Romans Chapter 6 Vs. 17

 

Slaves to Righteousness

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Rom 6:17

But God be... What is God to be thanked for? That you are not saved from sin or that you are?

form of doctrine... This refers to the gospel truths Paul is here making clear by his arguments. Here Christianity is pictured as a mold or die, into which people are cast, and from which they are stamped with the image of God and of Christ, and are made the holiness of God by the Holy Spirit (1Cor. 6:11; 2Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:24). They are cast in to the mold of doctrine and the Word of God is stamped on the heart (2Cor. 3:1-3). In the Greek, the word “form” is a word for a mold, such as a craftsman would use to cast molten metal. Paul’s point is that God pours His new children into the mold of divine truth. New believers have an innate and compelling desire to know and obey God’s Word.

Everyone, before they came to Jesus were the servants of sin.

1Jhn. 1:10: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

We read (in chapter 5 of Romans), that all men have sinned. Thank God we do not have to remain in sin. We who believe in Christ have taken on the righteousness of Jesus Christ and no longer serve sin.

This discussion reminded the Apostle Paul of what the grace of God had already accomplished in his readers’ lives and he burst forth in praise. Before they responded to the gospel they had been slaves to sin, but they wholeheartedly (lit., “out from hearts,” thus inwardly and genuinely, not merely externally) obeyed (cf. “obedience” in 1Pet. 1:2) the form of teaching to which they were entrusted. Hearing the teaching of God’s Word, they committed themselves to those truths.