Romans 6: From Slavery to Sin to Slavery to Righteousness

I'm going to take us to the book of Romans. Again, it's been a little while since we've been in there. And in Romans 5, we're going to go in terms of background here, we're going to revisit the idea that the explanation Paul has been dealing with in Romans 5 in those prior chapters have contrasted sin with righteousness and justification. Now, if I were to ask you to define what righteousness is, what would you come up with there? I'm going to ask that rhetorically. You got a thought there? Yeah, and I'm going to go exactly to where Mr. Moore referenced Psalm 119.172. Psalm 119 verse 172. I was responsible when I was at ambassador for linking this with, obviously, Matthew 6.33. If we were to seek God's righteousness, what does that entail? And Mr. Moore incited Psalm 119 verse 172. My tongue shall speak of your word, for all your commandments are righteousness. We get this explicit definition in Scripture. Now, I'm going to flip for a while on the intro, and routinely I don't, but I'm going to have you flipping back and forth.

If you're near the book of Romans, I'm going to ask you as well to go to Romans 1 and verse 17. Romans 1 verse 17 that talks about the linking of righteousness with faith. Romans 1 verse 17, which we didn't address too long ago.

So the reason why I would reference this section is, again, here Paul has made the point that we have to live by righteousness. That notion of righteousness means that there are laws. The churches of this world don't get this. I have no idea if you do what I do. There are times in the morning when I get sick of all the talk show stuff.

So I'll flip down the dial and I'll listen to Christian radio, and they'll talk about the love that we have to have, but they make no connection with the obedience to the commandments. They don't see our role in this. And so in a case like this, where it's explicit in Scripture, Psalm 119.172, and that we have to live that faith, which is what we see here in Romans 1 verse 17, and we also see manifest in James 2, the early part of James. Remember how James only has a few chapters, but how the only way God says that we demonstrate faith is by our works. So we have to keep God's commandments in here, but we also have to manifest those commandments, and that's showing a faith that we have in God and Christ. You know, I'm going to go to a couple more Scriptures. 1 John 3-4. In contrast, then, when we're not keeping those commandments, we are, no surprise here, violating that law. And 1 John 3-4 talks about the violation of that law. 1 John 3 verse 4 reads, 2 John 3-4 reads, So we see there, as a reminder that, well, from these just few Scriptures, that we have a responsibility for knowing the commandments, for keeping the commandments. When we don't keep them, then we're in violation of law.

And the realization we've had more recently in Romans 3.23 is that we have all sinned. I would love to tell you that you have been sinless this week. I would love to tell you that I've been sinless this week, and I can't. Because the reality is we've all sinned, and we've all fallen short of the glory of God. And as we'll see at the tail end of Romans 6, which is where we're headed today, the, it's not fair to say, reward, the consequence is, you fill in the blank, death. There's a consequence of the violation of law. So indeed, all humans have fallen short. Now what we've been reminded of through the early parts of Romans is that there's been one exception to the rule. Whereas every human being who has ever lived has violated God's law, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God in the flesh, never sinned. And we're going to see this dealt with as we deal with Romans 6 today. The last time we were in Romans 5, and here's where we'll kind of do a little bit of backtracking by review, is we're reminded of this exact point in Romans 5, and if you will, read with me, verse 12. Because here was a contrast between the sinfulness of Adam and every human being since then, except for Christ. Verse 12 reads this way of Romans 5, Therefore just as through one man sin entered the world, the first of many, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned, crucial wording there at the tail end of 12. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned, according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is the type of him who was to come. So in the flesh, Adam was a forerunner, but in terms of violation of sin, he in no way reflected Christ.

Verse 15, So what we get here, if you recall, as we dealt with Romans 5, is this marked contrast between Adam being the first of all sinners and Christ being in a perfect life, never sinning. Paul makes clear that it's Christ's sacrifice then that makes it possible for anyone to be considered righteous and to be designated by God in a state of justification. As we had dealt with in Romans 3 and 4 then, we talked about righteousness, we defined it here even as we did today. We also talked about this topic of justification. And if you remember, to be justified means simply made righteous. Made righteous. Now we have to do our part. We talked about briefly how this works. My dad, oftentimes when we're having discussions, he talks about we have participative conversion. He said, whenever God deals with us, he gives us a tremendous amount, but he expects us to do our part. And that keeping of the law is the how our righteousness is achieved. And as well, God then provides justification. He designates us as righteous two ways. First of all, he does so by initial justification, and that takes place after baptism. And for those of us who are in the room baptized, this is a discussion that your pastor who baptized you, or maybe I baptized you in this case, had that Christ's sacrifice when applied to us sets us apart. It purges us from all sin. In David's words, Psalm 51 verse 7, it makes us whiter than snow.

There is also, in addition to initial justification, there's also ongoing justification. And here's where we get into the discussion that after baptism, it's us being obedient on a daily basis, and as well being repentant on a daily basis that allows us to remain righteous in God's eyes, to be justified in God's eyes. There was an interesting point that Mr. Max Spiebelmeyer brought up, and he took this from Dr. Holiday's sermon of recent, where he said in our discussion after Passover, he said, It's interesting, I got to thinking about the fact, this Passover, that I'm as clean as I was when I originally came up from that water he gave immediately after baptism.

And that kind of resonated with him, and I think it's a good thing that it resonates with all of us. So we see initial justification in Scripture. We tell with that in Romans 3 and 4. We also see ongoing justification, which means we have to do our part on a regular basis by being obedient and being repentant. And then God sees us as justified and allowed to have that close relationship with him.

Now, I've made note of this before. I think sometimes, and sad to say, it's easy to do so, I think sometimes we can get into a pattern of, Well, I'm doing... this sounds odd to say that... I'm doing Christianity, which those of the world oftentimes do. In fact, I was talking with someone more recently, and the individual said, they kind of said those words to me. They said, I'm doing Christianity. I said, what does that mean?

How do you do Christianity? They said, you know, I go to church on Sundays and I'm kind of doing Christianity. And I said, well, it's a 24-7 deal. It's not like you show up on Sunday and you do this for however long that service is, 30 minutes 45. It doesn't work that way. It's a 24-7 deal.

And so we went back and forth on that. But that's one of the points that Paul is making here. He, God, wants us in a close relationship with Him. And He's provided us stepwise a progress of making sure that we get closer with Him over time. You know, the terminology that's used in Galatians 2.20 that Paul offers about, I die daily, yet not I die.

Yet not I live, but Christ lives in me. You know, we are reminded that we are rebaptized. In fact, I'm going to extend Dr. Holiday's example there, a point he made. Is that whenever we're repentant with to God on a daily basis, it's as though God cleans us, watches us every day, and it's as though we are baptized anew every day and He removes all those things from us.

God then gives His Spirit so that we show growth. And 2 Peter 3.18 reminds us that we are to show growth. That's the commitment we've made. So we've got a lot of background here in terms of anticipating and looking forward to what's then in Romans 6. So I'm going to ask that we take these 23 verses for this sermon, and we work through them. And we'll go a little bit of background initially, and then we'll make our way all the way through it verse by verse.

I've entitled this message, Romans 6, from slavery to sin to slavery to righteousness. We're going to contrast some slavery here. Not my words. These are Paul's words that are inspired by God. So let's deal with some background here. We know Paul is our writer. You know, I don't know if we've noted this to date, but Tertullius in Romans 6 verse 22 is actually the individual who's hired to, he's employed to write the letter. And we don't oftentimes think of that, but Paul is dictating the letter. We see in Romans 16, 22 that Tertullius actually puts his name in.

But we know by background that whenever we're dealing with the author, the one who's dictating, that we're dealing with Paul. Paul, as we recall, has a Gentile father and a Jewish mother. We know he's taught by Gamaliel. We know he's been zealous in opposing the church up until his conversion in Acts 9. And we know that Paul also has written 13 other books, so a whole lot of authorship here.

So we get some background in terms of who we're dealing with. And as a reminder, although our tendency is to think of Paul's words as applicable at that time, we've been reminded that they are just as relevant today. In fact, by background, we're, as I've said numerous times, we're reminded that the Gentiles represent first-generation Christians and the Jews, these two major audiences who Paul was writing to, embody the second and third-generation Christians. So, again, by background, we have a sense of who Paul is writing to. He's addressing to the church at Rome, Jews and Gentiles alike. And additionally, we remember that in greater context, Romans 1-8 is actually dealing with sin, righteousness, justification, and the reconciliation process.

So let's deal with Romans 6 in two separate sections. Romans 6, as we already know, has 23 verses. So we'll deal with verses 1-14, and this is where Paul is dealing with, Without God we are dead, slaves to sin. That's the subtitle we can provide here. And then 15-23 is, we must become not slaves to sin, but slaves to God. So let's first of all deal with slaves to sin, dead to sin, if it helps, in Romans 1-14. And we'll start with verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? I'm going to keep reading up through verse 4. Certainly not. How shall we who die to sin live any longer? Or do you not know that as many of us, as we're baptized into Christ Jesus, we're baptized into his death?

Therefore we were buried with him through baptism, into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Now I've got to give you a little heads up here. I'll quiz you at the end. I've got a five-question quiz, and we just hit one of those questions right off the bat, about the notation of who we are baptized into, and whether it be his death or life. You know, the point that Paul is making here is, should we be allowed to break God's laws knowing that he's going to forgive us? And of course the answer is no. I'll ask you to go with me to a couple of different places. 2 Peter 2, verse 22. Leave a marker there, and I'll do one in the same. 2 Peter 2, verse 22. We're going to leave a marker in Romans 6.

I'm headed back to 2 Peter 2, verse 22. And there's an interesting link in this verse to location in Psalms 26 that I'll also make reference to, but I'll just ask you to turn here. 2 Peter 2, verse 22 is a reminder that once we're converted, we can't go back to what's behind. Now I've made this note before. One of the hardest things that I had in terms of academics, and I'll liken it to this. I'll start here, and then I'll liken it to what we deal with in terms of the conversion process, is whenever I was going through baptism or anticipating baptism, I had gone through a period of time where, for whatever reason, I had some friends of mine that had real upheaval in their lives. They were making really bad decisions, and I was watching this unfold. I won't go into what they were dealing with. One of the guys had gotten involved with a little gal that was underage. I'll leave it at that, and I saw his life starting to unravel in front of him. I also saw some of my other friends dealing with drugs, and these were, surprise, surprise, these were my church friends. And I was having a hard time with this. At the same time, I got to looking at my life, and I thought to myself, I'm seeing what they're doing. I'm seeing where I want to go. Maybe like some of you, for those of us who are raised in the church, and I thought, my decision is pretty obvious. I know I don't want to go back to a mindset or stay in a mindset that's going to prevent me from growing closer to God. And so I made a decision around, I think that was 21, and I was baptized at that time to commit my life to God and went through counseling. Now I liken that separately because one of the things, though it was interestingly enough here, and for those of you who happen to be first generation Christians who've come to an understanding of the truth for the first time in your life, I'm oftentimes taken by the stories that you offer in coming from one lifestyle and turning 180 degrees.

I think about, and I'll leave some of the people nameless here, I've had conversations, and he can talk openly with you about it, Mr. Robbie Briggs, about having first growing up in the church and then leaving for a period of time, and then realizing, so you know, not too many years ago, how much he wanted to walk with God, and how much a change that was.

You know, for some of us, that change isn't as dramatic. Whenever I was in grad school, I remember thinking to myself, and I think I've noted this here, that for whatever reason, I can't speak to Dr. Holliday in this case, there were times when I was in grad school where I just thought they were trying to kill me. I was really convinced that they were really trying to destroy my life. And I remember on so many occasions, and God allows us to deal with this, that in prayer, that I said to God, I know what's behind me.

I'm not going to go back to that. I can only go ahead. And I found myself as well saying and learning more about what someone who is unconverted goes through before they become converted by that experience, because I knew I did not want to go back to the filth that was behind. I knew I didn't want to go back to that mindset. I knew that in my lifetime that I wanted to be closer to God. And so I found myself reminded that you can't go back.

There's no going back. And that's really the point that's written here in verse 21 and 22 of 2 Peter. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered to them. But it has happened, verse 22, to them according to the true proverb, those who know the truth and then turn back.

A dog returns to its own vomit and a sow having washed to wallow in her mire. You know, the language that's there is one that properly depicts, indeed, what happens when we turn back to this world. Because when we make a commitment to God, it is as though a dog turns back to its own vomit. You know, the implication there is that a dog goes back and consumes its own vomit.

Proverbs 26, 11, and 12 actually hit upon this same focus that's noted in the book of Romans. Because those in the church at Rome were prideful. Both Jews and Gentiles were prideful, if you recall. But they were prideful in different ways, and yet Paul had an issue with both. They needed to rid themselves of that pride. In verse 10, excuse me, 2, it then offers Romans 6, certainly not, How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Our sins are buried with Christ, and that's one of the beautiful things about baptism. Whenever we are baptized, we, in that watery grave, we leave those sins behind. But we also leave behind that desire to want sin. That's one of the things that we make a commitment to. Now, we have that battle. We have that battle on a daily basis the rest of our lives. But the commitment we make whenever we say, I do, whenever we affirm that we are committed at baptism, is one that we won't go back to those. And that's the language that shows up in verse 2.

In verse 3, it talks about, do you not know that many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? Again, our sins are buried with Christ. Whenever we undertook baptism, as we see in verse 4, it's a reminder that we are to bury our sinful nature each day and be raised in newness of life, resurrected each day. Our focus then needs to be on that newness of life that Christ experienced and that's gifted to us.

So, if you will, go with me to verse 5. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. You know, we went through the act of water baptism to drive home the point that our sinful carnal nature has to end. It has to be buried. And it must be buried every day. And that raising from the watery grave is a reminder that we are to be brought back to newness of life every day.

That's the commitment we make of baptism. And so, whenever we go through a repentant process, we say to God, bury these sins. Rid us of these sins every day. Leave them under the water and bring us back in newness of life so we can walk more like Christ does with your spirit every day. Verse 6 reads, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him. Now, interestingly enough here, Paul's using a number of pictures for us symbolically so we understand this.

He uses the point of burial through water. And he also then adds to this a separate picture in terms of being crucified with Christ in verse 6. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him. That the body of sin might be done away with. That we should no longer be slaves to sin. Again, Paul's using visual images here to explain the contrast between sin and righteousness. Because Christ died and was resurrected, we are no longer enslaved to sin. It's that act that he did that takes that sin away.

Verse 7, for he who has died has been freed from sin. The point being here is that once buried, once we go to our knees, once we ask for repentance, those sins remain there. They are buried with us. They're buried there through the prayer, through baptism, and then through daily repentance and prayer. And they're left there behind us. And that penalty is erased because of Christ's sacrifice.

And that then keeps us in that state of justification that Paul has talked about. You know, in the tale end of 7, it talks about freed from sin. Our responsibility is that we obey and repent each day. We must, though, be obedient. And that means we have to know his laws. That means we have to keep his laws. And we must do them every day. And it's when God sees that commitment from us, that commitment to be like him, to be like Christ, when he sees that, when he sees our acknowledgment on our knees of falling short through repentance, then he applies Christ's sacrifice, just as we saw and talked about in the Passover service of recent. So that takes us up to verse 8. Verse 8 reads then, Talking about resurrection, You know, in a case like this, Christ has taken the penalty of death. You know, we saw and heard more recently at Passover how gruesome that death was for Christ.

That gruesome death was a death warrant that he had from the moment he was born. As we just talked about and thought through in Passover, none of us were there to witness the Roman soldiers brutally beating and ridiculing Christ. None of us witnessed the religious authorities who spat in his face, who slapped him, who pounded them with their fists, who ridiculed him. None of us watched the whipping that he endured. Whipping oftentimes to such a point where the individual who would whip to the point of death and then they would take water and pour water on him to wake him back up so they could whip him more. None of us saw the scourging that our Savior went through to a point where he was, by many a record, half-dead. None of us saw him led away and saw him crucified.

But we read of it and we were reminded of it at Passover. And we were reminded that the penalty that he paid was not his penalty.

It was our penalty.

He paid the price for all who had ever sinned, which means everyone who had ever lived. And that's the point that Paul is making here as we move to verse 10. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all.

But the life that he lives, he lives to God.

Verse 11 reads, You know, we depart from our old life. That's a commitment we make. And we seek a new life by baptism and by having God's Spirit. Verse 12 reads, So what Paul has done is he's given us a picture of all Christ has gone through. He's given us a sense in, you know, in essence, in synopsis. He's covered everything that's offered there in the Gospels in terms of the account that Christ endured. Plus all the prophecies that happened, the Old Testament prophecies, is a reminder of all he endured. And what he's offering here is that this difference, this contrast between what the penalty of sin is and what the tremendous gift that God gives those who have an understanding of his plan of salvation.

There is a huge, I can't even, I don't have a term big enough. There is a, this incredible difference between sinning and what God provides in terms of a gift to be a part of his family. Now that means we have a responsibility that we will fall short. Well, when I say this, you don't have a responsibility to fall short. You will fall short. But our responsibility is to do what? To come back to God and to ask him for forgiveness, to be reminded that we will fall short, but to not let sin dominate us.

There is a horrible danger for anyone who gives up, gives in to fighting sin. Because that individual risks being lost forever. Sin has free reign, and those whom God calls, he does not give, does not desire that they should have sin in their lives. Verse 13, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. There is a terminology link here, or a reference that I have in my Bible.

Let us be weapons of righteousness. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. So what we see through all of this is that we have a responsibility to never yield our thoughts, our minds, our hearts, our actions to sin. Once we recognize that we are no longer our own at baptism, because we're not our own. We're not our own. We're God's. We have a requirement to live by God. As we've seen up through 14, baptism requires that we take ground every day, that we advance every day the rest of our lives.

You know, I found, for whatever reason, whenever I was developing this message, for those of us who happen to be history buffs, some of you are much more history buffs than I am, the idea that we should take ground every day, for whatever reason, the term take the hill, if you recall, is one that oftentimes is characteristic of what those in the military have to know and have to do.

I got interested in doing a little bit of research here about the language of taking ground or taking the hill every day, and found myself back, I have no idea, those of you who have happened to follow some of the exploits of Robert E. Lee, but Lee happened to, on one exchange, tell one of his generals to take a hill during the Civil War.

And in doing so, that was the best that I could find in terms of the origin. But that language, take the hill or take the take ground, is one that's routinely been a part of military, of advances in military, over, as best I could see, for hundreds of years. I found myself on one account reading of an individual at Iwo Jima, whenever they were responsible there during World War II, during having to take that hill. And you may remember that instance where that hill had to be taken, and they had to plant that flag, and all those men were there in order to plant that flag.

And one individual by the name of Earl Dunlap talked about all he had to go through in order to be a part of them planting that flag. And Dunlap's story is, I'll do the best I can to paraphrase here, he talked about the commitment that they made once he, as a Marine, had to, came upon that island. Once he was landed on that island. And he talks at length about how, on multiple occasions, he had the Japanese gunning him down, he provided accounts of being shot multiple times and moving on. He talks about, on one occasion, as they happened to near that hill, that he came upon a cave, and upon coming upon the cave, someone happened to have thrown out a hand grenade.

And whenever he had the hand grenade come out, at the last second, he kind of balled himself up, like in the fetal position. And it actually, as the story recounts, it blew him ten feet high and his backpack off. But amazingly, he said, I couldn't believe that I was still able to stand up and move forward.

And he gives in this account the fact that he actually went in, because there were three Japanese soldiers inside this cave, and he took all their lives. And then he came out, and he continued to progress on. And the reason why I would visit this is because Earl Dunlap's mindset is the mindset that we have to have. Dunlap, as he talks about in this account, said, no matter what it was, when we were given a command to take that hill, we were going to take that hill. He said, and there was no question in my mind that if I had to lose my life in the process, that I was going to take that hill.

You know, that is, in essence, what God is expecting of us. God expects, once we are called, once we are baptized, once we are given a spirit, that we will sacrifice everything to make spiritual advances.

To take more ground, to take that hill.

So I use Earl Dunlap's example as a reminder to no matter how many times we fall, no matter how many times we have setbacks in terms of sin, no matter how many different challenges we face, barriers we face, we are called to get up and to charge forward so that we can make the gains that we've committed to at baptism.

That's what 14 is about. For sin shall not have dominion over you. We will not be defeated by sin, but you are not under law, but under grace. Then contrast, those first 14 verses in terms of slaves to sin, contrast with the latter verses that we then read in 15 to 23, which we are, as Paul notes, not slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness and to God.

Verse 15 reads this way, what then shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Again, those at the church at Rome, particularly those who had been around for a while, they were comfortable with the idea, well, if we sin, God repents. And God says, no, I don't take that. That's not how this works. And Paul's driving this point home that because we have opportunity of forgiveness does not give us license to go on sinning.

Certainly not, verse 15. Verse 16. Do you not know that to whom you present yourself to obey? You are that one slave whom you obey, whether of sin to death or of obedience to righteousness.

But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, to which you were entrusted, one verse has. You know, verse 18 offers the following, and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. There's the contrast we have in those verse 14 verses.

You know, what Paul is kind of saying here is, although you once served sin, you now serve righteousness. You are servants of righteousness.

The Romans 8, 7 reminds us that it's only by God's Spirit that we properly understand how to serve God.

God's Spirit, as we dealt with more recently, is the helper during those spring feasts. It doesn't mean that we'll perfectly keep God's laws, but there is no comparison between God's Spirit in terms of what He gives us as a helper and not having it.

God's Spirit fundamentally changes us, and it puts us in a different path in life so that we can seek God's kingdom and become a part of the God family.

Verse 19, I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, but just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanliness and of lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

I got interested here in terms of Paul using the language of slavery, and it's helpful at least to gain some context about why he's using this terminology in terms of slavery to sin and slavery to righteousness.

And I went back and did a little bit of research here. It was actually Aristotle in the 4th century B.C. who said, slavery by its very nature involves belonging to another. In the Roman Empire, if it helps, at the time of Paul's writing, roughly half the people of the Roman population were slaves.

It was W. L. Westerman who wrote the following in 1955 about the slavery system of the Greeks and Romans at that time. The institution of slavery was a fact of Mediterranean economic life, so completely accepted as part of the labor structure of the time that one cannot correctly speak of the slave problem in antiquity, because there wasn't a problem.

It was too commonplace to be a problem for them. This unquestioning acceptance of the slave system explains why Plato, in his plan of the good life as depicted in the Republic, did not need to mention the slave class.

The slave class was simply there. So one of the things that's helpful, at least to know, in terms of Paul using the language of slavery, is those in Rome were very comfortable with this idea.

If 50% of the population were slaves, they were well familiar with the idea of slavery. In a case like this, we have about 30 people in the room. Half the people would be slaves.

Paul knew this. When he was dealing with the church at Rome, he was dealing with a church that likely had half of them as slaves.

So when he's talking and using the language of slavery as a reminder of who was their owner, in a case like this, they were well familiar with the language he was using.

The slavery Paul spoke of was real to him. They could easily relate to it.

And so that's why he uses this language here. This slavery of unrighteousness versus slavery of righteousness.

Verse 20. For when you were slaves of sin, you were freed in regard to righteousness.

What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

You know, what he's saying here is in the past you were slaves to sin.

What benefit then came from that sinful nature, from that bondage?

Well, nothing. The only thing that comes from slavery, slavery to sin, is pain, is suffering.

Humans for 6,000 years haven't gotten this lesson.

For 6,000 years, human beings as slaves to righteousness have endured pain, misery, futility, and death.

There are on so many different occasions where I'll talk with different people and have opportunity to talk.

Maybe like you have. And they will talk separate from God.

But out of knowledge of God's truth, they'll talk about the futility of this age.

The futility of life. How frustrating life is. Why is that?

It's because a life lived without God is a life of slavery to sin. That's what that is.

And yet, in a case like this, God gives you and me opportunity to be slaves to righteousness.

Verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin, you were freed in regard to righteousness. Verse 21, what fruit did you have then in things of which you are now ashamed?

For the end of these things is death. But now, having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life.

You know, we're reminded here in verse 22, and the point's going to be driven home in 23, is that what God gives us in terms of being slaves to righteousness is ultimately life eternal.

A life without pain. A life of happiness.

I'll only quote Revelation 21 verse 4, and it reads this way.

The last verse that's then offered in Romans 6 is verse 23.

For the wages of sin is death. He's making a point in driving home what he just dealt with.

But the gift of God is eternal.

The gift of God is eternal.

And it's not a gift of death, but a gift of death.

And it's not a gift of death.

And it's not a gift of death. He's making a point in driving home what he just dealt with.

But the gift of God is eternal life.

In Christ Jesus our Lord.

God promises to give us not just a long life, an incredible life.

As 1 Corinthians 2, 9 says, it offers, As it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, Neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

God is going to give us something well beyond anything we can conceive.

But we must be slaves of righteousness in order to be there.

So we've covered 23 verses, so I have five questions for you. We're going to play quiz time.

Question one. You ready for this? I'm asking you to write it on your page. Question one. What is the payment of sin?

What is the payment of sin?

You got it.

She knocked that one out of the park.

The rest of you may have written it down. Let me ask you to write down the second one.

What must we do to resist sin? How do we wind up being righteous?

I'll ask. What did you have there?

We keep God's commands, and God allows that in terms of applying Christ's sacrifice. Question three. Who are this early part of the chapter? Who are we baptized into?

Not Paul. We're baptized into Jesus Christ.

Earlier on, are we baptized into Christ's death or His life?

We're baptized, you remember this? And to His death, not His life. We're raised in His life.

In verse 13, I gave you an indication here as we move through this. How should we then present our bodies to God? There are other places in Scripture that offer other instructions.

But it's 13 notes as instruments of righteousness.

So you had five questions. Hopefully you did well there.

In Romans 6, Paul makes clear how being baptized into Christ makes us dead to sin and free to present our bodies as instruments of righteousness.

We're looking forward to Romans 7, because it's in 7 that we will see Paul, probably the most personal struggle in Scripture with sin, that Paul will offer.

Paul will recognize himself as a man under the law who wants to do good, but who is in a constant struggle to do so. If it's been a little while since you've read Romans 7, I would encourage you to go and do so.

He knows the evil that's present in him, and you'll see that in Romans 7.

He knows also that evil law that he labels a law in his flesh that desires to do anything but be obedient.

As a prisoner, we'll see Paul cry out for freedom. And as we'll also see, there is hope.

That hope is a clear sense of God's law. And as we've already noted here, Christ's sacrifice to be applied to us and his Spirit as a helper so that we can become more like God each day.

Paul will elaborate all of this on all of this in Romans 7 and also forward in Romans 8.

So I would contend that we need to stay tuned. Make sure you read ahead if you want, so that we again can continue to learn the lessons that are provided here in the book of Romans.