Romans 6:15-16 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Paul makes a significant shift here that is not so clear in the English. Before this point, he has consistently used the noun form of “sin” in reference to the deep human problem that enslaves us. In this verse, he shifts to the verb form. Earlier, he asked if we should continue under the bondage of the sin that came through Adam that causes death to all people. Now he is asking, if we should be involved in the sinning process since we have a new master, Jesus Christ? Under the law means we are guilty and enslaved because we struggle to make ourselves righteous. But under grace, we find freedom from guilt and shame. We have a new Master who loves us as children and not as slaves (Galatians 4:7). The choice is up to us: will we choose to be enslaved to sin which will lead to doing the acts of sin? Or, will we become the slaves or servants of Christ, like Paul (Romans 1:1), and this will bring life? We have a choice in this matter. The gospel creates this choice by providing an alternative to the course that human is on. Since all have sinned, all our bound to slavery to sin because of our rebellion. Theologians point out that we don’t have a choice because of depravity. We are not able to do anything except sin. But we now have an escape from this because of God’s grace. God gives us grace that presents the choice to us. That means that remaining a slave to sin is our own choice once we hear the gospel. The final question is, why would anyone remain a slave to sin?
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