Servants of righteousness

In answer to the question raised in verse 1, ‘Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?’, the apostle brought before us the fact that we have actually been delivered from sin by our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection. Here, in verse 15, another question is raised, but in answering it the apostle refers us to that motivation and disposition of heart that we are to have as believers. Recognizing the wonder of divine grace, the child of God is to yield to, and obey, righteousness.

In fact, at conversion we ‘obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine’ that was delivered to us. This is the obedience of faith, cp. 1. 5; 16. 26. What the apostle now points out is that if obedience marked us at the beginning of our lives as believers, it should be true of us every day. We are ‘servants of righteousness’ now, v. 18, and are therefore to be ‘servants to righteousness’, v. 19, yielding to righteousness with holiness in view. Indeed, we are now ‘servants to God’, v. 22, with our fruit being holiness, and the ultimate goal being the full enjoyment of eternal life.

In chapters 6 and 7 Paul deals with two matters arising from the truth at the end of chapter 5. We have seen that the believer’s relationship to sin is examined in chapter 6, but in chapter 7 it is the believer’s relationship with the law. In the opening verses it is established that the law has dominion over a person only while he is alive. This is illustrated by reference to the law of marriage. For so long as the husband is living, that law binds a wife to her husband, so that if while he lives she becomes attached to another she is an adulteress. However, the death of her husband releases her from that law and sets her free to marry another man.

If in chapter 6 the believer is delivered from the dominion of sin by identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, in chapter 7 he is, by that same means, delivered from the dominion of the law. It is no longer the principle by which he lives. It provides neither justification nor sanctification. He has died to it and is now married to Christ risen from the dead, in order that he might bring forth fruit unto God.