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Romans

About this book
Chapter 6

1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase?⁠ 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.⁠ 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.⁠ 7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.) 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, 13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.⁠ 19 (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. 21 So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. 23 For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Romans 6:18 and Gospel of Philip 11:5

New Testament · Nag Hammadi

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Summary

Romans and the Gospel of Philip describe freedom from sin through a new kind of slavery. Philip makes the new service voluntary and directed toward those still without freedom, turning Paul's change of masters into an obligation to help other people.

Passages

Romans 6:18

New Testament
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
55–58 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Romans

Gospel of Philip 11:5

Nag Hammadi
He who has knowledge of the truth is free, and a free man sins not, because “he who sins is a slave to sin.” Truth is the Mother, but knowledge is the ‹Father›. Those who do not let themselves sin, the world calls them “free.” The knowledge of the truth makes those who do not let themselves sin to be lifted up, which means that they are made free, and it lifts them up above all things, but love builds up, and he who has been made free by means of knowledge is a slave because (he has) love for those who have not yet been able to obtain [the] freedom of knowledge. [However], it is knowledge that makes them able [to] become free.
180–250 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Philip

References

“... The second unique feature of this interpretation is the comparison of a ‘slave of sin’ (John 8:34) with a ‘slave because of love.’ The contrast of the ‘slave of sin’ with a slave to something wholesome is not unique (Rom 6:16–18), but its contrast with love for others does appear to be a novel interpretation and application of John 8:32, 34.26 The initial parallel with John 8:32, 34 (77.15–19) is then joined with 1 Cor 8:1 by the catchword ‘knowledge’, and these three passages are used to interpret one another (77.22–24), which produces a unique exegesis that links knowledge of the truth and freedom with an exhortation to love others. Irenaeus condemns the Valentinian converts who become exceptionally arrogant because of their knowledge (Haer. 3.15.2), but the exhortation in the Gos. Phil. to use this knowledge and freedom to love others is not uncommon in Valentinian literature. ...”
Lorne R. Zelyck, John among the Other Gospels: The Reception of the Fourth Gospel in the Extra-Canonical Gospels (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), 111.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Romans 6:18 and Gospel of Philip 11:5

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