Wages and Gift

Rom 6:19-23

19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• What attitudes and behaviors remain in your life that you are ashamed of?
  
• What perceived benefit do you receive from keeping these shameful things in your life?
  
• What is the outcome of remaining enslaved to these things?
  
• What is the outcome of your being enslaved to God?
  
• Why is death considered a wage?
  
• Why is eternal life considered a gift?
  
• In purely selfish terms, which is worth more to you: eternal life or the sins that you hang on to?
• How does being a slave to righteousness lead to your sanctification, i.e. your being set apart?
• What is the endpoint of sanctification?
  

Slaves

Rom 6:15-20

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, [1] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Footnotes
[1] 6:16 Greek bondservants. Twice in this verse and verse 19; also once in verses 17, 20

• What do you feel when you hear the phrase "you are slaves ..."?
  
• What does it mean to be a slave to sin?
  
• What does it mean to be a slave to righteousness?
  
• What does it mean to be free from sin?
  
• What does it mean to be free from righteousness?
  
• Since no one can truly serve two masters, which will you choose to be: a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness?

Harold's Musings
In the Law of Moses, a Jew who had been the slave of another Jew had to be set free after working for six years. If the slave loved the master and did not want to go free, he was to present himself to the master and make his desire known. The master would take the slave to the doorpost of the master's house and make a hole in the slave's ear for an earring. The slave would now be a slave for life, but by his choice. (see Ex. 21:1-6, Deut 15:12-18). Do we really see ourselves as slaves to righteousness? How about we are friends of righteousness? Maybe we are acquaintances of righteousness?

Dead to sin

Rom 6:10-14

10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

• How might our ignorance of monarchies and their methods hamper our understanding of words like reign, present, master, and obey?
  
• Why should you not let sin reign in your mortal body?
  
• What is involved with obeying something or someone?
  
• What lusts do you find it easy to obey?
  
• How does a lust tell you what to do?
  
• To what sins do you present your physical self?
  
• How do you do you present your physical self to these sins?
  
• How do you present yourself to God?
  
• How does grace change your behavior?

Dead and resurrected

Rom 6:4-11

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self [1] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free [2] from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Footnotes
[1] 6:6 Greek man
[2] 6:7 Greek has been justified

• How was your baptism like death and resurrection for you?
  
• Was your baptism mostly a theological, ceremonial, or life-changing event?
  
• What were the results of your old self being crucified with Jesus?
  
• What sins were you a slave to before baptizm?
  
• What sins are trying to maintain a hold on you?
  
• How is living to God seen in you?
  
• What does it mean to be alive to God in Christ Jesus?