The gospel way to holy living
6
📚What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?6:1 Paul has said that where sin increased grace increased even more (Rom 5:20). Some sinful persons, not understanding Paul’s teaching, might ask the question of this verse and say, “It seems that sinning produces a very good result – it actually causes God’s grace to increase. So let’s sin as much as we like and expect grace to forgive it all”.
In this chapter Paul shows how ignorant, how absurd such a question and suggestion are to a believer who understands Christ’s gospel. He twice uses the phrase “Do you not know?” (vs 3,16), and the words know and knowing twice more (vs 6,9). Paul well knew that God counts believers righteous so that they might live holy lives. Or in his words “so we also might walk in newness of life” (v 4). He continues this theme to the end of chapter 8. Note on sanctification at John 17:17-19.⚜
2 📚Absolutely not 📖! How shall we who died to sin, live any longer in it? 3 📚Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 📚Therefore we are buried with him through baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also might walk in newness of life.
6:3-4 Of what “baptism” is Paul speaking here? “Baptism” is a word taken from Greek. If we translate the Greek word here instead of using the words “baptized” and “baptism” these verses could read – “all of us who were immersed (or submerged or brought) into Christ Jesus were immersed (or submerged or brought) into His death. We were therefore buried with Him through this immersion into death”. “Immersion” would thus mean immersion into Christ, not in water. It would indicate union with Christ, entering into a special relationship with Him, being made members of His body by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:12-13; John 17:21, 23).
The Greek words for baptized and baptism are used in a figurative sense in other places in the New Testament. See Luke 12:50; 1 Cor 10:2. Water baptism can be only a symbol of the spiritual realities of which Paul speaks here. Going into the water speaks of death and burial with Christ. Coming out of the water speaks of resurrection with Christ. See notes on water baptism at Matt 3:6; 28:19; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; on Spirit baptism see notes at Acts 1:5. The purpose of all God did for us in Christ is that we “might walk in newness of life”, resurrection life, a life freed from the bondage of sin and death. See 2 Cor 5:17; Titus 2:11-14.⚜
5 📚For if we have been united in the likeness of his death, we will be united 📖 also in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 📚We know that our old human nature 📖 was crucified with him, so that the body of sin 📖 might be deprived of force, that from now on we should not serve sin. 7 📚For he who has died with Christ has been freed from sin.
6:7 In God’s reckoning we believers sinned in Adam and died in Christ (2 Cor 5:14; Col 3:3). Condemnation came on us from the source of Adam’s sin (Rom 5:16, 18). Freedom from it came through the death of Christ. Dying with Him we are “freed” (or acquitted) from sin, the relationship with sin is broken, and God no longer counts our sins against us (Rom 4:7-8). Our sins are all paid by Christ’s sufferings and death. All of the above things are facts which are true of every believer, not of a few superior ones only.⚜
8 📚Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,
6:8 Verse 4. Believers live now with Christ the new spiritual life God has given them (John 5:24; 14:23), and they will live forever with Him (1 Thess 4:17).⚜
9 📚knowing that Christ being raised from the dead will not die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. 10 📚For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives for God.
6:9-10 Death is the result of sin (Rom 5:12; 6:23). Christ died in the place of believers to pay the penalty for their sins (Rom 3:25; John 1:29; 1 Cor 15:3). This He did once for all time (Heb 10:10, 14; John 19:30). Now He lives forever (Rev 1:18). He lives for God, to please God the Father and to do His will (John 8:29), not for self and not for sin.⚜
Offering ourselves to God
11 📚Likewise you also must count yourselves as dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
6:11 In the above matter believers are to be like Christ and live for God as He does. Like Him “death no longer has any power” over them (John 11:25-26). They are to count things as God does – that they died when Christ died and have risen to new life in Him.⚜
12 📚Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its cravings.
6:12 Paul does not say that sin is no longer in the “mortal body” of believers (he knew that it is – Rom 7:18, 25; Gal 5:17; Eph 4:22; 1 John 1:8). He says that they must not let sin “reign” there (Rom 5:21). Sin is no longer to be the master of believers (v 14; John 8:31-36).⚜
13 📚And do not present your body’s members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
6:13 God has brought believers “from death to life” (John 5:24). Now they must not turn again to their old master, sin, and offer their hands and feet and eyes and ears and mouth to it. They have a new Master, the one true and living God, and they are to give to Him themselves and all they are and have (Rom 12:1). Neither sin nor themselves are to be their master, but God only. If believers fail here they will find sin ready to pounce on them and master them again.⚜
14 📚For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the Law 📖, but under grace 📖.
6:14 Here is the sweetest truth possible to believers troubled and harassed by sin. Let us not think we will overcome sin by any efforts to keep God’s law or to be “good”. Only God’s grace can enable us to throw off the tyranny of sin – grace that brings to us forgiveness and eternal life, the Holy Spirit, and power and strength to conquer in the fight against sin.⚜
Every person a slave to sin or to God
15 📚What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the Law, but under grace? Absolutely not!
6:15 Verse 1. This question arises because men in general think that sin can be restrained only by making and enforcing laws. Such people, if they do not understand Paul’s teaching about grace, may say that he is giving believers a license to sin. This is a total misconception. Actually Paul is showing the way to keep from sinning. The gospel is the power of God for salvation (Rom 1:16). It makes people true servants of God.⚜
16 📚Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether slaves 📖 of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
6:16 People may think they are “free” to sin. Actually their continuing in sin reveals they have no freedom and are slaves to sin (John 8:34; 2 Pet 2:19). When they yield to sin, sin gets power over them, grips and holds them and compels them to sin again and again. And this way ends in death. There is only one other way possible to us. This is the way of obedience to God, which means renouncing sin and counting oneself dead to it. This way leads to righteousness. There is no middle ground between these two ways. Compare Matt 7:13-14.⚜
17 📚But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, you have obeyed from the heart that form of teaching to which you were delivered. 18 📚So having been freed from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness 📖.
6:17-18 See how freedom comes to believers. On their part it means obedience to the gospel and teachings of Christ. Notice the word “obeyed from the heart”. They were not forced to leave their sins and become God’s servants. With all their hearts they wanted to do so.⚜
19 📚I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you have presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and to evil leading to further evil, even so now present 📖 your members as slaves 📖 to righteousness leading to holiness.
6:19 Verse 13.⚜
20 📚For when you were the slaves of sin, you were not controlled by righteousness.
6:20 A person cannot have two masters, both sin and righteousness (compare Matt 6:24). Paul is not saying that slaves of sin never do what men call righteous acts, or that they cannot be religious (they may be very religious indeed). He is speaking of what is master in the life as a whole. In the eyes of God, even the “righteous” acts of sinners are stained with sin (Isa 64:6), and they are actually done in the service of sin.⚜
21 📚What fruit did you have then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
6:21 The believers at Rome had truly repented and submitted to God, so they were ashamed of their former way of life. If a person says he is a believer in Christ and yet is not ashamed of his former sins there is something very much wrong, and he may rush back into those same sins (2 Pet 2:22). And the end of a life of sin for anyone, regardless of what he says he is, is death.⚜
22 📚But now, having been freed from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end is everlasting life.
23 📚For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
6:23 The contrast, as in vs 16-22, is still between slavery to sin and slavery to God. Sin pays “wages” to its slaves – death. This death is eternal separation from God (Rev 21:8; 2 Thess 1:8-9; Matt 25:41). Slaves of sin get exactly what they deserve and earn by their behavior. But what God gives His “slaves” is not wages but a gift – eternal life. This is not what they deserve, and they could never earn it (see Rom 4:4-5; 5:17; Luke 17:10; Eph 2:8-9; John 3:16; 4:14). How does one become a “slave” to God? Only by repenting of sin and trusting in Christ. All believers are God’s purchased possession and have a heart to serve Him. They do not serve Him in order to obtain eternal life, but because they have eternal life.⚜