Romans Chapter 6 Vs. 18

 

Slaves to Righteousness

Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Rom 6:18

made free from... Greek: eleutheroo, set free. Here; Rom. 6:22; 8:2, 8:21; John 8:32, 8:36; Gal. 5:1.

the servants of... Greek: douloo, to make a slave or servant (Greek: doulos; see, Mat. 20:27).

Because we are in Christ and He died in our place, we are counted dead with Him. This is the fundamental premise of chapter 6 and Paul spends the most of this chapter explaining and supporting it.

We read of this change from sin to righteousness in 2 Corinthians.

2Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

That commitment was evidenced by their response to the gospel and their being baptized. The result was that they have been set free from sin and have become slaves (past tense in Gr.) to righteousness (cf. Rom. 6:22). This is positional and must be manifested in daily experience, but it demonstrates again that there is no middle ground. Christians are not to give in to sin because they are dead to it and no longer slaves of it. It is totally contrary to God’s plan for slaves of righteousness to become enslaved to sin!