What is the meaning of Romans 6:20? For when Paul is looking back to the time before we trusted Christ. He reminds us of the old chapter in our story, a chapter still unfolding for everyone outside Jesus. Scripture often steps into the past like this to highlight grace: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Titus 3:3 echoes, “For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived.” By opening with “for when,” Romans 6:20 anchors the teaching in a concrete, historical reality—our pre-conversion life. you were slaves to sin Slavery here is not a figure of speech; it is a literal spiritual condition. • Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). • Romans 3:9 explains, “Both Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.” • Romans 7:14 adds, “I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin,” showing even Paul felt the iron grip apart from the Spirit’s power. Sin was the master, dictating desires, choices, and destiny. We did not negotiate with it; we served it. you were free This “freedom” is tragically ironic. Outside Christ we felt unrestrained—no covenant ties, no holy boundaries. Yet Proverbs 14:12 warns, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Peter describes the same illusion: “They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity” (2 Peter 2:19). In other words, independence from God is dependence on sin. of obligation to righteousness Before conversion, righteousness made no demands on us—not because we were sovereign, but because we were incapable. Romans 8:7–8 says the mind set on the flesh “does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” First Corinthians 2:14 adds that the natural man “cannot understand” spiritual things. We had no appetite for holiness, no power to perform it, and no sense of duty toward it. Only the new birth changes that (Ezekiel 36:26-27; Romans 6:22). summary Romans 6:20 looks back to expose the lie of sin’s freedom. Our former life was marked by real slavery to sin and real indifference to righteousness. Christ’s saving work flips that condition: we become free from sin’s mastery and joyfully bound to God’s righteousness. |
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