NOTES for Rom 6:15-23
Yesterday we read the Apostle’s words that before rising with Christ, we must die with Him, so that our sin might also die. By dying with Him, we become free from sin. And Baptism gives us this freedom. But for what purpose is it given to us? So that we may return to lawlessness? It seems obvious that it is not. Yet human nature is such that, alas, it is impossible to preserve the whiteness of our baptismal garments. And then we gradually begin to forget the grace bestowed upon us.
Paul, however, calls us who have received new life to give it to God and become “slaves of righteousness.” For He alone knows our true purpose; He alone knows the one path by which we can pass from sin to righteousness.
This is another of the Apostle’s paradoxes, for he so loves to speak of the Christian’s true freedom and of acting according to the “conviction of one’s own mind.” Yet in the words we read today, it becomes clear that our true freedom consists precisely in submitting our weak human will to God. God alone can lead us from death to life, because He Himself is true Life.