How Did That Work Out For You? | Romans 6:20-23

AT A GLANCE

Sin feels good for a little while. Then it leaves us feeling empty and ashamed. Ultimately it brings

death. But God gives us life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord! Are you thirsting for life? Come

drink of living water!

INTRODUCTION

Did you know that hydrogen peroxide is essentially the same substance as water, but with one extra

oxygen molecule? It is H2O2. Like water, it is clear and odorless. But it is completely different from

water if you drink it. Rather than bringing life to your body, it begins to destroy it. To drink H2O2 is

to drink death, not life. It’s so close in substance to pure H2O, but it will eventually kill you.

It is the same with sin. Sex within marriage is a beautiful thing. Why is it not so beautiful outside

marriage? Because sin brings death, not life. In this passage, Paul tells us why we ought to present

the members of our body as slaves of righteousness. We ought to thirst for pure water, so to speak,

rather than hydrogen peroxide!

ROMANS 6:20-23

Romans 6:20–23

20  For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  21  But what fruit

were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of

those things is death.  22  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become

slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  23  For the

wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul personifies both sin and righteousness and speaks of them as controlling powers. Assuming the

readers of his text desire to live goldy lives, he now shows us why we ought to present the members

of our body as slaves of righteousness rather than as slaves to sin.

Verse 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Before

you were justified by God, saved by His grace through faith, technically you were free from the

restraints of righteousness. We might call this freedom from righteousness “licentiousness.” As

slaves to sin, you were free to sin any way you liked.

This freedom from righteousness sounds great, but it is not true freedom since the fruit of it is

shame and death as we’ll see in verse 21. Granted, if there were no benefit to sin, no one would do

it. We sin because sin feels good. At least at first. We sin because it scratches some itch inside us.

But, as the old saying goes, “Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you

want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”

HOW DID THAT WORK OUT FOR YOU?

This is what James warns us about, “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully

grown brings forth death.” James 1:15

James 1:15

The question is not, “Does sin feel good?” The question is how did that work out for you? This is

where Paul takes us next in verse 21. Sin may feel good in the moment, but it’s time for a heart-

check. He asked, But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you

are now ashamed?

When you were free to sin any which way you liked, how did that make you feel after the high wore

off? After the binge? After the euphoria? How did it impact the relationship with your spouse? Your

kids? Your parents? Siblings? Your friends? How did it go with your employer? What about your

finances? What impact did it have on your physical and mental health?

What was the fruit you were getting? Examine your life before Christ. Think back to the way you

felt when you were living in sin. You’re ashamed of it now. You look back and you regret it. At

least if you’re a born-again believer, you regret your past sin. You’re ashamed of your past sin.

THREE DEATHS

Shame is a byproduct of sin, but the end result is death. For the end of those things is death.

Death entered the world through the sin of Adam. Spiritual death first, then relational death, and

finally physical.

First came spiritual death, separation from God. Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of

Eden. They were cut off from God. Then came relational death – the curse of the marriage

relationship. Eve, you’ll desire your husband’s role and he’ll dominate you. That’s Genesis 3. Then

came physical death in Genesis 4, the product of both spiritual and relational death. Cain murdered

his brother Abel.

Ultimately, we all die, physically, spiritually, & relationally. I think Paul has every aspect of death in

mind as he wrote this. Sin leads to death. Yes, physical death and eternal spiritual death, but also

death in a thousand ways before that happens.

THE GREAT EXCHANGE

Verse 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, in

other words, the Lord has done a work in your heart, doing something you could never do for

yourself. Paul continued, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 

Sanctification instead of shame. Life instead of death. Why would you look back on your former

manner of life and want to go back to it? When you’ve been given what you’ve been given, why

would you go back to that which robs you of life, and joy, and health? Why would anyone who has

tasted and seen that the Lord is good desire to return to the so-called vomit of their former ways?

Verse 23 For the wages of sin is death, What your old life earned you was death. Both eternal

death and death while you live. Eternal separation from God in a real place called hell. God is holy

and every sin is an affront to Him. Romans 12:19 says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Romans 12:19

God would not be just if He did not pay us what we earned. We earn death and death eternal. That

is what we will receive as long as sin in our master.

Again it is not simply that we die eternally, but we face death and destruction here and now. The

wage Paul speaks of here is what a master gave to a slave, or a commander gave to a soldier to

sustain their daily lives. In a tragic twist, death is the wage your master pays you.

Sin causes people to die a little every day: the death of relationships, the death of mental health and

physical health. The death of purpose, of productivity, of meaningful connection with people. It kills

marriages, families, societies, even churches. Sin has you running in circles promising something it

cannot deliver - life. Sin can never give you life.

But, verse 23 continues, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The word

gift here is charisma and it means grace. We are no longer under Law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

Romans 6:14

The grace of God has saved us from our sin. He has set us free from the bondage to sin. He has

enabled us to say no to sin. And He has given us eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have

been made alive together with Christ and we no longer walk in darkness. We are no longer

dominated by sin and death. Sin pays us death, God graciously gives us life.

Regarding eternal life, I love what Daniel Doriani says, “When we have remained with the Lord and

his children for 10,000 years, not a day, not an hour, will have been spent. We will not be one

second closer to the end of eternal life. And what a life it will be! Forever dwelling in God's light,

without tears, pain, or loss, enjoying the best of song, of worship, of feasting, of the presence of

blessed Jesus. And we will be with him forever.”

However, like death, eternal life is not limited to the life to come. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you,

whoever believes has eternal life.” John 6:47 That is a present reality. Eternal life begins when we believe

John 6:47

the Good News of Jesus Christ. When we place our faith in Him, we go from death to life.

JESUS NEVER WINKS AT SIN

I heard a pastor say once, “Whenever Jesus meets with a sinner, He offers them a way out. He

doesn’t wink at their sin.” Whereas sin ultimately pays us eternal death but produces death in us in

this life, God’s gift of grace not only secures for us life eternal but life in the here and now. In other

words, Jesus not only saves us from hell, He changes our lives.

Justification leads to sanctification. Remember where we are in Romans. We have been justified –

declared righteous by God based solely on faith in His Son. Specifically, in the death, burial, and

resurrection of Jesus. Those who have been justified, are being sanctified. That’s a universal truth. If

you’re in Christ, the Holy Spirit is in you and He’s working in you to make you more like Jesus.

Your salvation changes things. It changes your relationships, your character, your heart. It does the

opposite of what Paul’s critics were accusing him of. Far from causing us to want to live in sin since

we are no longer under the law, it causes us to despise sin. It reminds us of the shame we felt when

we lived the life we used to live.

Early church father, John Chrysostom, says that your new life is evident in that you recognize your

past life for what it was. You want evidence that you’re saved today? This is the evidence: you look

back on your former life and you recognize it for what it was – shameful and full of death.

This is a message the world does not want to hear. We live in a culture that says its hateful to say

that what they believe or what they practice is sin. And many in the church have shrunk back

because it’s unpopular. Many leaders in the Church have embraced a position that is anti-Biblical.

They have accepted what the Bible calls sin.

THE NEW RELIGION

June is so-called “Pride” month and LGBTQ is the new religion of our culture. It is a religion of

pride and a religion of death. Of mutilation and of denying the created order.

“Let people love who they want to love and be who they want to be!” Is that really the loving thing

to do? What is the fruit of the LGBTQ agenda? How is it working out? Is it life? Or is it death?

Consider mental health. The suicide rate among LGBTQ members continues to climb despite

widespread tolerance and even celebration of their lifestyle. Suicide among transgendered persons is

highest 7 years after their “gender-affirming surgery.” This ideology promised happiness through

mutilation. You must change who you are to be happy.

Consider what it is doing to our perception of truth and reality. There is no room for debate or to

agree to disagree. The mainstream message is that you need to reject what your eyes see and your

mind knows as real and instead pretend. And to not do this, to not affirm the agenda, is bigotry and

hate. Consider children’s innocence and what is appropriate sexuality for children. Drag queen story

hours, family-oriented drag queen strip shows, explicit material in children’s books. Look at the fruit

of this ideology. It’s harmful. Jesus would not wink at it. He would offer a way out of it.

We shouldn’t be hateful toward members of the LGBTQ community. These people are thirsting for

life! They are slaves to sin just like you and I were. Instead, we need to respond with compassion.

And the most compassionate thing we can do is tell them the truth in love. They need to know that

the wages of their sin is death, but there is a way out. His name is Jesus.

To affirm their sin is the least loving thing we can do. It promises to liberate but instead it confuses

and isolates. It enslaves and destroys. What does our culture need to hear? It is not affirmation of a

lifestyle that produces death. Rather, it is a loving and compassionate invitation to find life and peace

and redemption, forgiveness of sins, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

LEST WE BE HYPOCRITES

Lest we be hypocrites, we can’t point to one sin and ignore another. I see two parallel ideologies in

our culture that are equally destructive and equally pervasive. Pornography and radical feminism.

They are cut from the same cloth as the LGBTQ agenda, feeding off of one another, and each of

these is a modern manifestation of Genesis 3. Men dominating women – using them as if they are

objects for their pleasure. And women desiring the role of their husbands, or rejecting the idea that

they even need one.

Men, we’re dealing head on with the issue of pornography in this church. I’ve been talking about it

since October, but I’ll say it again, you are killing yourself and your family or your future family if

you are not killing porn. I want you to be with us on August 18 th at 6pm for the You Are Not Alone

Men’s Rally here at church. We’re going to behold the glory of God and let His glory confront our

sin. Men, you don’t have to look very hard to see the deadly fruit of pornography. We’ve had men

get so sucked into pornography that they’re in prison right now. Normal men...in jail because of

pornography. That could be you. You could be fired from your job. You could be divorced. You

could lose your kids. To speak nothing of the fact that pornography feeds the human-trafficking

pandemic. What is the fruit of pornography? It is death and destruction.

Women, radical feminism is a problem just like porn. The idea that you don’t need a man is no more

from God than the idea that women are here for men’s pleasure. God created man and woman to

complement one another, not compete against one another. Radical feminism invaded the church in

the 1970’s when mainstream churches tried to be more relevant to the culture and embraced what

came to be called “Evangelical feminism.”

While it promised to liberate women, the fruit of it is rampant fatherlessness, declining marriage and

increasing divorce rates (porn and radical feminism worked as a double-edged sword in this regard),

and lower rates of contentment and life satisfaction among women.

What is the fruit of radical feminism? Fewer marriages, more divorce, the birth rate has dropped, the

median age of our country is increasing and women today report being less happy than in 1970.

That’s death, not life.

Whether it’s the LGBTQ agenda, porn, or radical feminism, there’s a script, a pervasive ideology at

work in our world, the fruit of which is death. It’s a rejection of God’s created order, of God’s

design for men and women and for sex. It’s Satan’s same old scheme – “Did God really say?” Its

fruit is not human flourishing but death. And if you are not confronting these ideologies in your

own life and if we are not speaking clearly about these, culture is winning.

You don’t have to be addicted to pornography, or shout your abortion, or change your pronouns for

this sin to produce the fruit of death in you. You can simply let it go unchecked. Simply let it run in

the background of your mind. Let it shape your paradigms.

Let the ideology of a pornographic culture run in the background and you’ll view every woman as a

sex-object rather than as a soul. Let the ideology of radical feminism run in the background and

you’ll bristle at the mere mention of submission to your husband. Let gender ideology run in the

background and when your LGBTQ friend comes around, you’ll feel no need to warn him of his sin

and no desire to share the hope he could find in Christ.

As you check your heart, asking the Lord to shine the light of His truth in the deepest, darkest

recesses, ask Him and ask yourself, “How is that working out for you?” Is the way you think and live

producing life or death? For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in

Christ Jesus our Lord.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bruce, F. F. (2008). Romans: An introduction and commentary. Inter-Varsity Press.

Doriani, D. M. (2021). Romans. P&R Publishing.

Hughes, Kent R. (1991). Romans – Righteousness from Heaven. Crossway.

Kruse, Colin G. (2012). Paul’s Letter to the Romans. W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Longenecker, Richard N. (2016). The Epistle to the Romans. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

MacArthur, John. (1991). Romans 1-8. Moody Publishers.

MacArthur, John. (1991). Romans 9-16. Moody Publishers.

Moo, Douglas J. (2018). The Letter to the Romans, Second Edition. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Mounce, Robert. (1995). Romans. B&H Publishing.

Schreiner, Thomas R. (2018). Romans, Second Edition. Baker Publishing Group.

Sproul, R. C. (2019). The Righteous Shall Live By Faith – Romans. Ligonier Ministries