Romans 6:15-23: "Who is your Master?"

Paul again defends his last statement made from the last section which says, "for you are not under law, but under grace". He wants to make sure his readers are perfectly clear on what he is saying. If the so-called believer did not have a new heart and new spirit given to him by God, it could very well be said that now we can sin all we want because God's grace will cover it. However, Paul's whole point in the last section is that we have a new heart and new life in Christ, and our whole desire is to be more like Him. Our desire is to love him all the more BECAUSE of His grace. Paul again retorts, "May it never be!" He then begins his case by stating another statement that should be obvious if you are a Christian. "Do you not know" Paul exclaims. This is clearly rhetorical. It gives a sense of a well-known truth for all Christians. He continues, "that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?" Paul assumes it is common knowledge that slaves are bound in obedience to their master. By using the phrase, "present yourselves" we can know that Paul is speaking of those who willingly give themselves to serve their master. And so it is with a Christian. When they have given their lives to Jesus Christ they desire to serve Him as their master. And if someone is not bound to the desires of their master, they are not truly a slave. MacArthur writes, "In relation to God's will, a saved person has but two choices: either to sin, which is to disobey Him, or of obedience. A person's general pattern of living proves who his true master is. If his life is characterized by sin, which is opposed to God's will, the he is sin's slave. If his life is characterized by obedience, which reflects God's will, then he is God's slave." Basically Paul is stating that your lifestyle will dictate who your master is. It will be evident as to whether Christ has really made you alive in Him, or if you are still sin's slave. MacArthur also writes, "He is not here teaching that a Christian ought to be a slave of righteousness but that every Christian, by divine creation, is made a slave of righteousness and cannot be anything else."

Paul continues, "But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that from of teaching to which you were committed". As is always the case, Paul gives thanks to God, knowing that the transformation from slave to sin to slave to righteousness only came about by God's grace. Paul recognizes that in a believer there is a dramatic change as they "were slaves of sin", but then "became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed." The change in the believer is not an outward behavioral change (although this will be evident as well), it is a deep rooted core change "from the heart". God's righteousness will operate through those who have an obedient heart to Him. MacArthur writes, "Paul had confidence in the salvation of his readers in the church at Rome because they obeyed to that form of teaching to which they were committed. No believer, of course, comprehends all of God's truth. Even the most mature and faithful Christian only begins to fathom the riches of God's Word in this present life. But the desire to know and obey God' truth is one of the surest marks of genuine salvation". We have been delivered into God's divine teaching, and a true believer will be committed to the study and understanding of all God has to say.

Paul understands the weakness of the human flesh we are still trapped in here on earth, and so makes provision in his illustrations for this. He writes, "I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh". MacArthur explains, "It is difficult to put divine principles and truths into terms that finite human minds can comprehend. In saying, 'I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh', Paul meant that the analogy of masters and slaves was used as an accommodation to his readers' humanness." The very nature of divine principles does not allow it to be perfectly understood with earthly illustrations. For in fact if we could perfectly understand divine principles, there would be no need for parables and such. This transition in his writing shows that Paul is trying to show us how to live this out in daily practice by putting it into "human terms". He is, "admonishing believer to make their living correspond to their new natures", according to MacArthur. Paul writes, "For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification". Simply put, before salvation you lived an immoral and selfish life for yourself. Now that you have been saved by the blood of Christ, be obedient to God and His Word, and present your lives as a sacrifice for Him. Because we have the ability to do righteousness, because of Christ, and are no longer slaves to sin, we have the ability and the duty to be obedient. And just as your immorality and lawlessness naturally lead to more immorality and lawlessness, now give your life to righteousness as that will produce more righteousness in your life, and help in your sanctification. Paul is showing us our daily habits and practices "in human terms" so that we might be more like Christ as we live our lives for Him. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes, "As you go on living this righteous life, and practising it with all your might and energy, and all your time . . . you will find that the process that went on before, in which you went on from bad to worse and became viler and viler, is entirely reversed. You will become cleaner and cleaner, and purer and purer, and holier and holier, and more and more conformed unto the image of the Son of God".

Paul then desires to show his readers the dichotomous paths that are ahead for the believer and unbeliever alike. "For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life." MacArthur explains, "Unsaved persons, who are slaves of sin, are free in regard to righteousness. That is, they have no connection to righteousness; it can make no demands on them since they possess neither the desire nor the ability to meet its requirements. They are controlled and ruled by sin, the master whom they are bound to serve". Paul was quick to describe all the things he thought were good before his conversion as "rubbish" Phil. 3:8. Just as he says here that to an unregenerate all the things they think are good are right, they will one day see them in the light for what they really are and will be "ashamed". As Christians we can often look back on the way we used to think or used to live before we accepted Christ, and be ashamed at our foolishness. In the end that way of life would only end in "death". Now, Paul wants to install joy in his readers with the hopeful news that shows believers they have "been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life". Because we are no longer a slave to sin we are able to live a life that sanctifies us as we allow God to work in us, and ultimately we get to spend eternity with Him.

Paul summarizes this last section with the famous words, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". We earn death through our sin. When we are a slave to sin, everything we do deserves death. However, for those of us who have Christ, we have been given the wonderful free gift, which leads to eternal life. MacArthur explains, "If a person wants what he deserves -eternal death- God will that to him as his just wages. And if a person wants what he does not deserve -eternal life- God offers that to him as well, but as a free gift, the only source of which is Christ Jesus our Lord".