Yes, we are. Having transitioned from the contrast between the two worlds of law and sin to the two dispensations of law (Moses) and grace (Christ) in Romans 6:14, Paul immediately proceeds to repeat the question he had already posed in Romans 6:1 once again in Romans 6:15, albeit in a different form: What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? The answer here is once again just as clear as it was in Romans 6:2: By no means! Paul again describes the new identity assumed by Christians. In the verses preceding Romans 6:15 he specifically elaborates on the fact that we share in Christ’s death through faith and therefore we also already live with him for God. In the verses that follow Romans 6:15 he again deals with the same concept, but now emphasizes the point that we must behave as subjects of this new Lord. Now his focus turns to ethics: the application of this idea to the Christian life.

Becoming a Christian, after all, also means becoming subject to a superior Lord, yet now we are not under the protecting lordship of the law, nor under the cruel mistress of sin, but under the face of grace: Christ who is God himself. This of course imposes an obligation upon Christians: Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone 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? (Romans 6:16). Sin places its subjects in the service of death, which is their ultimate fate (Romans 1:32). Obedience to God leads to something else, namely righteousness—dikaiosunè in the original Greek. This same word is used five times throughout chapter 6, and signifies the righteousness that God works on earth through the service of his children (see Romans 6:13, Romans 6:18–20). Here Paul is also using the word in the sense of the righteousness on earth for which God employs his children. Service to sin does not build up anything, leaves nothing on earth, and leads to death. Obedience to God, however, builds a kingdom of righteousness and a peace that lasts!¹