Romans 6:15-18, Commentary
Dec 19th, 2009 by Micah Tillman | Start the Discussion |
[ Romans 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6: Intro, 1-5, 6-11, 12-14, 15-18 ]
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
6:15– Once again Paul has to insist that his theory doesn’t give his listeners license to sin. If it did, then it would clearly be false, and thus his argument that his Jewish listeners should see his Gentile listeners as equals would fall apart.
Thus, he makes this argument particularly to his Jewish listeners.
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6:16– To be under the Law is to be a slave of sin, while to be under grace is to be a slave of obedience.
Paul is doing the same thing here that Jesus did in the “You Have Heard It Saids” from the Sermon on the Mount. Living under grace is harder than living under the Law. More is expected of you. You may expect that you won’t have to obey the Law anymore, when in fact you become a slave to obedience!
In fact, Paul here is essentially just recapitulating Jesus’ defense of His teaching, beginning with Matthew 5:17. He’s just repeating, for example, the following claims by Jesus:
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (NRSV)
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6:17-18– So, to what are they supposed to be obedient? Wouldn’t it be ironic if they were supposed to be obedient to the Law? “You’re not under the Law, you’re under grace, which means you’re a slave to obedience . . . to the Law.”
Instead of the Law, Paul says here that they have been handed over to a form of teaching. Usually he would say the opposite (e.g., here): a form of teaching has been handed over to them.
Notice that they have already been handed over to this form of teaching. Paul isn’t teaching them the Gospel. He’s arguing that the Gospel, which they all already know, has certain consequences for how they should live and treat each other.
Paul isn’t evangelizing. He isn’t batting leadoff. He’s batting clean-up.
And yet so many people want to take Romans as the Gospel According to Paul (as teaching us the Foundations of the Faith). . . .
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Anyway, so there’s some form of teaching they have been handed over to, and they’re now obedient to it “from the heart.” They’re in it with their whole selves, in other words. There’s no danger of Paul’s “new” teaching leading them astray, because they’re all already fully committed to the original teaching.
(So his detractors should calm down. Paul’s theory poses no threat of leading his listeners into sin.)
And “charis to God” is Paul’s exclamation over this. “Grace/kindness to God.” Not only are they themselves fully committed, but their commitment is something they should praise or thank God about. God is in some way responsible for it, and if God is in some way responsible for their being committed, how could Paul’s theory lead them astray? In a battle of Paul vs. God, God wins hands down.
(So Paul’s detractors should calm down. Paul’s theory poses no threat of leading his listeners into sin.)
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Furthermore, Paul says his listeners are slaves of righteousness (i.e., justice). The fundamental order of things is what controls them now. And that means they not only do what is right, but want to do what is right. Their hearts and minds are aligned.
Paul, therefore, doesn’t control his listeners. They are controlled by the truth; they are fully committed to being true to the nature of things. His theory will not get them off course.
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Paul is insisting that his apparently-new theory poses no threat. He and his ideas are not something that his Jewish proponents of the Law need to feel threatened by.
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