Romans 6:18-22

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.) ¹  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 ²  did you then reap ³  from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 6:22 But now, freed ⁴  from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit ⁵  leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.

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¹ tn Or “because of your natural limitations” (NRSV).

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

² tn Grk “fruit.”

³ tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.

⁴ 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….”

⁵ tn Grk “fruit.”