《The Biblical Illustrator – Romans (Ch. 6b~8a)》

1. He generally comes to church, it is his practice; but some urgent business or scheme of pleasure tempts him--he omits his attendance; he knows this is wrong, and says so, but it is only once in a way.

2. He is strictly honest in his dealings; it is his rule to speak the truth, but if hard pressed, he allows himself now and then to say a slight falsehood. He knows he should not lie, he confesses it; but he thinks it cannot be helped.

3. He has learned to curb his temper and his tongue; but on some unusual provocation they get the better of him. But are not all men subject to be overtaken with ill temper? That is not the point; the point is this--that he does not feel compunction afterward, he does not feel he has done any thing which needs forgiveness.

4. He is in general temperate; but he joins a party of friends and is tempted to exceed. Next day he says that it is a long time since such a thing happened to him. He does not understand he has any sin to repent of, because it is but once in a way. Such men, being thus indulgent to themselves, are indulgent to each other. Conscious of what might be said against themselves they are cautious what they say against others. These are a few out of a multitude of traits which mark an easy religion--the religion of the world; which would cast in its lot with Christian truth, were not that truth so very strict, and quarrels with it--because it will not suit itself to emergencies, and to the tastes of individuals.

II. This is the kind of religion which St. Paul virtually warns us against, as often as he speaks of the gospel as being a law and a servitude.

1. He indeed glories in its being such; for, as the happiness of all creatures lies in their performing their parts well, where God has placed them, so man’s greatest good lies in obedience to God’s law and in imitation of God’s perfections. Therefore Paul insists on the necessity of Christians “fulfilling the righteousness of the law.” Hence James says, “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” And our Saviour assures us that, “Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments,” etc., and that “Except our righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees,” which was thus partial and circumscribed, “we shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” And when the young man came to Him, He pointed out the “one thing” wanting in him. Let us not then deceive ourselves; what God demands of us is to he content with nothing short of perfect obedience--to avail ourselves of the aids given us, and throw ourselves on God’s mercy for our shortcomings.

2. But the state of multitudes of men is this--their hearts are going the wrong way, and their real quarrel with religion is not that it is strict, but that it is religion. If I want to travel north, and all the roads are cut to the east, of course I shall complain of the roads. So men who try to reach Babylon by roads which run to Mount Sion necessarily meet with thwartings, crossings, disappointments, and failure. They go mile after mile, watching in vain for the turrets of the city of Vanity, because they are on the wrong road; and, unwilling to own what they are really seeking, they find fault with the road as circuitous and wearisome.

3. But religion is a bondage only to those who have not the heart to like it. Accordingly, in verse 17, St. Paul thanks God that his brethren had “obeyed from the heart that form of teaching, into which they had been delivered.” We Christians are cast into a certain mould. So far as we keep within it, we are not sensible that it is a mould. It is when our hearts would overflow in some evil direction, then we consider ourselves in prison. It is the law in our members warring against the law of the Spirit which brings us into a distressing bondage. Let us then see where we stand, and what we must do. Heaven cannot change; God is “without variableness or shadow of turning.” His law is from everlasting to everlasting. We must change. We must go over to the side of heaven. Never had a soul true happiness but in conformity to God. We must have the law of the Spirit of life in our hearts, “that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us.”

4. Some men, instead of making excuses, such as I have been considering, and of professing to like religion, all but its service, boldly object that religion is unnatural, and therefore cannot be incumbent. Men are men, and the world is the world, and that life was not meant to be a burden, and that God sent us here for enjoyment, and that He will never punish us for following the law of our nature. I answer, doubtless this life was meant to be enjoyment; but why not a rejoicing in the Lord? We were meant to follow the law of our nature; but why of our old nature and not of our new? Now that God has opened the doors of our prison house, if men are still carnal, and the world sinful, and the life of angels a burden, and the law of our nature not the law of God, whose fault is it? We Christians are indeed under the law, but it is the new law, the law of the Spirit of Christ. We are under grace. That law, which to nature is a grievous bondage, is to those who live under the power of God’s presence, what it was meant to be, a rejoicing. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)

True liberty

“Is it your opinion,” said Socrates, “that liberty is a fair and valuable possession?” “So valuable,” replied Euthydemus, “that I know of nothing more precious.” “But he who is so far overcome by sensual pleasure that he is not able to practise what is best, and consequently the most eligible--do you count this more free, Euthydemus?” “Far from it,” replied the other. “You think, then,” said Socrates, “that freedom consists in being able to do what is right, and slavery, in not being able; whatever may be the cause that deprives us of the power?” “I do, most certainly.” “The debauchee, then, you must suppose is in this state of slavery?” “I do, and with good reason.” (Xenophon.)

True liberty

You think the charter would make you free--would to God it would. The charter is not bad if the men who use it are not bad. But will the charter make you free? Will it free you from slavery to ten-pound bribes? Slavery to gin and beer? Slavery to every spouter who flatters your self-conceit, and stirs up bitterness and headlong rage in you? That, I guess, is real slavery; to be a slave to one’s own stomach, one’s own pocket, one’s own temper. Will the charter cure that? Friends, you want more than Ac of Parliament can give. Englishmen! Saxons! Workers of the great cool-headed, strong-handed nation of England, the workshop of the world, the leader of freedom for seven hundred years; men, you say you have common sense! then do not humbug yourselves into meaning “license” when you cry for “liberty.” Who would dare refuse you freedom? for the Almighty God and Jesus Christ, the poor man who died for poor men, will bring it about for you, though all the mammonites of the earth were against you. A nobler day is dawning for England--a day of freedom, science, industry. But there will be no true freedom without virtue, no true science without religion, no true industry without the fear of God and love to your fellow citizens. Workers of England, be wise, and then you must be free, for you will be fit to be free. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)

The liberty of the believer

The liberty of the subject could never be preserved in a lawless state of society, but violence and tyranny would reduce to a slavish obedience the weak and the timid. The palladium of civil liberty is law; law well defined, excluding the fluctuations of caprice on one side, and of aggression on the other; law rigorously executed also, for the best code is a dead letter if it be not accompanied by a living and firm executive. So the liberty of the believer is secured by the law of God, when brought under its guidance and government. While living under the misrule of his fallen nature, he is the sport of every capricious imagination, and successively the slave of his predominant passions (verse 16.) But let Christ’s government be set up, and he becomes Christ’s freeman; “sin has no more dominion over him”; he is no longer its wretched captive, but is under gracious law, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (G. H. Salter.)

Verse 19-20

Romans 6:19-20

I speak after the manner of men.

Apostolic exhortation

I. Its method. “After the manner of men,” i.e., (Gr.) humanly--as men ordinarily speak, borrowing any illustrations from common life. Spiritual subjects are made plainer by familiar comparisons, and so preachers should use simple language and homely illustrations. This was exemplified in Christ, and inspired writers in general. The most useful preachers have ever been those who speak most humanly. The arrow too high flies over the head; too low falls short of the mark.

II. The reason for the method. “The infirmity of your flesh”--imperfect knowledge through the flesh--an apology for the use of the expression “slaves,” etc. Some believers are still babes and carnal (1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Hebrews 5:12-14); others are spiritual and of a full age. In God’s family are fathers, young men, little children (1 John 2:12-14). The flesh is an impediment to the apprehension of truth. Carnal nature views holiness not as liberty but as bondage. Arguments and modes of speaking to be adapted to the hearer’s state. Let not the mature and enlightened, then, cavil at methods adapted to reach the immature and ignorant and vice versa.

III. Its substance.

1. A reminiscence. “As ye have yielded your members” servants--

2. An enforcement of duty. “Even so now”--as heartily and thoroughly, and in consideration of the past “yield your members”--

Will ye be the servants of sin or the servants of God

?--To determine your choice consider--

I. The contrast.

1. Sin conducts you from iniquity to iniquity.

2. God will lead you in the path of holiness.

II. The immediate consequences.

1. The fruit of sin is shame.

2. Of faith is holiness.

III. The final result.

1. The wages of sin is death.

2. The gift of God eternal life. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Forsake the service of sin; enter the service of righteousness

Then you escape--

1. Out of disgraceful impurity into true holiness (Romans 6:19-21).

2. Out of dishonourable servitude into true freedom (Romans 6:20-22).

3. Out of death and condemnation into eternal life (Romans 6:21-23). (W. Hauck.)

Two ways and two ends

I. The one was bitter servitude; the other sweet liberty.

II. The one has disgraceful notoriety; the other praiseworthy modesty.

III. The one has eternal death; the other eternal life. Note what Jesus says of these two ways and their ending (Matthew 7:13). (W. Ziethe.)

The slavery of sin unlawful--a ground of hope to the sinner

Luther’s domestic, Elizabeth, in a fit of displeasure, left his service without notice. She subsequently fell into sin and became dangerously ill. Luther visited her, and, taking his seat by her bedside, she said, “I have given my soul to Satan.” “Why,” rejoined Luther, “that’s of no consequence. What else?” “I have,” continued she, “done many wicked things; but this is what most oppresses me, that I have deliberately sold my poor soul to the devil, and how can such a crime ever find mercy?” “Elizabeth, listen to me,” rejoined the man of God. “Suppose, while you lived in my house, you had sold and transferred all my children to a stranger, would the sale or transfer have been lawful and binding?” “Oh no,” said the deeply humbled girl, “for I had no right to do that.” “Very well, you had still less right to give your soul to the arch enemy; it no more belongs to you than my children do. It is the exclusive property of the Lord Jesus Christ; He made it, and when lost also redeemed it; it is His, with all its powers and faculties, and you can’t giveaway and sell what is not yours; if you have attempted it, the whole transaction was unlawful, and entirely void. Now, do you go to the Lord, confess your guilt with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and entreat Him to pardon you, and take back again what is wholly His own. And as for the sin of attempting to alienate His rightful properly, throw that back upon the devil, for that, and that alone is his.” The girl obeyed, was converted, and died full of hope.

Changed uses

Among the spoils taken when Alexander conquered and captured Darius was a richly jewelled cabinet or casket in which the Persian king kept his perfumes and sweet ointments. It was carried to Alexander, who at once turned it to another and nobler use, and added a syllable to its name. He placed in it his copy of the “Iliad,” saying, “This shall no longer be called myrrh box, but Homer box.” What the “myrrh box” became by passing under Alexander’s hands illustrates what the soul becomes by passing under the hands of its Divine Inspirer. By unseen influences (as certainly as by the miracle touch) God adds to the graces of “a chosen vessel” the gift of spiritual power and expression. He makes it empty that He may fill it with greater riches.

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

The servants of sin

1. There is no condition so sad as that of a slave; and no slavery so hard as that of sin. There was once a tyrant who ordered one of his subjects to make an iron chain of a certain length. The man brought the work, and the tyrant bade him make it longer still. And he continued to add link to link, till at length the cruel taskmaster ordered his servants to bind the worker with his own chain, and cast him into the fire. That hardest of tyrants, the devil, treats his slaves in like manner. At first the chain of sin is light, and could easily be cast off. But day by day Satan bids his victims add another link. The servant of sin grows more hardened, daring, reckless in his evil way. He adds sin to sin, and then the end comes.

2. Very often the slaves of sin do not know that they are slaves. They talk about their freedom from restraint, they tell us they are their own masters, that the godly are slaves. Once I visited a madhouse. Some had one delusion, some another. One thought he was a king, another the heir to a fortune. But one thing they all believed, that they were in their right minds.

3. The servants of sin bear about the marks of their master. I have seen gangs of convicts working on Dartmoor. You could not mistake them for anything else if they were dressed in the best of clothing. The word convict is stamped upon every grey face, as plainly as the Government mark is stamped upon their clothing. The servants of sin have their marks also. Look at the shifty eyes, and downward glance of the knave and the false man; the flushed brow and cruel eyes of the angry man; the weak lips and trembling hand of the drunkard.

4. The servants of sin have their so-called enjoyments, these are the baits with which the tyrant gets them into his power. For a time the way of transgressors is made easy and pleasant. The broad road is shaded, and edged with fair fruits and flowers. A saint of old once saw a man leading a herd of swine, which followed him willingly. When the saint marvelled, the man showed him that they followed him for the sake of the sweet food in his hand, and knew not whither they were going. So the servants of sin follow Satan for the sake of the sweet things which he offers, and know not that they are going to their death, even the living death of a lost soul. (J. H. W. Buxton, M. A.)

Freedom from righteousness

Standing altogether outside it, having no relation to it, destitute of it, entirely unaffected by it; strangers therefore to its happy and gainful service. Possessing a freedom which is a bane and a bondage. A planet’s freedom from the law which preserves it in its orbit; a child’s freedom from the restraints of a happy home. This freedom pleases the flesh, but ruins the man; it is not mercifully given, but madly taken; it is Satan’s miserable choice, “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” Note the latent irony of the text; “Ye were free”; but what kind of freedom? A freedom akin to that of hell. Freedom from righteousness a man’s greatest misery; freedom in righteousness his greatest mercy. (T. Robinson, D. D.)

Liberty and restraint

You hear every day greater numbers of foolish people speaking about liberty, as if it were such an honourable thing; so far from being that, it is, on the whole, and in the broadest sense, dishonourable, and an attribute of the lower creatures. No human being, however great or powerful, was ever so free as a fish. There is always something that he must or must not do; while the fish may do whatever he likes. All the kingdoms of the world put together are not half so large as the sea, and all the railroads and wheels that ever were or will be invented, are not so easy as fins. You will find, on fairly thinking of it, that it is his restraint which is honourable to man, not his liberty; and, what is more, it is restraint which is honourable even in the lower animals. A butterfly is more free than a bee, but you honour the bee more just because it is subject to certain laws which fit it for orderly function in bee society. And throughout the world, of the two abstract things, liberty and restraint, restraint is always the more honourable. It is true, indeed, that in these and all other matters you never can reason finally from the abstraction, for both liberty and restraint are good when they are nobly chosen, and both are bad when they are badly chosen; but of the two, I repeat, it is restraint which characterises the higher creature, and betters the lower creature; and from the ministering of the archangel to the labour of the insect, from the poising of the planets to the gravitation of a grain of dust--the power and glory of all creatures and all matter consist in their obedience, not in their freedom. The sun has no liberty, a dead leaf has much. The dust of which you are formed has no liberty. Its liberty will come--with its corruption. (J. Ruskin.)

Verse 21

Romans 6:21

What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?

The characters of sin

Sin is here arraigned in all the periods of time.

I. For the past as unfruitful. “What fruit had ye?” Sin ought to produce something: for it costs much. Now, for a man to labour and give up all the advantages of religion for nothing is hard indeed! And is not this the case? Read the history of wicked nations, families, individuals. Does the sinner ever gain what deserves the name of “fruit”? It promises much, but how does it perform? (Job 20:11-14). Sinful gratifications continue no longer than the actions themselves; for then, consequences begin to be thought of; reason ascends the throne, and scourges; conscience awakes, and condemns. Suppose the swearer was to tell us what he has gained by his oaths, the drunkard by his cups, the sensualist by his uncleanness, the prodigal by his extravagance, the proud, the envious, the malicious, by indulging their vile tempers; suppose the sinner was to balance his accounts at the end of a year, of a week, of a day--surely he must find that his gains do not counterbalance his loss, his pleasures do not make him amends for his pains even in the lowest degree.

II. For the present as disgraceful. “Ye are now ashamed.” And well ye may, for there is nothing so scandalous as sin. It is not a shame to be poor and distressed--but it is shameful to be a fool, a base coward, a traitor to the best of kings, and to be ungrateful to the kindest of friends.

1. There is a natural shame which arises from the commission of sin. This it was that made our first parents hide themselves, so closely did shame tread on the heels of guilt. This class of emotions may be in a great measure subdued by continuance in sin; for some “glory in their shame.” But this is not general (Job 24:15-17). Hence they not only elude observation--which they would not do if there was anything that tended to their praise, but frame excuses. But why deny or palliate? Why plead mistake, ignorance, surprise, infirmity unless disparaging to character? The sinner is ashamed even to meet himself, and finally abandons the moral world, and mingles only with those of his own quality; for here mutual wickedness creates mutual confidence, and keeps them from reproaching one another.

2. There is also a gracious shame which accompanies “repentance unto life.”

3. There is also a penal shame. For God has so ordered things that if a man be not ashamed of his sins, he shall be put to shame by them.

III. For the future as destructive. “The end of these things is death.”

1. The death of the body was the produce of sin.

2. There are many instances recorded of God’s inflicting death immediately upon sinners in a way of judgment.

3. Death sometimes attends sin as a natural consequence of vice. How frequently do persons, by anger, intemperance, and such like courses, hasten on dissolution, and become self-murderers! A physician of great repute has given it as his opinion that scarcely one in a thousand dies a natural death.

4. But what the apostle principally intends is the “second death.”

The Christian’s review

I. What fruit had you in the works of sin?

1. They are not innocent. If we permit the noblest object God ever built to take the place of God in our esteem, and every unregenerate man does, God must feel Himself robbed and insulted.

2. They are not rational.

3. They are not satisfying. That which is neither innocent nor rational, we should not expect would be satisfying; we should promptly declare it impossible. God has made the brute creation, but not man, to be satisfied with the gratifications of appetite. Of them God has not required a higher aim, nor even this; He requires nothing. Of man He requires that we give Him our hearts, and man He has made capable of a higher enjoyment through the medium of the moral affections than through the gratifications of appetite. And He requires us to be happy through this higher medium. He will not be satisfied that our noblest powers lie dormant; and while He is not so, neither shall we be.

4. They are not calculated to elevate, but to depress their nature. They take pleasure in objects beneath the dignity of their being. I remember the disgust it gave me when I read of one of the emperors of antiquity that most of his time was spent in catching flies. Though a mere child when I met with this historical fact, I involuntarily inquired, why his crown, and throne, and sceptre? A beggar boy might succeed as well as he in his sordid occupation. But why did he appear meanly occupied, but as I compared his employment with some nobler business that might have occupied him?