“You were enslaved to righteousness” – Romans 6:18; an exposition by Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” - Romans 6:18

“A better translation is, ‘You were enslaved to righteousness’; that is exactly what the Apostle says. Not only have we ‘become’ slaves; but we have been ‘enslaved to righteousness’. We were before ‘enslaved to sin’, we have now become ‘enslaved to righteousness’.
Our position, as Christians, is that we have been ‘enslaved to righteousness’. This does not mean that we admire righteousness, not that we desire to be righteous; it does not mean that we are attempting to be righteous, or attempting to practice righteousness in our daily life. It includes all these things but has a much wider content. What the Apostle says is, that we have become ‘slaves to righteousness’ – nothing less. Not ‘servants’, but ‘slaves’ of righteousness! That means that we have come under the power and control and influence of righteousness. As once we were tyrannized over and ruled by, and governed by sin, we are now, we may say, tyrannized over, and governed, and ruled by righteousness. Furthermore, this is something that is true of every one of us from the moment of our regeneration. The Apostle is talking about Christians – any Christian. From the moment we are regenerate it is true to say of us that we are no longer slaves of sin; we are the slaves of righteousness.”

- Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: Exposition of Chapter 6 : The New Man

http://www.amazon.com/Romans-Exposition-Chapter-New-Man/dp/0851511589

http://www.mlj-usa.org/mlj.nsf/(PRODUCTS-BYCODE-WEB)/MLJ.MP05R