Spiritual change: When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. Romans 6:20
Paul after concluding his third missionary trip thought that it would be a good opportunity to spread the gospel in the most important city of the empire, Rome; and it was so that he dedicated a letter to the believers of that Church.
The epistle to the Romans has similarities with other letters of Paul, but in this epistle, Paul highlighted the justification by faith (Romans 3:27-31), the uselessness of the law (Romans 7:1-13), and the new life in Christ through the gift of eternal life.
For the apostle Paul, spiritual change through baptism and not through circumcision was a fundamental issue for the new faith, the first christians converted from Judaism wanted to preserve their customs, but for Paul the only valid circumcision was that of the heart.
Let us remember that in essence the doctrine of the Kingdom of God, the dominion or empire of God's perfections, is a continuation of the teaching of the sapiential books and not a continuation of the doctrine of the Pentateuch. Just as in the sapiential books foolishness is opposed to wisdom, in the New Testament the flesh is opposed to the spirit, and we have to make a decisive choice: we sin or we live righteously. We are immersed in a spiritual war and there are no intermediate situations.
Baptism for Paul was that much-needed spiritual change, the passage from a life full of sins to a life of righteousness:
"You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness" Romans 6:18-20.
Paul with this taught us that sin limits us but the new life with Jesus frees us, with baptism we receive hope, that is, the security of receiving eternal life.
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