The Wages of Sin

Paul asks the objection one more time: shall we sin because we are under grace? He rejects it again. People belong to whichever master they obey — sin leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness. Believers, once slaves of sin, now obeyed the teaching delivered to them and were set free from sin to become slaves of righteousness.

W¹⁵hat then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not! ¹⁶Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. ¹⁸You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Paul uses the slavery language out of concern for the flesh’s weakness. Just as the body used to be offered to impurity and escalating wickedness, it is now to be offered to righteousness leading to holiness. The old life’s fruit was shame; the outcome was death.

¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness. ²¹What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.

Freed from sin and now slaves of God, believers bear fruit that leads to holiness, with eternal life as its outcome. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

²²But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.