For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
20. For when ye were, etc. He still repeats the difference, which he had before mentioned, between the yoke of righteousness and that of sin; for these two things, sin and righteousness, are so contrary, that he who devotes himself to the one, necessarily departs from the other.
To use the doctrine of grace as license for sin is to abuse it utterly and reject it with abhorrence. Any opinion that opens a door to practical immorality, however plausible its appeal to free grace, contradicts the truth as it is in Jesus. Sanctification consists in two things: mortification, dying to sin, and vivification, living to righteousness.
AI summary
Commenting on Romans 6:1-23
For when ye were the servants of sin,.... This is an argument used, or a reason given, why regenerate persons should be diligent in the service of righteousness; because when they were employed in the drudgery of sin, they were free from righteousness; they had no righteousness, nor were they desirous of any; yea, averse to it, threw off the yoke of the law of...