Romans Chapter 6.

Romans Chapter Six.

Chapters 6-8.   The righteousness through faith is a power of life. 

Justification is not an excuse for living in sin, but is a life-force which breaks the power of sin and becomes a power creative of holiness in the believer's life.  The theme of chapter 6 is the Christian's deliverance from the servitude of sin.  The chapter has two main parts:-

6:1-14.  As incorporated into Christ, we must live in this new relationship.

6:15-23.  A change of masters means a change of service.

           

Sin is personified as a tyrant, and we were its slaves.  This illustration Paul takes from slavery which was a recognized institution at that time.  The slave was the property of his master and had no rights, for he had no more standing than a mere chattel. He was always at the disposal of his master.  As long as the slave was alive, the master demanded obedience from him. But at death, the slave is freed from the service and the authority of his master.  In Paul's illustration, it is the slave that dies, not the master.  But the tyrant of sin does not escape judgment ( 8:3).   However, the important thing in chapter 6 is that death ends the servitude of the slave to his master.

           

Now the Christian has been freed from the servitude of sin, for he has died to sin.  This death to sin has been achieved by our incorporation into Christ's death.  The death of Christ for us becomes our death as united to Him.  Our incorporation into Christ brings about a change of masters.  When the Christian realizes that conversion is to change masters he knows he cannot continue to serve sin.

           

Paul anticipates an objection.  The objector is not a true Christian (N.), for the man who has experienced the abundance and freeness of grace finds it a transforming power, productive of moral fruit.  The objection is that of the seemingly intellectual opponent who would defend the legal position.  He argues that if the Law with its ethical demands has only the subordinate function of making sin to abound that grace may immeasurably exceed it then, continue to sin that grace may abound in even greater measure.  The objector thinks he has found a flaw in Paul's teaching, for when Paul's doctrine of grace is pressed to its logical consistency, then to continue in sin, is to promote the reign of grace.  The Jewish objector might allow that grace is necessary to keep the Law, but he cannot accept the position that grace reigns alone to rectify a situation that the law aggravated.  The Jew tied up righteousness with the law, but in the teaching of Paul, grace reigns through righteousness to right the wrong.

           

The objector felt that Paul, in giving Law this subordinate place, threw into the waste-paper basket all ethical requirements.  This is the central problem that Paul returns to in 6:15.  Many found it difficult to accept the reign of grace in its entirety.  They argued that the abandonment completely the principle of legalism would endanger ethics.  Paul does not at this point discuss fully the Christian's freedom from law - that must await until chapter 7 where Paul discusses fully the impotency and failure of the legal system.  Then, in chapter 8, the new leadership of the Spirit is discussed, for they who are led of the Spirit are not under Law (Gal.5).  But in chapter 6 Paul discusses the first part of the problem - the relationship of the Christian to sin.  If Paul argued the law provoked sin his opponents reply that grace more so provokes sin.  The objector insists the grace is no logical answer to sin.  Paul's doctrine of free and full justification by grace appeared to belittle all moral effort.

           

6:1-4.    Baptism effects incorporation into Christ.

           

6:1.       Paul emphatically denies that the Christian should continue to live in sin (6:2), so that grace may abound.  Grace does not make provision for the believer to continue in sin,  obeying the dictates of the old master.

           

6:2.       "Died to sin."  Aorist.  It points to an event in their lives.  We died to the old tyrant and our servitude to sin ended.  This death broke completely our relationship to sin.  It is the nature of death to sever all relationships.  This act of dying to sin, takes us back to the event of the Cross, but became individually true of us when we came to Christ.  If we believe that we died to sin, we can no longer think that we can live in it.  The man who thinks of his conversion in terms of death to sin knows he cannot rightly continue to practice sin.

           

6:3.       Paul reminds them of the significance of their baptism.  To arrive at Paul's thought. We must remember three things about baptism:-

*   Believers Baptism.   In New Testament times, believers were baptised and, since New Testament churches contained believing children, it is inadequate to speak of 'adult baptism', but properly of 'Believer’s baptism'.  It was an act and expression of personal faith in Christ. Without such faith it was ineffective but 'through your faith' (Col.2:12. N.E.B.) it became an effective symbol of incorporation into Christ.  Are unbaptised believers unsaved?  We must reply, 'no', for personal faith is the central and cardinal condition of salvation.  There are many Christians who do not practice baptism, but show abundant evidence of possessing the Spirit of Christ.

           

Best observes that, in the first five chapters of Romans, Paul develops the doctrine of justification by faith with its certainty of full and final salvation without making one reference to baptism.  The one thing that he insists upon is that righteousness is through faith.  The faith of Christ is the dimension of the Christian life.  Baptism is a sign and symbol, but it is an effective and effectual symbol, for it is the handmaid of faith.  The believer cannot feel sure when faith was first born in his heart, so he feels the need of some device to give shape and expression to his faith.  Even those who do not practice baptism use some such gimmick as a penitent form, a crusade platform, signing cards, marking a date on the calendar or some such thing.  Clearly, faith must have anchorage as to time, fellowship and testimony.  In New Testament times, people were called upon to confess their faith in baptism.  It follows that baptism took place at the very beginning of the Christian life and formed part of a man's conversion to Christ.

           

Christians looked back to baptism as the beginning of their Christian life, for it was the initial rite of faith in which faith took saving shape.  When Paul desires to take them back to what became true of Christians at the beginning of their Christian lives and what is true of all Christians, he recalls what happened at their baptism.  A good example of this is found in Colossians, where the apostle declares that they were complete in Christ and then shows that this completeness is true of all Christians from the time they first became Christians.  The apostle makes this point by recalling that in baptism they were incorporated into Christ, participating in his death, burial and resurrection.  Also, in Gal.3:26-29, the reference to baptism indicates that the privilege of becoming sons of God through faith is true of all Christians from the beginning of their Christian life.  We are baptized into union with Christ Jesus.

           

This raises the question as to the part served by baptism with reference to the corporate life of the Christian community.   The context in Romans 6 suggests that baptism is not a matter of personal discipleship, but is concerned with the corporate life of believers in Christ.  The latter verses of chapter 5 introduces a new solidarity, a new humanity in Christ.  This is the proper context for baptism.  In relation to baptism Paul writes, "we are baptized into Christ," that is, incorporated into Him "as members of His body" and constituting "the community of the Spirit".  The Christological formula, "in Christ Jesus," is here significant.

           

*   The ancient mode of Baptism was immersion.   This is generally acknowledged by scholars.  Schofield the Jew, uses immersion in his translation.  Boylan, the Catholic, writes, "baptism here includes the idea of immersion."  When the candidate for baptism was totally immersed (according to the ancient custom) in the baptismal water, he was symbolically drowned and buried and thus the baptismal rite was a symbol of the death and burial of Jesus.  The coming forth from the water was a symbol of the resurrection of Christ.  The Didache informs us that the method of baptism was immersion, however, in exceptional circumstances, drenching or pouring was permitted and this may have prepared the way for the later method of sprinkling. 

Some think the mode is not now important, but there is good reason to think that the mode is important to express the rich symbolism of baptism.  If baptism is to assist faith to take its true shape it must set forth the central truths of the Gospel.  It is true, that baptism suggests the idea of washing but when Paul sets it in the context of the central truths of the Gospel he gave it a new importance which immersion alone adequately expresses. 

Some hold that the symbolism of baptism is confined to death (Sir Robert Anderson), but  S+H,  give a more complete meaning :-

*   Immersion.    - Death.

*   Submersion. - Burial.

*   Emergence,  - Resurrection.   (See also W.E.Vine).

That baptism includes the thought of resurrection is supported by Col.2:12.  N.E.B.;  also 1.Pet.3:20-22.  The New Testament mode set forth the basic facts of the converts faith in Christ.

*   Baptism was in the name of Jesus Christ.   (See 1.Cor.1:13-15 (10:1);  Gal.3:27-28;  Acts 2:38;  8:16;  10:48;  19:5;  Rom.6:3,4.  This indicated they became Christ's,  were incorporated in Him.  It appears that baptism was often administered simply in the name of Jesus Christ.  However, since we possess the full Trinitarian formula in Matthew 28, it is fitting that baptism be administered into the Name of the Triune God.  The Didache uses the Trinitarian formula in chapter 7, but in chapter 9, baptism is in the Name of the Lord.  Paul associates baptism with the person of Christ.  Believers are baptized into Christ Jesus.  This becoming incorporated in Christ begins with His Death.  We first meet Christ at Calvary and, in baptism, that is where we meet Him.  Through His cross and resurrection Christ takes us into union with Himself, that is, as members of His Body, we share in the new life of the Spirit.

           

6:4.       "Buried."   This indicates immersion.  It is not, 'buried in sprinkling'.  Burial is the proof, public evidence and the consummation of death.  The separation of the deceased from former relationships becomes complete.  Death ended the service of a slave and if fortunate enough to be buried, the end of slavery was more vividly set forth.  Baptism interprets the faith union with Christ and this means the Christian has broken with sin.  He is dead to sin because he has died with Christ.  The fundamental conviction of the chapter is that the Christian has been set free from sin.  The truth of union with Christ gives faith in Christ a special character.  It signifies that we belong to Christ and our union with Him in His death and deprives us of any right to continue to serve sin.  Moreover we participate in newness of life in Him, so Christ claims our dedication to Himself.  Conversion, then, is a complete change of masters.  Christ was raised from the dead through the glory (doxa) of the Father, who was working out His Divine purpose in raising up Christ and it is part of this same Divine purpose that we walk about in newness of life.  Moule, in Cambridge Bible, says that 'newness' here, means novelty, more than youth.  It is a new kind of life.

           

6:5-11.  Union with Christ releases from sin for the service of God.  

           

6:5.       "United with."  'Sumphutos', - "grown together."  It is a biological term descriptive of two things growing together.  It is an organic union, a union of living members, sharing in the same life.  It is therefore, the closest possible union, but since the members draw their vitality from Christ, there is a progressive conformity to His death.  However it may be more vital to Paul's thought, that our union with Christ completely effects a union with Him in a death like his.

           

"Shall be."   The future tense indicates that we shall be raised at His coming.  However, we are even now to walk in newness of life.  L. takes the future tense as logical rather than chronological and that it refers to the present participation of the believer in the life of the Risen Lord.  But if we think of the life as an eschatological thing, a central characteristic of the kingdom of God, then it must be both a present possession and the final consummation in the resurrection glory.

           

6:6.       "The body of sin."  It is the human body as under the rule of sin and, by means of its members, works the will of sin.  We are not to conclude that Paul regarded the substance or matter of the body, nor its biological organization as evil.   He thinks of sin as a master who has gained possession of the body and uses the body in its service.  So complete is the mastery of sin over the body, that the body has become identified with sin.

           

The words 'the body of sin' then, express a relationship which must be abolished, so that the body may become free to serve righteousness.  Our old man was crucified with Christ that sin no longer use the body in its service.  Sin is deprived of its rule over the body, that we should no longer serve sin.

           

6:6.       "Done away."  R.V.  'Katargeo'. 

B. gives three uses of this word:-

*   Make ineffective, powerless, idle.

*   Abolish, wipe out, set aside.

*   Release.  (Rom.7:2).

B. prefers the second meaning in 6:6.  The language seems to take up the idea of an old humanity and a new humanity.  In Eph.2:15 Paul writes of the 'One Body', comprising Jews and Gentiles, as 'one new man'.  Our old self as a member of the old humanity was crucified with Christ.  The aorist tense marks a thing accomplished.  This was God's judgment upon the 'Adamic man', so that the body of sin be set aside, so that we no longer serve the old master, sin.  The body is the human personality in its human activity.  The man who is united with Christ in His death, is free from the service of sin.

           

Some aspects of the body in relation to the old  life:-

6:12.     "Your mortal body."                   7:24.     "The body of death."

8:10.     "The body is dead."                   8:11.     "Your mortal bodies."

8:13.     "The deeds of the body."

6:7.       "Justified."  R.V.   Paul clinches his point with the quotation of a universally recognized epigram that, whatever the nature of a man's crime against the law and society, death gives acquittal from his crime.  When a man dies judicial procedure against the man must lapse.  Though Paul is not distinctly speaking of our justification by faith in this passage, it is likely that in quoting this well-known proverb, he intends to link up our deliverance from sin with justification through faith.  Acquittal or freedom from wrath involves freedom from sin's tyranny.  God's judgment upon 'the old man' at the Cross, acquitted us from the penalty of sin, and this acquittal effected  deliverance from sin's tyranny and power.

           

6:8.       "But if we died (aorist) with Christ."  The apostle speaks in terms of that which is accepted as certainly true.

           

"We believe that we shall live with him."   The word, 'believe' is to be compared with 'knowing' in verse 9.  The faith or conviction, the assurance that we shall live with Christ, is grounded on the knowledge that Christ has been raised.  The knowledge of the fact of his resurrection inspires faith (believing hope) in the sharing of  the life with Christ.

           

"Shall live."  Future tense.  It is the life to come, but we also already share in this life though its full manifestation is still future.

           

6:9.       Our confidence of sharing in his life rests upon the fact of his resurrection and the completeness of his victory over death.  This verse emphasizes the completeness and finality of Christ's conquest of death. (see R.V.).

           

6:10.     "He died unto sin once."  'Ephapax' is "once for all."  Verse 10 provides the ground for the assertion of verse 9, that death no more shall have dominion over him.  The difficult words of verse 6, then, are intended to further enlarge upon Christ's victory over the tyrants, sin and death.  Men die through sin, (5:12); for all have sinned, but Christ did not die through sin, but to sin.  It is a dative of reference. Bn.  Paul is emphatic that Christ knew no sin, (2.Cor.5:21).  In what sense then, did Christ die to sin?  Such Scriptures as 8:3 and 2.Cor.5:21, "made sin for us," must be considered in this connection.

           

Paul's thought is not easy to follow. It may be that in Christ submitting to death, sin was given the opportunity to make its claim; for death is the manner in which sin puts forth its claim.  Christ, in his death - in submitting to the lordship of death - placed himself in the sphere where sin makes its claim, and exercises its power.  Therefore, by his death, he was 'made sin for us'.  But sin could establish no proper claim and authority, for Christ was without sin and his submission to death was an act of obedience to God.

           

The obedience of Christ is central to Paul's understanding of the death of Christ.  Sin is cast in its suit and cannot establish its claim, rather, it stands condemned for, in the perfect obedience of  Christ unto death, God expressed His judgment upon sin.  Certainly, the words point to a complete break with sin.  Sin had exercised its power by death, but Christ through death gained the victory over sin and destroyed forever the tyranny it exercised through death.  An important clue in 2.Cor.5:21 are the words, "on our behalf."  He was made sin on our behalf.  It was the fact that he became identified with our sin that brought him into the sphere where sin wielded its power in death.  However, the victory of Christ was complete, for his sacrificial death as the sin-offering, the expiation for men's sins was the purpose and will of God to which Christ gave perfect obedience.  Life is the form in which God manifests His claim upon men.  Christ lives to God and as Bn. notes, to live to God, is to belong to Him altogether.

           

6:11.     The victory of faith.   The Christian must reckon (consider or regard) himself to be dead to sin.  This is the attitude of faith that counts Christ's victory over sin to be complete. It knows that through his death those incorporated into him are free from sin's reign.  We are to consider ourselves as freed from sin's dominion.  The claim that sin put forth in the form of death is abolished.  The believer looks at Calvary and learns the cost of his redemption and by faith discerns the purpose for which Christ died: that we should be freed from sin.  It is in the Cross that the Christian really learns the mind of God in respect to sin.  Christian thinking and sentiment is determined by the death and resurrection of Christ.  Our reaction to sin springs from the conviction that it was the will and purpose of God in the death of Christ to break the tyranny of sin.  Therefore, on the one hand, we reckon ourselves as alive to God.  The life that we live, we have from God, and it is given to us that we might live for Him.

           

Life is the form in which God grants to men the status and power of dedication to himself.  The new life we live is in union with Christ Jesus.  For the Christian, a great change has been effected, for he has come to participate in Christ's death, and resurrection.  It was by faith he received these great truths, and must continually appreciate them that he might always have victory over sin that dwells within.  This has been called 'Christian realism' - "become what you are." (C.F D..Moule).

           

6:12.     Sin is no longer to be allowed to reign in our mortal body.     We are freed from her sovereignty in Christ - the Sovereign rule of God.  However, sin has not been eradicated from our mortal body and its members.  It is present at the door (Gen.4) waiting entrance.  We have been delivered from its rule, but not from its presence - and sin will continue to reign in our mortal bodies if we permit it.  But we are not to let sin reign by demanding our obedience to the evil passions of the body.  To give allegiance to the reign of sin is to become traitors to the Sovereignty of God which we have accepted in Christ Jesus.  The 'mortal body' is the body that is not yet free from death, and in which sin is still present.

           

6:13.     Holy War.   Our members or faculties are not to be put at the disposal of sin.  The word "yield,"  'paristemi', is again used in 12:1 (to present). 

           

"Yield yourselves to God."  The aorist tense may suggest "put yourself altogether at the disposal of God.”   It is to be done completely and once for all.  It involves the full acceptance of God's will for our lives and wholehearted response and obedience.  It is as men alive from the dead that we yield ourselves to God and our members, as instruments or weapons of righteousness, yielded to God.

           

6:14.     Freedom.   Paul has used two verbs to express the tyranny of sin, 'basileuo', - reign, 6:12, and 'kurieuo' - dominion, lord over, 6:9, 14.   A life of dedicated service to God has become a reality, for sin shall not prove too strong for the Christian, since he is not under the law, but under grace.  This is a word of encouragement.  Paul means that they may experience freedom from obeying sin in its sinful desires and that their members may become instruments of righteousness.  Sin shall not hold lordship over you.

           

Then he gives the reason for their new freedom to serve God.   It is that they are not under law, but under grace.  This means that to be under law is to be under the dominion of sin.  The law cannot free from sin, but rather enhances sin's power.  This is more fully illustrated in chapter 7.  But to be under grace is to have liberation from both sin and law.  This verse is itself sufficient to prove that the experience of chapter 7 cannot be Christian experience.  When we speak of 'Christian Experience', we mean that which is proper to those who experience the rule and power of grace.

           

Verse 14 suggests Paul's reason for writing chapter 7, that he might emphasize more fully, that to be free from sin, one must also be free from law.  To live under the law is to strive to keep a code of written precepts - a code that gives little incentive to serve God, but rather provoked to do wrong.  To live under grace is to find mercy when we fall, strength to continue, and the assurance that we shall stand.

           

6:15.     The Central Problem.    Paul states in a different way, the problem mentioned in 6:1.  Some feared that to set aside the law as the rule of living was to jettison all ethical principles.  But Paul insists that only under the rule of grace is their victory over sin.  To abandon the law or the principle of legalism is not to float on an uncharted moral sea.  Grace rules to the exclusion of legal religion.  However Paul is not abandoning ethical principles in dismissing the legal order for the new order of Grace.  He is really insisting that only grace can serve God in righteousness and holiness.  To submit to the reign of grace is not the repudiation of all authority, but an acceptance of New Management.  Grace is the charming queen who wins the affection, loyalty and submission of all her subjects.  She imparts inspiration and enthusiasm, and wins from those whom she bestows her gifts, a wholehearted allegiance.

           

6:16.     The Choice.   Many people found security in slavery.  To yield oneself to a master was to become his slave and to obey him in all things.  In the matter of sin or righteousness men are faced with the necessity of making a choice.  The co-operation of the human will is required.  Men must make the moral decision.  Man is so constituted that he must serve sin or serve righteousness.  This situation arises from the nature of things, for man is a moral being.  The challenge is whom are we to yield ourselves to obey?   We cannot escape every form of servitude and to belong to Christ is to be free from the slavery of sin, that we might become the slaves of righteousness.  Obedience is still the necessary thing, but we are free from sin that we may obey God.  That we are dead to sin and alive to God is a matter which we must constantly lift to the level of decision.  We are servants of whatever master we obey.

           

Now the important thing is that, when we became Christians, we changed masters.  We cannot rightly serve the old master.  If it is wrong to serve sin while we were unregenerated, it must be much more wrong to serve sin now that we are united to Christ.   Obedience and service, are key words in the new sovereignty of grace.  Paul makes use of an illustration from slavery to emphasize that to become a Christian is to change masters. That obedience and service are not now abandoned nor optional, but are obligatory as part of the very nature of our relationship to Christ.  However, Paul would not have agreed that grace constitutes a new slavery.   He shows in another chapter that grace imparts the true freedom of sons.  But his illustration is served to show that incorporation into Christ at baptism means to become the slaves of obedience which leads to righteousness.  For the Christian, obedience has become obedience to Christ.

           

6:17.     The Transfer.   The word 'paradidomai' was frequently used of teaching or tradition delivered to its recipients, but it was also widely used of the transfer of a slave from one master to another.  Beare makes a good case for this meaning.  We were once slaves of sin, but have now  been handed over (committed) to a pattern of teaching, to which we give wholehearted obedience.  Our conversion meant a change of masters, for we  have been transferred  to the service of an express pattern of teaching and henceforth, moulds our lives and governs our conduct.  In the transfer which incorporation into Christ has effected for us there has been, on our part, a willing and full surrender to the new pattern of teaching.  Beare also reminds us, that while 'tupos' often means "pattern", it was also used of the word 'die', which gave shape or pattern to a thing.  The Christian teaching, when obeyed from the heart, gives to our lives a specific character and pattern, moulding it into the likeness of Christ.

           

6:18.     The New Servitude.   Slavery is a form of servitude in which the slave is the exclusive possession of his master.  To be united to Christ, is to be bound to the service of righteousness.  To those who suggested grace gave licence to sin Paul's reply is that, in the moral experience of the Christian, there has been such a transfer of allegiance that obedience and righteousness have become the ruling principles of  the new life we have in Christ.

           

6:19.     Need of Illustration.    "I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations."  R.S.V.  Paul finds it profitable to use this illustration drawn from slavery.  But he sort of apologizes for using an illustration that might suggest that the Christian life is another form of slavery.  It is because of their weakness and dullness that he has to use this illustration.  He is aware that his illustration is inadequate and he waits for chapter 8 to show the true freedom of Christians.  But Paul's illustration serves to show the fundamental importance of obedience to Christian living.  The disobedience that marked men in the old Adam is replaced by wholehearted obedience from the new humanity in Christ Jesus.  They had yielded their members to impurity and to greater iniquity.

           

Their past had been one of advance in lawlessness.  There had been a complete yielding of themselves to uncleanness and lawlessness, but Paul calls upon them now to yield their members or faculties to righteousness and holiness.  This must be a deliberate act of faith and to yield themselves completely.  In the Christian life there is progress.  The life is yielded to God in the practice of righteousness for holiness.  The word holiness or sanctification is 'hagiasmos', which frequently means the process of making or becoming holy.  Sanctification means a life devoted to God.  It is a life that God possesses and is conformed to His own character.  The sanctification that Paul writes about is essentially ethical and practical as the words clearly convey, "to righteousness for sanctification."

           

6:20-23.     The service of sin and the service of God are contrasted in respects to their ultimate end and destiny.  The two servitudes are essentially exclusive.  No one can serve sin and God.  Paul wants his readers to understand that they have changed masters, and that no one can serve two masters.  To serve one master is to be free from the service of the other.  There is no choice than to be a slave of sin or slaves of righteousness.  The service of sin had brought them only shame and its end is death.

           

When they entered upon God's service, they repented of their sin.  The past made them now ashamed.  They are now the slaves of God and His service gives holiness and, in the end, everlasting life.  The issue of holiness is life. Paul will not allow them to think that this life is earned but, rather, it is God's free gift.  We have now sanctification in place of shame, eternal life in place of death.

           

Chapter 6 teaches that we are delivered from sin's rule and contrasts the two servitudes, that we may grasp the nature of the new obedience and the impossibility of going back to the old.