“Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.  Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.  Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.” Romans 6:17-19 NLT 

Footsteps #316. In v17-19 we find out a bit more about the church in Rome. They had ‘obeyed from the heart.’ One of the great teachings of the last half of Romans 6 is that faith and obedience are inseparable. While it is true that we cannot be saved by good works it is also true that we cannot be saved without them! This is Paul’s ‘obedience of faith.’ There is no saving faith in God apart from obedience to God, and there can be no godly obedience without godly faith. It reminds me of a hymn from my younger days, “Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone. 

V19 is a commentary on the scriptural consistency that makes it clear that neutrality is not an option. People either choose God and His ways or Satan and his. Paul knew the psalms intimately (by heart it would seem as he quoted from them so frequently.) Psalm 1 is an excellent illustration of his point here. The first three verses deal with the path of the godly, while the last three reflect the way of the ungodly. The contrast we find in Psalm 1 is exactly the same as in Rom.6:19-23. Not only are there two distinct pathways (the ways of the righteous and the wicked), but the two paths lead in two quite different ends. The way of the God-fearing person becomes like a well-watered tree that bears fruit and prospers, whereas the end of the wicked is to perish. Paul would put it a little differently in Rom.6:23: “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life,” yet the picture is the same. 

Note also that in both Ps.1 and Rom.6 the two paths are dynamic rather than static. Ps.1 presents a progression from walking in the way of sin to stopping and standing in it, to finally being so relaxed and comfortable that sitting in the way of sin is a viable option. Similarly, Paul speaks of those who yield themselves to “greater and greater iniquity.” 

The Bible presents the way of righteousness as dynamic also. The path of God’s people is one of increasing holiness that Paul refers to with the word “sanctification,” meaning a separation (from the world and its sinful ways.)