Romans 6:17, commentary and pictures

There are only two masters, bondage to wrongdoing that ends in death and willing loyalty to righteousness that leads to right living, so to turn from sin is to change allegiance from Satan to Christ. To serve sin is to yield the will until it lies helplessly captive under Satan's control, bound to self-serving impulses, appetites and indulgences. To obey from the heart is not forced compliance but willing obedience from love for Jesus, entering the mold of the gospel to take His image through the Word and the Holy Spirit, walking as He walked and keeping His commandments. That change is possible only through Christ, because God purchased every soul by giving His Son to break Satan's power, and no human strength can free the slave of sin until he looks to Jesus and is brought into touch with God. God is to be thanked for this deliverance from slavery and error into light and fellowship with Christ, and those made free show their gratitude by living as servants of righteousness who belong to Him and use all He gives in faithful stewardship.

Bondage and Heart Obedience

There are only two services, servitude to sin that ends in death and obedience that leads to right living. Those once under sin change allegiance to obey righteousness by obeying from the heart the truth given to them, and being set free from sin they live as servants of right doing. Remaining in sin is continuing to serve sin and Satan, while yielding to God turns the person toward Christ, purity and righteousness and into allegiance to and fellowship with Christ with thanks and praise. This belonging to the Saviour who paid for them with His own precious blood makes them accountable to God for every privilege and for all means passing through their hands, requiring an account of stewardship, and it forbids vanity, pride, and seeking own pleasure and selfish gratification at the expense of conscience and God's approval.

To be a servant of sin is to have the human will yielded to sin put helplessly captive under Satan's control. Through self-serving and self-indulgence people become slaves of Satan, bound to self-serving impulses and passions that are under his control. This slavery is seen in the confirmed drunkard whose whole system is permeated with liquor and whose will power is dead. Years of indulgence have created and strengthened the appetite for spirituous liquors and deadened all sense of moral obligation to God and to helpless family, so the whole man is transformed to possess Satan's attributes and by force of habit is doomed to a drunkard's grave unless the power of a new life vitalizes his nature.

Servitude to sin is a deepening slavery entered step by step through yielding to tempting indulgences. The first handling of cards or indulgence of the wine cup grows by practice into intensity of habit, arouses appetite for wine and liquor-drinking, leads toward gambling and immorality, and exerts a bewitching power difficult to overcome that presses souls deeper and deeper and takes away moral power when yielded to. That bondage is strengthened by inherited appetite for stimulating drink and by association with those who practice these indulgences which corrupts morals, and must therefore be guarded against from doubtful associations and from the first step. Professing godliness does not keep a person from being a servant of sin, for the trouble is an impure heart instead of obeying from the heart, as when under cover of their calling physicians take liberties that spread impurity, vice and soul-destroying guilt and destroy many souls while their deluded victims are ruined for time and eternity.

Obeying from the heart is heart work, not done by compulsion, but willing obedience from love for Jesus even when it involves a cross or the way cannot yet be seen clearly. For the disloyal it means repenting and obeying God's law from the heart, since disobedience places a person on Satan's side while obedience to God's commands wins eternal life. Man was created in God's image but that image has been sadly disfigured and traces of God's love nearly obliterated because men have chosen darkness rather than light, with the same warning that came to Noah because the Lord is at the door. That heart obedience means entering the mold of the gospel to take the perfect image of its Author, Jesus Christ, through diligent Bible study and humble, trusting, confiding walking under the Holy Spirit's guidance in a sense of human impotence and Christ's dignity and glory. The Holy Spirit leads into all truth by taking the things of God spoken by Christ and conveying them with living power to the obedient heart, with Christ as Alpha and Omega delivering the believer into that mold. Such obedience means walking in the light as he is in the light, having fellowship and cleansing from all sin by the blood of Jesus, keeping his commandments and his word so the love of God is perfected, thereby knowing they are in him, abiding in him and walking even as he walked in the old commandment from the beginning.

Deliverance Through Christ Alone

Freedom became possible because the will, affections, mind and soul of every human being were purchased by sending the Son to break Satan's power, pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world in Christ to redeem people from sin's slavery. Christ's sacrifice is the only hope of being raised from bondage and brought into connection with heaven's light.

This change comes only through the grace of Christ and a revelation of Christ, for no human power can change the slave of sin. He must lay hold of power out of and above himself, become a Christian brought into touch with God and into touch with the power that works righteousness. Turning from Satan's deceptions and looking to Jesus long enough to see and understand His love breaks bondage. God has done everything possible through Christ to win men, giving Himself and becoming poor that men through His poverty might be made rich. He continues His great work of atonement as risen Saviour and Advocate pleading before the Father's throne and pleading with the sinner to turn, followed by the Holy Spirit's work on every heart, blending mercy and justice so that every soul who believes in Christ as personal Saviour receives everlasting life under the bow of mercy arching God's throne, with no awakening while the system is kept under the influence of liquor.

When Christ is received and the person is placed under God's control, the will becomes firm and strong to do right, the heart is cleansed from selfishness and filled with Christlike love, and the mind yields to the authority of the law of love with every thought brought into captivity to obedience. The powers hitherto used for unrighteousness are consecrated to the service of the God of love. New habits are formed, powerful propensities for evil are held in check, and renewed, transformed lives of service and certain victory under Christ as conquering Leader are made possible.

That obedience gives mastery over sin, deliverance from the bondage of evil, and health and life and peace, bringing physical, mental and spiritual restoration to meet prevailing corruption, political strife, bribery, fraud, violence, lawlessness, indifference to suffering, brutal destruction of life, insanity, murder and suicide, and the work of satanic agencies to distract and corrupt the mind and defile and destroy the body, answering hearts crying out for divine power and presence where the gospel has been presented too indifferently to impress conscience and life. Those who obey from the heart are to reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, made free from sin and servants of righteousness and servants of God, with fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life, for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. God's call to His service is an offer of freedom, because obedience to God is liberty from the thralldom of sin and deliverance from human passion and impulse.

Grateful Life of Righteousness

God is to be thanked that those who were servants of sin have obeyed from the heart, for He has brought the precious blessing of His grace by delivering believers from the slavery of sin and the bondage of error and opening their darkened understandings to the glorious light of present truth. This deliverance is an evidence of His love and mercy that calls forth gratitude and praise in return as hearts turned from sin enter allegiance to and fellowship with Christ. That heart obedience gives mastery over sin, deliverance from the bondage of evil, and health and life and peace, bringing physical, mental and spiritual restoration.

Being set free means living as servants of right doing and servants of Christ who belong to the Saviour who paid for them with His own precious blood. It means being accountable to God for every privilege and for all means passing through their hands, and giving an account of stewardship.

Gratitude is shown by bringing offerings in accordance with blessings received, in blessing in basket and in store and benefits on the right hand and on the left. It is shown by making the small sacrifice of attending the yearly gatherings to worship God instead of remaining home engrossed in worldly cares and interests. It is shown by making effort to obtain spiritual strength instead of living for this world and this life alone while professing to believe the end of all things is at hand.

The verse forbids loving to serve self, and forbids vanity, pride, and seeking own pleasure and selfish gratification at the expense of conscience and God's approval. It forbids withholding the small offerings God requires and neglecting devotion and religious privileges. Those who do so turn His blessings into a curse and expect the eternal interest to take care of itself, and without effort become like the unrefreshed desert without the dew or rain of heaven, for spiritual strength will not come without effort on their part.