Title: The Best of the Best
I’m going to make bold statement as we begin today. This passage is Paul at his best.
I. What is Paul saying in verse 20?
v20 (read)
Upon first glance it may seem that Paul is saying one of two things:
1. That before we were saved, we didn’t need to worry about being righteous.
2. Now that we know what God demands we are held to a higher standard of righteousness.
Both of these conclusion contain elements of truth, but I’d like to offer to you this morning a third, more complete, deeper, and more challenging exegesis of this verse.
First, let’s look at the translation differences.
The NKJV, NASB, RSV, and ASV all translate this verse as:
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness…”
So we can understand that the confusion from this verse is not because there are several English translation variants. In fact, the only two major translations that offer a bit of a digression are the NIV:
“When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.”
And the New Living Translation:
“In those days, when you were slaves of sin, you weren’t concerned with doing what was right.”
This example right here should show you why most scholars and pastors do not care for the New Living Translation. It assumes and attempts to clarify too much. Remember, all translations are interpretations. And in this case, the NKJV, NASB, RSV and ASV are all the most accurate in translating from the Greek and capturing the language, but I also think the this is one rare case where the NIV is actually the clearest translation of meaning.
(Two schools of translation: accuracy vs. meaning and the example of Jesus calling Herod a “Fox”. Not a compliment, but rather an insult.”
So what is correct to conclude about verse 20? What is Paul telling us? Remember, he’s built this dialog between by stating that we are either slaves to sin, or slaves to righteousness. With that in mind, I believe the safest, and most accurate understanding of verse 20 is this:
Before we were saved, while enslaved and chained to sin, we did not have the Holy Spirit breaking our heart and compelling us to do good. Back then, before conversion we may have cognitively known the things we were doing were wrong, but it was easy to justify them, easy to rationalize them, easy to live with them. Now, after conversion, we may still sin, but it is awful and difficult, I’d even argue impossible to justify sin, impossible to rationalize sin, impossible to live with sin in your life.
II. A devastating question is proposed by Paul
In the midst of Paul’s ongoing discussion he does something that is somewhat out of character. He pauses and asks a question. “What’s so unique about that pastor Ben? Paul’s been pausing to pose these questions for the last two chapters.”
Yes, but this question is different for two reasons.
1. It’s not rhetorical. (Paul doesn’t assume you to know the answer)
2. It’s personal in nature. (The answer to this question is not the same for everybody.)
In the time that I have been blessed to counsel and work with people from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, races, creeds, and histories, the answers to this question have been as varied as the people themselves.
Without being gratuitous, I’d like to share with you a few examples. I’ve worked with several young men who, before getting saved, had a rating and scoring system with their friends over the females they had been able to date and conquer. Now they look back at these events with shame and self-disgust.
I’ve worked with females who were abnormally cruel to other females in their school because that’s what one had to do in order to achieve and maintain popularity. In fact, the level of mental abuse was so cruel that one of the targets was so mentally beat up she attempted to kill herself. Understandably, when these females became believers, they looked back at their own behavior in shame and self-disgust.
Paul challenges us and asks, “When you were a slave to sin, what things did you take pride in that you now are ashamed of because you are a slave to righteousness?”
The answers to that question are going to be as many as stars in the night sky. But the conclusion to every one of those answers is the same.
“For the end of those things is death.”
All of these pursuits, all of these efforts that the world is wrapped up in, all of these things lead to death.
But the flip side, found in verse 22, shows the end of righteous things is not just life, but everlasting life at that.
III. Look closely at verse 23
Romans 6:23 is a verse that is familiar to many of us. Any of us who have been taught a method to share the Gospel have come across Romans 6:23. In fact, this verse is a major cog in my favorite method of sharing the Gospel that I’ve taught a few times in this church, that being Bill Fay’s “Sharing Jesus Without Fear.”
Why is it such a popular verse, particularly for the purposes of evangelism? Well, it’s short, easy to remember, and straight to the point. And perhaps that is why it is so overlooked. Some of you may remember that about a year ago I preached a sermon on John 3:16. And the title of that sermon was, “The Most Misunderstood Verse in the Bible.”
My opening statement of that sermon is the same thing I want to remind you of now. Popular Bible verses are the easiest target for misrepresentation. Why? Because we know them, we’ve heard them thousands of times in our lives, we tend to assume that we’ve looked closely and dissected and examined these verses when we really haven’t’, we’ve just memorized the words.
I would argue that Romans 6:23 is Paul at his best, and possibly his most clever. Why? Because within this verse Paul builds a see-saw effect attempting to balance two separate ideas and their consequences, while at the same time, summarizing 23 consecutive verses of thought on the same subject.
We tend to simplify this verse into having two separate sides (which it does) but within those two sides are opposing, but not equal ideas that line up chronologically with each other quite nicely.
We normally see this verse as it appears in our Bibles like this;
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let’s look closer.
I want to visually show you this verse in a different way then you’ve probably ever seen it.
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life (in Christ Jesus our Lord.)
Do you see it now?
Paul compares concept of wages (what you earn) vs. a gift (that which you don’t earn).
And the work that you do is sin, but the gift is given by God.
The result of your work is death. The result of God’s gift is eternal life.
Paul is quite a crafty writer, amen?
And what then, should we conclude? Every human being, whether they realize it or not, whether they admit it or not, whether they believe it or not, whether they care, or not, is walking down one of two roads, that’s it.
Either they are slaves to sin, earning the wages of death,
or they are slaves to righteousness, having accepted the gift from God they did nothing to earn, and receiving eternal life. Not a bad way to summarize human existence.