6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound?
6:2 May it never be! We who died to sin,
how
could we live in it any longer?
6:3 Or don't you know that all we who were baptized into Christ
Jesus
were baptized into his death?
6:4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death,
that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory
of
the Father,
so we also might walk in newness of life.
6:5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his
death,
we will also be part of his resurrection;
6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with
him,
that the body of sin might be done away with,
so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
6:7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
6:8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live
with
him;
6:9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead,
dies
no
more.
Death no more has dominion over him!
6:10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time;
but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
Applications:
6:11 Thus also consider yourselves also to be dead
to
sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
6:12 Therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that
you
should obey it in its lusts.
6:13 Neither present your members to sin as instruments of
unrighteousness,
but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
6:14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
Discussion Questions
Interpretation
Why would anyone think that continuing to sin would make grace
abound?
(From previous section)
How would you put Paul's answer to the question in vs 1 into
your own words?
What does it mean to be baptized into Christ's death?
What were we buried with respect to?
Have you been freed from sin? In what respect?
If you've been freed from sin, do you still sin? Why?
Is the idea of being dead to sin in this section talking about sin
no longer determining our destiny or sin no longer controlling our
behavior,
or what?
What does it mean to be united with him in his resurrection?
Application
How do you go about counting (reckoning) yourselves to be dead to
sin
but alive to God?
List various motivations we may have for not sinning.
How might you go about not letting sin reign in and through your
physical
body?
vs 14 What does "not being under law, but under grace"
have
to do with sin not being our master?
Comments
Shall We Continue in Sin?
Rom 6:1,2What shall
we
say then? Shall we
continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we
who
died to sin live any longer in it?
Previously Paul had mentioned this question in Rom 3:8 brought up by
unbelievers "Why not
say—
as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim
that
we say— "Let us do evil that
good may
result"? Their condemnation is deserved." But the
reason
why his critics may have brought this up is because they made false
inferences from Paul's teachings, such as what he said in chapter 5:20"The law was added so that the trespass
might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the
more"
And there are many false inferences one can make from the teachings
of
Jesus and Paul by not interpreting them in the sense in which they
intended. Peter later says about such people, "Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience
means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with
the
wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his
letters,
speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things
that
are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people
distort, as
they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."2Peter 3:15,16 And it is
interesting
that Peter continues, "Therefore,
dear
friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you
may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from
your
secure position."2Pet
3:17
For what these people read into what Jesus and Paul say is
lawlessness.
As for this question, Paul gives it little weight as he deals with
it as a
rhetorical question, the answer being rather obvious from a Biblical
perspective, namely that those who have received Christ have died to
sin and so it is unnatural in inappropriate for such people to
intentionally go on sinning. In fact John later says, "No one who is born of God will
continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go
on
sinning, because he has been born of God."1John 3:9 The unbeliever may
ask, "Why not sin?"
Whereas those born
of God ask "Why sin?"
For "those who belong to Christ
Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and
desires."Gal 5:24 For "the grace of God teaches us to
say
'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live
self-controlled,
upright and godly lives in this present age." Titus 2:12
Baptized
into
His Death
Rom 6:3,4Or do you not know that as many of
us
as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that
just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so
we also should walk in newness of life.
"Baptize" is to immerse one thing into another thing. That other
thing
could be water, or it could be something other than water, as John
the
Baptist has said, "I (John)
baptize you with water, but he (Jesus) will baptize you with the
Holy
Spirit." Mr 1:8 Water
baptism
is distinct from the baptism with the Holy Spirit, as we can
see for example in Acts 10
whereupon hearing the gospel, Cornelius and his family received the
Holy Spirit and only later were water baptized. Acts 10:47 "Can anyone forbid water, that these
should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as
we
have?" and later Peter recalls this account saying, "As I began to speak, the Holy
Spirit
came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I
remembered
what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be
baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So if God gave them the same gift
as he
gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think
that
I could oppose God?" Acts
11:15-17Thus Peter makes
a
distinction between water baptism and baptism with the Holy Spirit
While there are a number of times in Acts and the gospels the
baptism
with the Holy Spirit is mentioned, it is never mentioned in any of
the
New Testament letters to the churches. Why? Very simply because the
baptism with the Holy Spirit is simply the receiving of the Holy
Spirit
which is common to all believers. In fact the only verse in the
letters
that have the word "baptize" and "Spirit" in the same verse is 1Cor 12:13"For we were all baptized by one Spirit
into one body— whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free— and we were
all
given the one Spirit to drink." And "if anyone does not have the Spirit of
Christ, he does not belong to Christ."Rom 8:9b
Now much as "death" is generally a negative connotation, Paul will
use
it as a positive connotation a number of times these next few
chapters.
"For you died, and your life is
now hidden with Christ in God."Col
3:3 All the way back in the gospels Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, whoever
hears my
word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be
condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."John 5:24
Raised
with
Christ
Rom 6:5-7 For if we have been united together
in
the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the
likeness
of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was
crucified
with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we
should
no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed
from sin.
The "For" statement here is meant to explain the previous verse of
our
having died with Christ being for the purpose of our living a new
life.
In a sense, having died with Christ we are justified from sin, freed
from condemnation. Sin no longer controls our destiny. In fact the
word
"freed" in verse 7
is
more literally "justified", the Greek word being used commonly in
such
contexts as Rom 5:1 "having now been justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him."
But let's
remember that's not the end of the story. Salvation incorporates
more
than justification. For Christ also rose from the dead, which
represents our resurrection from the dead unto living a new life,
free
from the bondage to sin. Such behavior is not the cause, not the
condition for salvation, but rather the effect of having been saved.
When does this new life occur? It occurs at the resurrection. But
the
Bible speaks of two resurrections for the believer. There's a
resurrection that occurs when one comes to faith in Christ. For "if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new
creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"2Cor 5:17 And Col 2:12 says "buried with Him in baptism, in
which
you also were raised
with Him
through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the
dead."
But there is also a future resurrection of which I think Paul is
alluding to here in Romans as he uses the future tense, "we also shall be in the
likeness of
His resurrection" and is spoken of elsewhere such as 1Cor 6:14"And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up
by
His power." and 2Cor
4:14 "knowing that He
who raised up the
Lord Jesus will also
raise us
up with Jesus, and will present us with you."
Consequently we have a new life now, though we still dwell in a body
of
death, that is, a body which contains a sinful nature, a body which
is
corruptible and will die. And Paul will elaborate on this further in
these next few chapters. But the fullness of that life will come
upon
our physical resurrection from the dead, the main point being that
our
destiny, the fate of the believer is to live a lifestyle free from
sin.
We
Died
with Christ
Rom 6:8-10Now if we died with Christ, we
believe
that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been
raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion
over
Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but
the
life that He lives, He lives to God.
Again Paul is pointing to the future - the fate of the believer is
to
be resurrected from the dead and live forever with Christ. And "Just as man is destined to die
once,
and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to
take
away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time,
not to
bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for
him."Heb 9:27,28
When Christ was in the flesh, his destiny was to die. But having
died,
death is no longer in his future. In a similar sense, if we died
with
Christ, condemnation is no longer in our future, but rather eternal
life is guaranteed. "Here is a
trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with
him" 2Tim 2:11
And just as He
lives to God so we live to Christ. For "he died for all, that those who live
should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them
and
was raised again."2Cor
5:15
Reckon
it
so!
Rom 6:11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
"Reckon"
is to "consider it to be so".
What is it to reckon oneself to be dead to sin? Sin no longer
impacts
our righteous standing with God. Since salvation is not of works,
there
is nothing one can do, no sin that a saved person can commit which
would cause them to lose salvation, because one's salvation status
is
not a function of one's performance, else salvation would be of
works.
Consequently sin no longer brings condemnation for the Christian and
thus no basis for the believer to fear death. For among other things
Christ died to "free those who
all
their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."Heb 2:15 Consequently "as sin reigned in death, even so
grace
might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus
Christ
our Lord."Rom 5:21
Now this truth may bring one to the question, "Shall we continue in sin that grace
may abound?"Rom 6:1
or "Shall we sin because we are
not under
law but under grace?"Rom
6:15
The fact that these are the very questions put to Paul would
indicate
we're on the right track, and the answers Paul will elaborate upon
from
this point on to the end of chapter 8. But basically they involve
the
second part of Rom 6:11,
reckoning ourselves to be alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I
reckon we have a relationship with God empowered by the Holy Spirit
and
a destiny associated with the relationship which is characterized as
eternal life; a destiny free from sin and condemnation.
Do
Not
Let Sin Reign
Rom 6:12,13 Therefore do not let sin reign in
your
mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not
present
your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present
yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members
as
instruments of righteousness to God.
"Therefore"
is to say, "since we are dead to
sin
and alive to God". But the fact that he goes on to speak in
the
imperative "do
not
let
sin
reign", indicates that sin still has an
influence. The sinful nature is still present in the believer
battling
over the control of one's behavior. Thus Paul says in Gal 5:16,17 "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and
you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these
are
contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you
wish." The believer needs to keep alert to this battle,
exercising self-control, else through negligence the sinful nature
gain
the upper hand.
The members of our body include not only the outward physical body,
but
the heart, the mind, whatever constitutes the soul. "’Love the Lord your God with all
your
heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with
all
your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"Luke 10:27
Later in Romans Paul writes, "I
beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which
is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world,
but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Rom 12:1,2
Not
Under
Law, Under Grace
Rom 6:14,15 For sin shall not have dominion
over
you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall
we sin
because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!
Being under grace, "there is
now
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through
Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the
law of
sin and death."Rom 8:1,2
The law of sin and death is if you sin, you are condemned. But by
the
atoning work of Christ and through faith in Him, we have been set
free
from that principle. It no longer holds for the believer. But we are
not free from law. For as children of God we operate under the law
of
the Spirit of life.
The Spirit regenerates us in accordance with God's New Covenant
promise, "I will give you a new
heart and put a
new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and
give
you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you
to
follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."Eze 36:26,27 Thus while it is
natural for those in the flesh to ask, "Why not sin?", it is now natural
for those of the Spirit to ask, "Why
sin?" For just as righteous behavior is unnatural to those
in
the flesh, unrighteous behavior is unnatural to those of the Spirit.