82: Obey the “doctrine”

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey,… (Romans 6:16)¹

I remember in the old days I would be reading through Romans 5 and 6 reveling in amazing grace and then come to this verse in Romans 6 and come screeching to a halt. I would hear something like, “Tricia, here’s the balance. You knew it was coming. Just swallow the pill because it will be good for you.”

But here’s the great news: Paul is not talking about performance and obeying the law here! Where he says we are slaves to whom we “obey,” it’s the Greek word “hypakouo”² which means “to listen, to harken.” Harken means to pay attention to or to heed what is being said. Here’s what Romans 6:16 literally says: “You are slaves to whomever you pay attention to. You are slaves to whomever you listen to and heed what they are saying.” It’s about the message that we are listening to:

…whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? (Romans 6:16, cont.)

The better translation for this verse is the King James Version. The word translated “leading” is actually a word that means “into” or “unto.” It should read like this:

…whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16, KJV)³

Whose sin and whose obedience is this verse talking about? Yours and mine? Could it be saying that we better not sin because when we do it will bring death? We better be good because it will lead to righteousness? If that were the case, it would completely unravel the first five chapters of Romans that came before this chapter!

Paul is talking about doctrine here. He’s talking about what we BELIEVE. Are we listening to the one whose sin was unto death or to the One whose obedience is unto righteousness? He’s talking about a person. Who?

Whose sin unto death? Adam’s!
Whose obedience unto righteousness? Jesus’s!

Do you believe that you are still in Adam’s sin as a sinner? Or do you believe you are in Christ’s righteousness as a saint? In Romans 5, just one chapter before (remember CONTEXT is very important in understanding the scriptures!):

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world [Adam], and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men… (Romans 5:12, brackets mine)

For as by one man’s disobedience [Adam] many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience [Jesus] many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19, brackets mine)

To confirm that it’s doctrinal (what you believe), let’s look at the very next next verse in Romans 6 –

But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed [listened to, harkened to] from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were [past tense] delivered. (Romans 6:17, brackets mine)

Doctrine is the Greek word “didache”⁴ which means teaching. We were (past tense!) slaves to sin (the noun), but we “obeyed from the heart” (we believed, listened to, gave attention to) from the HEART that form of doctrine (teaching) to which we were delivered (past tense!). It’s about believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!

(from pages 141-143 of Unveiling Jesus)

Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!

Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.

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¹All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.  Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.  Used by permission.
²G5219 (hypakouō), Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, website: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G5219&t=KJV. accessed 5-23-14
³Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
⁴G1322 (didachē), Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, website: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G1322&t=KJV, accessed 5-23-14″