https://youtu.be/5HkJheUFWvE
In our verse by verse study of Romans last time we started on Rom 6:16; with the phrase "Do you not know, that to whom you put yourselves under orders " where we took a side trip into the imputations from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ that form a double portion of God's righteousness and eternal life for Church Age believers.
This double portion becomes a challenge for the believer to find the authority that is God's Word by finding our own right pastor who is communicating God's Word and to stay with it until they have advanced to spiritual maturity. By that time they will have no problem regarding authority because mature believers never have a problem with legitimate authority because they understand it.
So the potential indicative is the potential indicative of obligation that presents the idea of contingency with the indicative to explain that believers have an option.
No only do we have an option but every day in that day God gives us an opportunity to expose ourselves to the teaching of God's Word by our right pastor under the authority principle.
The word 'heatous" (yourselves) is the accusative reflexive plural pronoun that is used as the direct object of the verb. When the action expressed by the verb is reflected back to the subject the grammar is called reflexive.
You must submit to authority as an individual and not because you are bullied into it by peer pressure from a group. Next is the double accusative plural from "doulos" (slaves).
Everyone is a slave to someone. There is always someone with the authority over all of us who as the authority to demote us or promote us or bless us or discipline us. We are all under authority and when we are promoted or demoted a higher authority does it.
If God doesn't promote you, you are not promoted. If God doesn't provide success, you are not successful. If God doesn't provide happiness, you are not happy. But you will never develop the capacity for blessing until you develop the capacity for authority because the predicate for blessing is authority orientation.
When we recognize that authority is the actual source of our prosperity the hang-ups of arrogance and guilt from being prosperous are eliminated.
Then the prepositional phrase "eis" (for) plus the accusative singular of "hupakoe" (obey or obedience). "Eis" (for) plus the accusative means "for the purpose of" so the corrected translation: "Do you not know, that to whom you put yourselves under orders as slaves for the purpose of obedience."
The purpose for slavery is obedience. You are at someone else's disposal. But the greatest happiness in life comes from being at someone else's disposal because it is a major source of blessing and purpose in human life.
In the spiritual life there is no such thing as emancipation because everything is always manumission in the sense that we have options every day to conduct our life in a manner that is for or against our Lord Jesus Christ.
"you are slaves of the one you obey" the present active indicative of the verb "eimi" (to be in this case is you are) the present tense is a retroactive present that describes what started in the past and continues into the present.
The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb, either by putting himself under orders to the old sin nature or by exercising the option of grace and placing himself under orders to God through the daily function of GASP.
The indicative mood is declarative so it looks at the issue from the viewpoint of reality. Plus the predicate nominative plural from "doulos" (slaves) with the masculine singular from the relative pronoun "hos" (to whom) that is the indirect object.
This is not only a relative pronoun but it has a direction indicated by the verb, the present active indicative of the verb "hupakouo" (to obey, to be under the authority of, to be subject to, or to render obedience to).
It always has the connotation of obedience to legitimate authority "you are a slave to what or whom you habitually obey.
The option is the choice between being a slave that is under orders from the old sin nature or being a slave who is under orders to God through the PMA of Bible doctrine.
This is a present tense of duration that describes what started in the past and continues into the present. Since the day that you were saved you have exercised the option of being a slave to the old sin nature or you chose to become the slave to the Lord Jesus Christ through learning and applying Bible doctrine.
The active voice: the believer produces the action of exercising the option on a daily basis. The indicative mood is declarative describing verbal action from the viewpoint of the reality of you using your option.
Our understanding of the options of authority become important at this point so they are presented in the closing part of the verse. The first option is the old one that is expressed with the phrase "whether of sin unto death."
"Whether" is translated from the disjunctive particle, "etoi" (weather) but in this case it should be (either) plus the objective genitive singular from the singular noun "hamartia" (the sin nature). Then the prepositional phrase, "eis" (into) plus the accusative singular of "thanatos" (death) referring to the sin unto death
So we have "either to the sin nature resulting in death." The sin unto death is maximum discipline from God for believers only. The sin unto death is how God exercises His overruling option to remove evil believers from the earth by transferring them from time into eternity through physical death.
We see from this that the believer who continues under the rule and authority of the old sin nature after their positional deliverance at salvation is in a category beyond carnality called reversionism.
Reversionism is a synonym for apostasy and it is defined as the place of total failure for the believer. Reversionism refers to believers who persistently reject of God's Word of truth that results in the believer being a total spiritual failure.
Reversionism means to be controlled by the old sin nature with its trends toward sin, human good, and evil.
Being dominated by the old sin nature after salvation means failure to attain maturity adjustment to God's justice and therefore failure to receive the blessings of maturity whereby we glorify God that is how God's justice demonstrates the importance of God's plan for mankind in the angelic conflict.
To be dominated by the old sin nature after salvation means that God's justice must discipline and punish the believer rather than bless and promote the believer.
God's justice is the source of both cursing and blessing. Discipline from the rejection of God's justice regarding what the believer is doing does not remove God's imputation of salvation.
Nor does rejection from Gold's justice remove the double portion of the righteousness of Christ and the eternal life of Christ from the believer's union with Christ from the baptism of the Spirit.
The rejection of the apostate reversionistic believer by God's justice does imply divine discipline in its three categories of warning, intensive, and dying discipline.
The second option is the new one the believer has: "or obedience into righteousness" the disjunctive particle "e" (or) describes the opposite choice instead of habitual obedience to the old sin nature.
The objective genitive singular "hupakoes" (obedience). Then a prepositional phrase that sets up a contrast, "eis" (into) plus the accusative of "dikaiosune" (righteousness).
Expanded Translation: "Do you not know, that to whom you put yourselves under orders as slaves for the purpose of obedience, you are slaves to the one you habitually render obedience; either to the sin nature resulting in death, or obedience (to God) resulting in experiential righteousness."
This is telling us that the believer who does not exercise the options to placing himself under orders to God is the believer who fails to adjust to God's justice after salvation.
Rom 6:17; "But now thanks be to the God" the postpositive conjunctive particle de (but) here is " but now," indicating that by the time we reach this verse we have something to be thankful for so we have capacity to express appreciation to God for His grace.
Next is the nominative singular of exclamation, the noun "charis" (grace). When an idea with great distinctiveness is in focus the nominative is used without the verb as part of an idiom.
It is literally, "But now grace." While "charis" (grace) means grace it also has the connotation of thanks or gratitude. Plus the dative singular indirect object from "Theos" (God) with the definite article "ho" (the).
It literally means, "But now grace belongs to the God." It is an idiom for gratitude. At the point the people who have followed through and have learned all the lessons recognize that grace belongs to God, but the idiom is "But now thanks to the God."
The basis for thanksgiving is being the beneficiary of grace that starts at salvation. Then comes the conjunction "hoti" (that, because or though). It is used to express the reason for or the purpose of that gratitude.
"though you were the slaves of the sin" imperfect active indicative of "eimi" (the verb to be that is translated were).
The imperfect tense that is used here is unusual. The imperfect differs from the aorist in representing a process rather than a concept of aktionsart. The aorist is aktionsart in past time; the imperfect tense is a past tense also, but it is linear aktionsart in past time.
The imperfect tense also differs from the perfect in representing a process with no sense of being completed. The imperfect represents a process that is not finished. So what we have here is known as the inceptive imperfect that denotes linear aktionsart in the sense of 'you kept on being' without any timeframe as to when it is terminated.
The positional termination is salvation, the experiential termination, maybe never. After salvation most believers go on living in slavery to the old sin nature, and they do so because of their ignorance of Bible doctrine.
The active voice: unbelievers produce the action of the verb, and sometimes believers after salvation also produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of slavery to the old sin nature, beginning at birth.
The word "slaves" is the predicate nominative plural from "doulos" (slave). Plus the genitive singular of the noun "hamartia" (sin) in the singular here with the definite article "ho" (the) making it monadic that refers to the old sin nature.
This represents the true status quo of all unbelievers. It is caused by the two imputations at physical birth: the imputation of human life to the soul and Adam's original sin to the genetically formed old sin nature. "But now thanks to the God that though you kept on being slaves of the sin nature."
"de" (but) is the change, the postpositive conjunctive particle "de" (but) is used to connect two contrasting clauses "you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine that was delivered to you."
The phrase "now you kept on being slaves to the sin nature" is not the basis for thanksgiving. The basis for thanksgiving is "Now thanks be to God that you have obeyed." The thanksgiving goes with the phrase "you have obeyed," the aorist active indicative of "hupakouo" (obey). The thanksgiving is related to obedience.
The aorist tense is a constantive aorist, that takes the action of the verb in its entirety. How do we obey the Lord Jesus Christ? We obey Him by pleasing Him with the daily intake of Bible doctrine. It takes the daily function of GASP and regardless of its extent or how long it lasts the aorist tense gathers it up into one entirety.
The constantive aorist is the fact and action of the inculcation of Bible doctrine through the consistent function of GASP. The active voice: the believer produces the action. The declarative indicative is for the reality of the daily function of GASP results in maturity adjustment to God's justice.
Remember that Paul is addressing this phrase to the Roman believers who formed the pivot that preserved the Roman empire in the days of Nero. There was a large pivot of mature believers who had reached spiritual maturity and Paul is thanking God for this large pivot.
There was a relatively small spin-off of reversionistic apostate believers. Therefore in Nero's day the Roman empire was preserved and would go on to greater things in the period of the Antonine Caesars that was the greatest period that Rome would ever experience, and it was based on the pivot of mature believers that was in the process of being formed by their PMA of God's Word of truth.