16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience , you are slaves of the one whom you obey , either of sin resulting in death , or of obedience resulting in righteousness ? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin , you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed , 18 and having been freed from sin , you became slaves of righteousness . 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh . For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness , resulting in further lawlessness , so now present your members as slaves to righteousness , resulting in sanctification . 20 For when you were slaves of sin , you were free in regard to righteousness .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Romans 6:16-20
Commentary on Romans 6:16-20
(Read Romans 6:16-20)
Every man is the servant of the master to whose commands he yields himself; whether it be the sinful dispositions of his heart, in actions which lead to death, or the new and spiritual obedience implanted by regeneration. The apostle rejoiced now they obeyed from the heart the gospel, into which they were delivered as into a mould. As the same metal becomes a new vessel, when melted and recast in another mould, so the believer has become a new creature. And there is great difference in the liberty of mind and spirit, so opposite to the state of slavery, which the true Christian has in the service of his rightful Lord, whom he is enabled to consider as his Father, and himself as his son and heir, by the adoption of grace. The dominion of sin consists in being willingly slaves thereto, not in being harassed by it as a hated power, struggling for victory. Those who now are the servants of God, once were the slaves of sin.