Good Sin?
Romans 6:19 says as you have yielded your members to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield ye your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Paul was speaking to them here after the manner of men because of the infirmity (weakness, frailty, feebleness) of their flesh.
They were obviously like most of us still are and somewhat weak when it comes to understanding this awesome Gospel. The weakness that we have in our flesh becomes very apparent in most of us at times I am sure.
Verse 20 says you were, not are, the servants of sin. You were free from righteousness. There is no mixture here at all. You are either in sin (operating in under Adam’s unbelief) or you are in righteousness. You cannot be in righteousness and be in sin at the same time. What he is saying is that when you were under the law you were a servant of sin but now the law has been crucified (it became flesh) and you are no longer under the law therefore you are under righteousness. Under the law they were completely free from righteousness. There is no way they were or could become righteous under the law.
Verse 21 he asks them what fruit they had in those things. The things he is talking about the things they used to do under the law to try and become righteous. He further tells them they are now ashamed of what they did under the law to obtain favor with God. The answer of course to the question of what fruit they had in those things is none. The only thing it caused them was shame when they saw they were trying to obtain something that was impossible to obtain. Righteousness is not obtained by our works. Going back under Adams condition of sin under law is called living in sin.
This is not sex, drugs and rock and roll like some say. It is not your actions and deeds. It is actually your “good works” that you are trying to gain favor with God by doing. You mean I can be living in sin by doing good? Yes, if those good works are something you are doing to gain God’s favor and obtain righteousness. That is living in unbelief because you are trying to become something you already are which is what Adam did in the beginning. Remember the tree in the garden was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Not just the evil tree but it included knowledge of good as well.
Verse 22 that now that they have been freed from sin, keeping in mind the “noun” meaning of sin, they have become servants of God and the end of that fruit is everlasting life. This everlasting life doesn’t come through your actions and deeds. It comes through the righteousness that is in Christ Jesus that was freely given to every person on earth. You have become a slave of righteousness. You have been captured by God and made a prisoner of righteousness.
