Introduction
In Romans 5, Paul showed how Messiah brings restoration: where humanity fell under Adam, we now find life and justification under Yeshua. Just as Adam’s disobedience brought all humanity under the reign of sin and death, Yeshua’s obedience opens a new realm where grace empowers righteous living.
Romans 6 explains how this restoration works in daily life: believers are called to live in the reality of Messiah’s victory, no longer enslaved to sin, but alive to God, bearing the fruit of faithful obedience through empowerment by the Spirit.
6:1 What then will we say? “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”
6:2 Never may it be! We who died to sin, how still shall we live in it?
6:3 Or are you unaware that as many have been immersed unto Yeshua Messiah have been entered into His death having been immersed?
6:4 We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death, so that just as was raised up Messiah out from the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we in newness of life should walk.
Walk is not just an action, but a covenant term:
And when Avram was old ninety and nine years, then appeared YHVH to Avram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Walk before Me and be blameless.”
— Genesis 17:1
In all the ways which has commanded you YHVH Elohim, you shall walk, that you may live well, and with you you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
— Deuteronomy 5:33
The Hebrew halak panim (walk before me) means ‘come face’ and ‘come accept’;
- this is a direct an invitation to join Him in His way
And therefore Yeshua to them spoke again, saying “I Am the light of the world, the one following Me no not shall walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”
— John 8:12
The Greek peripateo, “walk” has the same meaning; to live, to conduct one’s life.
Light vs Darkness is also Covenant language:
For a lamp the mitsvah (command) is and Torah, a light, and the way of life– Reproofs of instruction.
— Prov 6:23
House of Yaaqob, come and let us walk in the light of YHVH
— Isaiah 2:5
Biblically, Darkness means
- chaos (Genesis 1:2),
- divine judgment and wrath (Exodus 10:21, Joel 2:2)
- spiritual ignorance/moral confusion (Isaiah 9:2, Proverbs 4:19),
- affliction, death (Job 3:4-6)
Light is YHVH’s holiness and knowing Him
Darkness is ignorance and chaos; lawlessness
Paul is saying grace enables us to walk in the light, now empowered by new life through resurrection; and the way we walk in the light is by obedience to the ways of YHVH and the ways His Messiah Yeshua taught.
6:5 If indeed united we have become in the likeness of His death, certainly also of the resurrection we will be
6:6 This knowing that our old self was crucified with [Him] so that might be annulled the body of sin which sin no longer we are enslaved to
6:7 For one having died has been acquitted from sin
6:8 Now if we died with Messiah, we believe that we also will live with Him.
6:9 Knowing that Messiah having been raised up out of dead no more dies. Death no longer rules over Him
6:10 That which indeed He died to sin, He died once for all, that which however He lives, He lives to God
6:11 So also you must consider yourselves to be dead to sin, living however to God by Yeshua Messiah.
6:12 Not therefore let reign sin in your mortal body, in order to obey the desires of it
6:13 Neither yield your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God as out from [the] dead [as] living, and your members instruments of righteousness to God
6:14 For sin will not rule over you, not for you are not under the Torah but under grace.
Paul is referring back to the point he made in Romans 5:20
To explain that because we are united with Messiah, sin no longer has dominion over us as it did under Adam:
- Torah reveals sin (Romans 3:20; 5:20).
- Sin uses the commands to rebel because of the flesh (Romans 7:8–11)
- The result is condemnation and death for the transgressor
That is the condition of being “under Law.”
Paul is saying- You are no longer living under this authority, in which sin had ruling power because Torah condemned and punished disobedience.
You are now under the authority of Messiah, in which Spirit has ruling power through Grace which leads to obedience.
This is why he immediately clarifies:
6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under Torah but under grace? Never may it be!
6:16 Not know you that to whom you yield yourselves as doulos (slave) for obedience, doulos you are to him you obey? Whether of sin to death or of obedience to righteousness?
We tend to hear the word slave as a dehumanizing condition with no free will, because of more modern history- But in Torah, slavery is not defined that way.
A slave (ʿeved / doulos) remains a moral agent, is protected by law, and is treated with dignity and compassion.
Torah regulates service precisely to prevent abuse, preserve humanity, and remind Yisrael that they themselves were once slaves in Egypt.
This is a grounded principle throughout Torah:
- Exodus 21:2-6 – service is limited; release is built in
- Deuteronomy 15:12-15 – slaves are sent out with provision, not emptiness
- Leviticus 25:39-43 – Yisraelites are not to be treated ruthlessly
- Exodus 20:10 – slaves rest on Shabbat along with the household
So when Paul uses doulos (servant/slave) he is not invoking dehumanization. He is invoking covenant loyalty and household belonging.
6:17 Thanks however to God that you used to be slaves of sin you have become obedient now from the heart, to which you were handed over to the pattern of didache (teaching, instruction, doctrine)
Paul gives us the structure for believers in this verse:
- Obedience from the heart;
- This is the principle of “Torah written on the heart and mind” in Jeremiah 31:33
- Instruction on what that means:
- Torah instruction which is shaped by Messianic faith
Acts 15:21 shows that Gentile believers were expected to learn this instruction through the weekly readings of Moses.
- Rome had multiple synagogues- so they were being read Torah weekly
- possibly otherwise instructed by traveling Jews or oral apostolic teachings
6:18 and, having been set free now from sin, you have become slaves to righteousness.
6:19 In human terms I speak on account of the weakness of your flesh. For as indeed you yielded the members of you in bondage to impurity and to lawlessness unto disobedience, so now yield them members of you in bondage to righteousness unto sanctification
Paul is saying ‘you yielded your members to lawlessness unto disobedience; now in this new life, you will be a slave to righteousness unto sanctification’;
So he give us a clear pattern:
- After Grace comes teaching (v. 17)
- Teaching the Law (Torah) brings obedience (because “lawlessness” brings disobedience)
- Righteousness brings sanctification
This is where many have a disconnect; but the definition of righteousness is established in Torah:
Righteousness it will be for us if we are careful to do all the mitsvah (commands) this before YHVH our Elohim as He has commanded us.
– Deuteronomy 6:25
So “righteousness” is adhering to the commands of God-
Following His holy commands makes us holy like Him
- “You shall be holy for I am holy”
- Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16
Then adhering to the commands of God (empowered by Spirit) is what sanctifies us.
6:20 When indeed slaves you were of sin, you were free from righteousness.
6:21 What then fruit had you at that time in the [things] of which you now are ashamed? Indeed, the end of those is death.
6:22 Now however having been freed from sin, having become slaves now to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, but the aim is life eternal.
We have been freed from sin (disobedience), becoming slaves of God;
Our fruit is unto sanctification: we are sanctified, set apart, made holy- by our fruit; our obedience;
But “the end” telos– the principle end, the aim, the purpose, the goal- is life eternal
(Many English translations say “the end is life eternal”; but that tends to lead to the misguided idea that being saved= righteousness= eternal life; one step, with no transformation. Paul specifically says this is the goal of everything.
6:23 Indeed the wage of sin is death, but the gift of God is life eternal in Yeshua Messiah, our Adon.
The death here is spiritual death, not just physical- YHVH says His Torah is life and not death;
“I have set life and death before you, blessing and cursing- therefore choose life…” – Deuteronomy 30:19
Because this whole passage has been about disobedience in their old lives versus obedience in their new lives, we cannot detach this statement “the gift of God is life eternal in Yeshua Messiah” from what has been previously said.
Paul says we are “living to God” in Messiah, not reigned by sin, and bearing fruit that is good- to the purpose of life eternal.
Those truly in Messiah are guided by Spirit to follow in His ways, the ways of The Father- Which He shows us in His Torah.
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