In first-century Rome God is also busy working righteousness on earth (Romans 6:17–18), and here too he has taken up people in his service to this end: 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
(Romans 6:17). By accepting the gospel from the heart,
the believers in Rome have transitioned from the realm of sin to the realm of faith in Christ. It was God’s work that they accepted the gospel and for this reason Paul pays tribute to God for his liberation. Through God they have been set free from sin
and have become slaves of righteousness
(Romans 6:18). Their status as slaves or servants has not changed. They are still in someone’s service. Yet now they are no longer slaves of sin and death, but servants of righteousness and life. Paul’s description of the nature of their new obedience in Romans 6:17 is somewhat complex, though. He writes that they are obedient to the standard of teaching to which you were committed
(in the Greek: eis hon paredothète tupon didachès). The language used here is more descriptive of the life of a slave than is apparent in some translations. The verb committed
describes a slave who switches allegiance or ownership to serve another. He has been bought by the other person and thereby he has been committed
to him. Yet interestingly Paul does not say that the slave has been committed to another lord. Instead, he writes about their obedience to the standard.
The word tupos used here can be understood as referring to the branding given to a slave by his new master. The new mark or branding that people receive when Christ accepts them into his service for righteousness consists in embracing the instruction in the gospel, and receiving Christian Baptism. That is what marks
or characterizes them. A good slave remains loyal to the master’s mark on his shoulder. The believers in Rome are obedient to their new mark: the teaching and baptism of Christ.
Gagnon,1 argues that a human soul which has been marked by the Spirit is so taken up in the Spirit that it now excludes any tradition or teaching of doctrine. However, he largely ignores the fact that this soul mark
to which Christians are now committed, is here intrinsically connected to a particular doctrinal tradition because of the word used in the original Greek, didachè, which means doctrine or instruction.2
17 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,