Romans 6:20 - Printer Friendly

ESV: For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

NIV: When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.

NASB: For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness.

CSB: For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

NLT: When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.

KJV: For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

NKJV: For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Paul has posed only two possible realities for human beings. Initially, we are all slaves to sin, meaning we are under compulsion to obey our sinful desires. Those who express saving faith in Christ, on the other hand, are "slaves to righteousness," meaning we are so closely connected to Christ that it is becoming our nature to serve righteousness.

This leaves no room for a third option. Human beings cannot be morally independent or neutral. No moral choices exist other than serving sin or serving righteousness. This is consistent with the rest of Scripture, which depicts only two eternal categories of humanity: sinners who are saved by grace through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8; Revelation 22:1–5), and sinners who reject God and are separated from Him forever (John 12:48; Revelation 20:11–15).

Now Paul considers the advantages of either option. As in other parts of this book, he speaks from the perspective of a saved believer—his "we" means those who are Christians, not all men. Here Paul writes that when we were slaves of sin, before trusting in Christ and becoming Christians, we were free in regard to righteousness. Since we had no identity in Christ, we had no mandate or calling to do what was right. That was a "freedom," in a sense, Paul writes. He will show in the following verses that such autonomy comes at a high cost.

Romans 6:15–23 asks why we should not keep sinning once we have come to faith in Christ and are no longer under the law of Moses. Paul answers that we can continue to lead lives of volunteer slavery to sin if we don't resist it. Instead, we should live as if righteousness was our master, which, in a sense, it is. We should obey righteousness instead of our sinful desires, in part, because we now understand the consequences of sin. Instead of shame and death, we should serve God who gives eternal life as a gift.

In Romans 6, Paul answers the question of whether Christians should continue to sin. His answer is emphatic: we absolutely should not. First, when we came to God by faith in Jesus, we died to sin. We are not slaves to it any more. Second, what did living for sin ever get us? It led to shame and death. The righteousness given to us for free by God in Christ Jesus leads to becoming like Jesus and to eternal life. We should serve righteousness instead of sin.

After comparing Adam and Christ and what their choices brought into the world, Paul now turns to ask if Christians should continue in sin once they have been saved. He gives several reasons why we must not: we died to sin's power over us; we are now servants to righteousness; and what good did sin ever bring to you, anyway? Paul will transition in Romans 7 to a discussion of what it means to be released from the law of Moses.

The book of Romans is the New Testament's longest, most structured, and most detailed description of Christian theology. Paul lays out the core of the gospel message: salvation by grace alone through faith alone. His intent is to explain the good news of Jesus Christ in accurate and clear terms. As part of this effort, Paul addresses the conflicts between law and grace, between Jews and Gentiles, and between sin and righteousness. As is common in his writing, Paul closes out his letter with a series of practical applications.