Set free is in Greek a participle which the Good News Translation renders as a finite verb (see also Jerusalem Bible), with the result that only coordinate constructions appear in this verse. Paul was very fond of using subordinate clauses, but in English it is sometimes more natural to transform them into coordinate structures. If the agent of the passive verbs in this verse (have been set free … are) must be expressed, then God is the agent: “but now God has set you free from sin and made you his slaves.”

You have been set free from sin can only be interpreted psychologically in some languages—for example, “you have been set free from the strong desires to sin” or “God has set you free, so you are not controlled by the strong desires to sin” or “… do not do what your desires to sin tell you to do.”

In Greek were set free from sin and are the slaves of God are both aorist participles, referring to events that have already taken place. In fact, these events are best looked upon as having taken place simultaneously, even though the Good News Translation suggests successive actions.

And the result is similar to the expression rendered result in the previous verse.

Your gain is a life fully dedicated to him is literally “you have your fruit/harvest for holiness,” and it is translated by the Revised Standard Version as “the return you get is sanctification.” In the previous verse Paul used the word “fruit” to denote result or outcome, and the word “holiness” (Revised Standard Version “consecration”) is the word discussed in verse 19. The New English Bible translates “your gains are such as make for holiness”; and An American Translation* “the benefit you get is consecration.”

In some languages one cannot say a life fully dedicated. One can, however, say “you have dedicated yourself completely” or “in all that you do you have dedicated yourself.” Hence, this clause may be translated: “as a result, in all that you do you have dedicated yourself completely for his sake.”

Paul affirms that the end result of a life fully dedicated to God is eternal life. Eternal life (see 2.7; 5.21; 6.23) is basically a qualitative concept, that is, the kind of life that one shares when he experiences a proper relation with God. In biblical thought the qualitative aspect is always foremost, though the meaning also becomes quantitative, that is, the kind of life that does not end.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .