Romans 6:17

But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye become obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness.

The KJV rendition "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin" is improved in the English Revised Version (1885); because Paul did not mean, "Thank God you were servants of sin," but "Thanks to God that ALTHOUGH you were slaves of sin, etc.,"[30] as translated by Lard. What Paul did not say in this verse is also significant in another instance. He did not say, "Thank God that ... you believed," but "Thank God that ... ye became obedient," proving that whatever was said of either faith or obedience was never intended to exclude the other. Certainly, obedience mentioned here cannot be thought of as excluding faith; why then should faith ever be thought of as excluding obedience?

Two expressions in these verses are of particular interest: "from the heart" and "that form of teaching." We shall notice each.

From the heart ... is a reminder that all obedience and submission to God's will must flow out of a believing and loving heart, truly polarized with reference to the Creator, and which, without any reservation and in utter willingness, responds to the will of God. Philip the evangelist who expounded the terms of the Christian-gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, responded to the eunuch's question thus: "If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest" (Acts 8:37 margin). Though not in the text, that verse is in the margin; and there can be no doubt that it reports exactly what was said, being, in all probability, a recognized portion of the formula of confession invariably followed from the earliest Christian times, as is still the custom in churches of Christ throughout the world. The confession of faith in Christ and the believer's immediate baptism into Christ were clearly connected in Paul's mind, such being evident in this verse; and it may be assumed that this prompted his injection of the words "from the heart" into this passage.

That form of teaching ... which Christians are said to have obeyed and which delivered them into a state of freedom from sin can be nothing if not a reference to baptism mentioned by Paul only a moment before. The great features of the Christian gospel are the death, burial and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4); and Paul had already shown in this chapter that by the means of believers' baptism into Christ, they were therefore dead with him, buried with him, and risen with him. This, together with the overtones of the confession in this verse, makes it a certainty that Paul here had reference to baptism. Let it be considered that the only way in which the gospel (death, burial and resurrection of Christ) can be obeyed is through obedience to some distinctive FORM of it, or PATTERN of it. People deny this implication in vain; for it is not merely in this passage, but constitutes the burden of Paul's teaching here. This conclusion is also supported by the words of Christ himself, who did not hesitate to use "baptism" and "gospel" as synonyms thus: `Go preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:15,16). If baptism is not used in this passage as synonymous, in a sense, with gospel, how could Christ have commanded the gospel to be preached and something else to be obeyed? Thus, baptism indeed is a form of the gospel, and precisely "that form of teaching" Paul spoke of here.

Being then made free from sin ... (KJV) more clearly gives the sense than the English Revised Version (1885), in being to the effect that obedience to the "form of teaching" delivers the believer out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, and that in this action (baptism) he is freed from the bondage to sin and becomes bondservant of Christ. The English Revised Version (1885) and other versions, in the omission of "then," have somewhat softened the impact of Paul's teaching in this verse; but the idea remains in the text anyway, even Phillips retaining the essential meaning thus:

Then, released from the service of sin, you entered the service of righteousness (Phillips New Testament).

Lard's exegesis on this passage is:

Here the disciples are said to have been freed from sin when they obeyed the model of teaching.[31]

Justification of the believer in Christ therefore takes place THEN, when he obeys from the heart that form of teaching, that is, when he is baptized. Thus, apostolic authority has truly enlightened man as to the moment when his faith saves him, that being the exact time when his faith leads him to be baptized into Christ for the remission of his sins. Let those who deny that justification is truly in view here explain how "made free from sin" can possibly mean anything else. As Lard stated it, "To be freed from sin is to be justified."[32] Moreover, there is inherent in such an expression as "being made free from sin" a quality of meaning which indicates the formal and legal phase of justification, and not personal holiness identified as sanctification. "Being made free from sin," as used here, is a vast and comprehensive thing, and the application of it to personal holiness would make a claim for baptism that cannot be true, personal holiness not being something that is delivered in consequence of baptism; but the formal justification of the sinner as then having a new identity "in Christ" and being fully and irrevocably justified with reference to all past sins - all that is accomplished in baptism. It is in the act of baptism that the believer changes masters, kingdoms, and destinies. Adam Clarke noted that:

The Greek expression for "being made free from sin" is a term that refers to the manumission of a slave.[33]

The ancient ceremony of manumission was one in which the slave's chains were actually cut by a smith, the anvil and chisel actually being brought into the church where such ceremonies were often held; and it was the slave's legal status which was thereby changed, and not his personal nature: In the light of this, Paul's use of such a word is impossible of application to the personal nature of Christians as affected in their sanctification. As noted above, to construe baptism as an ordinance related to sanctification rather than justification, is to endow the ordinance with something not in it. As a conditional act required for the legal and formal justification of a believer, it is God's appointed command; but as a deliverer of holiness in the form of a changed nature, it will disappoint all who rely upon it for any such thing. Even "the newness of life" that follows baptism, and cannot begin without it, is not a result of baptism but of the believer's new status and the indwelling of God's Spirit in his heart. One gathers the impression from many of the commentators that their reluctance to allow baptism as a bona fide and divinely imposed condition of justification is their fear that to do so would imply the efficacy of the ordinance in the production of holiness; but it is not the nature of the believer which is changed in baptism, but the all-important status.

[30] Moses E. Lard, Commentary on Paul's Letter to Romans (Cincinnati, Ohio: Christian Board of Publication, 1945), p. 213.

[31] Ibid., p. 214.

[32] Ibid.

[33] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), Vol. VI, p. 79.