Romans 6:20-23
- Quando enim servi fuistis peccati, liberi
fuistis justitiæ. - For when ye were the servants of sin, ye
were free from righteousness. - Quem ergo fructum habuistis tunc in iis,
de quibus nunc erubescitis? Siquidem finis eorum
mors. - What fruit had ye then in those things
whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of
those things is death. - Nunc vero manumissi a peccato, Deo
autem in servitutem addicti, habetis fructum - But now being made free from sin, and
become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life. vestrum in sanctificationem, finem vero vitam
æternam. - Stipendia enim peccati, mors; donum vero
Dei, vita æterna, in Christo lesu Domino nostro. - For the wages of sin is death; but the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
20.For when ye were,etc. He still repeats the difference, which he had before mentioned,
between the yoke of righteousness and that of sin; for these two things, sin and righteousness, are
so contrary, that he who devotes himself to the one, necessarily departs from the other. And he thus
represents both, that by viewing them apart we may see more clearly what is to be expected from
each; for to set things thus apart enables us to understand better their distinctive character. He then
sets sin on one side, and righteousness on the other; and having stated this distinction, he afterwards
shows what results from each of them.
Let us then remember that the Apostle still reasons on the principle of contraries, and in this
manner, “While ye were the servants of sin, ye were freed from righteousness; but now a change
having taken place, it behoves you to serve righteousness; for you have been liberated from the
yoke of sin. He calls those free from righteousness who are held by no bridle to obey righteousness.
This is the liberty of the flesh, which so frees us from obedience to God, that it makes us slaves to
the devil. Wretched then and accursed is this liberty, which with unbridled or rather mad frenzy,
leads us exultingly to our destruction.
21.What fruit, then, etc. He could not more strikingly express what he intended than by appealing
to their conscience, and by confessing shame as it were in their person. Indeed the godly, as soon
as they begin to be illuminated by the Spirit of Christ and the preaching of the gospel, do freely
acknowledge their past life, which they have lived without Christ, to have been worthy of
condemnation; and so far are they from endeavouring to excuse it, that, on the contrary, they feel
ashamed of themselves. Yea, further, they call to mind the remembrance of their own disgrace, that
being thus ashamed, they may more truly and more readily be humbled before God.
Nor is what he says insignificant, Of which ye are now ashamed; for he intimates that we are
possessed with extreme blind love for ourselves, when we are involved in the darkness of our sins,
and think not that there is so much filth in us. The light of the Lord alone can open our eyes to
behold the filthiness which lies hid in our flesh. He only then is imbued with the principles of
Christian philosophy, who has well learnt to be really displeased with himself, and to be confounded
with shame for his own wretchedness. He shows at last still more plainly from what was to follow,
how much they ought to have been ashamed, that is, when they came to understand that they had