What principle of moral servitude does Paul give us?...

We make the choice as to whom we will serve. We can choose to serve sin. If we saints serve sin our wages shall be death. We can choose to obey righteousness. If we obey righteousness our wages will be eternal life.

As we have stated, God will regard us as righteous if we continue to serve Him through Christ. There is more to righteousness by grace through faith than an initial statement of belief in the atonement made by the Lord Jesus.

The unsaved individual possesses neither the authority nor the power to make such a moral choice. He or she remains under the guilt of Adam’s sin as well as the guilt of his own sin. He has no wisdom or power, other than what comes from his own flesh and blood, with which to resist the moral wickedness and filth continually flowing from his own personality, as well as from the rulers of the spiritual darkness of the world.

It is only the born-again Christian who possesses freedom from condemnation, the wisdom and energy of the Spirit of God, and the indwelling Presence of Christ. Through these he has been given the opportunity to choose to obey God, to enter the crucifixion of his own personality and the resurrection of a new personality, thus attaining righteousness and the resulting eternal life. The Christian’s alternative is to choose to obey sin, thus entering spiritual death.