What fruit therefore had ye *then* in the things of which ye are *now* ashamed? for the end of *them* [is] death.
Paul turns to people who once served sin and asks them to name what they got out of it. He expects silence, because the whole chapter is arguing that a believer cannot go back.
Earlier in the chapter Paul reasons from a fact — the Christian has died with Christ. Here the ground shifts to something the reader must weigh for himself.
Here then we stand on the ground of motives which test the heart. At the beginning of the chapter the ground was a great fact about the Christian: he has a part with Christ in His death, and so is dead to sin and lives to God. Here it is no longer that. It is an appeal to his appreciation of the grace of God which has freed him from his slavery to sin. So what use is he going to make of his freedom?
The verse before it says these people were once "free in regard to righteousness" — and that phrase is not a compliment.
There seems to be a serious but cutting irony in this reference to their old condition. The only freedom they knew was freedom in respect to righteousness. They were slaves of sin and had nothing to do with righteousness. And what was the result? Certainly nothing to boast of — and how much there was to fill them with shame! And what is the end of those things? Death.
The word "fruit" expects a return. Sin gives none.
When they were the servants of sin, they followed their own wills without any thought of the claims of righteousness. Such a course produced no lasting and pleasant fruit. It was a fruitless wasting of their lives, and of the parts of their bodies, in self-will that covered them with shame and ended in death.
Notice the two time frames in the verse: the fruit was then, the shame is now.
When I was in that old bondage, my behaviour was just as shameful. And then I had no thought of "fruit" for God, let alone bringing it forth. Now my former conduct can only make me ashamed. Christ has redeemed us by His precious blood. Let all who belong to Him learn to be more ashamed of that past part of their lives. In those days they walked in step with this world, with little sense of God's claims upon them. "The end of those things is death": the only direction they lead is toward death.
Paul names no particular sins. That silence widens the verse far past the obvious vices.
But now they were ashamed of the former fruitless works. Let us observe how wide the language is in this chapter. There is no specification. The contrast lies between nature and grace — God's glory and man's will. Anything that did not make for holiness was fruitless, even if it was not evil in itself. Such things did not fit the liberty of an obedient servant of God. A spiritual man judges himself. When he remembers hours wasted on trivial pursuits, shame brings a blush to his face — even though what he was doing might look quite harmless to other people.
The verse is one half of a pair. Paul sets the barren past against a present service that does yield something, and both have an "end."
What fruit did they have then in the things they were now ashamed of? It was a fruitless wasting of the parts of their bodies in lawlessness, and the end was death. But now we are free from sin — free in the sense of being out of bondage, no longer sin's slaves. We have become slaves to God, entirely given up to serve Him, and we have our fruit unto holiness. The end is everlasting life. Along the way we also grow in the knowledge of God, in likeness to Him, and in separation of heart to Him from all evil, according to what He is.
This chapter has been answering people who would go on sinning. Verse 21 is part of that answer.
So the idea that a Christian may keep on sinning is checked. Any pleading for such practices is silenced, and those who argue for them have no ground to stand on. It is irrational, and thoroughly anti-Christian. Going on in sin denies what a Christian is, and it undermines any Christian profession. Allowing sin at all does not fit the change of masters that all saints in Christ claim to be under.
- Freedom — the only freedom sin ever gave was freedom from righteousness. That is nothing to boast of.
- Fruit — the honest answer is none. That service wasted life and body and returned nothing lasting or pleasant.
- Shame — all that is left of it now is a blush. It covers even wasted hours the world would call harmless.
- End — those things run in one direction only, and the destination is death.
- Exchange — the new master yields fruit for holiness, growth in the knowledge of God, and an end of everlasting life. Going back denies what a Christian is.
But *now*, having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life.
Romans 6 answers the charge that grace makes people careless about sin. But what does it mean to be "set free from sin," and why does that freedom lead into service?
(The ESV says "sanctification" where the older translation says "fruit unto holiness." The writers quoted below use the older wording.)
Many take "set free from sin" to mean the sinful nature is gone. One writer marks out what the freedom covers and what it does not:
"Free from sin" does not mean free from the old nature, as many teach. It means free from the ruling power of the sin that still lives inside. Then comes the contrast: the old state in sin, and the place of deliverance grace has brought the believer into. In the former life, as unsaved slaves of sin, there was an awful fruit, and the end of it is death. But now they are servants of God, freed from sin's awful slavery. Their fruit is different: the fruit of holiness, and the end is eternal life.
Another writer puts it in a phrase: the believer is free "from the slavery, not from conflict" (C. Stanley).
Paul does not describe a person set loose with no master. He moves from one ownership to another, and one commentator explains why there is no third option:
Independence is not possible for a creature. He is a servant of good or of evil. But his natural condition was that of bondage to sin. Grace, then, has delivered him from that. He has gone out from the house of bondage; but it is to meet and to serve the God of his salvation. Redemption has made him His.
Another writer shows what this freedom is for:
Christ sets free the soul that was once the slave of sin. He calls it to stand fast in His liberty and never wear a yoke of bondage again. For there is no middle ground or other alternative. But grace uses this liberty to be so much the more His bondman, free from sin to serve the Lord Christ.
The verse names two things: fruit now, and an end later. One writer keeps both in view and describes the fruit that comes now:
But now we are free from sin — his great theme, as we have seen. Free here means out of bondage, no longer sin's slaves; that alone is the sense of the words here. We have become slaves to God, entirely given up to serve Him, and we have our fruit to holiness. The end is everlasting life. But along the way there is growing in the knowledge of God, and likeness to Him, and separation of heart to Him from all evil, according to what He is.
Another writer traces this fruit to its source. Under sin's control "there was the hatred of holiness, and we were utterly powerless to be holy... But the divine nature delights in holiness, and this is the fruit it produces" (An Outline of Sound Words).
If the change of master is real, then the argument "sin freely, grace covers it" collapses. One commentator draws the conclusion:
This checks the drift toward lawlessness. It silences any argument for such practices, and shows their advocates have no ground to stand on. It is irrational, and thoroughly anti-Christian. Continuing in sin is a denial of Christian standing, and destroys Christian profession. Allowing sin at all clashes with the change of masters that all saints in Christ claim as their own.
Here eternal life stands at the end of the road. Elsewhere Scripture speaks of it as something the believer already holds. One writer shows these are two angles on one gift, not two doctrines:
Everlasting life is here viewed as the end of the wonderful story. In the writings of the Apostle John we find it presented as a present possession of the believer. There is no conflict between these two views of it. What is ours now in its essence will be ours in its full extent when eternity is reached.
Another writer states the same contrast between the two apostles and then guards it carefully:
For Paul the end is everlasting life; for John, "Whoever has the Son has life." I do not mean a difference in doctrine, for there is none, but a difference of aspect and grasp in the Word — one is intrinsic life, the other is condition in result before God.
- Freed — the freedom is from sin's rule, not from its presence; the conflict remains, but the old owner is gone.
- Enslaved — nobody stands masterless; grace takes you out of the house of bondage to make you God's servant.
- Fruitful — the new service bears fruit the old life never had: knowing God better, growing like Him, a heart set apart from evil.
- Consistent — the master has changed, so living in sin denies the standing a Christian claims.
- Finished — the road ends in eternal life; what is ours now in essence will be ours in full in eternity.