Roma 6:17-22

6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed ¹  from the heart that pattern ²  of teaching you were entrusted to, 6:18 and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 6:19 (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ³  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

6:21 So what benefit ⁴  did you then reap ⁵  from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 6:22 But now, freed ⁶  from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit ⁷  leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.

[6:17]  ¹ tn Grk “you were slaves of sin but you obeyed.”

[6:17]  ² tn Or “type, form.”

[6:19]  ³ tn Or “because of your natural limitations” (NRSV).

[6:19]  sn Verse 19 forms something of a parenthetical comment in Paul’s argument.

[6:21]  ⁴ tn Grk “fruit.”

[6:21]  ⁵ tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.

[6:22]  ⁶ tn The two aorist participles translated “freed” and “enslaved” are causal in force; their full force is something like “But now, since you have become freed from sin and since you have become enslaved to God….”

[6:22]  ⁷ tn Grk “fruit.”