Romans 6:22

Rom_6:22

But now being made free from sin.

The freedom and dignity of the Christian

I. We are free from sin.

1. We are free from--

(1) Its guilt and pollution. Sin is represented as an evil of enormous magnitude. It is said to be a plague and a leprosy, foul, odious, detestable. But now there is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.

(2) Its curse and condemnation. So many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. The acts of our disobedience are innumerable, and the curse of heaven comes down where sin is. But Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Therefore is there now to us no condemnation.

(3) Its tyranny. Before our conversion it did reign; we obeyed not God but sin. Since our conversion sin has not had dominion over us; for we are not under the law, but under grace.

(4) Its sting and bitterness. There is no comfort, no peace, as long as we are indulging sin and under the power of it. Christ makes us free. His precious blood, presented to us, pacifies and purifies the conscience.

(5) All its consequences perfectly and forever. The wages of sin is death; but he that believeth My sayings, says Jesus Christ, shall never see death. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. We are made free. There is some power exerted upon us distinctly Divine: we call it grace or the work of God. God calls us to come forth from our bondage; and we, hearing His voice, do come; but the power which gives us the ability to assert our freedom is His own. This freedom is ascribed--

(1) To the Father: You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins; We give thanks to the Father, who hath translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son.

(2) To Christ. He was anointed to preach the opening of the prison doors to them who are bound; and if the Son shall make us free, we shall be free indeed.

(3) To the Holy Ghost. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The plan emanates from the Everlasting Father; the carrying of it into execution is the work of the Son; and its application to our minds, by which we are personally made free, is the work of the Holy Ghost.

3. The instruments employed.

(1) The truth. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

(2) Grace; and the more we know of it, the better we understand the riches of the grace of God.

(3) The ministry. I have sent thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, etc. And all these conspire and unite.

II. We become servants of God. Our deliverance from sin is in order to this.

1. This name, servant, is a name of glory because it has been borne by Christ, and by the most distinguished men that ever lived. Moses, Job, David, Paul, James. These triumphed in nothing so much as rendering service in their free state to God. His service is perfect freedom.

2. How is it brought about? We first receive the truth; the blessings of the gospel, freeing us from sin, are brought by faith and knowledge into our nature. The natural effect of this is confidence and love towards God. We cease to be afraid; the spirit of bondage gives way; and the Spirit of adoption comes in its stead. This new view of God induces consecration. We yield ourselves unto God as those that are alive from death, and our members as the instruments of righteousness unto God.

3. What will the Master have us to do? It is required in a servant that there be--

(1) Integrity.

(2) Faithfulness.

(3) Diligence.

(4) Affection.

III. Our fruit is unto holiness.

1. Beautiful fruit; fruit meet for repentance. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, etc. Holy fruits: that is, fruits that are vital, fresh, blooming, luscious.

2. There never has been any fruit unto holiness separate from the principles of the gospel. There may be morals, dry and barren, but there is no holiness but as it arises out of faith and love towards Jesus.

3. In order to fruitfulness there must be cultivation. There must be a diligence and a care that we show forth in our tempers and practice the various points of that blessed light and beauty which is called in the text holiness.

IV. The end is everlasting life. The end is everything. If it were so that the course of religion in this world were a course of sorrow, if the end were everlasting life, it were worth the while to walk it. But it is not: the way is peace, the path is light, the progress is joy, and then the end is everlasting life. The more I see of this life, the more I feel that it is a poor, dissatisfied life. Irrespective of God, it is not worth having. And I am increasingly persuaded that the life to come is unbounded, and perpetual, and everlasting activity, conscious purity, splendid glory, and rest in His beatific vision. (J. Stratten.)

The redeemed soul

I. As gloriously emancipated.

1. It is made free from sin--from its power, its guilt, and its consequences.

2. This emancipation is the most real, valuable, and lasting of any.

II. As divinely consecrated. Become servants to God. His service is the most--

1. Reasonable.

2. Free. It insures the free action of all the powers of the soul.

3. Honourable. What an honour to be employed by Him!

III. As prosperously employed. Fruit unto holiness. Holiness is the perfection of being. Having the fruit to holiness implies that every thought, word, and deed bears towards perfection.

IV. As everlastingly blessed. The end everlasting life. Life without end.

1. Free from all evil.

2. Possessed of all good. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Right! left! right!

I. The first stage of the Christian journey is conversion, now being made free from sin. What, then, is this freedom from sin? What, then, this emancipation we get at the Cross? Sin is here. Sin is in us, sin is on us. Sin has flung on our soul the double coiled chain of penalty and power. We are prisoners bound by the two-twisted grapple of guilt, but it is all snapped and shivered in the surrender of the soul to the Lord. He hath sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Heres the gospel for you. The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Every fraction of my awful debt Christ has rendered, and now I am pardoned, justified, reconciled unto God by the death of His Son, and God righteously bestows upon me the full remission of my sins, that He might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. I am, in conversion to Christ, free from sin, its penalty. Yet once more, conversion brings freedom from the power and presence of sin. Slaving in the rice fields of sin was I! hoeing along in the heat of the plain of hell was I! manacled was I! But, happy day! on the horizon a broad sail appeared, and a vessel bore down to the terrible shore, and lo, the blood-stained banner of the Cross of Christ waved its welcome to my weary soul, and I lifted myself from the swamps and fled, and plunged into the deep with a cry for help. Lord, save me, I perish. Help came, salvation came, the Lord walked on the wave and brought me on board, and I fell down at His feet as if dead.

II. The second station on the line to glory is what we call, for want of a better name, conduction, become servants to God. You know what conduction in physical science is. It is the communication of heat from one body to another by contact. There must be touch, or there will be no passing along of the caloric wave. Cant you realise this natural law in the spiritual world? It is the secret of effective service to God. Examine the extremities and see that the touch is certain. Is your soul, Christian worker, in contact with God? Is your soul, Christian worker, in contact with man? Have you regeneration from God? Have you sympathy with man? A soul saved, and soul seeker. That is service. Bring the soul into living contact with the living God, and the Divine heat by the law of conduction will ripple its waves through the mass of humanity till all the earth shall acknowledge Him; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. But where shall I work? How shall I serve? how labour for God on the earth? Where you are called, there preach. Serve God with your new life where He gave it you. Serve you your God by doing His will in the trivial round, the common task. Who sweeps a room as for His laws makes that and the action fine. Be a servant to God.

III. The third platform we reach on this royal route to heaven is consecration: Ye have your fruit unto holiness. Rowland Hill says truly, he wouldnt give a fig for a mans religion if his very cat wasnt the better of it! Be a fruiter in the Christian life, not a florist. It was said of one of those perfection florists, Ay, hes perfect, he says, but ask his wife! Many will pray that will never pay, and yet paying not praying is the fruit unto holiness. To one of those florists of holiness I once lent my last coin, and Ive never seen it nor him, and its ten years now since he, with three or four hundred more of the coins of others to keep mine company, took his spring-heeled flitting in the bonnie moonlight! Many will talk that will never walk, and yet walk not talk is the fruit unto holiness. The world needs Christs, be you a Christ! Live holiness by living Christ, for the blessing is not an it, but a He. Christ in you, working through you, that we should be to the praise of His glory.

IV. And now, the terminus of this railway journey to the regions beyond is what we call, also for the want of a better name, and to keep to our cons for your memorys sake, congregation, the end, everlasting life. Right has been, left has been, right again has been, it is now straight on! On screams the engine whistle, and the piston plunges, and the wheels move. Night! Thunders the iron steed on its ringing track, smoothly on, steadily on, into the darkness. (John Robertson.)

The blessedness of believers

I. Their freedom from sin. Consider--

1. Wherein this freedom consists. It does not mean that they are made free from the being of sin. This will be the case by and by, when they shall be like Christ as well as see Him as He is. But it does mean that they are free from--

(1) Its penal consequences. Christ hath redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them.

(2) As to its empire. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. And what is grace if it suffers sin to conquer?

(3) From its love. Persons may leave what they do not loathe, and still may be hankering after it. This was the case with the Israelites and Lots wife, but it is not the case with the real Christian. The streams of sin are embittered to him; he can never love that again which killed Him, who is all his salvation and all his desire. And this aversion extends not to sins to which he has no propensity, but to his darling lusts, to those which are as dear as a right eye or a right hand.

2. But a deliverance supposes a Deliverer. Did they make themselves free? Did creatures, ministers, or angels? No, it was the work of God Himself.

II. Their consecration to Gods service. Negative religion is not enough. It is not enough that you cease to do evil; you must learn to do well. It is not enough that you are made free from sin; you must become the servants of God.

1. God has every claim. We are His absolutely. He made us. Were He to suspend His sustaining influence we should relapse into nothingness. And you are not your own in a much nobler sense; you are bought with a price, and therefore you are bound to glorify God, etc.

2. Notice the nature of this service.

(1) There is a sense in which all are Gods servants. Nebuchadnezzar was the rod of His anger and the staff of His indignation, but he meant not so, neither did his heart think so. He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and restrains the remainder of it, just as the miller draws off the hatch and lets in as much water as the grinding requires, and then lowers it again and restrains the rest.

(2) But there are servants from conviction and disposition. They are made willing in the day of His power, and hold themselves at His disposal, asking, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?

(3) This service is not confined to official characters. Moses, Job, David, etc. Ministers are called the servants of God, but the name itself is applicable to all real Christians. The highest angel is no more than a servant of God, and the poorest believer on earth is nothing less. The man of five talents can serve God as well as the man of ten.

(4) This service is not confined to attendance upon the means of grace. These are not religion, but are the means, because they are those things in the use of which we obtain the supply of the Spirit to go forth and live to God entirely. Whether, therefore, a Christian is on the throne or on the bench, in the shop or on the road, he may be still serving God and have the testimony that he pleases God.

(5) This service is passive as well as active. They also serve who wait, and they who suffer. And perhaps Gods people never glorify Him more than in the fires. Perhaps nothing impresses others so much as the passive graces in Christians.

III. Their present privileges. The fruit of a tree is something from which we derive pleasure and profit, and by which it is known and identified. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. What fruit?

1. True profit. In the days of Job, infidels asked, What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? etc., and in the days of Malachi they were audacious enough to say, It is vain to serve God, etc. To all which the apostle returns a perfect answer: Godliness is profitable to all things, etc.

2. Safety. If God be for us, who can be against us?

3. Peace. Great peace have they that love Thy law. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, etc.

4. Pleasure that deserves the name, pleasure that reaches the very soul, and produces sunshine and satisfaction there. Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound, etc.

5. Health, if it be good for you; sickness, if it be good for you; wealth, if it be good for you; reputation, if it be good for you; for no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Therefore the Saviour says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, etc.

IV. Their final blessedness. The end everlasting life. (W. Jay.)

The blessed state of believers

I. They are free from sin.

1. Its accumulated guilt.

2. Its tyranny.

3. Its love.

4. Its defilement.

II. They are the servants of God.

1. Governed by His will.

2. Supported by His grace.

3. Interested in His cause.

III. Their fruit is unto holiness. The fruit of their--

1. Heart.

2. Lips.

3. Lives.

IV. Their end is everlasting life. A state of--

1. Uninterrupted and eternal union with Christ.

2. Active and delightful employment.

3. The highest enjoyment. (Biblical Museum.)

Servants to God.--

Gods servants

I. The ground of their service. They are Gods property (Tit_2:14; 1Co_6:19-20; 1Pe_1:18).

II. Its dignity. It is a great thing to be a servant of an earthly monarch; but what a dignified and dignifying service is spoken of here! Contrast it with that out of which we are taken.

III. Its freedom. Observe the words become servants. Although the introduction to His service is an act of grace towards you, you are not forced into it contrary to your will (2Co_5:14). It is a service of love, the yoke is easy and the burden light. This service is perfect freedom.

IV. Its privileges. A good master--

1. Provides for his servants, thinks for his servants. Oh, how Gods servants are provided for! what angels food, what raiment, what protection!

2. Upholds his servants, and our Master will uphold His. His name is upon them, His honour is identified with them, their cause is His. If one of the servants of the Queen, representing us in a foreign land, be insulted, in a moment the whole country is in arms.

V. Its characteristics and duties.

1. A good servant is described to us in Scripture; he has--

(1) A watchful eye. As the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their masters, etc. In Eastern countries instead of giving directions by word of mouth, they are often given merely by indications of the hand or of the eye. A good servant will have the eye of faith on the Masters hand, and watch the indication of the Masters eye, that there may be no delay in serving; and the promise is, I will guide thee with Mine eye.

(2) A listening ear: Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.

(3) A ready foot. I will run in the way of Thy commandments.

(4) A ready heart. An offering of a free heart will I give Thee.

(5) A submissive, obedient will.

2. There is a beautiful directory for servants of the Lord in 2Ti_1:1-18 and

2. A good servant must--

(1) Be a praying servant. Stir up the gift of God that is in thee.

(2) Not be ashamed of his master. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.

(3) Hold fast the truth. Hold fast the form of sound words.

(4) Be true to his trust. That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

(5) Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

(6) Endure hardness.

(7) Study to show himself approved unto God.

(8) Flee youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, etc.

(9) Persevere (Rom_3:14).

VI. Its future. How the Spirit loves to light up that future (Col_3:24; Joh_12:26; Rev_22:1-21.; Luk_12:37)! (M. Rainsford.)

Ye have your fruit unto holiness.--

Fruit unto holiness

I. Gods glory requires it (Joh_15:8).

II. Christs fulness requires it. For what purpose has He this fulness, but that He may give it out to us as the root to the branches grafted into it. What we want is faith to draw upon that fulness. There is life, truth, strength, holiness enough in Jesus, to carry us triumphantly through every difficulty; but the stint and straitening is in our own faith.

III. The spirits inhabitation requires it. Will God put His Spirit into us, and be content that we should walk at the low rate at which men walk who have no such privileges? The fruit of the Spirit is love, etc.

IV. The saints peace requires it. How much unhappiness we bring upon ourselves by the devious ways we take, the dark paths we wander into, and by the neglect of the means God has provided for our being strengthened and helped, and for our having the joy of the Lord for our strength. (M. Rainsford.)

Fruit unto holiness

1. Two great principles pervade and rule the universe--sin and holiness. There are but these two. There will ever be these two. Now that the second has entered, it would seem neither can be wholly destroyed.

2. It is to one of these two principles we are directed in the text. As the dark ground on which it may best appear, look first at the other. Evil, wrong, sin--the first word betokening its nature, the second its opposition to right, the third its relation to law--what a curse it has been to creation! Gather in thought all the evils which now afflict humanity, add to them all those under which creation groans, add still all those which in another world will continue forever--and you see the elements of that evil thing which has mysteriously sprung up in Gods universe; which He hates, which angels deplore, and which we call sin. It is like emerging from a dark tunnel to sweet air and clear sunshine, to turn from this subject to the one before us.

I. What is holiness?

1. It has many counterfeits.

(1) You see yonder the Pharisee. Men call him holy, because he wears a holy garment with a broad phylactery, is unctuous in his speech, loud in his profession, fluent in his prayers.

(2) In ancient times you might have seen another sort of man, in a cell, wearing a filthy garment, living upon roots, scowling on the outside world, for which he did nothing, and pretending thus to mortify the deeds of the body.

(3) Yonder is another character, absorbed about spiritual subjects, a great authority on abstruse doctrines, yet withal exclusive, proud, soon angry, intolerant, unlovely at home.

(4) Or look at a collective scene. See that crowd thronging to hear a favourite preacher, or to swell the enthusiasm of a public meeting, or to observe some saints day, all wearing the air of religiousness, and all yielding themselves to the fascination of spiritual excitement. Now far be it from me to suggest that it may not exist in some of these, but they are not the thing.

2. The simplest definition of holiness is conformity to God. So far as we can understand Gods holiness, it consists in infinite rectitude of thought, feeling, nature, and it is essential to Him, so that without it He could not be. He is the Holy One. This holiness regulates all He does. But who can stand in His holy place to gaze upon and imitate Him?

Though we cannot do this, however, recollect He has given us reflections of His holiness.

1. Gods Word is a reflection of Himself. In a book you get a mans thoughts and spirit. All its injunctions and prohibitions are on the side of holiness. By common consent it is the Holy Bible, and we are like God, holy as He is holy, in proportion as we look into the perfect law, catch and reflect its image.

2. Not in a book only, but in a living person has God exhibited His holiness. How holy Christ was! If you cannot imitate the original, then look at the copy. Our holiness consists in being like Christ. As you look at Christ, too, you see what holiness is not, as well as what it is. It is not asceticism. Christ was in the world; yet He was holy. It is not absence from temptation. He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. It is not morbid sensibility, ever weighing experience and scrutinising motive. Christ was active, went about doing good, was healthy in His moral temperament. It was not unnaturalness, the assumption of anything peculiar, whether in dress, speech, or behaviour. Christ was perfectly natural; the light shone because it was there.

3. Though this is perhaps a sufficient definition, it is not a complete one, for there are elements which go to make up our holiness which could not exist in Christ. In order to holiness in us there must be contrition for sin, and this of course Jesus had not.

4. Still, the definition is not complete. Were it possible to express in a word the nature of absolute holiness, we could not do better than adopt the word Love. God is love, Christ was love, and the nearest approach we can make to perfect holiness is pure love.

II. Why should we be holy? Why should we not; what reason can be urged for sin? It is unreasonable. Holiness is the highest reason.

1. Consider--

(1) It was Gods original purpose with regard to us. And this first purpose He has steadily adhered to. How holy the creature He formed! God made man upright. In the image of God created He man. How powerful this motive! God meant us, made us, to be holy. As sin does not destroy law, nor alter the Divine perfection, so neither does it disturb the Divine purpose.

(2) If anything can be stronger as a motive than that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. it is to be found in She great work of Christ. God so loved the world. Why? To promote the interests of holiness, to vindicate His own and to secure that of His creatures. The atonement of Christ does both.

(3) Nor did He only die for this. For this, too, He lives and reigns. The first gift He bestowed after His ascension was the royal one of the Holy Spirit, whose work is emphatically to promote holiness.

2. In thus gathering motives from the throne, the Cross, the work of the Spirit, forget not personal ones. The apostle urges these strongly.

(1) Your profession. You have made this, have been baptized, taken upon you the badge of discipleship. What means this? How shall we who are thus by profession dead to sin, live any longer therein? Consistency with what you profess requires holiness. Either give up your profession, or give up sin--the two are incompatible.

(2) Nor this only. If believers, you are one with Christ; as such, should be like Him. He was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father; we should rise too.

(3) Still farther; recollect your sinful nature. The old man, corrupt according to deceitful lusts, is legally destroyed. Not only are motives to sin withdrawn, but right is removed. Therefore reckon this to be your state, and yield not your members as its instruments.

3. Motives of a less personal kind yet remain. As believers formed into a collective fellowship, the object of the Church is two fold--its own culture, and the benefit of the world. Both these will be best secured by growing holiness.

III. How may holiness be best secured?

1. Negatively.

(1) Not without effort. Wishing, desire, will not avail. If this fruit is ever to be secured, it must be cultivated, nurtured, tended, and sometimes watered with tears. A careless soul will never be a holy one. As little is it to be obtained without Divine help. With a corrupt nature, a vigilant adversary, and a sinful world, as little can a spark live in the ocean, or fruit grow on a rock, as the celestial principle flourish without help from above. Divine in its nature, it requires Divine succour, and none but the Spirit of God can sanctify the soul.

(2) Not suddenly, all at once. As the sun does not at once reach the zenith, nor the summer its solstice, nor the fruit its maturity, so neither does holiness at once secure the ascendency in any soul. It is a habit rather than an act.

2. Positively. Holiness--

(1) Must have a basis of intelligence. How often the apostle prays that believers may increase in knowledge. Would you be holy? Think on Divine things. The mind grows by what it feeds on.

(2) Is a thing of the heart. If you would be holy, keep your heart with all diligence. It is the citadel.

(3) Is a matter of practice. Sin within is bad; allowed to come out, it is worse, not only for its influence upon others, but on self too. There is no exercise so hallowing as communion with God. Entering into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, we are surrounded by the fragrant incense which will perfume our very garments, and be exhaled in the breath of our lips. As Moses, radiant from the Mount, so shall we reflect the glory of the Lord. Like him, we may wist not, but others will see, and will take such knowledge of us as will bless and stimulate them.

Conclusion:

1. Holiness is within the reach of all. Many things are not so. Wealth, fame, honour, position may be coveted by many, who strive to obtain, but win not. The highest distinction to be won on earth is open to the meanest.

2. Holiness is not destroyed by occasional failures. Try, try again; the steps backward may help the spring forward; the wave receding becomes stronger in its rebound.

3. The conscious absence of perfect holiness should endear the atonement. If any man sin--and who does not daily?--we have an Advocate with the Father, etc.

4. In heaven holiness will be complete. (J. Viney.)

Fruitfulness a Christians glory

As the glory of a healthy apple tree is its fruit, so the glory of a genuine Christian is his usefulness. He does not merely blossom out with a good profession; he bears fruit with all his might and main. There is not a sapless twig or a barren bough on the whole tree which is planted by the rivers of grace but yieldeth its fruit every month. (T. L. Cuyler.)

Fruit unto holiness

It is remarkable that Paul speaks of holiness as the fruit, and not as the principle of our service to God--as the effect which that service has upon the character, and not as the impelling moral power which led to the service. And this accords with verse 19, where they who had yielded their members servants to iniquity are represented as having thereby reaped fruit unto iniquity--or, in other words, as having, by their own sinful work, aggravated and confirmed the sinfulness of their own characters. And, on the other hand, they who had yielded their members servants to righteousness, are represented as having reaped thereby fruit unto holiness--or, in other words, they, by doing that which was right, rectified their own moral frames; and a perseverance in holy conduct made them at length to be holy creatures. This is the very process laid down in the verse before us. In virtue of having become servants to God, they had their fruit unto holiness. No doubt there is a germ of holiness at the very outset of the new life, but still a coarser principle of it may predominate at the first; and the finer principles of it may grow into establishment afterwards. The good things may be done, somewhat doggedly as it were, at the will of another; but the assiduous doing of the hand may at length carry along with it the delight of the heart; and this certainly marks a stage of higher and more saintly advancement in personal Christianity. It evinces a growing assimilation to God--who does what is right, not in force of anothers authority, but in force of the free and original propensities of His own nature to all that is excellent. By such a blessed progress of sanctification as this do we at length cease to be servants and become sons; the Spirit of adoption is shed upon us, and we feel the glorious liberty of Gods own children. And when the transition is so made that the work of servitude becomes a work of felicity and freedom, then is it that a man becomes like unto God, and holy even as He is holy. One most important use to be drawn from this argument is, that you are not to suspend the work of literal obedience till you are prepared for rendering unto God a spiritual obedience. In every case it is right to be always doing what is agreeable to the will of God. There may be a mixture at first of the spirit of bondage, so that the apostle would say of these babes in Christ, I speak unto you not as unto spiritual but as unto carnal; yet still it is good to give yourselves over, amid all the crude and embryo and infant conceptions of a young disciple, to the direct service of God. Break loose from your iniquities at this moment. Turn you to all that is palpably on the side of Gods law. Do plainly what God bids, and on the direct impulse, too, of Gods authority; and the fruit of your thus entering upon His service will be the perfecting at length of your own holiness, purified from the flaw of legal bondage or of mercenary selfishness--a holiness that finds its enjoyment in the service itself, and not in the hope of the great reward which is to come after the keeping of the commandments; but a holiness upheld by the present experience, that in the keeping of the commandments there is a great reward. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)

And the end everlasting life.

The believers end

I. There is something very solemn in that word, the end! (Pro_23:18). What of our end? Look around you and see the speculations, the anxieties, the labours of the men of this world--they all will have an end; see men of pleasure, living for pleasure--the laughter, the songs, the entertainments and revellings will all have an end; and this world will have an end. Every day, every journey, every conflict, every life has an end. What of our end? It is sure; the end will come, and it may be very near. Oh, that we were wise, that we did consider our latter end. Yet death is not the end of you. The dust will return to the earth whence it came, but the spirit will have gone to God who gave it--whether clothed in the righteousness and washed in the blood of Christ, or not, is the solemn question.

II. But the text speaks of the believers end. The end of his pilgrimage, his conflict, his prayers, his faith; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, or as it is here expressed, everlasting life. Who can fully comprehend the subject? Life is the perfection of being, and everlasting life is the perfection of life. All that the love of God can bestow, all that the blood of Christ can procure, all that the indwelling Holy Ghost can enable us to enjoy, this is everlasting life--the fruition of the fruit of all the travail of Christs soul, the enjoyment of all the fulness of God, everlastingly to behold His glory, to be assimilated to Christ, to have mortality swallowed up of life--this is everlasting life. The consummation of all possible privileges, the fulfilment of all Divine promises, the issue of all Gods purposes, Gods rest of love. How small the world looks in contrast with such an end, and what a poor consolation will it be for any of us to have attained even the whole world, if we lose it. (M. Raisford.)

The life everlasting

More than 1200 years ago, when Bishop Paulinus came to Edwin, king of Deira, and asked permission to preach the good news to his people, that monarch gathered his nobles and wise men to take counsel together. Then one of the thanes arose and said, Truly the life of a man in this world, compared with the life we wet not, is on this wise: It is as when thou, O king, art sitting at supper with thy aldermen and thanes in the time of winter, when the hearth is lighted in the midst and the hall is warm, but without the rains and the snow are falling, and the winds are howling; then cometh a sparrow and flieth through the house, she cometh in by one door and goeth out by another. While she is in the house, she feeleth not the storm of winter, but yet when a little moment of rest is past she flieth again into the storm and passeth from our eyes. So is it with the life of man; it is but for a moment; what goeth afore it, and what cometh after it, wot we not at all. Wherefore if these strangers can tell us aught, that we may know whence man cometh and whither he goeth, let us hearken to them and follow their law. This beautiful parable is a witness to us both of the darkness of man without Christ, and also of the greatness of the gift which God has given us through His Son. God has not made us for Himself, redeemed us through Christ, given us His Spirit to dwell in and sanctify us, to cast us into the abyss of death. The whole revelation of the gospel, as admirably summed up in the Apostles Creed, is a pledge that our end is everlasting life. Note by way of introduction that this life will be--

1. A continuation of a present personal life.

2. A fully developed and perfected spiritual life, of which we have the pledge and foretaste here. Hence our Lord speaks of both in the same terms (Mat_25:46; Joh_3:36; Joh_5:24; 1Jn_3:14-15). From what we know, therefore, of the spiritual life here, we may gather what it will be by and by. Everlasting life will be--

I. The complete and final emancipation from sin. Here we have victory over its dominion, but it never ceases to harass us. Here we may go to the fountain for cleansing, but the defilement which necessitates this is a sore trial. But yonder there will be no tempter, no predisposition to evil, no bad examples, no world to allure, no flesh to weaken and ensnare.

II. The immediate knowledge of God. We have that here too (Joh_17:3), but how fragmentary is it! We know but in part, and see only through a glass darkly. We know Him, yet we know Him not. We hear but a whisper of Gods ways and see but the skirt of His robe. But we shall then see Him as He is, and know even as we are known--know His character, attributes, work, ways, and have in that knowledge fully, as we have it now in a measure, everlasting life.

III. A life of action. True, heaven is described as a perpetual Sabbath; and compared with this feverish state the life to come will be a life of rest--rest from sorrow, suffering, conflict, doubt, weariness, and, above all, from sin. But rest without action is monotonous, and more irksome than toil; and it cannot be that the whole condition of our existence will be changed, and our very nature unmade, when we enter the heavenly rest.

1. What is the rest of the heavenly host? They indeed cry Holy, holy, holy, as they veil their faces, but they have wings and feet as servants ever ready to do the will of Him that sitteth on the throne. And we read that they are ministering spirits (Heb_1:1-14), and surely if we are to be like the angels we shall be like them in this. As for the service, I do not imagine that the glorified will have reached such perfection as to need no instruction or aid. There will be no sin and no infirmities, but there will still be diversities of character and attainment. And then who knows what opportunities of service will be afforded in the distant provinces of Gods kingdom, and on what errands of mercy and hope we may be employed.

2. God worketh hitherto. His rest has been a rest of action. And if we are to be like Him our life will be one of ceaseless beneficence.

IV. A life in the immediate, unveiled presence of Christ. One element, of course, will be reunion with those we have loved on earth; but eternal communion with Christ will be its perfection, in that will be comprehended all that the heart can desire. Paul had dear friends, yet when he looked forward to his heavenly rest, everlasting union with Christ was the burden of his hope. Yet that was because to him to live was Christ. Here we enjoy Christs presence by faith; but our communion is interrupted, and He is unseen. But in the life to come we shall see Him as He is, behold His glory, inherit the kingdom He has prepared for us, and share His throne for evermore. (Bp. Perowne.)

Everlasting life, an education

Eternal life is not a gift as of something fixed, finished, accomplished, and passed over. It is a gift as education is. It is something wrought patiently and long in a man. Eternal life is a gift to us as the sunlight is to the flowers--an influence which enters into them and fashions them. Eternal life from the hand of God is a gift to mankind, as healing is a gift from the physician to the patient. It is that which is slowly wrought in them. Eternal life is wrought in us by the power of the Highest, by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. And the hope of the future is that Gods Spirit, entering into the soul, will give it eternal life. (H. W. Beecher.)

Everlasting life: its progressiveness

Eternity will be one glorious morning, with the sun ever climbing higher and higher; one blessed springtime, and yet richer summer--every plant in full flower, but every flower the bud of a lovelier. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

Rom_6:23.—Eternal life is not like wages due for service to God, as death is wages due for service to sin. Eternal life is a donative or free gift of God.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_6:22-23

Four stages in the Christian’s life.—The essentials of the Christian’s course are marked out for us in this short passage. We here get, as it were, a bird’s-eye view of all that is needful from the time of conversion to the period of entrance upon the blessing of everlasting life. We begin with the great deliverance, we pass on to the great change, we see the Christian growing in meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light, and then when the earthly trials and conflicts are over we see him passing a disciplined soul across the narrow stream of death into the unfading beauties of that life which is everlasting. The soul that passes through the experiences here laid down has nothing to fear, and is blessed indeed. Let us seek to understand its teaching. Four points claim our attention: the gracious deliverance, the glorious change, the blessed result, the happy termination.

I. The gracious deliverance.—It was a gracious deliverance when Noah and his sons were saved by means of the ark. Lot was rescued from the burning cities; the children of Israel were brought forth from the land of Egyptian bondage; the man-slayer found asylum in the city of refuge from the avenger of blood; David escaped the javelin thrown by the frenzied Saul; Daniel came forth from the lions’ den uninjured; and the three Hebrew children marched in triumph from the furnace without having upon them so much as the smell of fire. But still more gracious is that deliverance when the soul is made free from sin. It is a deliverance from the accusation of sin. When we sin we depart knowingly from the rule of duty, and that departure becomes a voice of reproof and of accusation. Every sin which a man commits becomes to that man an accuser, unless he has become hardened, and then hereafter those stifled voices of his sins will speak in trumpet tones to the unutterable dismay of his spirit. Terrible is it for the man with a tender conscience and a sensitive nature to hear within the accusing voice of his past sins. And great rejoicing is heard in every house and in every street of the town of Mansoul when the man is set free from sin. It is a deliverance from the penalty of sin. “The wages of sin is death.” “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” Death physical, intellectual, and moral is the penalty of sin. Sin has a killing power. It touches, withers, and destroys the nobler parts of man’s nature, so that the man by sin is dead while he lives. Gracious deliverance it is to be set free from sin’s penalty, to be raised from death to life. It is a deliverance from the tyranny of sin. Sin is a tyrant that grips and holds his victims with an iron hand, and keeps them grinding with remorseless cruelty at the wheel of oppression. Many of sin’s victims see the tyranny and long to be set free. They see the awful ruin to which they are being led, but cannot escape. They cannot escape except by the power of divine grace. It is thus alone that they can be set free from sin. It is a gracious deliverance, for it had a gracious origin. “By grace are ye saved.” For it is by a gracious Author,—the gracious method of the gospel plan of salvation. It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Oh that men would believe in Jesus Christ!

II. A glorious change.—It was a glorious change when Joseph passed from the prison cell to be the second ruler in Egypt. David passed from the sheepcote to the splendour of Israel’s throne; Mordecai was taken to the king’s gate, and placed on the king’s horse, and clothed in royal apparel, and the proclamation was heard, “Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.” But not so glorious as when the slaves of sin become the servants of God. It is a noble service. By what rules shall we measure the nobility of a service? Shall we speak of the greatness of the being who is served, the extent of his dominions, and the number and exalted character of his servants? Thus this service transcends, eclipses, any other form of service. We cannot grasp the greatness of this Being, and must content ourselves with the proceeding of the French preacher who, when called upon to preach on the occasion of the monarch’s death, exclaimed amid breathless silence, “God alone is great.” Vast are the numbers of His servants. The winds and the waves obey His will. The wild beasts of the forest, the cattle on the thousand hills, the myriad songsters of earth’s groves, the birds of beautiful plumage, are His servants. But higher still, for men and angels are His servants; and men the noblest and sublimest earth can boast. Men of giant intellect, of heroic natures, of wondrous spirituality, are God’s servants. We see them passing the great highway of time, and as the goodly procession passes along our souls are thrilled with conflicting emotions of gladness and of intense admiration, and we ask, Is it possible that we are to be permitted to follow in this glorious train? We may here claim all men and all women as the servants of God; but remember that He has three kinds of servants—some are slaves, and serve on the principle of fear; others are hirelings, and serve for the sake of the wages; but the best are sons, and serve under the influence of love. It is the loving service that is the noblest, that is the most satisfactory, and that is the most abiding. What is the service you render? The service of love is the only one which God will graciously accept. May God baptise with the spirit of love!

III. The blessed result.—“Ye have your fruit unto holiness”; or, “Ye have your fruit unto sanctification.” God places trees in His garden not for mere ornament but for use. God does not despise the ornamental; but God’s ornamental things are useful things as well. God is a painter the wondrous combination of whose colours no human painter has ever faintly shadowed forth, an architect whose mighty structures dwarf the proudest temples and palaces of earth, a musician whose lofty strains make the loftiest of human harmonies seem poor and feeble. If we desire to see beauty, let us go, not to the art galleries of men, but to the art galleries of God—not art galleries, but nature galleries, for God’s rich nature is transcendent in beauty. A Christian should be an ornamental tree and a fruit-bearing tree. Are not the most fruitful trees the most beautiful? What can equal the delicate tinting and the rich colouring of the spring blossoming of the fruitful tree? What beauty is there in the Christian who bears fruit unto sanctification! We take it that a truly sanctified man is both a beautiful man and a useful man. The children of this world may scoff at the saint; but there is, after all, a deep inward respect for those who live godly, righteous, and sober lives The sanctified ones are the salt of the earth. The sanctified ones are the truly useful and the truly ornamental ones of the world. A Church all of whose members bring forth fruit unto sanctification is a Church which will attract by its loveliness. A kingdom the greater part of whose subjects bring forth fruit unto sanctification is a kingdom whose foundations are strong and whose perpetual glory is secured. Bring forth fruit unto sanctification; begin it in the way of duty, and by-and-by duty will become a pleasure. Learning to read is unpleasant to the child; but in after-time the reading of good books becomes not only the necessity but the pleasure of intellectual existence. In the beginning of the divine life we are but as children learning to read; but in after-time we find the greatest delight in keeping the commandments of God. Bring forth fruit unto your own sanctification, for your own good as well as for the glory of God.

IV. The happy termination.—“The end everlasting life.” We are permitted and enjoined by the example of the word of God to keep the end in view. And what an end! It is an end without an end, paradoxical as the statement appears. This end is the beginning of everlasting life, the beginning of the noblest life without termination. Perfect life is the adaptation of the being to its surroundings, and the adaptation of those surroundings to the being; and such is everlasting life. We shall be fitted for celestial surroundings, and those surroundings we shall find prepared to conduce to our highest felicity. Life here is imperfect, inadequate, and incomplete; life yonder will be perfect, adequate, and complete. Let us take the term “everlasting” not merely as referring to the perpetuity of our future existence, but to the completeness of that existence in all its aspects. No life here is everlasting, because it is incomplete and imperfect. But life beyond is everlasting in the broadest sense of that word. Let us keep the end in view, in order to inspire with hope and patience in the present. Let us persevere in the noble pathway of bringing forth “fruit unto sanctification.”

Rom_6:22. Tenses of Christian life.—That twenty-second verse is the conclusion—the real conclusion—of this chapter. The twenty-third verse is merely explanatory. The twenty-second verse brings visibly before us the conclusion of that struggle that Paul has been tracing more or less throughout this sixth chapter: the two services—the old service and the new—the transition from the old to the new, the outcome of that change of masters, and the outlook that we now have. These are all embodied in this twenty-second verse—an exchange in the past, present experience, and a blessed outlook. You have here the three tenses of a Christian man’s life—the past, the present, and the future: something he looks back to is past and gone, something that he now has as present experience, and something he looks forward to as final result.

I. The exchange of masters.—We have, then, in this past tense a blessed change, an exchange of masters, a transition from one service to another. But when I speak of the old service as a service, I feel that I do not express it strongly enough; for that old service was a bondage. And yet I am almost afraid to describe the new service by that term, because we connect with the word “bondage” sentiments that are not at all agreeable. Yet the words used in this chapter of that old service and of the new one are precisely the same. We were the slaves of sin; and we are—the same word is applied—the slaves of God. There is a freedom that is slavery. My text makes it perfectly plain that every Christian man whose experience is here described has passed from a bondage, “being made free from sin.” We must have passed from bondage into freedom—passed from the bondage of sin into the freedom that grace gives. The first thing in our freedom, then, was deliverance from our sin and guilt; but that would not have been enough for you and me. When God speaks of freedom, He does it completely. He removes the guilt, but He breaks also its power; He takes away the love of sin, and He gives you the grace to enable you to struggle with the sin—not merely to struggle with it, but to overcome it.

II. The new service.—But, then, by that very freedom He has bound you. He has led you into what I should call, perhaps, a new “bondage”; only, as I said before, that word has an evil association; and yet it is true. By His grace and deliverance He has made me eternally His bondsman. He has set me free from the power of sin, restored my freedom, that I might serve Him. Having been made free from sin, I entered God’s service; I gave up my own supremacy, and yielded to the supremacy of God.

III. Fruit, a test of character.—“Ye have your fruit unto holiness.” Having had this deliverance from sin, having entered into this new service, what is the present outcome of it? It is fruit, and it is fruit that you have, and it is a fruit that looks forward to a particular result. Great many of us are tempted to look upon the Christian life as made up of negations. It is a positive life—something you can actually lay your hand upon and say, Now here is that which I have got through my connection with Christ, through what He has done for me, through my service rendered to Him. Here I can see what I have as a definite, clear, distinct result something that can be shown. A Christian man’s life must result in a real, positive character. “Ye have your fruit unto holiness.” It does not say that you are holy; it does not say you have already attained, or that you are already perfect. It does not say that the fruit is complete, that it is ripe, that it is ready to be plucked. No; but it is fruit growing and growing—to what? Unto sanctification, unto holiness. The present tense of the Christian life, then, is a consecrated life—a life of devotion to Christ, of determination to be His and His only.

IV. Eternal growth and development.—And now for the future tense: “the end everlasting life.” It is something that is far away, something that is to come by-and-by; but for the present we may contemplate it, and make it a power to guide us in our journey. I think of it as bringing deliverance from all that hinders. I sometimes think of it positively. Here we have but a limited amount of physical strength, but that other world will introduce us to a life where there are no checks or limitations or hindrances, but a perpetual growth of power to serve God, of faculty to be used for Him. Eternal life, everlasting life,—not a life of luxurious ease, not a life of mere enjoyment or pleasure or psalm-singing; but a life of active, devoted service—service which God is teaching us to render here, and which I believe He will teach us in yet fuller measure to render on the other side.—Prof. Robertson, D.D.

Rom_6:23. A high conception of manhood.—The nature of the gift which a man confers on his fellow may be taken as the estimate which the former entertains of the recipient’s character. In a gift there should be fitness. The gift should be suitable both to the circumstances of the giver and to the character and position of the recipient. Who would think of discoursing sweet music to the deaf? Should we give a choice painting to the blind? Would it be suitable to present a work on philosophy to one who can only read with difficulty? Here is a gift which transcends all others. Next in importance and in value to the unspeakable gift is the grant of eternal life. How vast the boon our contracted minds cannot fully comprehend. The value, preciousness, and vastness of the gift of eternal life will require an eternal life to unfold and completely to understand. Most feel the value of life, and are ready to subscribe to the truth of the old remark, “Skin for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” Some value intellectual life. What a boon if the balance of reason could be restored to the insane! What a gift if the mental power of a Plato or a Paul could be conferred on the man who yearns to tread the high pathway of genius! Above all gifts, if we could only rightly appreciate it, is the blessing of eternal life, which begins in the present state and is being developed in the illimitable future. The greatness and preciousness of this gift speak to us of the greatness and benevolence of the Giver. Surely the gift speaks to us likewise of the greatness of man. In one sense man is little and insignificant, but in another sense he is made only a little lower than the angels. Surely the creature is not to be belittled and despised on whom the Eternal bestows the blessing of eternal life. The possible inheritor of so great a blessing is noble and kingly. Yes, the Bible ennobles manhood. It is the one book, the one vital agency, for the elevation of the race. Man is made, not for the fleeting hour, but for the coming eternity. Man is great because God regards him as capable of the gift of eternal life.

I. Man is great, for this gift implies a moral nature.—As we read of the gift of eternal life we are lifted out of the marshy and sterile plain of materialism. We cannot understand the philosophers of the materialistic school. Why should a man pretend to be a lover of wisdom, to dwell in the realm of refined ideas, who is only a perishable mass of materialism? Man is little if he is only an animal, though he may be an animal that thinks—a philosopher. Man is great if he is a creature endowed with a nature that yearns after the Infinite, that soars upward to the Eternal, that loves and worships. The gift of eternal life would be both useless and impossible to a creature who is only one step raised above the beast that never thinks and never loves. The gift of eternal life can only be profitable and delightful to the creature whose nature is lightened up and glorified by a spark of divine fire. A moral nature is needful where a spiritual boon is to be received and appreciated.

II. Man is great, for this gift implies an enduring nature.—Men have felt the preciousness of the blessing of spiritual life even as a gift for the present phase of existence. If there were to be no hereafter, many men and women would still ask for the sustaining and cheering influences of the gift of eternal life. But if in this life we only have hope, then our God-given blessing is stripped of its transcendent charm. Yes, we look to the future. We have the confident expectation of infinite blessedness in the bright and beautiful beyond. We rise above our sorrows, we laugh at our calamities, we even sing in prison, and have transports of joy when bound to the stake, because we feed on the outcoming joys of a completed eternal life. Certainly the phantasm of some felicity which a man is to inherit hereafter as the reward of his services here can give no rest and comfort to a man toiling and suffering. A phantasm cannot sustain, but a certainty can support. We look forward in hope, in confident expectation. We are paid on the way. We have joys in the earth pilgrimage; but oh what joys await when the pilgrim’s journey is over and he passes inside the pearly gates!

III. Man is great, for this gift implies an abiding personality.—Individualism is the doctrine of the Bible. Can the gift of eternal life be conferred on a community? It is said that corporations have no souls. In this sense a community has no soul. A mob cannot receive the blessing of eternal life. It is a spiritual blessing, and in its reception the individual soul must be engaged. The moral personality must receive the blessing—must enjoy it, and develop it, and put it to wise and holy uses in the present sphere. In the future the blessing must be perpetuated and enjoyed by the individual recipient of the boon. So that the personality of the man is an abiding and a permanent quality. He aspires after rest, but it is a personal and an abiding repose in the presence of the infinite light and goodness. Here, then, we have not the creed of the Nirvana. While we long for the sweet composure of the being which may be realised in a brighter and calmer sphere, we shrink from the Buddhist doctrine of the absorption of the individual in the unity of being. Love will delight in the diffusion of happiness, in the wide expansion of blessings; but will the destruction of personalities, the concretion of souls into one great whole, contribute to greater happiness? Each soul glowing with the love light will contribute to the general splendour. The redeemed will be a glorious unity, but a glorious plurality. There will be many harpers. Each will rejoice in his own instrument, but he will rejoice to contribute to the general harmony. The music of heaven would not be rendered more perfect by all the harpers being absorbed in the unity of one harper, however skilful the performer.

IV. Man is great, for this gift implies incompleteness.—Man is great by reason of what he wants as well as by reason of what he possesses. What does man want? The poet sings:—

“Man wants but little here below,

Nor wants that little long.”

But the poet may only sing of material wants; for man wants that which alone can render his nature complete. How great is man who cannot rest until he finds repose in the arms of infinite love! How great is man whose lower life is not adequate, and who can only find satisfaction in the blessing of eternal life! Men crave for rest, and this divine yearning declares man’s vastness. Man longs and yearns; ofttimes he cannot interpret these dark soul movings. Deep calleth unto the deep in the dark and wondrous ocean of his moral nature, and he cannot translate the sound nor give speech to the confused utterance. He wants, he needs, eternal life. The loving Eternal sees man’s need, and graciously offers the boon in a proffered Christ.

V. Man is great, for this gift supposes a large nature.—A cargo must be proportioned to the size of the vessel. A teacher should deal with his scholar according to the scholar’s capacity. A gift must be suitable to the receiver. How wondrously constituted is that being who can receive and enjoy the blessing of eternal life! In some high moments of spirit rapture the soul experiences a great strain, which is not felt on account of the greatness of the joy. When the vision has passed, when the trance has gone, the soul is exhausted. But the soul will be ever expanding; and the more of heavenly delight it receives, the more it will be capable of receiving. Wondrous thought! that man can receive a divine Guest, can walk divine heights of blessedness, delight in the presence of the eternal Light, and finally taste the bliss of the glorified. But shall we speak of the greatness of man and have no word to exalt the greatness of the divine benevolence? “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Almost every word proclaims the greatness of the divine benevolence. This is seen by:

1. The fact of a gift. The hardness and depravity of human nature are evidenced by the circumstance that divine blessings are received as things taken for granted. We soon complain if anything is wanted. We are slow to raise the song of praise when blessings are bestowed. Here is a gift undeserved and unsought, a gift originating in the divine love; and yet how small is our appreciation of the divine benevolence!

2. The nature of the gift. Alas! we are so materialistic that we cannot receive with any great degree of rapture the moral; we are so earthly and so earthbound that we do not heartily welcome the heavenly; and yet, if we only knew it, the gift of eternal life is every way adapted to our natures. The gift of eternal life in its full realisation means the gift of abiding peace, of ever-flowing and uninterrupted joy—of sweet fellowship in the infinite goodness, of high converse with the noblest and purest spirits. This in a measure on our wilderness pilgrimage. This without measure and in indescribable fulness and delight when we have laid aside the pilgrim’s staff, have washed our earth-stained and weary feet, are clothed in the clean raiment of the glorified, and sit down at the banqueting table of infinite Love.

3. The originating possibility of the gift. “Through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He originated the possibility of this gift in harmony with the purposes and laws of God’s moral government. “The wages of sin is death.” The penalty had been incurred. God’s benevolence purposed a gift. But how was that purpose to be accomplished? How was the design to be rendered a possibility? Jesus Christ originated the possibility. God the Father had a mental, an emotional origination of the plan of human salvation. Jesus Christ had a practical origination. He was the self-sacrificing originator of the possibility of the great gift of eternal life to the human race. And shall we say that God’s love was less than Christ’s love? Is the emotional of less account than the practical? Do we not undervalue the emotional in the Saviour’s earthly life? Were not His sufferings greater from the emotional than from the physical side of His nature? God’s love was great; and while we speak let us remember that the emotional gave rise to the practical. The love of God gave His only begotten Son. Let us then adore the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us magnify the divine benevolence. Let us try to understand what God does when He makes the glorious offer of the gift of eternal life to the criminals over whom hangs the sentence of death. He shows the gift shining with many lights, and they reveal vaster glories beyond. He proffers the gift; and while He proffers there gleams upon the soul the pure light of the gems of heaven. He invites to accept; and while the loving voice woos and entreats the white-robed harpers raise a chorus of welcome. Can we refuse? Is it possible that we do not appreciate the gift? Angels look down in vast astonishment; their hearts are moved with infinite pity as they behold criminals passing away from offered pardon to the place of execution. Death and eternal life. Which is it to be? What is the resolve of the noble creature man? But how ignoble by the Fall! Great in divine intention, great in possibility; but little, low, and mean by degeneracy. Let us accept the gift and realise the greatness of which we are capable.

God’s great gift.—The tendency of the gospel is to exalt God and to humble man. It points to everlasting misery as the prison-house to which man’s depravity and sin would lead him. And it is only by the grace of our heavenly Father that we can reach the celestial world. “The wages”—the due recompense—“of sin is death,” but eternal life is the gift of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In speaking of this gift, notice:—

I. Its nature.—

1. It will afford immunity from all the sufferings and dangers of the present life. Suffering belongs to every station here. Uninterrupted prosperity and enjoyment would be inconsistent with a state of trial. But sufferings can have no place in the life of the redeemed in heaven. All tears shall be wiped away.

2. It will afford pre-eminent intellectual enjoyment. Here we know in part; then we shall know in full. Knowledge will there be unmixed with error.

3. It will afford entire social enjoyment. Here society is often a source of annoyance, disagreements, and pain. In heaven it will possess unmixed knowledge, be full of benevolence, will be holy and wise, and there will be no separation.

4. It will afford unspotted holiness. All who possess it will be holy before they are allowed to enter heaven. But there they will attain to the glory of holiness of which man can form no conception. All will be light—the image of God will be reflected from every human spirit; the Lord Jesus Christ will reign over the minds and hearts of all His people.

5. It will afford incessant activity and endless improvement. Although heaven is represented as a place of rest, it is likewise a state of unceasing activity. The angels are active.

II. Its freeness.—“The gift of God.”

1. It was not wrung from Him by importunity. It is a life which cannot be purchased.

2. It is not the reward of merit. Though sometimes called a reward, it is the reward of grace, not of merit. Man may merit hell, but he cannot merit heaven. Everything leading to this eternal life is also the gift of God: the promises of the Bible; the great change by which he has become entitled to it and qualified for its enjoyment; the Lord Jesus, by whose merit eternal life was purchased,—all these are the gifts of God.

III. Its medium.—“Through Jesus Christ.” To Him we are indebted for the hopes that animate, for the enjoyments we experience. For this end the Redeemer was given—to put men in possession of eternal life; for this purpose He laboured; and for this He suffered.

1. By His death Christ made atonement, and procured pardon—i.e., salvation from spiritual death.

2. Through Him men are delivered from moral death, and receive the principle of spiritual life.

3. Through Him we are adopted into the family of His Father.

4. Through Him, through His resurrection, we conquer material death, and obtain material bodily life.—Homilist.

Rom_6:23. Eternal life a priceless gift.—The gift of God is eternal life “in Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is the better gift which contains that wherein all others are defective,—the gift of a well of water, not lying outside of the man, at which he may slake his thirst now and then, but springing up in him; the gift, not of a refreshing influence, but of a Person from whom the influence comes, and in whom he may find that perpetually which only visits him occasionally; the gift of One who delivers the spirit from its own proper burden, who speaks to those that are heavy laden with their own selfishness, and bids them rest in Him the meek and lowly; the gift of One who does not exact joy and sympathy and love, but kindles them and bestows them. Here is the eternal life—the only eternal life of which St. Paul knows anything. The phantasm of some felicity which a man is to inherit hereafter as the reward of his services here could give no rest or comfort to a man toiling and suffering as he was. He wanted One upon whom he could cast his sorrows, fears, sins, every hour; One from whom he could always draw a strength and nourishment to sustain him against the continual sentence and pressure of death. If there was such a One with him then, he could believe that He would be with him always—that neither height nor depth, nor life nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, would separate him from His love. His life must be eternal life: it could not be a changeable, inconstant treasure, here to-day and gone to-morrow; but it must be a gift fresh every day—not a property which he could claim as having been made over once for all to him. It must be a gift of God, which he would enjoy while he trusted in God, which he lost whenever he fancied that he had earned it. It must be a gift, therefore, for all as well as for himself—one of which he could preach to all, one of which he could say to them, You have it, however little you may know that you have it. As surely as you carry sin within you, so surely is He within you who is the enemy of sin; as surely as you have death with you, so surely have you life with you; as surely as you may possess the one for wages, so surely may you accept the other for the gift of God.—Maurice.

Rom_6:23. Death and life.—By a striking ceremonial on Gerizim and Ebal (see Deuteronomy 27 and Jos_8:30-35) Joshua set before the Israelites life and death, the blessing and the curse. Similar contrast in text. Composed of two antithetical clauses: three words in the one contrasted with three in the other—sin and God, death and life, wages and gift.

I. Sin and God.—Both are masters engaging servants. The two occupy the whole domain of moral action. Only two masters and two kinds of service.

1. Sin as a master. One of the smallest words in the English language, but what it names is not little. Sin often regarded as a theological term, an abstraction, dark as a thunder-cloud, but as far away. Here not an ideal abstraction, but an actual master. Sinners are servants of sin, though not certain of making any engagement. Every born Briton bound to serve his country as long as in it. So every one who continues in sin tacitly engages to serve sin (see Rom_6:16). Though not a person, it has the power of a master. Proof of this: they believe in it, take pleasure in it, labour for it. Though they fancy themselves their own masters, they are being drawn or driven, sometimes against their better wishes, in a course opposite to God.

2. God the other master. His service a perfect contrast to the other. On the one hand all that is noble and pure, on the other all that is base and defiling: here a little tribulation, a little self-denial, and then everlasting felicity; there present pleasure and future misery, short-lived delight and everlasting sorrow: here eternal life; there eternal death.

II. Death and life.—Cause of death separation from God—sentence on first parents. As branch broken from the tree dies, so they cut off from the God of life died.

1. Spiritually. Proof from Scripture (Rom_8:6; 1Ti_5:6).

2. Death of the body another part of the death (Rom_5:12).

3. Here death contrasted with eternal life. Hence infer that eternal death especially meant: elsewhere described as “the second death” and “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.” Eternal life, in contrast with eternal death, like half of sky clear while the other half filled with thunder-clouds. True life animated by high purpose, ennobled by true goodness, brimful of joy—a life that lifts clean away from the power of vexations and cares. Such life in fellowship with Christ: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (see Rev_3:20). Such life not touched by death (Joh_11:25; Joh_14:19; Col_3:3-4).

III. Contrast: wages and gift.—

1. Death the wages of sin: due reward of deeds—not imposed by an arbitrary appointment of God: the law of the universe. Just that sinner be paid for his work, whether wages please him or not.

2. Eternal life a gift. The word means the free gift of God. Given to all in offer (Joh_4:10; 1Jn_5:11); given not for service rendered, but before one has begun to serve. No need to wait for; no need to prepare. Only condition is willingness to receive. But since it is life, it means a new beginning; since it is eternal life, it must overmaster all other lives; since it is life to be enjoyed in the service of God, we must quit the service of sin (Rom_6:13).—G. Wallace, D.D.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 6

Rom_6:22. Frederick the Great and Count Schmettau.—During the Seven Years’ War Frederick the Great accompanied his soldiers on a mountain march. Count Schmettau was his lieutenant, and a very religious man. The king, impatient over the tedious route of the artillery on foot up the narrow mountain pass, indulged in jesting to drive away ennui—he liked a little to tease Schmettau. He knew of a confessor in Berlin whom the count would visit, and allowed a stream of jokes and derision to flow freely. “Your majesty is more witty and much more learned than I,” answered Schmettau, at last finding utterance. “More than this, you are my king. The spiritual contest is in every respect unequal; nevertheless, you cannot take away from me my faith, and as it now goes you would certainly injure me immeasurably, at the same time not make yourself insignificant.” The king remained standing in front of Schmettau; a flash of indignation came from his majesty’s eye. “What does that mean, monsieur? I injure you by taking your faith! What does that mean?” With immovable tranquillity answered the general, “Your majesty believes that in me you have a good officer, and I hope you are not mistaken. But could you take from me my faith, you would have in me a pitiful thing—a reed in the wind, not of the least account in council or in war.” The king was silent for a time, and after reflection, called out in a friendly manner, “Schmettau, what is your belief?” “I believe,” said Schmettau, “in a divine Providence, that the hairs of my head are all numbered, in a salvation from all my sins, and everlasting life after death.” “This you truly believe?” said the king; “this you believe is right with full assurance?” “Yes, truly, your majesty.” The king, moved, seized his hand, pressed it strongly, and said, “You are a happy man.” And never from that hour did he deride Schmettau’s religious opinions.

Rom_6:23. The wages of sin.—Mr. Marshall, author of the Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, having been for several years under distress of mind, consulted Dr. Goodwin, an eminent divine, giving him an account of the state of his soul, and particularising his sins, which lay heavy on his conscience. In reply he told him he had forgot to mention the greatest sin of all, the sin of unbelief, in not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of his sins and sanctifying his nature. On this he set himself to the studying and preaching of Christ, and attained to eminent holiness, great peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Mr. Marshall’s dying words were these: “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 6:22. Νυνὶ δὲ, but now) Paul has used νυνὶ very often, and always with δἐ, but.—ἔχετε, you have; or, have ye, with which comp. Rom 6:19.—εἰς ἁγιασμὸν, unto sanctification [holiness], an antithesis to; ἐφʼ οἷς ἐπαισχύνεσθε, of which you are ashamed, Rom 6:21. Ye are a holy priesthood of God. The reference seems to be to Amo 2:11, לנזרים, LXX, εἰς ἁγιασμόν; Engl. Vers. has Nazarites.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_6:22

But now, being made free from sin, ἐλευθερωθέντες ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας; having been emancipated from one master. δουλωθέντες δὲ τῷ Θεῷ, and become slaves to God, i.e. being subject to his controlling influence by the power of his Spirit, ye have your fruit unto holiness; that is, the benefit or effect derived from the service of God is holiness. Sanctification is the proximate result of this new service. And the end eternal life. The final issue of this service is complete salvation; the restoration of the soul to the favor and enjoyment of God for ever. Quemadmodum duplicem peccati finem ante proposuit, ita nuJustitiae nc justitiae. Peccatum in hac vita malae conscientiae tormenta affert, deinde aeternam mortem. praesentem fructum colligimus, sanctificationem: in futurum, speramus vitam aeternam.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But now--as if to get away from such a subject were unspeakable relief.

being made free from Sin, and become servants to God--in the absolute sense intended throughout all this passage.

ye have--not "ought to have," but "do have," in point of fact.

your fruit unto holiness--"sanctification," as in Rom 6:19; meaning that permanently holy state and character which is built up out of the whole "fruits of righteousness," which believers successively bring forth. They "have their fruit" unto this, that is, all going towards this blessed result.

and the end everlasting life--as the final state of the justified believer; the beatific experience not only of complete exemption from the fall with all its effects, but of the perfect life of acceptance with God, and conformity to His likeness, of unveiled access to Him, and ineffable fellowship with Him through all duration.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 22. But now being made free from sin] As being free from righteousness is the finished character of a sinner, so being made free from sin is the finished character of a genuine Christian.

And become servants to God] They were transferred from the service of one master to that of another: they were freed from the slavery of sin, and engaged in the service of God.

Fruit unto holiness] Holiness of heart was the principle; and righteousness of life the fruit.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

22. Ye have your fruit unto holiness, etc. As he had before mentioned a twofold end of sin, so he does now as to righteousness. Sin in this life brings the torments of an accusing conscience, and in the next eternal death. We now gather the fruit of righteousness, even holiness; we hope in future to gain eternal life. These things, unless we are beyond measure stupid, ought to generate in our minds a hatred and horror of sin, and also a love and desire for righteousness. Some render τελος, “tribute” or reward, and not “end,” but not, as I think, according to the meaning of the Apostle; for though it is true that we bear the punishment of death on account of sin, yet this word is not suitable to the other clause, to which it is applied by Paul, inasmuch as life cannot be said to be the tribute or reward of righteousness.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(22) Ye have your fruit.—You are no longer without fruit. Your fruit is the new Christian life which leads on to sanctification and finally to eternal life.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. now] i.e. as things are, by Divine mercy.

to God] The real Master of the justified. The figures, “Obedience,” “Righteousness,” “Rule of Doctrine,” &c., are now laid aside, that He to whom they refer may at last appear in the Divine simplicity of His ownership over the soul.

ye have your fruit] The verb, by position, is emphatic. “You now have, what you then lacked, namely fruit; ‘your’ fruit, a real and happy profit and result from your new principle.”

unto holiness] unto sanctification; see on Rom_6:19. The “fruit” amounted to, consisted in, a steady course of self-denial and conflict against sin.

everlasting life] i.e. in this context, the bliss of the life to come; the “sight of the Lord” which is attained only by the path of “sanctification” (Heb_12:14); being, as it is, the issue and crown of the process.—Here, as in many other cases, note the varying reference of a single phrase. “Eternal life” is sometimes viewed as present (Joh_3:36; Joh_5:24;) sometimes, and more often, as future (e.g. Joh_4:36). In the first case it is the grace of regeneration, in the second, the developement of this in the glory to come.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God,.... In what sense regenerate persons are free from sin, and are become the servants of God, has been observed already; the consequence of which is, that such have their

fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life: holiness is a fruit of freedom from the bondage of sin, and of serving God; holiness begun in regeneration, calling, and conversion, is a fruit of the Spirit; a course of living righteously is a fruit of holiness, as a principle implanted; a gradual increase in holiness is carried on by the Spirit of God in a course of righteousness; and a course of righteousness, from a principle of grace, issues in perfect holiness; "without which no man shall see the Lord" Heb 12:14: here it seems to design, that holiness is fruit, or that which is gain and profit to persons, in opposition to sin, in which there is no profit: it is not indeed profitable to God in point of merit; yet holiness, as a principle of grace, is profitable to the saints in point of meetness for glory; and holiness, as it denotes an external course of life, is useful and profitable on many accounts; hereby God is glorified, the doctrine of Christ is adorned, religion is honoured and recommended, our own credit, reputation, and peace, are preserved, and our neighbour's good promoted.

And the end is everlasting life: as sin issues, if grace prevent not, in everlasting death; holiness issues in eternal life, not by way of merit, but of free gift.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Ver. 22. Become servants to God] Phrasis vulgatissima est, Deum colere. Non secus atque agri fertiles inprimis et optimi, sic Dei cultus, fructus fert ad vitam aeternam uberrimos.

Ye have your fruit unto holiness] Every good work increaseth our holiness, and so hability for obedience.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But now - Under the Christian plan of justification.

Being made free from sin - Being delivered from its dominion, and from bondage; in the same manner as before conversion they were free from righteousness, Rom 6:20.

Ye have your fruit unto holiness - The fruit or result is holiness. This service produces holiness, as the other did sin. It is implied here, though not expressly affirmed, that in this service which leads to holiness, they received important benefits, as in the service of sin they had experienced many evils.

And the end - The final result - the ultimate consequence will be. At present this service produces holiness; hereafter it will terminate in everlasting life. By this consideration the apostle states the tendency of the plan of justification, and urges on them the duty of striving after holiness.

Everlasting life - Note, Joh 3:36. This stands in contrast with the word “death” in Rom 6:21, and shows its meaning. “One is just as long in duration as the other;” and if the one is limited, the other is. If those who obey shall be blessed with life forever, those who disobey will be cursed with death forever. Never was there an antithesis more manifest and more clear. And there could not be a stronger proof that the word “death” in Rom 6:21, refers not to temporal death, but to eternal punishment. For what force would there be in the argument on the supposition that temporal death only is meant? The argument would stand thus: “The end of those sins is to produce temporal death; the end of holiness is to produce eternal life!” Will not temporal death be inflicted, it would be immediately asked, at any rate? Are Christians exempt from it? And do not people suffer this, whether they become Christians or not? How then could this be an argument bearing on the tenor of the apostle’s reasoning? But admit the fair and obvious construction of the passage to be the true one, and it becomes plain. They were pursuing a course tending to everlasting ruin; they are now in a path that shall terminate in eternal life. By this weighty consideration, therefore, they are urged to be holy.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

q.d. But now, on the contrary, being set at liberty from the service of sin, and admitted to be the servants of God, you plainly perceive a difference: for:

1. In your lifetime you increase in grace and holiness, and that is no small fruit or advantage; and then,

2. At your death you shall have everlasting life.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

sin Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").

holiness sanctification. (See Scofield "Rev 22:11").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As the former verse represented to us the manifold inconveniences of a wicked life, so this verse acquaints us with the manifest advantages of a holy and religious course of life; and this, first, as to the present benefit and advantage of it, Ye have your fruit unto holiness:

Secondly, In respect of the future reward of it, And the end everlasting life.

Here observe, 1. The description which the apostle makes of the change from a state of sin to a state of holiness: Ye are made free from sin, and become the servants by God: intimating, that a state of sin is a state of servitude and slavery; and indeed it is the vilest and hardest slavery in the world, it being the slavery of the soul, which is the best and noblest part of ourselves; it is the subjection of our reason to our sensual appetities, and brutish passions which is as uncomely a sight as to see beggars ride on horseback, and princes walk on foot.

Farther, it is a voluntary slavery, the sinner chuseth his servitude, and willingly puts his neck under this yoke.

Again, the sinner makes himself a slave to his own servants, to those who were born to be subject to him, I mean his own appetites and passions, chusing rather a life of sense and to gratify his lusts, than to obey his reason.

Observe, 2. The present benefit of an holy and religious life: Ye have your fruit unto holiness.

What fruit?

Ans. Inward peace and contentment of mind at present, length of days, and health and prosperity in this world, solid joy and comfort at the hour of death, a good name, and reputation among men after death; and it drives a blessing upon our posterity which we leave behind us.

Observe, 3. The future reward and recompence of an holy life in the world to come: The end everlasting life: By which the apostle expresses both the happiness of our future state, and the way and means by which we are prepared and made meet to be partakers of it.

1. The happiness of our future state is expressed by the name of everlasting life, which imports both the excellency of this state, it is a state of life; and the eternity, or endless duration of it, it is a state of everlasting life.

2. The way partakers of this happiness, and that is, by the constant and sincere endeavours of a holy and good life: Holiness in this life is the certain way, yea, the only way to happiness in the life to come.

This appears from the will of God, who has connected the end and means together; from the justice of God, who will reward every man according to his work; from the indecency and unsuitableness of the contrary.

Without meetness and fitness for heaven, there could be no happiness in heaven; heaven would not be a paradise, but a purgatory; not a place of happiness, but of the greatest uneasiness to a wicked man; therefore let us have our present fruit unto holiness, that our end may be everlasting life.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. “But now having been made free from sin and having become slaves unto God, you have your fruit unto sanctification and the end eternal life.” Regeneration is the flower, and sanctification the fruit. While the flower is exceedingly beautiful, and indispensable to the production of the fruit, yet it alone is utterly worthless. Not so with the fruit; you can live on it if you never saw the flower. Hence we see the grand end of the gracious economy is sanctification, which qualifies you for the battlefield and robes you for the mount of victory; regeneration being an indispensable preparatory work, but an utter failure if not followed by sanctification, as the flower is futile if nipped by frost or blighted by death, so that it falls away, producing no fruit. As we see millions of flowers bloom and fade and no fruit appear, so myriads are happily converted, who fall away, never producing the delicious fruit of holiness for the angels and redeemed spirits to enjoy in heaven.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life .

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

22. But now being made free from sin. Now being freed from the bondage of sin, sin should not be served at all, because they have become servants of God. He has the right to their full service. The fruit borne should be holiness, holy lives. The end everlasting life. The result of the service of sin is death (verse 21); but that of the service of God is everlasting life.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

But now that you have been made free from sin and are enslaved to God

This can be stated in active form. AT: "But now that you have become free from sin and have become God's slaves" or "But now that God has freed you from sin and made you his slaves" (See: Active or Passive)

But now that you have been made free from sin

Being "free from sin" is a metaphor for being able not to sin. AT: "But now that God has made you able not to sin" (See: Metaphor)

and are enslaved to God

Being "enslaved" to God is a metaphor for being able to serve and obey God. AT: "and God has made you able to serve him" (See: Metaphor)

you have your fruit for sanctification

Here "fruit" is a metaphor for "result" or "benefit." AT: "the benefit is your sanctification" or "the benefit is that you live in a holy way" (See: Metaphor)

The result is eternal life

"The result of all of this is that you will live forever with God"

For the wages of sin are death

The word "wages" refers to a payment given to someone for their work. "For if you serve sin, you will receive spiritual death as payment" or "For if you continue sinning, God will punish you with spiritual death"

but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord

"but God gives eternal life to those who belong to Christ Jesus our Lord"

translationWords

free

sin

enslave

God

fruit

sanctify

eternity

die

gift

Jesus

lord

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

22. δουλωθέντες δὲ τῷ θεῷ. The fullest expression of the service into which they have been brought.

ἔχετε. You bear your proper fruit; or perhaps imper.; cf. Rom 6:19. N. the present of continued action.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22.] Contrast of your present state to that former one: freedom from sin as a master,—servitude (compare ἀνθρώπινον λέγω, ver. 19) to God (a higher description than merely δικαιοσύνη, the actual antithesis to ἁμαρτία, ver. 18. The devil would be the corresponding antithetical power: and not unfrequently appears in the teaching of Paul: but usually in casual expressions, as Eph 4:27; Eph 6:11; 2Ti 2:26, not as the principal figure in a course of argument),—fruit (see on καρπός, above, ver.21,—and remark τὸν καρπόν, your fruit, fruit actually brought forth, q. d. ἔχετε καρπόν, καὶ ὁ καρπὸς ὑμῶν ἁγιασμός) unto (leading unto perfect) sanctification,—and the end (governed by ἔχετε) life everlasting.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 22. “But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit holiness, and your end everlasting life.”

For the abstract master designated above, namely righteousness, Paul here substitutes God Himself; for in Christ it is to the living God the believer is united. The form of expression used by Paul, literally rendered, would be: “Ye have your fruit in the direction of holiness.” It is to the state of holiness that ye are brought. Such, in fact, is the result of action constantly kept up in dependence on God. Every duty discharged is a step on the way at the end of which God’s servant sees the sublime ideal of ἁγιασμός, completed holiness, shining.

To this fruit God is pleased to add what Paul calls the end: eternal life. Besides holiness, this expression embraces glory, imperishable happiness, perfect activity.

In Rom 6:23 the apostle sums up in a few definite strokes those two contrasted pictures.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.