What does Romans 6:22 mean?

Shame and death. Paul described those as the consequences, or "fruit," of a life lived free of the control of righteousness. Slavery to sin always leads to shame and, eventually, death. Paul's readers in Rome, however, left that life behind. Through faith in Christ and by God's grace, they had been set free from their slavery to sin. They had been loosed from the compulsion to serve their sinful desires.

Now they had become "slaves of God." Paul has previously described this same state as being "slaves to righteousness" (Romans 6:18). Paul began this letter by describing himself as a slave or servant of Christ Jesus, using the word of his day for a person who entered freely into a master/slave relationship with another. While not a perfect analogy—as Paul himself noted (Romans 6:19)—it's useful to make the point at hand.

Paul now writes that, by trusting in Christ for our salvation, we have entered into that same relationship with God. Our identity is so closely connected to Christ that we are being changed to people who are bound to do what is right. This is who we are now. This is good news. Why? Because the "fruit"—the natural consequence—of serving righteousness is sanctification and eternal life. This is opposed to the shame and death which follow from serving sin.

Sanctification, translated sometimes as "holiness," is the process of being changed in our inner selves to become more and more like Christ. We are not fully there (1 John 1:9–10), but because we now belong to God, we are on the way. He is changing us (1 John 3:2).

Ultimately, the result of this path we are on in Christ will be eternal life. We will participate in the glories of God forever (Romans 5:2).