Romans 6:17-22

6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed ¹  from the heart that pattern ²  of teaching you were entrusted to, 6:18 and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 6:19 (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ³  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

6:21 So what benefit ⁴  did you then reap ⁵  from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 6:22 But now, freed ⁶  from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit ⁷  leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.

---

¹ tn Grk “you were slaves of sin but you obeyed.”

² tn Or “type, form.”

³ tn Or “because of your natural limitations” (NRSV).

sn Verse 19 forms something of a parenthetical comment in Paul’s argument.

⁴ tn Grk “fruit.”

⁵ tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.

⁶ tn The two aorist participles translated “freed” and “enslaved” are causal in force; their full force is something like “But now, since you have become freed from sin and since you have become enslaved to God….”

⁷ tn Grk “fruit.”