And having been set free from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.
Truth to Learn
When we were saved we were released as a slave to sin. At the same time, we became the slaves to righteousness.
Behind the Words
“Having been set free” is translated from the Greek verb eleutheroō, which derived from the noun eleutheros, meaning “one who is capable of movement.” In the Roman world a slave was not permitted to travel without the permission of his or her master. However, someone who was freeborn, or a slave who had been given his or her freedom, could travel about without restraint. Thus, someone who could travel about (who was capable of movement) was considered free. It is expressed here in the aorist tense which implies past action which took place at a point in time (not continuous action) and it is in the passive voice which means that it is something done to us (we were set free).
The words “you became slaves” are translated from the Greek verb douloō. This may look somewhat familiar because we looked at the noun form of this word, doulos (one who is in a permanent relation of servitude to another), back in verse sixteen. Douloō means “to enslave.” It is expressed in this verse in the aorist tense indicating action that took place at a point in time in the past.
Meaning Explained
Once again, let’s start out by seeing what Paul is not saying. Paul is not telling us that Christians will never sin again. What he is saying is that we don’t have to be enslaved to sin.
Back in verse fourteen he said:
sin shall not have lordship over you.
The reason that sin will not have lordship over us is because we have been set free from sin. We don’t have to obey our old master because we have been set free from him. Then, in verse sixteen Paul told us:
you are slaves of that one whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness
When we were slaves of sin we had to obey that master. But, since we have been set free, we are now able to move away from sin and “leave it in the dust.” As a result, we don’t have to obey sin any longer.
If we combine yesterday’s verse and today’s verse we see that Paul is telling us that when we believed that doctrinal form that molded us like Christ we were immediately freed from the bondage of sin and made the property of righteousness. This is a reference to the point in time when we accepted Christ as Lord and Savior and became a Christian. At that time we were set free from the authority of sin and we became the property of righteousness (that is to say, the One who is righteousness).
In the next verse, Paul will tell us that since we are slaves to righteousness (righteousness is our master), we should yield ourselves to the lordship of that righteousness by obeying Him.
Application
This is easy to talk about, but it is not so easy to do, is it? Even though we want to obey our Lord and submit ourselves to His righteousness, we constantly seem to be slipping away and going back to our old master. Lord, help us learn to flee from sin and yield ourselves to righteousness.
In God's service, for His glory,
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