<p>6:17&nbsp;<i>But thanks be to God, that whereas you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching which was delivered to you</i>- This must be interpreted in the context of Paul&rsquo;s insistent theme that we have changed masters, changed status. &ldquo;Handed over&rdquo; could be an allusion to handing over a slave from one master to another- the form of teaching would therefore refer to the form or mould to which we are exposed under our new master, the Lord Jesus. In this case it would refer to post baptismal rather than pre baptismal teaching. Alternatively he may be referring to the fact that the teaching or doctrine of Christ had been delivered or handed over to them from Christ Himself (s.w. 1 Cor. 11:2,13; 15:3). However, it should be noted that Paul says that the baptized believer is handed over to the doctrine / teaching of Christ- and not the teaching to the believer. Perhaps the contrast is with Rom. 2:20, where we read of the &ldquo;form of knowledge and of truth in the law of Moses&rdquo;. We have been handed over to the form or mould of teaching which is in Christ rather than Moses.</p>
<p>Paul&rsquo;s writing that he thanks God for their change of status was maybe to encourage his readers to understand the degree to which in very deed they had changed status- because they seemed to doubt it, as we too tend to.</p>
<p>We are frequently spoken of as being slaves of God. At baptism, we changed masters (Rom. 6). Yet the implications of being a bond-slave are tremendous. We are not our own. We have been bought with a price. And we cannot serve two masters. There&rsquo;s a powerful, powerful logic here. We are either slaves of ourselves, or slaves of God. Ultimate freedom to do &lsquo;what we want&rsquo; is actually not possible. So we may as well take the path of slavery to the Father and Son. Unless we firmly accept this, life will become motion without meaning, activity without direction, events without reason.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The doctrines we believed at baptism were a 'mould of doctrine' (Rom. 6:17 Gk.)- they define the person we turn into. The calling of the Gospel is ongoing- it's not that we hear the call, respond to it, and the call in that sense ceases. There is a set of doctrines which Eph. 4:4-6 calls &quot;the one faith&quot;; which Rom. 6:17 calls &quot;that form of doctrine&quot; to be believed before baptism; &quot;the form of sound words&quot; (2 Tim. 1:13).</p>
<p>&ldquo;Repent ye and believe the Gospel&quot; (Mk. 1:15) might seem to be in the wrong order- for surely belief of the Gospel comes before repentance. And so it does. But the point is, life after conversion is a life of believing the basic Gospel which led us to conversion and repentance in the first place. Thus Rom. 6 teaches that we were once servants of sin... and we expect the sentence to conclude: 'But now you are servants of righteousness'. But it doesn't. We were once servants of sin but now we have obeyed the form of doctrine delivered to us... and are&nbsp;<em>therefore</em> servants of righteousness. The service of righteousness is a result of accepting &quot;that form of doctrine&quot;, perhaps referring to an early catechism or statement of faith taught to baptismal candidates, summarizing the power of the Gospel.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin&quot; (Jn. 8:34), but those in Christ are counted as not being the servants of sin, but of Christ (Rom. 6:17). The connection with Jn. 8:34 makes this tantamount to saying that they are reckoned as not committing sin.</p>