NOTES for Rom 6:22

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

The way of righteousness was at all time perceived as the way of opposition to the sin and the liberation from it. And nevertheless at all time, to every person, who took this way seriously, it was clear: the complete freedom from sin is an inaccessible ideal. And the problem here is not only in the lack of resolution or the human weakness, but also in the fact that after the fall the human nature itself opposes the one who wishes to go on such way. When Paul speaks about the slavery to sin, it is not about allegory or hyperbola: after the fall man is not really in power of delivering himself totally from this evil, which penetrated into his own nature, corroding it from the inside.

Of course, with God’s help we would have been able to resist this decomposition; otherwise it would have had no sense to speak about the way of righteousness. But the biggest thing, that could achieve the one who went on the way of righteousness before the coming into the world of the Savior, - hold on on the slope, not slide in the abyss, not let the sin triumph in his life, completely. About the big, about the turn of the situation for the benefit of righteousness, such a turn, after which righteousness would have become inherent to man, as its integral quality, - it does not even happen to dream about such a turn. And only the coming of the Messiah changed the situation radically.

The Kingdom entered the world, opening new possibilities and new perspectives to those who walk on the way of righteousness new possibilities and perspectives. Now appeared finally to the one who walks on this way, the possibility of delivering himself from the power of sin once for all. Indeed: before, when not only an individual, but also the world in general was left to the power of evil and sin, could escape from the slavery of sin only by going out of the world, stopping being a part of it. The alternative could have been able to become only the re-creation of the world again by God. And in a certain sense this is what happens, when the Kingdom enters the world: because the laws of the Kingdom distinguish themselves mainly from the laws of the not transformed world, such as everyone, becoming part of it, can begin life again, from a white sheet.

And the way of righteousness for those who joined the Kingdom, becomes in particular the way of the complete liberation from the power of sin. But the complete liberation will become possible only when the Kingdom will also reveal itself in a big measure, transforming definitively the world. That is why the apostle says that the purpose of the life of the Christian is the Kingdom: because having joined the life of the Kingdom at the time of the conversion to Christ, the Christian only begins his spiritual way, and it will end with the return of the Savior in glory, when the Kingdom will reveal itself till the end. So becomes the way of righteousness after the coming of the Chorister: the way beginning at the threshold of the Kingdom and ending in God's throne, where its fullness dwells.

Other notes

For Rom 6:15-23

¹⁵What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

¹⁶Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

¹⁷But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

¹⁸Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

¹⁹I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

²⁰For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

²¹What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

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

²³For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday we read the Apostle’s words that before rising with Christ, we must die with Him... Read more

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.