In the first half of Romans 6, Paul explained that something has been done to Christians — they have died to sin and been raised to new life. Now in verses 15–23 he replays the same truth from a different camera angle: what Christians themselves did when they were converted. The picture shifts from death and resurrection to slavery — leaving one master and entering the service of another. However you look at it, there is no place for sin in the Christian life. Every human being is a slave to one of only two masters, and the master you serve determines everything about your life's direction: whether you are spiralling downward toward death, or climbing upward toward holiness and eternal life.
The Same Goal, Different Camera Angle
In Romans 6:1–14, Paul used the categories of death and life: the old person has died and been raised. Now in verses 15–23 he uses the category of slavery: leaving an old master and entering the service of a new one. It is like watching the same goal replayed from twenty different camera angles on television — the same event, but each perspective gives a clearer, bigger understanding of what happened. And the conclusion is identical: however you look at your conversion, there is no excuse for sin in the Christian life.
Paul is responding specifically to people who twist his teaching from verse 14 — "you are not under law but under grace" — into a licence to sin. He knew the danger. A builder once told some parents he would arrive Monday at 10 a.m. to start work. Monday came and went, then Tuesday, then the whole week — no sign of him. When they protested, reminding him that as a Christian his word should be his bond, he replied: "We're not under law, we're under grace. I don't need to keep my promises." And there are many professing Christians who think exactly like that — getting drunk, using God's name as a swear word, breaking the Sabbath, having sex before marriage, and dismissing it all with "we're under grace." Paul's verdict on this attitude? Verse 15: By no means — the strongest possible denial.
1. Two Masters (vv. 16–18)
Verse 16 is the summary of the whole passage: "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" Two masters, and only two. Every human being is a slave to one or the other. There is no neutral position — however much the Irish might like the idea of neutrality.
How do you know which master you serve? By who you obey. Go to the army barracks and it soon becomes clear who is in charge — it is the one the soldiers leap to obey. You could call yourself the boss in your workplace, but if no one listens to a word you say, you are clearly not the boss. And so it is with the two spiritual masters: the one you actually obey is the one who owns you.
By nature, every human being is a slave to sin. That means you cannot not sin. When sin says jump, you say how high. Perhaps that sounds over the top — maybe you are thinking of nice, kind, decent people you know who are not Christians. But remember that sin is first and foremost about our attitude to God. Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength — and human beings don't do that. We don't even begin to do it. We don't even want to begin. It seems over the top to call people slaves to sin only because we have such a low view of God and such a high view of ourselves.
Imagine inviting someone for a meal. You have gone to enormous trouble. They walk in, insult your wife, bully your children, and threaten you — but they are wonderfully kind to your pets. Does that make up for it? Of course not. If anything, it makes it worse: how could you treat a dog better than you treat human beings? Well, if that is absurd for pets versus people, how much more absurd is it when it comes to God? We are all under sin because we refuse to love the God who made us.
But there is another master. When God converts someone, He sets them free from the cruel master of sin — not to go off and do whatever they want, but to serve a new master who is good, kind, and loving. Verse 17: "Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted." That is what conversion looks like — a permanent, profound shift in loyalty.
2. Two Lifestyles (vv. 19–23)
Each master makes demands according to his own nature, and Paul contrasts the two lifestyles they produce. Interestingly, he describes both as a kind of "freedom" — but one is a false freedom and the other is the real thing.
The Old Master's Lifestyle: A False Freedom
Verse 20: "When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness." That sounds attractive — no boundaries, no accountability, no need to ask what God says. Non-Christians sleep in on Sundays while we are at church. They spend their money however they please while we give faithfully. They never bother with Bible reading or prayer or curating what they watch. They are "free from righteousness."
But Paul asks a piercing question in verse 21: "What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death." It is a false freedom, because we are not designed to live like that. Take Alex Honnold climbing free solo to the top of Taipei 101 — no ropes, no nets, 101 floors. Imagine if at the summit he decided to jump off. No parachute, no net. What incredible freedom — for a few seconds, until he hits the ground. Or take a fish out of Galway Bay and set it on the Salthill prom: "Off you go — enjoy your freedom! The casino is that way, the aquarium is that way, go visit your friends." That is not freedom. That is destruction.
And sin does not stay still. Verse 19 describes it as "ever increasing wickedness" — a vicious downward spiral. Sin is like a drug pusher: it gets its victims hooked so they can't break free, then destroys them. Satan's goal is to make you ultimately like a devil in hell, wiping every trace of goodness from your personality. Consider what has happened in 21st-century Ireland: the nation threw off the "shackles" of religion, threw out God, threw away the church — "Now at last we are free!" But what actually happened? The nation became slaves to materialism. One in four Irish people struggle with depression. That is the fruit of slavery to sin: it does not deliver what it promises.
The New Master's Lifestyle: True Freedom
Then comes the word of hope: "But now…" (v. 22). Something has changed. God has set you free from sin so that you can serve Him — and He is the best, wisest, most loving of masters. When the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, she said of his servants: "How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!" (1 Kings 10:8). If it would be a privilege to serve a brilliant, kind, philanthropic billionaire, how much more to serve the Lord Jesus Christ?
The Christian life is demanding — Jesus described it as a narrow gate and a hard road, and few find it. You must deny yourself, take up your cross daily, cut off the right hand if that is what holiness requires. But Jesus is also clear about where the two roads lead: the narrow road leads to life; the broad, easy road leads to destruction. Verse 22: "The benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." It is a virtuous upward spiral — God's plan to make you more and more like Christ until the day you stand before Him, perfect, sinless, and glorious.
The passage closes with one of the most memorable verses in the Bible: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (v. 23). Sin pays wages — you earn them, you deserve them, and they are death. But God gives — eternal life is a free gift, not a reward for services rendered.
In Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, when the Count spares the life of a bandit called Jacopo, the man is so overwhelmed with gratitude that he says: "I am your man for life. My loyalty is unswerving. I will serve you to the day that I die." That is what Paul is calling every Christian to say to the Lord Jesus today: "I am yours for life." And if you are not yet a Christian, this is what God invites you to say for the first time — to leave the cruel master who is destroying you and enter the service of the One who loved you and gave Himself for you.
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