinction between the old life and the new.  The old life was characterized by uncleanness and lawlessness.  The pagan world was an unclean world; it did not know the meaning of chastity.  Justin Martyr has a terrible jibe when talking about the exposure of infants. In Rome unwanted children, especially girls, were literally, thrown away.  Every night numbers of them were left lying in the forum.  Some of them were collected by dreadful characters who ran brothels, and brought up to be prostitutes to stock the brothels.  So Justin turns on his heathen opponents and tells them that, in their immorality, they had every chance of going into a city brothel, and, all unknown, having intercourse with their own child.

The pagan world was lawless in the sense that men’s lusts were their only flaws; and that lawlessness produced more lawlessness.  That, indeed. is the law of sin.  Sin begets sin.  The first time we do a wrong thing, you may do it with hesitation and a tremor and a shudder.  The second time we do it, it is easier; and if we go on doing it, it becomes effortless; sin loses its terror.  The first time we allow ourselves some indulgence, we may be satisfied with very little of it; but the time comes when we need more and more of it to produce the same thrill.  Sin leads on to sin; lawlessness produces lawlessness.  To start on the path of sin is to go on to more and more.

The new life is different; it is life which is righteous.  Now the Greeks defined righteousness as giving to man and to God their due.  The Christian life is one which gives God his proper place and which respects the rights of human personality.  The Christian will never disobey God nor ever use a human being to gratify his desire for pleasure.  That life leads to what the Revised Standard Version calls sanctification.  The word in Greek is hagiasmos (G38).  All Greek nouns which end in -asmos describe, not a completed state, but a process.  Sanctification is the road to holiness.  When a man gives his life to Christ, he does not then become a perfect man; the struggle is by no means over.  But Christianity has always regarded the direction in which a man is facing as more important than the particular stage he has reached.  Once he is Christ’s he has started on the process of sanctification, the road to holiness.

Robert Louis Stevenson said: “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.”  What is true is that it is a great thing to set out to a great goal, even if we never get the whole way.

Romans 6:22-23

²² But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness^{[unto sanctification]}, and the end, everlasting life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift^{[free gift]} of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.    

According to Barclay … 

Paul finishes with a great saying that contains a double metaphor. “Sin’s pay is death,” he says, “but God’s free gift is eternal life.”  Paul uses two military words.  For pay, he uses opsonia ( G3800) .  Opsonia was the soldier’s pay, something that he earned with the risk of his body and the sweat of his brow, something that was due to him and could not be taken from him.  For gift, he uses charisma ( G5486) . The charisma or, in Latin, the donativum, was a totally  unearned  gift which the army sometimes received.  On special occasions, for instance on his birthday, or on his accession to the throne, or the anniversary of it, an emperor handed out a free gift of money to the army. It had not been earned; it was a gift of the emperor’s kindness and grace.  So Paul says: “If we got the pay we had earned it would be death; but out of his grace God has given us life.”