elijah23 said:
In the 1980s the Lord led me to repent of my unchastity, tobacco use, alcohol use, and caffeine use. When I put an end to these activities, my fear disappeared and my life suddenly became very beautiful. Therefore I encourage you all to do as I did, if you haven’t all ready. Paul said it very well:
[17] But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
[18] and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. Rom 6:17-18 RSV
Interesting passage. I have no complaints about what you said, but would like to borrow your text a little bit and work with it.
[17] But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin I think this is the NASB translation. It is actually quite accurate in using the term slave. Many other translations use a softer term "servants." Actually it is the concept of a bond slave, the guy with the ring in his ear that is a slave for life and has no legal right to ever be free of his master. There is no hope of freedom.
slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, Here is the puzzle of the passage. The slave, who has no legal right to free himself, no ability to break loose from his bondage and slavery to sin, the slave is "
obedient from the heart." Yet, if he is obedient from the heart, he is not a slave. How is this possible? Can the slave free himself and obey from the heart?
[18] and, having been set free from sin, The solution to the previous questions are right here in this phrase. If you will excuse me for using the Greek NT, the term for "having been set free" (18 ??????????????) is passive. The english translation does an exellent job. The translation correctly reflects that the person, the object of the verb is passive and is not doing the action. Rather the person is being acted upon. The cause of the freedom is something outside the man being set free. Of course this is God. This is an illusion of regeneration when the nature of man is changed. Before regeneration we were bound by the slavery of our sin natures and had no power to escape. After regeneration we no longer had our sin nature as master. God has freed us from our sin nature.
Now, this does not mean the sin nature is dead, it is still alive, but we are no longer bound. As an illustration, lets go back to the civil war. When the black man was enslaved to the plantation owner he was not free. He was in legal bondage to the master. After the civil war, the slave was freed, and the master was still alive. Yet the master had no legal right to enslave him any more. Yet where did many black men go for employment? The went right back to the master and became share croppers. The former slave was free, but the former slave again returned and served the master of the plantation.
have become slaves of righteousness. After regeneration we have a new master. Of course being a slave of righteousness, when we sin, or when he take a job share cropping with the old master, such things ought not to be. For this reason Paul must exhort the Christian to live according to the demands of his master. The fact that it is not right for the Christian to live according to the dictates of his unregenerate sin nature is seen in the next verse.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.
Even though we are now slaves of righteousness, and our natures have been changed, we must still be exhorted to present our members as slaves of righteousness unto sanctification. Why must we be exhorted in this fashion? Sin is still alive. It is a sad state of affairs when the sin nature is served when we have the new nature that leads to righteousness. My failures ought not to be, but I think God for his work that enabled me to have faith and begin to serve him.
