Continuing his reflections on sin and righteousness, Paul again and again...
Continuing his reflections on sin and righteousness, Paul again and again draws his readers' attention to the fact that the difference between the world where sin reigns and the Kingdom, where sin no longer has a place, is absolute. The apostle also turns to the image of the two ways, traditional for the Torah and for the Bible as a whole, immediately emphasizing that in this case he is reasoning "in human terms" (vv. 16-21).
The qualification is entirely natural: after all, it makes sense to speak about choosing a way as the Torah speaks about it only in relation to the pre-Christian world, when this choice remains precisely and only the choice of a way. For a particular person, of course, it was absolutely important, since it determined that person's eternal destiny, but that time was still only a time of self-determination in our fallen world. The Kingdom still lay ahead; its history had not yet begun. It was only being revealed from afar as part of that plan for the world which God would accomplish through the Messiah-Christ whom He sent. Now the matter was no longer the choice of a way into the Kingdom, but the choice of the Kingdom itself, which had come into the world.
With such a choice, the very thought of the possibility of "sinning under grace" (v. 15) was not so much inadmissible as simply absurd. Such a thought could occur only to those who did not understand at all what the Kingdom is and what had changed in the world after the coming of the Savior. Grace, it appears, seemed to them to be a special gift of God that could magically neutralize the consequences of all the sins they had committed, so that now, as it seemed to them, they could sin as much as they wanted and with complete impunity. The thought that the authority of the Torah no longer applied to them was apparently understood by them to mean that now everything was permitted to them.
But the apostle, it appears, has something completely different in mind. He says that now the choice is not between two ways, but between the life of the Kingdom in all its fullness, on the one hand, and death, as the opposite of the Kingdom, on the other (v. 23). The choice of righteousness now means precisely the choice of the Kingdom, and those who have chosen it are being sanctified even now, and when they reach the fullness of the Kingdom, they receive eternal life (v. 22). And they are freed from the authority of the Torah not because one can sin in the Kingdom without regard for the commandment, but because now, having been sanctified, they are by definition already free from the sin with which they previously had to struggle.
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6:17 The form of doctrine into which ye have been delivered - Literally it is, The mould into which ye have been delivered;which, as it contains a beautiful allusion, conveys also a very instructive admonition; intimating that our minds, all pliant and ductile, should be conformed to the gospel precepts, as liquid metal, take the figure of the mould into which they are cast.
6:18 Being then set free from sin - We may see the apostles method thus far at one view: -
6:19 I speak after the manner of men - Thus it is necessary that the scripture should let itself down to the language of men.Because of the weakness of your flesh - Slowness of understanding flows from the weakness of the flesh, that is, of human nature.As ye have presented your members servants to uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members servants of righteousness unto holiness - Iniquity (whereof uncleanness is an eminent part) is here opposed to righteousness; and unto iniquity is the opposite of unto holiness. Righteousness here is a conformity to the divine will; holiness, to the whole divine nature. Observe, they who are servants of righteousness go on to holiness; but they who are servants to iniquity get no farther. Righteousness is service, because we live according to the will of another; but liberty, because of our inclination to it, and delight in it.
6:20 When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free fromrighteousness - In all reason, therefore, ye ought now to be free from unrighteousness; to be as uniform and zealous in serving God as ye were in serving the devil.
6:21 Those things - He speaks of them as afar off.
6:23 Death - Temporal, spiritual, and eternal. Is the due wages of sin; but eternal life is the gift of God - The difference is remarkable. Evil works merit the reward they receive: good works do not. The former demand wages: the latter accept a free gift.