But thanks [be] to God, that ye were bondmen of sin, but have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which ye were instructed.
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Now, having got your freedom from sin, ye have become bondmen to righteousness.
Paul has just thanked God that his readers obeyed the teaching handed to them. Now he states what that obedience produced: a change of owner. Two questions follow. What does freedom from sin mean when sin is still at work in us? And why does that freedom hand us straight to a new master?
The word "sin" here is not a list of wrong acts but a power that held people. One writer draws the distinction that unlocks the whole chapter.
Take note of the closing words of verse 6. They show us plainly how this chapter looks at sin. Sin is a master, a slave-owner, and we had fallen under its power. The chapter is not discussing the presence of sin in us but the power of sin over us. We have got our discharge from sin.
That distinction matters. The verse never says that sin has left the believer.
We know from God's word and bitter experience that as believers we are still able to sin. But Christian liberty means we no longer have to sin. This is a great liberty.
Paul says in the next verse that he is speaking in human terms. He uses a picture from ordinary life so his point is clear. (Some quotes on this page use older wording for the verse.)
"Being now made free from sin." (Rom. 6:18, 22.) The apostle tells his readers that he speaks to them "after the manner of men, because of the weakness of their flesh." He uses the term "made free" in contrast to a state of slavery. To mark that contrast, he adds that they have become servants to God. It is a simple picture of slaves and freed slaves, and the apostle uses it to make himself better understood. Moreover, the condition spoken of is that of all Christians, without exception.
The freedom did not come by effort or resolve. It came by a death: the believer's death with Christ. That is the argument running through the earlier part of the chapter.
Yes, this is how you changed masters: through death, from sin to righteousness. And all this in perfect grace. Once you were under sin and free from righteousness. Now you are servants of righteousness and free from the slavery of sin. Yes, this chapter looks at sin and righteousness as two masters. The Christian is perfectly free from the old tyrant.
Many people try to serve God so they can get free. Paul puts it the other way round, and the order of his words matters.
So every Christian is made free from sin: "Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness." (Ver. 18.) It does not say, You became the servants of righteousness, and then you were made free from sin. There can be no true fruit to holiness until we are made free from sin.
Notice that the verse does not end with liberty. It ends with a second slavery, and for a creature there is no other option.
Man is not enough on his own. He is only a creature, and so he must depend on God. If he seeks to be his own master, if he chases independence, he only falls more completely under Satan. Instead of obeying God, he becomes the slave of sin. Redemption sets the believer free from this slavery. But it frees him only to bind him with all his heart to do as the Christian form of teaching instructs us — all the more because he is under grace, not law.
The new master needs defining too. Righteousness is not a standard we set for ourselves.
A Christian's righteousness is never doing things because they are right. That is pride, independence, or making a god of self. It is doing them because they are God's will for us. We must obey to reach practical righteousness.
The verse makes no demand. The demand comes in the next verse, and the difference matters.
Verse 18 deals with actual fact: verse 19 with practical character. This is easy to see, above all in the New Translation, which puts verse 18 more strongly: "Now, having got your freedom from sin, you have become bondmen to righteousness." Verse 19, by contrast, urges us to "now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness."
- Master — This chapter treats sin as an owner, not a habit. The issue is its power over us, not its presence in us.
- Discharge — Freedom came through death with Christ, and all in grace. The old tyrant lost his hold on us.
- Order — Freedom comes first, then service. No one serves righteousness to become free.
- Owner — Liberty is not self-rule. Chasing independence lands a creature back under sin. Redemption frees us to bind us to God's will.
- Practice — Verse 18 says what you are. The next verse says what to do with your body. The fact stands; the yielding is daily.