Romans 6:18-23 – Grace & Servanthood

Then grace comes along. Grace doesn’t make that action that breaks the law OK to perform, meaning we can just go on abounding in that action, it saves us from the consequences, the punishment for breaking that law,

but not only that it kills the sin that plants the desire to perform that action.

It makes us a new creature that’s not interested in going on breaking that law intentionally, even though we may slip up occasionally.

Grace saves from sin. Grace kills the old man. Grace puts us dead with Christ and raises us to new life. Grace deals with the sin that’s inside us.

So it’s sin that makes us want to break the law and it’s sin that God deals with through grace.

So Paul gives three answers in Romans 6:

#1 Grace teaches us that we’re no longer a servant of sin. Before we were saved, we had no choice. We were in Adam. We were a slave to sin. But grace freed us.

#2 Grace made us a servant of righteousness. Not because we do good works, but because Christ did the good work. God moved us from one master to another. Grace says, “I belong to righteousness now.”

#3 Sin gives no fruit and we’ll see that in this passage. There’s no profit in it. It doesn’t help us. It only hurts us. So why serve something that only destroys?

None of these reasons say, “Don’t sin because the law said so.” Paul’s talking about who we are now in Christ and what sin actually does to us.

He taught the same thing to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6:12 where he says, “All things are lawful”—because we’re not under the law—“but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

The law isn’t the problem. Sin’s the problem. If we choose sin, we put ourself under its power again.

In 1 Corinthians 10:23 he repeats it saying,

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

 

Sin doesn’t help us. It hurts our testimony, hurts others, and hurts us. That’s the same point as Romans 6.

So in Romans 6 Paul keeps asking, “Whose servant are you?” Eight times he uses the word servant. We’re not under the law. We’re not under sin. We’re under grace, which means we serve Christ.

Romans 6:17 says, “Ye were the servants of sin.” Past tense. But when we believed the gospel, God put us into Christ’s death and resurrection. Romans 6:18 says,

Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

 

That’s who we are now. So why go back and serve sin?

We became servants of righteousness, not because we fixed our life up, but because God changed us by His grace. So to say, “I’m going to sin now,” goes against who we are. People act based on what they think they are. Grace tells us plainly: we’re someone new in Christ and serving sin doesn’t fit that new identity.

This’s what’s called “positional truth.” The Bible doesn’t use that word, but the idea’s right. God put us into Christ, and that position doesn’t change with our behaviour, our feelings, or our circumstances. God did it. That’s our new identity.

Before grace, people tried to look righteous by their works. Their conscience told them to do good, and the law told them the same, even more so.

So they tried to put on a form of godliness as 2 Timothy 3:5 says. They put on a costume of righteousness and godliness hoping God and everyone else would see their good deeds and call them righteous. But inside, sin was still there.

Today it’s called virtue signalling. Look how good I am, even though the internal person is as wicked and lost in sin as can be.

Romans 6:17 says something different.

…but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

 

That’s not a pretend form of righteous works, but a form of teaching—the gospel of grace.

We believed what God said about Christ’s death and resurrection, and that truth worked inside of us.

First Thessalonians 2:13 says the Word of God …effectually works in you that believe.

So instead of us working to look righteous from the outside, God’s Word works in us when we believe it.

Grace doesn’t say, “You’re saved by grace, now here’s a list of good works to do.” Grace says, “You’re saved by grace, and grace itself changes who you are. Now you serve grace, not works.”

That’s harder for people, because a list of must or must not do’s is easy. But grace deals with identity, not performance.

The doctrine Paul mentions in verse 17 was already explained in Romans 3:21—“the righteousness of God without the law.”

That’s the righteousness we now serve. Not our own righteousness that we received by doing good works or keeping the law, but God’s righteousness given to us by Christ.

Romans chapters 4 and 5 taught the same thing: justified by faith, not works. So in Romans 6 Paul isn’t adding works back in. He’s saying, “Since you are righteous in Christ, think like it.”

So when we ask, “Shall we sin?” grace answers, “Why would a servant of righteousness want that?”

We’re justified by faith, declared righteous by God Himself. We may say, “Well, I’m not perfect.” That’s true—but God declared us righteous in Christ. That identity shapes how we think.

Doctrine affects choices. Romans 6 says you obeyed that doctrine. Titus 2:11–12 says grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and live soberly, righteously, and godly. That’s Romans 6 again. The law could never make a man righteous, but grace declares us righteous and teaches us how to live from that truth.

But it must be the right doctrine. Paul warns in 1 Timothy 1:3 not to teach any other doctrine.

If we change the doctrine, we change what people think about Christ, about their position, and about who they are. Then we ruin the whole answer to “Shall we sin?” Romans 6 only works when the doctrine is the gospel of grace.

Paul tells Timothy this in 2 Timothy 1:13,

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

“Hold fast the form of sound words.” That means there’s a specific form of doctrine that God gave, not man’s doctrine, but God’s.

In 2 Timothy 2:1 he says,

THOU therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

 

So the doctrine we hold to is the doctrine of grace.

Paul always teaches doctrine first, then behaviour. And he warns in 1 Corinthians 15:33 that “evil communications corrupt good manners.” Wrong doctrine leads to wrong living. Many people who say they believe in God’s grace for salvation still act wrongly because of weak or wrong doctrine.

If we think grace means “I can do whatever I want,” that’s bad doctrine, and it’ll produce bad results. But if we know grace means we died to sin and were raised with Christ, that changes how we think about ourself.

Romans 8:29 shows the “form” that grace is shaping us into, which is being “conformed to the image of His Son.” The law tried to shape us by rules. Grace shapes us by our position in Christ—crucified with Him, risen with Him, seated with Him and blessed in Him. That truth is meant to work in our mind so we walk like who we already are.

So we don’t say, “I’m just a dirty sinner.” We were a servant of sin, but now we’re a servant of Christ by grace.

Philippians 3:9–12 shows Paul thinking that same way.

He counts everything loss so he can “win Christ” and be found in Him.

He says, “not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.”

He wants to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. How? By the form of sound words, as we just read in 2 Timothy 1:13, the doctrine of grace. That doctrine makes him “conformable unto His death”—the same truth Romans 6 teaches.

Paul says he hasn’t “attained,” but he follows after what Christ already gave him. Christ gave us “big shoes,” you might say—His own righteousness, His own life. We don’t try to  fill those shoes in order to keep salvation. We already have the position. Now we grow into it.

Romans 6:18 refers to “being made free from sin.”

We’re not free because we stopped sinning. We’re free because Christ died to sin, and we died with Him. We became a servant of righteousness the moment we believed.

Romans 6:19 talks about yielding.

I (that’s Paul) speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh (or the weakness of our flesh): for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

 

Some people think grace means no service at all. But grace gives liberty from sin, not liberty from being a servant.

Everybody serves something. You either serve sin or you serve God. Grace makes us free from the wrong master and gives us the privilege to serve the right One.

A common saying today is, “I’m my own man.” But nobody’s above God. We believed the gospel because we knew God was our Judge and Christ our Savior. Now, by grace, we serve Him. Grace doesn’t mean we sit back and do nothing. Grace means God did what we couldn’t. He saved us, changed us, and put us where we should be.

People know by conscience that they ought to do good, and when they don’t, there’s a feeling of shame.

But no matter how hard a man tries, he can’t be perfect before God. That’s why grace had to do what we could not—save us and give us a righteousness we could never earn.

Grace doesn’t throw away the idea of doing right. It doesn’t mock the law. Grace says the law condemned me, but Christ saved me from that condemnation. So when Christ made us free from sin and free from the law, it wasn’t so we could be “free to sin.” It was so we could be free from the wrong master and free to serve the right One—Christ.

Our service doesn’t change our salvation or our standing in Christ.

Romans 3–5 already settled that. But we are a servant. Under grace, that’s simply true. And if Christ saved us and is our Lord, then we do have a duty. That’s why Paul says in Romans 6:19, “I speak after the manner of men.” He’s saying, “Let me talk to you in simple human terms.” Just like you once yielded your body to uncleanness, now that you’re saved, yield your body to righteousness unto holiness.

Romans 6:13 talked about ownership—our members belonging to God because we died with Christ and rose with Him.

Romans 6:19 talks about service, that we’re God’s servant now.

Yielding means we acknowledge that truth and choose to act like it. It’s like getting a new job: we don’t keep serving the old boss. So when someone asks, “Shall I sin?” Paul basically says, “Why would you go back to the old master? You don’t work for him anymore.”

Galatians 4 teaches the same thing. The Corinthians served sin. The Galatians served the law. Both were wrong.

Paul tells the Galatians this in 4:7,

Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

 

He’s not saying we’re not a servant, he’s saying we’re not a servant under the law like a child under tutors.

We’re a grown son under grace acting from knowledge, not fear.

Before we were saved, we served false gods, false religion and false ideas. We tried to earn our way to a god we didn’t know.

Paul says in Galatians 4:8–9,

Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

 

If we served those false gods so faithfully when we didn’t even know the true God, why would we now—after God saved us by grace—act like we owe Him nothing?”

Just like a child owes his parents everything for raising him, we owe God everything for saving us. It’s not to earn salvation, or to keep it, it’s because He already gave it.

So Paul asks, “Why turn again to the weak and beggarly elements?” Why go back to bondage—whether sin or law—when grace made us a son and an heir? Grace didn’t free us to do nothing. Grace freed us so we could finally serve the right Master.

We’re not saved by serving, but we are a servant under grace. That’s simply part of being in Christ. And if Christ is our Savior and Lord, then we have a duty.

That’s why Paul says in Romans 6:19, “I speak after the manner of men.” He’s saying, “Let me explain this in simple human terms.” Just like you once yielded your body to uncleanness, now that you’re saved, yield your body to righteousness unto holiness.

Romans 6:13 talked about ownership—our members belong to God because we died with Christ and rose with Him then Romans 6:19 talks about service, how we’re God’s servant now.

Yielding means we acknowledge that truth and choose to act like it. So when someone asks, “Shall we sin?” Paul says, “Why go back to the old master? You don’t work for him anymore.”

The Galatians had the opposite problem. They weren’t serving sin—they were serving the law.

We just read what Paul told the Galatians in Galatians 4:7 that “Thou art no more a servant, but a son.”

Paul means they, and by extension us, are not a servant under the law like a child under rules.

Grace motivates differently than the law.

Galatians 5:13 says

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

 

We’re called to liberty, but not to use liberty for the flesh. Instead, “by love serve one another.” Grace doesn’t push us with fear like the law did. Grace pulls us with love.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:14 that The love of Christ constrains us. That means the love of Christ hods us together, keeps us, compresses us to Him.

We know what He did for us. We know who He made us. That truth works inside us.

So Paul says in Romans 6:19 that the same way we once yielded ourself to sin—naturally, willingly, even proudly—now yield ourselves to righteousness.

Before, we were “free from righteousness” as Romans 6:20 points out,

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

 

We thought Christianity would bind us up, but really it was sin that had us bound. Now we’re free from the bondage of that sin and instead, we’re bound to righteousness, which is the place Jesus Christ died to allow us to be in.

It was perfectly natural for us to serve sin because that’s who we were. Now we serve righteousness because that’s who we are in Christ now. Grace changed our inner man. Grace gave us the ability to choose God’s will. We couldn’t do that before. We didn’t need Christ to choose not to lie or steal—our conscience could tell us that but we do need Christ to choose the will of God, to minister His righteousness, and to walk as a servant of grace.

Unbelievers can do many of the things the law commands. They can dress modestly, and clean themselves up and act religiously, and still be lost. But they cannot minister the gospel of the grace of God, because they don’t know it.

Only saved people can do that. Once saved, we can choose to serve Christ as His body but first we must know who we are, then we can yield our members—our hands, our mouth, and our mind—to that truth.

It’s not a duty to earn our position as a minister. It’s a duty we have because of our position.

We’re dead with Christ and alive in Him. Dead men don’t want sin. Living men, in Christ, should want righteousness. That’s the yielding Paul’s talking about, not doing the law better.

Grace doesn’t make us a better law‑keeper. Grace makes us able to serve God in His righteousness, not the righteousness of the law.

The righteousness we serve is the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ. That’s the message only the Body of Christ has. Israel never had this ministry.

Only we in the Body of Christ can preach this gospel and watch grace work in others. That’s amazing. Instead of pushing people to keep commandments, we point them to Christ so they can be saved and learn truth.

When we yield ourself to that calling, we’re not yielding to sin we’re doing what the law could never make us do—loving our neighbour by wanting them saved.

The servant’s duty is to serve grace. We minister grace. We walk by grace. We know Christ in His death and resurrection.

What constrains us? The love of Christ says 2 Corinthians 5. We’re bought with a price says 1 Corinthians 6:19–20. Our body’s not our own. Sometimes the flesh fights that, but truth is truth—we belong to Christ.

Romans 8:35 reminds us that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love. Trouble, distress, persecution—none of that changes what God already proved at the cross.

When we know that, it changes how we face life.

Romans 5 said God gave us gift after gift by grace. Knowing that helps us stand when circumstances get rough.

Serving grace is joyful. Serving the law is bondage.

If Christianity were just “try harder to live better,” we wouldn’t even need Christ. But we do need Christ for grace to work in us.

Victory over sin was accomplished by Christ, but it is applied to us when we yield to what He did. We’re in Christ whether we fully understand it or not, but we grow as we learn and yield.

Romans 6 says the old servant of sin died with Christ. We’re free from that master. Now we can choose to do right when we yield our members to Christ’s ministry, and walk in what we know to be true.

Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Why would we bear someone’s burden? Because grace taught us to care for their soul. When someone falls, we restore them in meekness says Galatians 6:1.

We know what it’s like to need help. Grace makes us want others to know truth and grow. That’s fulfilling the law of Christ—not by rules, but by grace working in us.

The world tries to excuse sin. Even Christians sometimes blame circumstances for their sin. “I couldn’t help it,” “I have this condition,” and so on. But the real “disease” is sin itself. Sinning is a choice. Adam chose it. Eve chose it. We all chose it as slaves to sin.

But when we believed the gospel, that was also a choice.

Now, under grace, we’re more free than ever to choose not to serve sin.

Romans 6 is about that conscious choice. We can’t let sin control us. We have to say, “I will not. I choose not. I’m not a servant of sin.”

We can’t control every circumstance, but we can choose some of them. And even when we can’t change the situation, we can always choose how to think about it.

That’s where doctrine works. We judge our own motives. If we’re doing something “good” but not from grace, that’s a sign we need more truth working in us.

This is why believers need to encourage each other—remind each other of who we are in Christ.

Romans 8:18 says the sufferings of this life can’t compare to the glory that’s coming. Do we believe that? Do we really believe that? If we do, why would we not desire that for others?

Colossians 2:10 says we’re complete in Christ. Grace never leaves us crushed under the circumstances of life. Grace gives hope and teaches us how to think differently but we have to know that, really know that before we can show others.

So how do we choose right?

We think about what God called us to be—His body, His ambassadors, ministers of His grace. We make choices that fit that calling and those choices lead us into a life the law could never produce.

The law said, “Love your neighbour.” Grace gives us judgment and discernment on how to minister truth to people, when to speak what they need to hear.

Romans 13:14 says to “make no provision for the flesh.” How?

Not by building walls around ourself, but by putting on Christ which is thinking about Who He is and who we are in Him. That’s doctrinal and that’s grace.

Romans 6:21–23 gives Paul’s last reason for “Shall we sin?” Let’s read,

What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Sin has no fruit.

What good came from the things we’re now ashamed of? None.

Sin brings death. Grace brings life.

Grace teaches us to be ashamed of sin, not proud of it.

When Christians brag about sin or treat it lightly, it shows wrong doctrine or doctrine not applied.

Ephesians 5:3 says fornication, uncleanness, covetousness shouldn’t even be named among saints.

Ephesians 5:12 says,

For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

 

Grace teaches that. We don’t glory in sin—we glory in Christ who saved us from it.

Testimony is about Christ, not about how bad our sin was.

Romans 6:22 starts with one of those lovely “But now’s”,

But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

 

This particular “but now” doesn’t get preached much because it says something our flesh doesn’t like: now that we’re free from sin, we’re a servant of God.

That’s not bad news. That’s grace, but being a servant to anything grates on us. “I did it my way”, still somehow makes us more comfortable even though “my way” seldom made life better in the natural and most certainly doesn’t contribute a jot to righteousness and eternal life.

God doesn’t let sinners serve Him. Their works are filthy rags as Isaiah 64:6 points out.

But when God saved us by grace, declared us righteous in Christ, and accepted us in the Beloved, He made it possible for us to serve Him.

That’s a privilege our flesh doesn’t like, but our inner man should rejoice. We failed under the law and we fail in the flesh. But in Christ, we can serve God in righteousness.

Serving God isn’t water baptism or any other rituals, or outward appearing religion. Those things don’t teach grace.

Serving God is knowing who we are in Christ and yielding our members to Him.

Romans 6:22 says our fruit is unto holiness, and the end is everlasting life. Holiness is good. Godliness is good. Grace should’ve taught us that. The law showed sin. Grace shows life. Holiness is found in Christ alone. Righteousness is found in Christ alone. Obedience is found in Christ alone. Everything God wants is in Christ, and we’re in Him.

So what is the fruit of a servant of God?

It’s not fear! The fruit is holiness and life.

Galatians 5:22-23 says this about our fruit,

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

 

That’s not a list of things we try to perform. That’s what grace produces when doctrine works in us. Being justified by faith gives peace with God. Knowing truth lets us rejoice in tribulation. That’s the Spirit’s fruit, not the law’s demands.

Can anyone know a believer by their fruit? Not by outward law‑keeping. Many lost, unsaved people can look religious and good. Many unbelievers scrub up better than a lot of Christians

But when someone preaches the gospel of grace, ministers grace, and stands in grace doctrine, that’s fruit. That’s life working. That’s Christ being magnified.

Romans 6 ends with Romans 6:23 reminding us this in one of the bibles most famous verses,

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Sin never brings life.

Grace does. Grace gives righteousness, eternal life, and a new identity.

So we don’t serve sin anymore. We serve righteousness.

We yield to Christ. We walk by grace and we choose, day by day, to think like who God already made us in Him.

Sin earns death. That’s all it can ever produce but grace gives life. Christ took our death and gave us His righteousness.

So why serve sin?

Why keep paying into something that only brings death?

Serve life. Serve holiness. Serve God. The servants of God receive gifts—free gifts—by grace.

Serving God means seeing souls saved, saints edified, thanksgiving in everything, the love of Christ constraining us, the resurrection life working in us. We can only do these things if we’re a servant of God by grace. And Romans 6 says we already are.