Romans 6:20 Meaning: Free from Righteousness, Bound by Sin

Two Greek words carry Paul's point. The word translated “servants” is douloi, which means bondslaves. Paul does not use a softer word. He says you were owned by sin. Then he pairs it with eleutheroi, which means freeborn or emancipated. So the line reads: “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.” That is a painful irony. You thought you were free because you had no master telling you what to do. But the cost of that independence was that you were actually enslaved. The word for righteousness, dikaiosunē, refers to the state of being right with God and living the way He wants. To be free from that is not liberation. It is being cut off from the only thing that can truly set you free.

Across Christian traditions, commentators agree on the basic meaning of this verse but highlight different angles. John Wesley noted the natural implication: if you were once free from righteousness, you ought now to be as zealous in serving God as you were in serving sin. Calvin emphasized the wretchedness of such liberty, calling it a freedom that makes us slaves to the devil. Matthew Henry and Gill pointed out that this verse reveals the total absence of any desire for righteousness in the unregenerate state. The Cambridge Bible adds a note of solemn irony: Paul is saying that in your former life, God's righteousness had no claim on you because you were not justified before Him. All traditions read this as Paul describing the old life, not endorsing it.

Some readers think Paul is saying that being free from righteousness is a good thing, as if Christians are released from all moral obligations. But that misses Paul's irony. In fact, Paul is describing the tragic state of being a slave to sin. The freedom he mentions is the delusion of independence from God. The whole chapter argues that we have been set free from sin so we can serve righteousness, not the other way around.

This week, pay attention to any part of your life where you resist doing what is right because you want to be “free.” Maybe it is a habit of speech, a relationship you protect, or a corner of your time you will not give God. Paul says that kind of freedom is a lie. Real freedom comes when you offer yourself to righteousness. Pick one small area where you have been holding back. Ask God to show you that His way is not a cage but a door.