Silverhair
Well-Known Member
(Rom 6:16 RSV) Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
(Rom 6:17 RSV) But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
(Rom 6:18 RSV) and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
(Rom 6:19 RSV) I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.
(Rom 6:20 RSV) When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
(Rom 6:21 RSV) But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.
(Rom 6:22 RSV) But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.
(Rom 6:23 RSV) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Rom 6:17 RSV) "...you who were once slaves of sin...". Sounds like a fact - no consideration of "free will".
(Rom 6:18 RSV) "...having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.".
History clearly teaches that a slave, regardless of their master, has free will! Really - not so!![]()
Your logic has a major flaw.
Rom 6:16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness NASB
If the slave has no free will that means they can only do what their master tells them to do. Those words indicate that the person has a choice.
Rom 6:17 "...though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart ..."
Here again we see the ability of choice.
If they have the ability to turn away from a sin then they have the ability to turn to God.
Even the verse you use to prove your case actually proves you are wrong in your view.
Rom 6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
Either the person chose freely to trust in God or he was forced to trust in God.
But the wording does not support the view that God forced them so it had to be from a free will choice.
Before they responded to the gospel they had been slaves to sin, but they wholeheartedly (lit., “out from hearts,” thus inwardly and genuinely, not merely externally) obeyed. BKC
Lets look at what you said : "History clearly teaches that a slave, regardless of their master, has free will! Really - not so!"
So you must hold to calvinist determinism. But scripture does not support that view. Man is held responsible for the choices he makes and that requires a free will.
Where are we told in scripture that man has no free will?
By your words a slave to God cannot sin so do you hold to sinless perfection?