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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 12:24

New Testament · Nag Hammadi

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Summary

Romans' movement from slavery to freedom gains a further stage in the Gospel of Philip. Those who have received truth through images still await its full disclosure, so freedom depends on seeing what the images conceal rather than changing masters.

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 12:24

Nag Hammadi
Consequently, the perfect things were opened for us by the secrets of the truth, and the Holies of the Holies was disclosed, and the bedroom invited us inside. As long as it is concealed, evil remains inactive. However, it has not been removed from the presence of the offspring of the holy Spirit. They are slaves to evil. However, when it will be exposed, then the perfect light will pour out on everyone, and all those who dwell inside it will [obtain chrism]. The slaves will then be free, [and] the captives redeemed. “[Every] plant [that] my Father who is in heaven has not planted [will be] uprooted.” Those who have been divided will be united, [the empty] will be filled.
180–250 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Philip

References

“... Heracleon explains that the psychics either must obey the will of the devil, fulfilling the desires of the flesh. or they obey “‘righteousness,”’ the demiurge’s law.'°* In the latter case, they become obedient to “the mpe of the teaching’ (6:17-18) which they received (since psychics receive only ‘‘types and images" of the truth).''" Nevertheless, although now they receive only “types and images," the writer of the Gospel} of Philip says that when the “hidden things of the truth” are revealed to them, “then the perfect light will pour out upon everyone; then the slaves will be free, and the captives delivered.''''' For the present, however, Paul says he must speak to them “‘in human terms, because of the weakness of your flesh” (6:19).'! ...”
Elaine Hiesey Pagels, The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975), 31.

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 12:24

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