Romans 6:17
But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed.
But thanks be to God
This phrase begins with an expression of gratitude, directing the focus to God as the source of all good things. The Greek word for "thanks" is "χάρις" (charis), which is often translated as "grace" or "favor." This indicates that the gratitude expressed is not merely a polite acknowledgment but a recognition of God's unmerited favor and active role in the transformation of believers. Historically, this reflects the early Christian understanding that all spiritual progress and sanctification are ultimately gifts from God, not achievements of human effort.

that, though you once were slaves to sin
The phrase "slaves to sin" uses the Greek word "δοῦλοι" (douloi), meaning "slaves" or "bondservants." This metaphor highlights the totality of the control sin had over individuals before their conversion. In the Roman world, slavery was a common institution, and being a slave meant having no personal autonomy. Spiritually, this implies that before knowing Christ, individuals were completely under the dominion of sin, unable to free themselves. This historical context underscores the depth of the transformation that occurs through salvation.

you wholeheartedly obeyed
The word "wholeheartedly" translates from the Greek "ἐκ καρδίας" (ek kardias), meaning "from the heart." This signifies a sincere and complete obedience, not merely an external compliance. In biblical terms, the heart is the center of will and emotion, indicating that this obedience is genuine and stems from an inner transformation. This reflects the biblical teaching that true obedience to God is not just about outward actions but involves a change of heart and mind.

the form of teaching to which you were committed
The "form of teaching" refers to the apostolic doctrine and the core truths of the Christian faith. The Greek word "τύπον" (tupon) suggests a pattern or model, indicating that the teaching was a well-defined and authoritative standard. Historically, this teaching would have been the gospel message and the ethical instructions given by the apostles. The phrase "to which you were committed" implies a deliberate and active dedication to this teaching, suggesting that believers are entrusted with the truth and are responsible for adhering to it.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul the Apostle
The author of the letter to the Romans, Paul is addressing the believers in Rome, providing theological insights and practical instructions for living a Christian life.

2. Roman Christians
The recipients of the letter, these early Christians were living in a diverse and often challenging environment, facing both internal and external pressures.

3. Slavery to Sin
A metaphor used by Paul to describe the previous state of the believers before accepting Christ, indicating a life controlled by sinful desires.

4. Obedience from the Heart
This phrase highlights the transformation that occurs when believers genuinely commit to the teachings of Christ, moving from external compliance to internal conviction.

5. Form of Teaching
Refers to the apostolic doctrine and the core teachings of Christianity that the Roman believers were taught and committed to following.
Teaching Points
Transformation through Obedience
True Christian transformation involves a shift from external adherence to internal conviction, where obedience stems from the heart.

The Power of Doctrine
The "form of teaching" signifies the importance of sound doctrine in shaping a believer's life. Engaging deeply with Scripture is crucial for spiritual growth.

Gratitude for Deliverance
Paul expresses gratitude to God for the believers' transformation, reminding us to continually thank God for our deliverance from sin.

Commitment to Righteousness
Just as the Roman Christians were committed to the teachings of Christ, we too must commit ourselves to living out the principles of righteousness in our daily lives.

Freedom in Christ
Understanding our past slavery to sin highlights the freedom we now have in Christ, encouraging us to live in that freedom responsibly.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding our past slavery to sin enhance our appreciation for the freedom we have in Christ?

2. In what ways can we ensure that our obedience to God is heartfelt and not merely external?

3. How can we deepen our commitment to the "form of teaching" that Paul refers to, and why is this important for our spiritual growth?

4. What are some practical ways we can express gratitude to God for our deliverance from sin in our daily lives?

5. How do the teachings in Romans 6:17 connect with Jesus' promise of freedom in John 8:34-36, and how can this understanding impact our walk with Christ?
Connections to Other Scriptures
John 8:34-36
Jesus speaks about the truth setting people free, contrasting slavery to sin with the freedom found in Him.

Ephesians 2:1-5
Paul describes the transformation from being dead in transgressions to being alive in Christ, similar to the transition from slavery to sin to obedience.

1 Peter 1:22
Peter emphasizes the importance of obeying the truth and purifying one's soul, which aligns with the heartfelt obedience mentioned in Romans 6:17.
The Form of Teaching'Alexander MaclarenRomans 6:17
The Gospel a Mould of ObedienceS.R. Aldridge Romans 6:17
The Reign of GraceR.M. Edgar Romans 6:12-23
Servants to ObeyT.F. Lockyer Romans 6:15-23
The Two Services and Their RewardsC.H. Irwin Romans 6:15-23
Branded with the TruthR. Wardlaw, D. D.Romans 6:16-18
Freedom from Sin and Subjection to RighteousnessC. Bradley, M. A.Romans 6:16-18
Master or ServantChristian JournalRomans 6:16-18
Moral SlaveryH. Melvill, B. D.Romans 6:16-18
Moulded by the TruthM. Rainsford, B. A.Romans 6:16-18
Obedience to ChristRomans 6:16-18
Obedience to the Form of DoctrineT. Chalmers, D. D.Romans 6:16-18
Our Change of MastersC. H. Spurgeon.Romans 6:16-18
The Apostolical Form of DoctrineJ. Lyth, D. D.Romans 6:16-18
The Devil's SlavesH. W. Beecher.Romans 6:16-18
The Form of TeachingA. Maclaren, D. D.Romans 6:16-18
The Liberty of the BelieverG. H. Salter.Romans 6:16-18
The Service of Sin and the Service of RighteousnessJ. W. Burn.Romans 6:16-18
The Strictness of the Law of ChristJ. H. Newman, D. D.Romans 6:16-18
Transformation of GraceC. H. Spurgeon.Romans 6:16-18
True LibertyXenophon.Romans 6:16-18
True LibertyC. Kingsley, M. A.Romans 6:16-18
People
Paul, Romans
Places
Rome
Topics
Bondmen, Bondservants, Committed, Delivered, Doctrine, Entrusted, Form, Freely, Heart, Hearty, Instructed, Obedience, Obedient, Obeyed, Placed, Praise, Servants, Sin, Slaves, Standard, System, Teaching, Thanked, Thanks, Though, Thraldom, Truth, Whereas, Whereunto, Wholeheartedly, Yielded, Yourselves
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Romans 6:17

     5015   heart, and Holy Spirit
     7797   teaching
     8208   commitment, to God
     8676   thanksgiving

Romans 6:1-18

     6028   sin, deliverance from

Romans 6:12-23

     7449   slavery, spiritual

Romans 6:14-18

     6662   freedom, abuse
     6679   justification, results

Romans 6:16-17

     5020   human nature

Romans 6:16-18

     6745   sanctification, nature and basis
     8454   obedience, to God

Romans 6:16-19

     8272   holiness, growth in

Romans 6:16-20

     5004   human race, and sin
     8157   righteousness, as faith

Romans 6:16-21

     6106   addiction

Romans 6:17-19

     4030   world, behaviour in

Library
May 6. "Reckon Ye Also Yourselves to be Alive unto God" (Rom. vi. 11).
"Reckon ye also yourselves to be alive unto God" (Rom. vi. 11). Death is but for a moment. Life is forevermore. Live, then, ye children of the resurrection, on His glorious life, more and more abundantly, and the fulness of your life will repel the intrusion of self and sin, and overcome evil with good, and your existence will be, not the dreary repression of your own struggling, but the springing tide of Christ's spontaneous overcoming life. Once in a religious meeting a dear brother gave us a most
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November 11. "Reckon Yourselves Dead, Indeed" (Rom. vi. 11).
"Reckon yourselves dead, indeed" (Rom. vi. 11). Our life from the dead is to be followed up by the habit and attitude henceforth which is the logical outcome of all this. "Reckon yourselves dead indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, and yield yourselves unto God," not to die over again every day, "but, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Further His resurrection life is given to fit us for "the fellowship of
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

February 24. "Sin Shall not have Dominion Over You, for Ye are not under the Law, but under Grace" (Rom. vi. 14).
"Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Rom. vi. 14). The secret of Moses' failures was this: "The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did." And this was why his life work also came short of full realization. He saw but entered not the Promised Land. The founder of the law had to be its victim, and his life and death might demonstrate the inability of the law to lead any man into the Promised Land. The very fact, that it was
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

August 7. "Knowing this that Our Old Man is Crucified" (Rom. vi. 6).
"Knowing this that our old man is crucified" (Rom. vi. 6). It is purely a matter of faith, and faith and sight always differ, so that to your senses it does not seem to be so, but your faith must still reckon it so. This is a very difficult attitude to hold, and only as we thoroughly believe God can we thus reckon upon His Word and His working, but as we do so, faith will convert it into fact, and it will be even so. These two words, "yield" and "reckon," are passwords into the resurrection life.
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Sixth Sunday after Trinity Exhortation to Christian Living.
Text: Romans 6, 3-11. 3 Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Seventh Sunday after Trinity Exhortation to Resist Sin.
Text: Romans 6, 19-23. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. 20 For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. 21 What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Address on Easter Eve
"We were buried, therefore, with Him through baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life."--ROM. VI. 4. "I delivered unto you, among the first things, that . . . He was buried."--I COR. XV. 3, 4. St. Paul lays extraordinary and, at first sight, inexplicable stress, on the fact of our Lord's Burial. It is certainly strange that, in the second of these two texts, he mentions it as constituting, along with the
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

Twentieth Day. Holiness and Liberty.
Being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness: now present your members as servants of righteousness unto sanctification. Now being made free from sin, and become servants unto God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.'--Rom. vi. 18, 19, 22. 'Our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus.'--Gal. ii. 4. 'With freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.'--Gal. v. 1. There is no possession more
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Love of Religion, a New Nature.
"If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him."--Romans vi. 8. To be dead with Christ, is to hate and turn from sin; and to live with Him, is to have our hearts and minds turned towards God and Heaven. To be dead to sin, is to feel a disgust at it. We know what is meant by disgust. Take, for instance, the case of a sick man, when food of a certain kind is presented to him,--and there is no doubt what is meant by disgust. Consider how certain scents, which are too
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

'The Form of Teaching'
... Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.'--ROMANS vi. 17. There is room for difference of opinion as to what Paul precisely means by 'form' here. The word so rendered appears in English as type, and has a similar variety of meaning. It signifies originally a mark made by pressure or impact; and then, by natural transitions, a mould, or more generally a pattern or example, and then the copy of such an example or pattern, or the cast from such a mould.
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Christ's Resurrection an Image of Our New Life.
(Easter Sunday.) Praise and glory be to God, and peace with all who with joyful hearts greet one another with the cry, The Lord is risen! Amen. TEXT: ROM. vi. 4-8. IT is natural, my friends, that the glorious festival of our Saviour's resurrection should attract the thoughts of believers to a far remote time, and that it should make them rejoice to think of the time when they shall be with Him who, after He had risen from the dead, returned to His and our Father,--a joyful prospect, expressed in
Friedrich Schleiermacher—Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher

Death to Sin through Christ
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."-Romans 6:11. THE connection of this passage will help us to understand its meaning. Near the close of the previous chapter Paul had said, "The law entered that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." He speaks here of
Charles G. Finney—Sermons on Gospel Themes

Baptism --A Burial
I do not understand Paul to say that if improper persons, such as unbelievers, and hypocrites, and deceivers, are baptized they are baptized into our Lord's death. He says "so many of us," putting himself with the rest of the children of God. He intends such as are entitled to baptism, and come to it with their hearts in a right state. Of them he says, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" He does not even intend to say that those who were
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 27: 1881

The Doctrines of Grace do not Lead to Sin
No sooner is this doctrine set forth in a clear light than men begin to cavil at it. It is the target for all carnal logic to shoot at. Unrenewed minds never did like it, and they never will; it is so humbling to human pride, making so light of the nobility of human nature. That men are to be saved by divine charity, that they must as condemned criminals receive pardon by the exercise of the royal prerogative, or else perish in their sins, is a teaching which they cannot endure. God alone is exalted
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 29: 1883

Christ's Resurrection and Our Newness of Life
The idea that the grace of God should lead us to licentiousness is utterly loathsome to every Christian man. We cannot endure it. The notion that the doctrines of grace give license to sin, comes from the devil, and we scout it with a detestation more deep than words can express. "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" On our first entrance upon a Christian profession, we are met by the ordinance of baptism, which teaches the necessity of purification. Baptism is, in its very
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Death and Life in Christ
I. THE FACTS REFERRED TO IN THESE FOUR VERSES CONSTITUE THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL WHICH WE PREACH. 1. The first fact here very clearly indicated is that Jesus died. He who was divine, and therefore immortal, bowed his head to death. He whose human nature was alhed to the omnipotence of his divine nature, was pleased voluntarily to submit himself to the sword of death. He who was pure and perfect, and therefore deserved not death, which is the wages of sin, nevertheless condescended for our sake to yield
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 9: 1863

Alive unto God.
(Sixth Sunday after Trinity.) ROMANS vi. 11. "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Every baptised person belongs to God. He is His absolute property, marked with the sign of the great King. As the broad arrow is the mark that certain property belongs to the British Government, so the Cross of Holy Baptism is the sign and pledge that we are God's. Think of that, my brothers, you are not free to choose your own way, your
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

Servants of Sin.
(Seventh Sunday after Trinity.) ROMANS vi. 20. "The servants of sin." There is no existence in the world so sad as that of a slave; and there is no slavery so hard as that of sin, no taskmaster so bitter as the devil. There was a tyrant in the old times who ordered one of his subjects to make an iron chain of a certain length, in a given time. The man brought the work, and the tyrant bade him make it longer still. And he continued to add link to link, till at length the cruel taskmaster ordered
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

The Parable of the Householder. A Sermon, by Bishop Latimer.
MATTHEW XX.--The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that was an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. This parable is written by the evangelist Matthew in the twentieth chapter, and is very dark and hard to be understood; yea, there is no harder piece of scripture written by any evangelist. Therefore it may well be called hard meat; not meat for mowers nor ignorant people, who are not exercised in the word of God. And yet there is no other diversity
John Knox—The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

"But if Ye have Bitter Envying and Strife in Your Hearts, Glory Not," &C.
James iii. 14.--"But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not," &c. It is a common evil of those who hear the gospel, that they are not delivered up to the mould and frame of religion that is holden out in it, but rather bring religion into a mould of their own invention. It was the special commendation of the Romans, that they obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which they were delivered, (Rom. vi. 17) that they who were once servants, or slaves of sin, had now
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Schleiermacher -- Christ's Resurrection an Image of Our New Life
Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher, German theologian and philosopher, was born at Breslau in 1768. He was brought up in a religious home and in 1787 went to the University of Halle, and in 1789 became a Privat-Docent. In 1794 he was ordained and preached successively at Landsberg and Berlin. The literary and philosophical side of his intellect developed itself in sympathy with the Romanticists, but he never lost his passion for religion, a subject on which he published five discurses in 1799.
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 3

How Christ is to be Made Use Of, in Reference to the Killing and Crucifying of the Old Man.
Having thus shortly pointed out some things in general, serving to the clearing and opening up the way of our use-making of Christ for sanctification, we come now more particularly to the clearing up of this business. In sanctification we must consider, first, The renewing and changing of our nature and frame; and, next, The washing and purging away of our daily contracted spots. The first of these is commonly divided into two parts, viz. 1st, The mortification, killing, and crucifying of the
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Evening Prayer for a Family.
O eternal God and most gracious Father, we thine unworthy servants here assembled, do cast down ourselves at the footstool of thy grace, acknowledging that we have inherited our fathers' corruption, and actually in thought, word, and deed, transgressed all thy holy commandments, so that in us naturally there dwelleth nothing that is good; for our hearts are full of secret pride, anger, impatience, dissembling, lying, lust, vanity, profaneness, distrust, too much love of ourselves and the world, too
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Sanctification and Justification.
"Yield your members servants to righteousness unto sanctification." --Rom. vi. 19. Sanctification must remain sanctification. It may not arbitrarily be robbed of its significance, nor be exchanged for something else. It must always signify the making holy of what is unholy or less holy. Care must be taken not to confound sanctification with justification; a common mistake, frequently made by thoughtless Scripture readers. Hence the importance of a thorough understanding of this difference. Being
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

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