Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 6:1
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Ch. Rom 6:1-14. Justification organically connected with sanctification: grace the supreme motive to obedience
1. What shall we say then? ] Here begins the direct treatment of a great topic already suggested, (Rom 3:5-8,) the relation of gratuitous Pardon to Sanctity. This discussion occupies ch. 6 and Rom 7:1-6; and is closely connected with the rest of ch. 7.
Let us distinctly note that up to this point it has not been explicitly in the argument at all. The strongest statements of the evil and the doom of sin were made e. g. in cch. 1 and 2; but the argument thus far has been wholly occupied with acceptance; with Justification. No part of the passage from Rom 3:9 to this point, has purification of heart for its proper subject.
continue, &c.] Lit. remain upon sin. The phrase is frequent in other connexions, and tends to mean not mere continuance, but perseverance in will and act. See e.g. 1Ti 4:16. The objection anticipated in this verse is abundantly illustrated in Church history. It may be prompted either by the craving for sinful licence, or by a prejudice against the doctrine of purely gratuitous pardon under the belief that it does logically favour security in sin. It is all the more noteworthy that St Paul meets it not by modifying in the least the gratuitous aspect of pardon; not by presenting any merit of the pardoned person as even the minutest element in the cause of pardon. He takes sanctity as entirely the effect of Justification, not at all its cause.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
What shall we say then? – This is a mode of presenting an objection. The objection refers to what the apostle had said in Rom 5:20. What shall we say to such a sentiment as that where sin abounded grace did much more abound?
Shall we continue in sin? … – If sin has been the occasion of grace and favor, ought we not to continue in it, and commit as much as possible, in order that grace might abound? This objection the apostle proceeds to answer. He shows that the consequence does not follow; and proves that the doctrine of justification does not lead to it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 6:1-5
What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Grace and sin
1. This question was prompted by a sentence, the very cadence of which seemed to be still alive in the apostles memory (Rom 5:20). It is well to trace the continuity of Scripture–to read the letter of an inspired writer as you would read any other, as an entire composition, through which there possibly runs the drift of one prevailing conception.
2. The tenure upon which eternal life is given, and upon which it is held under the economy of the gospel, Paul makes abundantly manifest by such phrases as grace, and free grace, and justification of faith and not of works, and the gift of righteousness on the one hand, and the receiving of the atonement on the other. And yet the apostle, warm from the delivery of these intimations, and within a single breath of having uttered that where there was abundance of guilt there was a superabundance of grace in store for it–when met by the question of What then? shall we do more of this sin, that we may draw more of this grace? on his simple authority as a messenger from God he enters his solemn caveat against the continuance of sin. Lavish as the gospel is of its forgiveness for the past, it has no toleration either for the purposes or for the practices of Sin in the future. Couple these two verses, and learn from the simple change of tense two of the most important lessons of Christianity. With the first of these verses we feel ourselves warranted to offer the fullest indemnity to the worst and most worthless. Your sin has abounded; but the grace of God has much more abounded. No sin is beyond the reach of the atonement–no guilt of so deep a dye that the blood of a crucified Saviour cannot wash away. But the sinner should also look forward, and forget not that the same gospel which sheds an oblivion over all the sinfulness of the past, enters upon a war of extermination against future sinfulness.
3. The term dead, in the phrase dead unto sin, may be understood forensically. We are dead in law. The doom of death was upon us on account of sin. Conceive that just as under a civil government a criminal is often put to death for the vindication of its authority and for the removal of a nuisance from society, so, under the jurisprudence of Heaven, an utter extinction of being was laid upon the sinner. Imagine that the sentence is executed–that by an act of extermination the transgressor is expunged from Gods animated creation. There could be no misunderstanding of the phrase if you were to say that he was dead unto or dead for sin. But suppose God to have devised a way of reanimating the creature who had undergone this infliction, the phrase might still adhere to him, though now alive from the dead. And in these circumstances, is it for us to continue in sin–we who for sin were consigned to annihilation, and have only by the kindness of a Saviour been rescued from it? Now the argument retains its entireness, though the Mediator should interfere with His equivalent ere the penalty of death has been inflicted. We were as good as dead, for the sentence had gone forth, when Christ stepped between, and, suffering it to light upon Himself, carried it away. Does not the God who loved righteousness and hated iniquity six thousand years ago, bear the same love to righteousness and the same hatred to iniquity still? And well may not the sinner say–Shall I again attempt the incompatible alliance of an approving in God and a persevering sinner; or again try the Spirit of that Being who, the whole process of my condemnation and my rescue, has given such proof of most sensitive and unspotted holiness? Through Jesus Christ, we come again unto the heavenly Jerusalem; and it is as fresh as ever in the verdure of a perpetual holiness. How shall we who were found unfit for residence in this place because of sin, continue in sin after our readmittance therein?
4. But while we have thus insisted on the forensic interpretation of the phrase, yet let us not forbear to urge the personal sense of it, as implying such a deadness of affection to sin, such an extinction of the old sensibility to its allurements and its pleasures, as that it has ceased from its wonted power of ascendency over the heart and character of him who was formerly its slave. So the apostle (Rom 6:5-6) goes on to show that we are planted together in the likeness of His death. He is now that immortal Vine, who stands forever secure and beyond the reach of any devouring blight from the now appeased enemy; and we who by faith are united with Him as so many branches, share in this blessed exemption along with Him. And as we thus share in His death, so also shall we share in His resurrection. By what He hath done in our stead, He hath not only been highly exalted in His own person; but He hath made us partakers of His exaltation, to the rewards of which we shall be promoted as if we had rendered the obedience ourselves. This tallies with another part of the Bible, where it is said that Christ gave Himself up for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify us unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.
5. Now how comes it that because we are partakers in the crucifixion of Christ, so that the law has no further severity to discharge upon us, that this should have any effect in destroying the body of sin, or in emancipating us from the service of sin? How is it that the fact of our being acquitted leads to the fact of our being sanctified? There can be no doubt that the Spirit of God both originates and carries forward the whole of this process. He gives the faith which makes Christs death as available for our deliverance from guilt; and He causes the faith to germinate all those moral and spiritual influences which bring about the personal transformation that we are inquiring of. But these He does, in a way that is agreeable to the principles of our rational nature; and one way is through the expulsive power of a new affection to dispossess an old one from the heart. You cannot destroy your love of sin by a simple act of extermination. You cannot thus bid away from your bosom one of its dearest and oldest favourites. Our moral nature abhors the vacuum that would thus be formed. But let a man by faith look upon himself as crucified with Christ, and the world is disarmed of its power of sinful temptation. He no longer minds earthly things, just because better things are now within his reach, and our conversation is in heaven–whence we also look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is in perfect analogy with familiar exhibitions of our nature in ordinary affairs. Let us just conceive a man embarked, with earnest ambition, on some retail business, whose mind is wholly taken up with the petty fluctuations that are taking place in prices and profits and customers; but who nevertheless is regaled by the annual examination of particulars at the end of it, with the view of some snug addition to his old accumulations. You must see how impossible it were to detach his affections from the objects and the interests of this his favourite course by a simple demonstration of their vanity. But suppose that either some splendid property or some sublime walk of high and hopeful adventure were placed within his attainment, and the visions of a far more glorious affluence were to pour a light into his mind, which greatly overpassed and so eclipsed all the fairness of those homelier prospects that he was wont to indulge in–is it not clear that the old affection which he could never get rid of by simple annihilation, will come to be annihilated, and that simply by giving Place to the new one. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
Free grace and sin
1. The foregoing chapters are a proof and defence of the first fundamental truth of the gospel–that the only way in which we can be pardoned is through our trusting exclusively, not to what we have ourselves done, but to Christ and His atonement. Nay; we have the principle that the more sin has abounded, so much the more superabundant and triumphant is the free favour of God.
2. To many this has always appeared to be very perilous teaching. It seems to offer no security for practical virtue–if, indeed, it does not actually put a premium upon sin. What else is that but to say that we may sin the more in order to make Gods forgiving mercy the more illustrious? Of course, if anything approaching to this were a fair deduction from the doctrine of justification, then such a doctrine would be grossly immoral. But the same objection was taken in St. Pauls day against St. Pauls teaching; and he met it by a vigorous repudiation. Indeed his answer to it formed the second main section of his theological system, since in that answer he developed the whole theory of Christian holiness. And the charge of immoral tendency, which glanced harmlessly off St. Paul and the Church of his time, may very well prove equally harmless against the evangelical Churches of modern date. Remember, the free acquittal of a penitent believer is not the end of the gospel, but only the means. Now, if free justification turn out on trial not to save a man from his sin, but to encourage him in it; then it turns out to be a cheat, like all other gospels or recipes for working deliverance which men have ever concocted or experimented with before Christ and after Him! The question, therefore, is a vital one. It just means this: Is the gospel a success or a failure?
3. St. Pauls instant reply is a blunt and staggering one. It amounts to this: such an abuse of free grace is unthinkable and out of the question. Christians are people who, in the mere fact of becoming Christians, passed through an experience which put a virtual end to their sinful life. Such a difficulty is purely intellectual, arising in the minds of men who try to comprehend the gospel from the outside without having first experienced it. But, then, when once this intellectual difficulty has been started by a non-Christian objector, the Christian craves to find an intellectual answer. That my Christian faith is inconsistent with persisting in sin, I feel. How it comes to be thus inconsistent with it, I want also to see.
4. It is under this view that St. Paul proceeds. Are you ignorant of what every Christian is supposed to know–how as many of us as were baptised into Christ, were baptised into His death? Well, then, it fellows that we were buried along with Him by means of that baptism of ours into His death, for the express purpose, not that we should remain dead any more than He did, but that, just as He was raised from the dead, so we also should walk in a new life. In the case of converts in the primitive Church, conversion was always publicly attested, and its inward character symbolised, by the initiatory rite of baptism. For them nothing could seem more natural than to look back upon their baptismal act whenever any question arose as to what their conversion really meant. Its most general meaning was this, that it put baptised believers into the closest possible relationship with Christ, their Second Adam, of whose body they were thenceforward to be members, whose fortunes they were thenceforward to share. But if baptism seal our incorporation into the Representative Man from heaven; who does not know that the special act of Jesus with which of all others we are brought most prominently into participation, is nothing else than His death and burial? That central thing about Christ on which my faith has to fasten itself is His expiatory death upon the Cross for sin. Am I to be justified through Him at all? Then it is through faith in His blood (Rom 3:25). Have I, an enemy, been reconciled to God by His Son at all? I was reconciled by the death of His Son (Rom 5:10). To that death upon the Cross of expiation which was attested by His three days burial the gospel directs the sinners eye, and on that builds his trust for pardon and peace with God. And the great rite which certified the world and me that I am Christs, was before all else a baptism into the death of Him who died for me!
5. All this St. Paul treats as a Christian commonplace. Its bearing on our continuing in sin is obvious. Conversion through faith in Christs propitiation is seen to be essentially a moral change, a dying to sin. The nerve of the old separate, selfish, sinful life of each man was cut when the man merged himself in his new Representative, and gave up his personal sins to be judged, condemned, and expiated in his Atoners Cross. Now, how can a man who has gone through an experience like that continue in sin? For him the old bad past is a thing dead and buried. Old things are passed away, everything has become new. Such a man can no more go back to be what he was before, feel as he felt, or act as he used to act, than Jesus Christ could rise out of His grave to be once more the Victim for unexpiated guilt and the Sin bearer for a guilty race.
6. The Christian dies to his old sin that he may begin to live to holiness and God. This is the express design God had when He put our sins to death in His dear Sons Cross. Faith in Christ makes us morally incorporate with Him in spirit, as well as legally embraced under Him as our Representative. Christ is our Head in that He represents us before the law, so that in His death all who are His died to sin. Christ is no less our Head to quicken us as His members, and in His living again we all live anew. The will and the power to walk in new moral life are therefore guaranteed to us by our faith. Christian faith is very far from a superficial, or inoperative, or merely intellectual act, such as a man can do without his moral character being seriously affected by it. It is connected with the deep roots of our moral and religious nature. It changes the main current of our ethical life. Those who have been baptised into Christ and say they trust in His death as the ground of their peace with God, are bound to satisfy themselves that their faith is of a sort to kill sin, and to maintain the life of righteousness. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.)
The purity of the gospel dispensation
That the gospel dispensation, instead of relaxing the principles of moral obligation, strengthens and renders the sin committed under its light the most inexcusable, may be illustrated–
I. From the nature and perfections of God. He is a being of absolute purity. Being thus perfect in Himself, He must love every resemblance of His own perfection in any of His intelligent creatures; and the more nearly they resemble Him, the more must they be the objects of His favour.
II. From the character and offices of the Redeemer. The Redeemer is the beloved Son of God, one with the Father; and, therefore, the arguments drawn from the perfections of God, to illustrate the purity of the gospel dispensation, are equally conclusive with respect to the Redeemer. In His several offices, no less than in His personal character, Christ invariably promoted the cause of righteousness. For this He sustained the office of a prophet; for this He became our great High Priest, to restore that intercourse which sin had interrupted. For this end, too, He became our King, and gave us a system of laws suited to that state of reconciliation. Now, such being His character, such the offices which He sustained as our Redeemer, and such the end for which He did sustain them, it follows, by necessary consequence, that the dispensation of the gospel, so far from relaxing the obligations of moral duty, tends powerfully to confirm them.
III. From that perfect rule of moral conduct which the gospel prescribes. It is at once the most simple, the most pure and perfect that ever was delivered to the world; as superior to the much-famed systems of philosophers as its Divine author was superior to them. It lays the foundation of moral duty in the heart, the true spring of action; and by one simple principle of which every heart is susceptible, even the principle of love, it provides for the most perfect moral conduct, and for the proper discharge of the duties of life.
IV. From a consideration of the bright examples which are set before us in the gospel.
V. From the powerful aid which the gospel promises to enable us to observe its precepts and imitate the bright examples which it sets before us. The gracious Author of this Divine influence is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, the third person in the ever blessed Trinity.
VI. From the ultimate end and design of the whole scheme. The great end of the gospel scheme undoubtedly is to bring us to a state of perfect felicity in the glorious kingdom of our God; to the full enjoyment of that immortality which our Saviour hath revealed. With the attainment of this glorious end, holiness, or moral purity, and inseparably connected, both in the nature of things and by the positive laws of Gods moral government.
1. In the nature of things, the unholy or immoral must be excluded from heavenly happiness. They are incapable of it. There is no conformity between the dispositions which they have cultivated and the joys of the celestial regions.
2. It is not only in the nature of things, but by the positive law of Gods moral government, that the unrighteous are excluded from heaven and happiness. (G. Goldie.)
Perversions of evangelical truth
1. What shall we say then? Say to what? To the great affirmation that man is justified freely by Gods grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Shall it be this: Let us persist in sin that grace may multiply? How sharply Paul turns upon the immoral suggestion! It is a corruption not to be endured.
2. But why did the apostle submit a conclusion like that to his readers? He knew that his doctrine did not contain it, but he knew that a corrupt human heart and a perverted understanding could put it in. That the conclusion, or its equivalent, has been asserted, and that often, where if submitted as a proposition it would be rejected with loathing, it is not without a subtle influence, is matter of observation.
I. There are those who think that it is possible to continue in sin and be saved.
1. How often one is forced to notice that men may combine a love of evangelical doctrine with love of money and a shrewdness that makes men who are not evangelical shrug their shoulders. We have known men, great wrestlers in prayer, whose lives, and the whisperings of whose doings, have made us ashamed. Moral confusion is at the bottom of these inconsistencies. Our evangelical doctrines are not to blame. The fault and the failure is in those who profess them while only half-perceiving them, and ignore their moral issues.
2. Paul shows us that grace comprises not only a gracious act of pardon done by God in the believers interest, but also an active principle of sanctification in the believers soul. The abounding of grace is only manifested in the breaking of sins power and the destruction of sins principle. Grace is the enemy of sin, not its covering. He who is saved by grace is not a leper clad in white raiment, but a leper healed. Grace is not beauty thrown over the deformity of some foul sickness; it is health. It is life counter-working death, and no man can continue in sin and yet be saved by grace.
3. But still, Is not grace a gift? Certainly. But God gives life. Yet life is not something external to the creature to whom it is given. It is not like a string of beads round the neck or a ring on the finger. The gift of life to a dead stick after that manner would leave it a dead stick still. Hear a parable. Early one summer morning I came upon an orchard. The trees were beautiful, and fruit was abundant. I wandered on until I came upon a tree having neither bloom nor fruit. I said, You poor, lost tree, what can you be doing here? I marvel you are not removed. Upon which this tree replied, tartly, You are in a great mistake. I am neither poor nor lost. Well, I said, you have neither leaves nor fruit, and, I should judge, no sap. What has that to do with it? it broke out. You seem not to know that a great saviour of trees has been down here, and I have believed his gospel, and am saved by grace. I have accepted salvation as a free gift, and, though I have neither leaves nor fruit, I am saved all the same. I looked at it with pity and said, You are a poor deluded tree; you are not saved at all. You are dead and good-for-nothing, despite all your talk about grace and redemption. Life, that is salvation. When I see you laden with fruit, I shall say, Ah! that poor tree is saved at last; it has received the gospel and is saved by grace. As I turned away, I heard it saying, You are not sound; you do not understand the gospel. And I thought, so it is, as with trees so with men.
II. Another form of this antinomianism of the heart connects itself immediately with the death of Christ. Men talk and act frequently as if in Christs shed blood there was a shelter from the consequence of their sins, even though they remain in their sins. They harbour covetousness, envy, hate, and pride; they stain their hands with dishonesty, and then, with their stained hands uplifted in the face of God, aver that they believe in the death of Christ for their sins, and are saved. This is not the gospel Paul preached. He asks, How shall we who died to sin live any longer therein? He who has by faith appropriated the expiatory death of Jesus, in and by that act died to sin. In the apostles day, baptism was the open signification of the death. It was as the burial of one who had died. It would be a new thing to see a dead man going on as if nothing had happened. So the saved man does not persevere in sin; how should he? He has died to it. Sin has no further claim. Who can claim anything of the dead? He is not sinless. Sin, alas! is not dead, but lie is dead to it. He has not got beyond its trouble, but he has got beyond its bondage. Faith in Christs death as our means of pardon, includes also His life as the principle of our sanctification. As one delightfully said, The Cross condemns me to be holy. (W. Hubbard.)
Distorted doctrines
A mans nose is a prominent feature in his face, but it is possible to make it so large that eyes and mouth and everything are thrown into insignificance, and the drawing is a caricature and not a portrait. So certain important doctrines of the gospel can be so proclaimed in excess as to throw the rest of the truth into the shade, and the preaching is no longer the gospel, but a caricature, and a caricature of which some people seem mightily fond. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Inconsistency
I. The conduct of many professed Christians indicates–
1. That they have some knowledge of grace.
2. That they do not heartily receive it because of sin.
3. That they rather use it as a shelter for sin.
II. Such conduct is abominable, because it–
1. Tempts God.
2. Is irrational.
3. Courts certain destruction.
4. Is impossible where grace is really active. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The abuse of Divine mercy
A certain member of that parliament wherein a statute for the relief of the poor was passed was an ardent promoter of that Act. He asked his steward when he returned to the country, what the people said of that statute. The steward answered, that he heard a labouring man say, that whereas formerly he worked six days in the week, now he would work but four; which abuse of that good provision so affected the pious statesman that he could not refrain from weeping. Lord, Thou hast made many provisions in Thy Word for my support and comfort, and hast promised in my necessities Thy supply and protection; but let not my presumption of help from Thee cause my neglect of any of those means for my spiritual and temporal preservation which Thou hast enjoined. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?—
Death to sin
Abounding sin is the occasion of abounding grace, but abounding grace is for the destruction of abounding sin. It is absurd to suppose that a medicine should aggravate the disease it cures.
I. Believers are dead to sin.
1. In their condition before God.
2. In their character in consequence of it.
3. Forensically in the eye of the law.
4. Experimentally; in point of fact.
5. In their affection for it.
6. In its power over them. Or, to put it another way, believers have died to sin legally in justification; personally in sanctification; professedly in baptism; and will die completely to it in glorification.
II. This is accomplished–
1. By participation in Christs death who died for it.
2. By communication of the power of Christ in killing it.
3. By profession made in baptism of renouncing it.
Death to sin is the necessary consequence of union with Christ, who delivers from its depraving, condemning, and reigning power. (T. Robinson.)
Converted men dislike sin
An Armenian arguing with a Calvinist remarked, If I believed your doctrine, and was sure that I was a converted man, I would take my fill of sin. How much sin, replied the godly Calvinist, do you think it would take to fill a true Christian to his own satisfaction? Here he hit the nail on the head. How can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? A truly converted man hates sin with all his heart, and even if he could sin without suffering for it, it would be misery enough to him to sin at all. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Breaking with sin
The Christians breaking with sin is undoubtedly gradual in its realisation, but absolute and conclusive in its principle. As, in order to break really with an old friend whose evil influence is felt, half measures are insufficient, and the only efficacious means is a frank explanation followed by a complete rupture which remains like a barrier raised beforehand before every new solicitation; so to break with sin there is needed a decisive and radical act, a Divine deed taking possession of the soul and interposing henceforth between the will of the believer and sin (Gal 6:14). This Divine deed necessarily works through the action of faith in Christs sacrifice. (Prof. Godet.)
The two lives
(text and Rom 6:11):–
I. The contrasted lives: Life in sin, and being alive unto God. The contrast is such that the unspiritual can perceive it, though unable to understand it. The ungodly may say,
We neither know nor care whether a man is justified or not, but we do know whether he keeps the law of conscience, whether he acts up to his professed principles, whether he does that which, apart from his profession, we know to be right. But how is it that the world is able to form these judgments? Was the civilised world qualified to do this in the days of Cicero or of Pericles? Was there to be found then, or is there to be found now, where Christianity is not, anything approximating the same jealousy of conscience, etc., which those who now boast that they are men of the world often exhibit? Surely not. If worldly men are competent judges of Christian principle, it is because the atmosphere breathed by true Christians has stimulated its life and awakened its conscience. The world is indebted to the Christianity it is ready to revile for its power to call Christians to its bar. Note:
1. What is meant by living in sin. The term has been almost appropriated to describe certain forms of bold and unblushing transgression of moral law. If a man is a known drunkard, adulterer, or rogue, he is said to live in sin; and no one excuses or palliates his conduct. But the corruption of human nature goes down deeper, and the ravages of sin are far more extensive than this. That man is living in sin–
(1) Who can sin without remorse. If a man sins and his only thought is, How shall I escape the indignant scorn of the world? he is taking pleasure in ungodliness, he is only happy in the absence of God.
(2) Who does what he knows to be wrong, but palliates it by pleading the force of circumstances, the nature of society, or the custom of the world.
(3) Who habitually neglects to do that which God and his conscience have often called upon him to accomplish. To him who knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. It is not enough that a man should avoid the practice of evil; he must not be lacking in generosity, good temper, self-restraint, religious emotion, zeal and work for God and man.
(4) Who finds pleasure in the commission of sin, hankers after forbidden sweets, and would like to go where he could escape detection. To sum up, All ungodliness is sin. To be without God, to act irrespectively of His authority, to find pleasure in what is opposed to His will, is to live in sin and bring the consequences of such a life down upon the soul.
2. What is meant by being alive unto God. By being alive to anything is meant a vivid conception of its reality, a joy in its presence, a devotion to its interests. Thus one man is alive to business, another to his reputation, another to truth. One man is alive to beauty in nature or art, he is therefore quick to discern its presence, keen to criticise its counterfeits, filled with joy when surrounded with its exponents. Another man is alive to literature or science, his ear is sensitive to every message from the great world of letters and invention, and the world exists, so far as he is concerned, to sustain and furnish material for his favourite pursuit. One man is alive to the well-being of his own country, and another to the wider interests of man. With the help of these illustrations we may assume that a man is alive unto God–
(1) When he fully recognises the signs of the presence of God. Habitual transgression or neglect of the laws of God is incompatible with the condition of a man who sees God everywhere. That man is alive to God to whom God is not a theory by which he can conveniently account for the universe, or a name for certain human conceptions of nature and its workings, or an invention of priestcraft to terrify the soul, or a philosophic concept the presence or absence of which has little to do with life or happiness, but the great and only reality, the prime and principal element of all his thoughts. No one fully recognises the presence of God unless he has advanced beyond the teaching of nature, and received from Holy Scripture, from the inward operations of the Spirit in his own heart, more than philosophical speculations can give him. If alive unto God, every revelation of His infinite essence suggests to our quickened spirit the presence of our Father and our Friend.
(2) When the sense of the Divine Presence awakens all the energies and engages all the faculties of his nature. If duly conscious of the Divine Presence, we shall render the appropriate homage of our entire being. Then every place is a temple, every act is a sacrifice, every sin the pollution of a sacred place, the defilement of a holy day. It is morally impossible for one who is alive unto God to imagine that he is doing too much to express his sense of reverence, gratitude, or obligation. In one word, self is subdued to Him, and human will is lost in Gods.
(3) When he finds his highest desires gratified. If we are alive unto God, we shall find that we are following the bent of our true nature. He that drinketh of the water given him by Christ, shall never thirst after those draughts of carnal pleasure to be found in the broken cisterns of human invention, and it shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life.
II. The two lives have been described and contrasted, life in sin and life unto God. It would be difficult to conceive of two modes of life more obviously opposed to one another. They cannot coexist in the same spirit.
1. If sin is delighted in, God is dreaded. There is no tendency in human nature by means of which sin can be remedied or undone. The punishment of sin is death, i.e., moral alienation of heart from God, sinful habit and tendency. Consequently every sin carries in itself its own perpetuation and the germ of further transgression.
2. A life unto God supposes a spirit to whom the nearness, the perfections, the work of the Lord are unutterable delights; to whom the whole universe is a transparent medium, through and behind which is seen the face of the Eternal God.
III. How shall those that are living in sin even learn to be alive unto God?
1. The charge had been brought that that gospel looked leniently on sin, and the apostle boldly takes it up, admits its seeming plausibility, anticipates its possible force, and answers it by showing what was involved in that faith which justifies the soul. The life unto God can never supervene in a soul which has been living in sin, except, says he, through a death unto sin. Justification implies the removal of its penalty, its non-imputation, the exhaustion of its sting, the annihilation of its wages. Our new and holy life is not the ground of our justification, nor, strictly speaking, the consequence of our pardon and acceptance with God; but it is in one sense the pardon itself, the way in which the Holy Ghost slays that enmity within us which was the great curse of sin. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
2. As far as his illustration is concerned, the apostle states a truism when he says that one who is dead to sin cannot live any longer therein. A man who is dead to sin may be carried away from his standing ground by some terrible and novel blast of temptation; but it is a contradiction in terms to assert that he can live in sin.
3. What, then, is meant by death to sin?
(1) Not a desperate fear of the consequences of sin. This fails to repress gross vice and crime. There are no cowards so great as those who often make violent assault on the life and property of others. They choose darkness that they may avoid detection; they are armed to the tooth when they go against feebleness and womankind. Multitudes tremble at the preaching of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, but sin as if they never trembled. Fear may have kept you back from the commission of sin, and warned you to paths of honour and usefulness, and yet never have slats the desire after what is hateful to God.
(2) Not respect to the opinion of the world. The good opinion of our fellow citizens is a powerful motive to virtue; but if it is our only one, there is nothing eternal in our virtue. Then if our circumstances were changed, we should change also. Let us be put back to times when a lower honour prevailed in business or in society, we should be forced back to the undeveloped morality of the past, and live in the practice of what we now see to be sin.
(3) Not mere self-respect. There are those who are careless about the worlds respect as long as they can secure their own. This reverence for conscience, and independence of the judgment of others, is closely akin to the highest virtue, but yet as an ultimate principle it is not sufficient. The proud independence of mankind may speedily run up into an audacious independence of God. Self-respect may rapidly blossom into self-idolatry.
(4) Death to sin is not secured by orthodox creed, ceremonial exactness, or even religious zeal. These are all occasionally confounded with it, but they may be all compatible with a life of sin. Church history is full of proofs that neither articles, nor sacraments, nor profession, nor even great sacrifices for religion, avail to slay the sin of the heart or render the soul alive to God.
(5) By this process of exclusion we have brought the meaning of the phrase death to sin to a much more limited group of experiences. The apostle identifies it with union to Christ, that which he sometimes calls faith in His blood, baptism into Christ, or living by faith on the Son of God, because Christ liveth in us. Paul knew he was appealing to a safe and sure tribunal when he went right to the consciousness of his converts. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is certain that the apostle would not have these Romans reckon thus unless it were true. Observe, it is not merely that they are to reckon that Christ died for their sins, but they are also to reckon that they too are dead unto sin through Jesus Christ.
4. The way, then, in which this change is effected is by union with Christ–
(1) In His Passion. By the Cross the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world; I am crucified with Christ; If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him. We are buried with Him by baptism into His death. The thought often recurs that our faith in Him nails our own hands to the cursed tree and films our eye on worldly glory. If we have taken up this thought into our entire spiritual nature, that Christ died for our sins, then we are dead. As we become alive to what the death of Christ really is and means, how it prepares the only way by which a new life could enter our race, and a new spirit be given to transgressors, by which God could justify the ungodly, and still be just; it is not difficult to understand that faith in Christ, that union to Christ, involves dying with Christ to sin. A true and deep faith in Christ, a recognition by mind and heart of His work, is such an intuition of law, such a sense of God, such a revelation of the evil of sin, such a burning of the heart against the world, the flesh, and the devil, that the apostle was justified in saying that Christians might reckon themselves dead unto sin.
(2) In His life and resurrection. The new life of the soul is a resurrection life, charged with all the associations and aspirations which would be possessed by one who had passed, through dying, from death to life. The life unto God flows out of the life of God in the soul. (H. R. Reynolds, D. D.)
Christs legislative glory to be preached
The following curious incident once happened to a clergyman. One day, after preaching, a gentleman followed him into the vestry, and, putting a 10 note into his hand, thanked him most energetically for the great comfort he had derived from his sermon. The clergyman was very much surprised at this, but still more so when shortly afterwards the same thing again took place; and he determined to sift the affair to the bottom, and find out who this man was that was so comforted by his discourse. He discovered that he was a person at that very time living in the most abominable wickedness and in the very depths of sin. Certainly, said he to himself, there must be something essentially wrong in my preaching when it can afford comfort to such a profligate as this! He accordingly examined into the matter closely, and he discovered that, whilst he had been preaching Christs sovereignty, he had quite forgotten his legislative glories. He immediately altered the style of his sermons, and he soon lost his munificent friend. I am told that, by preaching Christs legislative glory, I also have driven some from my chapel. Pray for me, my brethren, that I may still preach doctrine, and that Longacre may become too hot for error in principle or sin in practice; pray for me that with a giants arm I may lash both. (Howels, of Longacre.)
The atonement gives no encouragement to sin
There is no influence more mischievous on the morals of a people than to interpret the atonement in such a way as to make it independent of good works, if to the atonement you give any other than purely legal connection. If it includes state of nature and character in its connections, then must it stand forever associated with human endeavour and conditioned upon it. Else the sacrifice of Jesus becomes a harbour for thieves–a port into which sinners can at any moment steer with all their sins on board, the moment that the winds of conscience begin to blow a little too hard and threaten wreck to their peace. And this is what I call a plain accommodation of sinners, and hence a premium on sin. For sin is sweet to the natural man, sweet to his pride, his cruelty, his senses; and who would not sin and have the sweetness of it, if when he found it troublesome he could, by the saying of a prayer, or the utterance of a charmed word, be in an instant delivered from it forever? And yet I believe that in just this supposition multitudes in Christendom are living. Salvation is something to be visited upon them, independent of their conduct; nay, in spite of their conduct. Jesus is a cabalistic word which, no matter how they live, if they but whisper it with their dying gasp into the ear of death, he is bound to pass them up into heaven and not down into hell, where their deeds would consign them and which their characters fit. They cheat, they lie, they slander, they hate, they persecute, but then is not there mercy for all? Will not faith save a man; and have not they faith? And are they not told that God will do anything in answer to prayer; and did you ever see men pray as fast as these fellows can when they are sick? This is what I call making Christ a harbour for thieves and Christianity a premium on sin. This is what I call the most horrible perversion of the gospel plan of salvation conceivable! (H. W. Beecher.)
Death to sin, a difficulty
There is nothing so hard to die as sin. An atom may kill a giant, a word may break the peace of a nation, a spark burn up a city; but it requires earnest and protracted struggles to destroy sin in the soul. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER VI.
We must not abuse the boundless goodness of God by continuing
in sin, under the wicked persuasion that the more we sin the
more the grace of God will abound, 1.
For, having been baptized into Christ, we have professed thereby
to be dead to sin, 2-4.
And to be planted in the likeness of his resurrection, 5.
For we profess to be crucified with him, to die and rise again
from the dead, 6-11.
We should not, therefore, let sin reign in our bodies, but live
to the glory of God, 12-14.
The Gospel makes no provision for living in sin, any more than
the law did; and those who commit sin are the slaves of sin,
15-19.
The degrading and afflictive service of sin, and its wages
eternal death; the blessed effects of the grace of God in the
heart, of which eternal life is the fruit, 20-23.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI.
The apostle, having proved that salvation, both to Jew and Gentile, must come through the Messiah, and be received by faith only, proceeds in this chapter to show the obligations under which both were laid to live a holy life, and the means and advantages they enjoyed for that purpose. This he does, not only as a thing highly and indispensably necessary in itself-for without holiness none can see the Lord-but to confute a calumny which appears to have been gaining considerable ground even at that time, viz. that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, through the grace of Christ Jesus, rendered obedience to the moral law useless; and that the more evil a man did, the more the grace of God would abound to him, in his redemption from that evil. That this calumny was then propagated we learn from Ro 3:8; and the apostle defends himself against it in the 31st verse of the same, Ro 3:31 by asserting, that his doctrine, far from making void the law, served to establish it. But in this and the two following chapters he takes up the subject in a regular, formal manner; and shows both Jews and Gentiles that the principles of the Christian religion absolutely require a holy heart and a holy life, and make the amplest provisions for both.
Verse 1. Shall we continue in sin] It is very likely that these were the words of a believing Gentile, who-having as yet received but little instruction, for he is but just brought out of his heathen state to believe in Christ Jesus-might imagine, from the manner in which God had magnified his mercy, in blotting out his sin on his simply believing on Christ, that, supposing he even gave way to the evil propensities of his own heart, his transgressions could do him no hurt now that he was in the favour of God. And we need not wonder that a Gentile, just emerging from the deepest darkness, might entertain such thoughts as these; when we find that eighteen centuries after this, persons have appeared in the most Christian countries of Europe, not merely asking such a question, but defending the doctrine with all their might; and asserting in the most unqualified manner, “that believers were under no obligation to keep the moral law of God; that Christ had kept it for them; that his keeping it was imputed to them; and that God, who had exacted it from Him, who was their surety and representative, would not exact it from them, forasmuch as it would be injustice to require two payments for one debt.” These are the Antinomians who once flourished in this land, and whose race is not yet utterly extinct.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Another anticipation; this Epistle abounds therewith. The apostle here prevents an objection, which might be occasioned, either by the foregoing doctrine in general, concerning justification by the free grace of God, and by a righteousness imputed to us; or by what he said more particularly in the close of the foregoing chapter, that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Some might hence infer, that there was no need then of inherent righteousness, that persons might abide and abound in sin, that so grace might be the more exalted in the forgiveness thereof. The apostle Jude speaks, Jud 1:4, of some that made this ill improvement of the grace of God. Those that draw such inferences from the premises, they put a false construction upon the apostles doctrine, and a paralogism or fallacy upon themselves. They make the apostles words more general than he meant or intended them: for the abounding of sin is not the occasion of the abounding of grace in all, but only in some, even in those who confess and forsake their sins. And they apply that to the time to come which the apostle only uttered of the time past. The abounding of sin in men before their conversion and calling, doth commend and exalt the abundant grace of God, in the forgiveness thereof; but not so if sin abound in them after they are converted and called. He propounds this objection by way of interrogation, partly to show his dislike that his doctrine should be so perverted, and partly to show the peace of his own conscience, that he was far from such a thought.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. What, c.The subject ofthis third division of our Epistle announces itself at once inthe opening question, “Shall we (or, as the true reading is,”May we,” “Are we to”) continue in sin, thatgrace may abound?” Had the apostle’s doctrine been thatsalvation depends in any degree upon our good works, no suchobjection to it could have been made. Against the doctrine of apurely gratuitous justification, the objection is plausible nor hasthere ever been an age in which it has not been urged. That it wasbrought against the apostles, we know from Ro3:8; and we gather from Gal 5:13;1Pe 2:16; Jdg 1:4,that some did give occasion to the charge; but that it was a totalperversion of the doctrine of Grace the apostle here proceeds toshow.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
What shall we say then?…. The apostle here obviates an objection he saw would be made against the doctrine he had advanced, concerning the aboundings of the grace of God in such persons and places, where sin had abounded; which if true, might some persons say, then it will be most fit and proper to continue in a sinful course of life, to give up ourselves to all manner of iniquity, since this is the way to make the grace of God abound yet more and more: now says the apostle, what shall we say to this? how shall we answer such an objection? shall we join with the objectors, and say as they do? and
shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? that is, shall we persist in a vicious way of living with this view, that the grace of God may be magnified hereby? is it right to commit sin on such an account? or is this a fair inference, a just consequence, drawn from the doctrine of grace? To be sure it was not, the objection is without any ground and foundation; sin is not “per se”, the cause of the glorifying God’s grace, but “per accidens”: sin of itself is the cause of wrath, and not of grace; but God has been pleased to take an occasion of magnifying his grace, in the forgiveness of sin: for it is not by the commission of sin, but by the pardon of it, that the grace of God is glorified, or made to abound. Moreover, grace in conversion is glorified by putting a stop to the reign of sin, and not by increasing its power, which would be done by continuing in it; grace teaches men not to live in sin, but to abstain from it; add to this, that it is owing to the want of grace, and not to the aboundings of it, that men at any time abuse, or make an ill use of the doctrines of grace; wherefore the apostle’s answer is,
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| On Sanctification. | A. D. 58. |
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The apostle’s transition, which joins this discourse with the former, is observable: “What shall we say then? v. 1. What use shall we make of this sweet and comfortable doctrine? Shall we do evil that good may come, as some say we do? ch. iii. 8. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Shall we hence take encouragement to sin with so much the more boldness, because the more sin we commit the more will the grace of God be magnified in our pardon? Is this a use to be made of it?” No, it is an abuse, and the apostle startles at the thought of it (v. 2): “God forbid; far be it from us to think such a thought.” He entertains the objection as Christ did the devil’s blackest temptation (Matt. iv. 10): Get thee hence, Satan. Those opinions that give any countenance to sin, or open a door to practical immoralities, how specious and plausible soever they be rendered, by the pretension of advancing free grace, are to be rejected with the greatest abhorrence; for the truth as it is in Jesus is a truth according to godliness, Tit. i. 1. The apostle is very full in pressing the necessity of holiness in this chapter, which may be reduced to two heads:–His exhortations to holiness, which show the nature of it; and his motives or arguments to enforce those exhortations, which show the necessity of it.
I. For the first, we may hence observe the nature of sanctification, what it is, and wherein it consists. In general it has two things in it, mortification and vivification–dying to sin and living to righteousness, elsewhere expressed by putting off the old man and putting on the new, ceasing to do evil and learning to do well.
1. Mortification, putting off the old man; several ways this is expressed. (1.) We must live no longer in sin (v. 2), we must not be as we have been nor do as we have done. The time past of our life must suffice, 1 Peter iv. 3. Though there are none that live without sin, yet, blessed be God, there are those that do not live in sin, do not live in it as their element, do not make a trade of it: this is to be sanctified. (2.) The body of sin must be destroyed, v. 6. The corruption that dwelleth in us is the body of sin, consisting of many parts and members, as a body. This is the root to which the axe must be laid. We must not only cease from the acts of sin (this may be done through the influence of outward restraints, or other inducements), but we must get the vicious habits and inclinations weakened and destroyed; not only cast away the idols of iniquity out of the heart.–That henceforth we should not serve sin. The actual transgression is certainly in a great measure prevented by the crucifying and killing of the original corruption. Destroy the body of sin, and then, though there should be Canaanites remaining in the land, yet the Israelites will not be slaves to them. It is the body of sin that sways the sceptre, wields the iron rod; destroy this, and the yoke is broken. The destruction of Eglon the tyrant is the deliverance of oppressed Israel from the Moabites. (3.) We must be dead indeed unto sin, v. 11. As the death of the oppressor is a release, so much more is the death of the oppressed, Job 3:17; Job 3:18. Death brings a writ of ease to the weary. Thus must we be dead to sin, obey it, observe it, regard it, fulfil its will no more than he that is dead doth his quandam task-masters–be as indifference to the pleasures and delights of sin as a man that is dying is to his former diversions. He that is dead is separated from his former company, converse, business, enjoyments, employments, is not what he was, does not what he did, has not what he had. Death makes a mighty change; such a change doth sanctification make in the soul, it cuts off all correspondence with sin. (4.) Sin must not reign in our mortal bodies that we should obey it, v. 12. Though sin may remain as an outlaw, though it may oppress as a tyrant, yet let it not reign as a king. Let it not make laws, nor preside in councils, nor command the militia; let it not be uppermost in the soul, so that we should obey it. Though we may be sometimes overtaken and overcome by it, yet let us never be obedient to it in the lusts thereof; let not sinful lusts be a law to you, to which you would yield a consenting obedience. In the lusts thereof—en tais epithymiais autou. It refers to the body, not to sin. Sin lies very much in the gratifying of the body, and humouring that. And there is a reason implied in the phrase your mortal body; because it is a mortal body, and hastening apace to the dust, therefore let not sin reign in it. It was sin that made our bodies mortal, and therefore do not yield obedience to such an enemy. (5.) We must not yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness, v. 13. The members of the body are made use of by the corrupt nature as tools, by which the wills of the flesh are fulfilled; but we must not consent to that abuse. The members of the body are fearfully and wonderfully made; it is a pity they should be the devil’s tools of unrighteousness unto sin, instruments of the sinful actions, according to the sinful dispositions. Unrighteousness is unto sin; the sinful acts confirm and strengthen the sinful habits; one sin begets another; it is like the letting forth of water, therefore leave it before it be meddled with. The members of the body may perhaps, through the prevalency of temptation, be forced to be instruments of sin; but do not yield them to be so, do not consent to it. This is one branch of sanctification, the mortification of sin.
2. Vivification, or living to righteousness; and what is that? (1.) It is to walk in newness of life, v. 4. Newness of life supposes newness of heart, for out of the heart are the issues of life, and there is not way to make the stream sweet but by making the spring so. Walking, in scripture, is put for the course and tenour of the conversation, which must be new. Walk by new rules, towards new ends, from new principles. Make a new choice of the way. Choose new paths to walk in, new leaders to walk after, new companions to walk with. Old things should pass away, and all things become new. The man is what he was not, does what he did not. (2.) It is to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, v. 11. To converse with God, to have a regard to him, a delight in him, a concern for him, the soul upon all occasions carried out towards him as towards an agreeable object, in which it takes a complacency: this is to be alive to God. The love of God reigning in the heart is the life of the soul towards God. Anima est ubi amat, non ubi animat–The soul is where it loves, rather than where it lives. It is to have the affections and desires alive towards God. Or, living (our live in the flesh) unto God, to his honour and glory as our end, by his word and will as our rule–in all our ways to acknowledge him, and to have our eyes ever towards him; this is to live unto God.–Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is our spiritual life; there is no living to God but through him. He is the Mediator; there can be no comfortable receivings from God, nor acceptable regards to God, but in and through Jesus Christ; no intercourse between sinful souls and a holy God, but by the mediation of the Lord Jesus. Through Christ as the author and maintainer of this life; through Christ as the head from whom we receive vital influence; through Christ as the root by which we derive sap and nourishment, and so live. In living to God, Christ is all in all. (3.) It is to yield ourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, v. 13. The very life and being of holiness lie in the dedication of ourselves to the Lord, giving our own selves to the Lord, 2 Cor. viii. 5. “Yield yourselves to him, not only as the conquered yields to the conqueror, because he can stand it out no longer; but as the wife yields herself to her husband, to whom her desire is, as the scholar yields himself to the teacher, the apprentice to his master, to be taught and ruled by him. Not yield your estates to him, but yield yourselves; nothing less than your whole selves;” parastesate eautous—accommodate vos ipsos Deo—accommodate yourselves to God; so Tremellius, from the Syriac. “Not only submit to him, but comply with him; not only present yourselves to him once for all, but be always ready to serve him. Yield yourselves to him as wax to the seal, to take any impression, to be, and have, and do, what he pleases.” When Paul said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? (Acts ix. 6) he was then yielded to God. As those that are alive from the dead. To yield a dead carcase to a living God is not to please him, but to mock him: “Yield yourselves as those that are alive and good for something, a living sacrifice,” ch. xii. 1. The surest evidence of our spiritual life is the dedication of ourselves to God. It becomes those that are alive from the dead (it may be understood of a death in law), that are justified and delivered from death, to give themselves to him that hath so redeemed them. (4.) It is to yield our members as instruments of righteousness to God. The members of our bodies, when withdrawn from the service of sin, are not to lie idle, but to be made use of in the service of God. When the strong man armed is dispossessed, let him whose right it is divide the spoils. Though the powers and faculties of the soul be the immediate subjects of holiness and righteousness, yet the members of the body are to be instruments; the body must be always ready to serve the soul in the service of God. Thus (v. 19), “Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Let them be under the conduct and at the command of the righteous law of God, and that principle of inherent righteousness which the Spirit, as sanctifier, plants in the soul.” Righteousness unto holiness, which intimates growth, and progress, and ground obtained. As every sinful act confirms the sinful habit, and makes the nature more and more prone to sin (hence the members of a natural man are here said to be servants to iniquity unto iniquity–one sin makes the heart more disposed for another), so every gracious act confirms the gracious habit: serving righteousness is unto holiness; one duty fits us for another; and the more we do the more we may do for God. Or serving righteousness, eis hagiasmon—as an evidence of sanctification.
II. The motives or arguments here used to show the necessity of sanctification. There is such an antipathy in our hearts by nature to holiness that it is no easy matter to bring them to submit to it: it is the Spirit’s work, who persuades by such inducements as these set home upon the soul.
1. He argues from our sacramental conformity to Jesus Christ. Our baptism, with the design and intention of it, carried in it a great reason why we should die to sin, and live to righteousness. Thus we must improve our baptism as a bridle of restraint to keep us in from sin, as a spur of constraint to quicken us to duty. Observe this reasoning.
(1.) In general, we are dead to sin, that is, in profession and in obligation. Our baptism signifies our cutting off from the kingdom of sin. We profess to have no more to do with sin. We are dead to sin by a participation of virtue and power for the killing of it, and by our union with Christ and interest in him, in and by whom it is killed. All this is in vain if we persist in sin; we contradict a profession, violate an obligation, return to that to which we were dead, like walking ghosts, than which nothing is more unbecoming and absurd. For (v. 7) he that is dead is freed from sin; that is, he that is dead to it is freed from the rule and dominion of it, as the servant that is dead is freed from his master, Job iii. 19. Now shall we be such fools as to return to that slavery from which we are discharged? When we are delivered out of Egypt, shall we talk of going back to it again?
(2.) In particular, being baptized into Jesus Christ, we were baptized into his death, v. 3. We were baptized eis Christon—unto Christ, as 1 Cor. x. 2, eis Mosen—unto Moses. Baptism binds us to Christ, it binds us apprentice to Christ as our teacher, it is our allegiance to Christ as our sovereign. Baptism is externa ansa Christi–the external handle of Christ, by which Christ lays hold on men, and men offer themselves to Christ. Particularly, we were baptized into his death, into a participation of the privileges purchased by his death, and into an obligation both to comply with the design of his death, which was to redeem us from all iniquity, and to conform to the pattern of his death, that, as Christ died for sin, so we should die to sin. This was the profession and promise of our baptism, and we do not do well if we do not answer this profession, and make good this promise.
[1.] Our conformity to the death of Christ obliges us to die unto sin; thereby we know the fellowship of his sufferings, Phil. iii. 10. Thus we are here said to be planted together in the likeness of is death (v. 5), to homoiomati, not only a conformity, but a conformation, as the engrafted stock is planted together into the likeness of the shoot, of the nature of which it doth participate. Planting is in order to life and fruitfulness: we are planted in the vineyard in a likeness to Christ, which likeness we should evidence in sanctification. Our creed concerning Jesus Christ is, among other things, that he was crucified, dead, and buried; now baptism is a sacramental conformity to him in each of these, as the apostle here takes notice. First, Our old man is crucified with him, v. 6. The death of the cross was a slow death; the body, after it was nailed to the cross, gave many a throe and many a struggle: but it was a sure death, long in expiring, but expired at last; such is the mortification of sin in believers. It was a cursed death, Gal. iii. 13. Sin dies as a malefactor, devoted to destruction; it is an accursed thing. Though it be a slow death, yet this must needs hasten it that it is an old man that is crucified; not in the prime of its strength, but decaying: that which waxeth old is ready to vanish away, Heb. viii. 13. Crucified with him—synestaurothe, not in respect of time, but in respect of causality. The crucifying of Christ for us has an influence upon the crucifying of sin in us. Secondly, We are dead with Christ, v. 8. Christ was obedient to death: when he died, we might be said to die with him, as our dying to sin is an act of conformity both to the design and to the example of Christ’s dying for sin. Baptism signifies and seals our union with Christ, our engrafting into Christ; so that we are dead with him, and engaged to have no more to do with sin than he had. Thirdly, We are buried with him by baptism, v. 4. Our conformity is complete. We are in profession quite cut off from all commerce and communion with sin, as those that are buried are quite cut off from all the world; not only not of the living, but no more among the living, have nothing more to do with them. Thus must we be, as Christ was, separate from sin and sinners. We are buried, namely, in profession and obligation: we profess to be so, and we are bound to be so: it was our covenant and engagement in baptism; we are sealed to be the Lord’s, therefore to be cut off from sin. Why this burying in baptism should so much as allude to any custom of dipping under water in baptism, any more than our baptismal crucifixion and death should have any such references, I confess I cannot see. It is plain that it is not the sign, but the thing signified, in baptism, that the apostle here calls being buried with Christ, and the expression of burying alludes to Christ’s burial. As Christ was buried, that he might rise again to a new and more heavenly life, so we are in baptism buried, that is, cut off from the life of sin, that we may rise again to a new life of faith and love.
[2.] Our conformity to the resurrection of Christ obliges us to rise again to newness of life. This is the power of his resurrection which Paul was so desirous to know, Phil. iii. 10. Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, that is, by the power of the Father. The power of God is his glory; it is glorious power, Col. i. 11. Now in baptism we are obliged to conform to that pattern, to be planted in the likeness of his resurrection (v. 5), to live with him, v. 8. See Col. ii. 12. Conversion is the first resurrection from the death of sin to the life of righteousness; and this resurrection is conformable to Christ’s resurrection. This conformity of the saints to the resurrection of Christ seems to be intimated in the rising of so many of the bodies of the saints, which, though mentioned before by anticipation, is supposed to have been concomitant with Christ’s resurrection, Matt. xxvii. 52. We have all risen with Christ. In two things we must conform to the resurrection of Christ:–First, He rose to die no more, v. 9. We read of many others that were raised from the dead, but they rose to die again. But, when Christ rose, he rose to die no more; therefore he left his grave-clothes behind him, whereas Lazarus, who was to die again, brought them out with him, as one that should have occasion to use them again: but over Christ death has no more dominion; he was dead indeed, but he is alive, and so alive that he lives for evermore, Rev. i. 18. Thus we must rise from the grave of sin never again to return to it, nor to have any more fellowship with the works of darkness, having quitted that grave, that land of darkness as darkness itself. Secondly, He rose to live unto God (v. 10), to live a heavenly life, to receive that glory which was set before him. Others that were raised from the dead returned to the same life in every respect which they had before lived; but so did not Christ: he rose again to leave the world. Now I am no more in the world,Joh 13:1; Joh 17:11. He rose to live to God, that is, to intercede and rule, and all to the glory of the Father. Thus must we rise to live to God: this is what he calls newness of life (v. 4), to live from other principles, by other rules, with other aims, than we have done. A life devoted to God is a new life; before, self was the chief and highest end, but now God. To live indeed is to live to God, with our eyes ever towards him, making him the centre of all our actions.
2. He argues from the precious promises and privileges of the new covenant, v. 14. It might be objected that we cannot conquer and subdue sin, it is unavoidably too hard for us: “No,” says he, “you wrestle with an enemy that may be dealt with and subdued, if you will but keep your ground and stand to your arms; it is an enemy that is already foiled and baffled; there is strength laid up in the covenant of grace for your assistance, if you will but use it. Sin shall not have dominion.” God’s promises to us are more powerful and effectual for the mortifying of sin than our promises to God. Sin may struggle in a believer, and may create him a great deal of trouble, but it shall not have dominion; it may vex him, but shall not rule over him. For we are not under the law, but under grace, not under the law of sin and death, but under the law of the spirit of life, which is in Christ Jesus: we are actuated by other principles than we have been: new lords, new laws. Or, not under the covenant of works, which requires brick, and gives no straw, which condemns upon the least failure, which runs thus, “Do this, and live; do it not, and die;” but under the covenant of grace, which accepts sincerity as our gospel perfection, which requires nothing but what it promises strength to perform, which is herein well ordered, that every transgression in the covenant does not put us out of covenant, and especially that it does not leave our salvation in our own keeping, but lays it up in the hands of the Mediator, who undertakes for us that sin shall not have dominion over us, who hath himself condemned it, and will destroy it; so that, if we pursue the victory, we shall come off more than conquerors. Christ rules by the golden sceptre of grace, and he will not let sin have dominion over those that are willing subjects to that rule. This is a very comfortable word to all true believers. If we were under the law, we were undone, for the law curses every one that continues not in every thing; but we are under grace, grace which accepts the willing mind, which is not extreme to mark what we do amiss, which leaves room for repentance, which promises pardon upon repentance; and what can be to an ingenuous mind a stronger motive than this to have nothing to do with sin? Shall we sin against so much goodness, abuse such love? Some perhaps might suck poison out of this flower, and disingenuously use this as an encouragement to sin. See how the apostle starts at such a thought (v. 15): Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. What can be more black and ill-natured than from a friend’s extraordinary expressions of kindness and good-will to take occasion to affront and offend him? To spurn at such bowels, to spit in the face of such love, is that which, between man and man, all the world would cry out shame on.
3. He argues from the evidence that this will be of our state, making for us, or against us (v. 16): To whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are. All the children of men are either the servants of God, or the servants of sin; these are the two families. Now, if we would know to which of these families we belong, we must enquire to which of these masters we yield obedience. Our obeying the laws of sin will be an evidence against us that we belong to that family on which death is entailed. As, on the contrary, our obeying the laws of Christ will evidence our relation to Christ’s family.
4. He argues from their former sinfulness, v. 17-21, where we may observe,
(1.) What they had been and done formerly. We have need to be often reminded of our former state. Paul frequently remembers it concerning himself, and those to whom he writes. [1.] You were the servants of sin. Those that are now the servants of God would do well to remember the time when they were the servants of sin, to keep them humble, penitent, and watchful, and to quicken them in the service of God. It is a reproach to the service of sin that so many thousands have quitted the service, and shaken off the yoke; and never any that sincerely deserted it, and gave themselves to the service of God, have returned to the former drudgery. “God be thanked that you were so, that is, that though you were so, yet you have obeyed. You were so; God be thanked that we can speak of it as a thing past: you were so, but you are not now so. Nay, your having been so formerly tends much to the magnifying of divine mercy and grace in the happy change. God be thanked that the former sinfulness is such a foil and such a spur to your present holiness.” [2.] You have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity, v. 19. It is the misery of a sinful state that the body is made a drudge to sin, than which there could not be a baser or a harder slavery, like that of the prodigal that was sent into the fields to feed swine. You have yielded. Sinners are voluntary in the service of sin. The devil could not force them into the service, if they did not yield themselves to it. This will justify God in the ruin of sinners, that they sold themselves to work wickedness: it was their own act and deed. To iniquity unto iniquity. Every sinful act strengthens and confirms the sinful habit: to iniquity as the work unto iniquity as the wages. Sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind; growing worse and worse, more and more hardened. This he speaks after the manner of men, that is, he fetches a similitude from that which is common among men, even the change of services and subjections. [3.] You were free from righteousness (v. 20); not free by any liberty given, but by a liberty taken, which is licentiousness: “You were altogether void of that which is good,–void of any good principles, motions, or inclinations,–void of all subjection to the law and will of God, of all conformity to his image; and this you were highly pleased with, as a freedom and a liberty; but a freedom from righteousness is the worst kind of slavery.”
(2.) How the blessed change was made, and wherein it did consist.
[1.] You have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you, v. 17. This describes conversion, what it is; it is our conformity to, and compliance with, the gospel which was delivered to us by Christ and his ministers.–Margin. Whereto you were delivered; eis hon paredothete—into which you were delivered. And so observe, First, The rule of grace, that form of doctrine—typon didaches. The gospel is the great rule both of truth and holiness; it is the stamp, grace is the impression of that stamp; it is the form of healing words, 2 Tim. i. 13. Secondly, The nature of grace, as it is our conformity to that rule. 1. It is to obey from the heart. The gospel is a doctrine not only to be believed, but to be obeyed, and that from the heart, which denotes the sincerity and reality of that obedience; not in profession only, but in power–from the heart, the innermost part, the commanding part of us. 2. It is to be delivered into it, as into a mould, as the wax is cast into the impression of the seal, answering it line for line, stroke for stroke, and wholly representing the shape and figure of it. To be a Christian indeed is to be transformed into the likeness and similitude of the gospel, our souls answering to it, complying with it, conformed to it–understanding, will, affections, aims, principles, actions, all according to that form of doctrine.
[2.] Being made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness (v. 18), servants to God, v. 22. Conversion is, First, A freedom from the service of sin; it is the shaking off of that yoke, resolving to have no more to do with it. Secondly, A resignation of ourselves to the service of God and righteousness, to God as our master, to righteousness as our work. When we are made free from sin, it is not that we may live as we list, and be our own masters; no: when we are delivered out of Egypt, we are, as Israel, led to the holy mountain, to receive the law, and are there brought into the bond of the covenant. Observe, We cannot be made the servants of God till we are freed from the power and dominion of sin; we cannot serve two masters so directly opposite one to another as God and sin are. We must, with the prodigal, quit the drudgery of the citizen of the country, before we can come to our Father’s house.
(3.) What apprehensions they now had of their former work and way. He appeals to themselves (v. 21), whether they had not found the service of sin, [1.] An unfruitful service: “What fruit had you then? Did you ever get any thing by it? Sit down, and cast up the account, reckon your gains, what fruit had you then?” Besides the future losses, which are infinitely great, the very present gains of sin are not worth mentioning. What fruit? Nothing that deserves the name of fruit. The present pleasure and profit of sin do not deserve to be called fruit; they are but chaff, ploughing iniquity, sowing vanity, and reaping the same. [2.] It is an unbecoming service; it is that of which we are now ashamed–ashamed of the folly, ashamed of the filth, of it. Shame came into the world with sin, and is still the certain product of it–either the shame of repentance, or, if not that, eternal shame and contempt. Who would wilfully do that which sooner or later he is sure to be ashamed of?
5. He argues from the end of all these things. it is the prerogative of rational creatures that they are endued with a power of prospect, are capable of looking forward, considering the latter end of things. To persuade us from sin to holiness here are blessing and cursing, good and evil, life and death, set before us; and we are put to our choice. (1.) The end of sin is death (v. 21): The end of those things is death. Though the way may seem pleasant and inviting, yet the end is dismal: at the last it bites; it will be bitterness in the latter end. The wages of sin is death, v. 23. Death is as due to a sinner when he hath sinned as wages are to a servant when he hath done his work. This is true of every sin. There is no sin in its own nature venial. Death is the wages of the least sin. Sin is here represented either as the work for which the wages are given, or as the master by whom the wages are given; all that are sin’s servants and do sin’s work must expect to be thus paid. (2.) If the fruit be unto holiness, if there be an active principle of true and growing grace, the end will be everlasting life–a very happy end!–Though the way be up-hill, though it be narrow, and thorny, and beset, yet everlasting life at the end of it is sure. So, v. 23, The gift of God is eternal life. Heaven is life, consisting in the vision and fruition of God; and it is eternal life, no infirmities attending it, no death to put a period to it. This is the gift of God. The death is the wages of sin, it comes by desert; but the life is a gift, it comes by favour. Sinners merit hell, but saints do not merit heaven. There is no proportion between the glory of heaven and our obedience; we must thank God, and not ourselves, if ever we get to heaven. And this gift is through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is Christ that purchased it, prepared it, prepares us for it, preserves us to it; he is the Alpha and Omega, All in all in our salvation.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
What shall we say then? ( ?). “A debater’s phrase” (Morison). Yes, and an echo of the rabbinical method of question and answer, but also an expression of exultant victory of grace versus sin. But Paul sees the possible perversion of this glorious grace.
Shall we continue in sin? ( ?). Present active deliberative subjunctive of , old verb to tarry as in Ephesus (1Co 16:8) with locative case. The practice of sin as a habit (present tense) is here raised.
That grace may abound ( ). Final clause with ingressive aorist subjunctive, to set free the superfluity of grace alluded to like putting money in circulation. Horrible thought ( ) and yet Paul faced it. There are occasionally so-called pietists who actually think that God’s pardon gives them liberty to sin without penalty (cf. the sale of indulgences that stirred Martin Luther).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
What shall we say then? “A transition – expression and a debater’s phrase” (Morison). The use of this phrase points to Paul ‘s training in the Rabbinical schools, where questions were propounded and the students encouraged to debate, objections being suddenly interposed and answered. Shall we continue [] . The verb means primarily to remain or abide at or with, as 1Co 16:8; Phi 1:24; and secondarily, to persevere, as Rom 11:23; Col 1:23. So better here, persist.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
LIBERATION FROM THE POWER OF THE OLD SIN NATURE
1) “What shall we say then?” (ti oun eroumen) “What therefore shall we say?” In view of salvation, justification, liberation from the law, and peace with God, thru his grace which is by faith in Jesus Christ, What is to be said? Rom 3:23; Rom 5:1.
2) “Shall we continue in sin,” (epiminomen te hamartia) “May we remain, continue, or abide in sin,” or shall we go on living in sin, simply because grace the much more abounds, as it does? Rom 3:8; Rom 5:20; Rom 6:15.
3) “That grace may abound,” (hina he Charis pleonase) “In Order that grace may abound?” or just in order to receive more grace? The “We” referred to are those saved, Rom 1:16; justified by faith, Rom 3:24-25; Rom 4:4-5; those to whom the righteousness of God has been imputed by faith, by faith in his blood who died for our sins, Rom 4:5-8; Rom 4:16; Rom 4:25; and who have peace with God, Rom 5:1.
Shall the saved, the righteous, the justified who have peace with God, to whom grace abounds, and who are members of the church at Rome and other saints in colleague with them, (other churches) and professors just “live it up” in sin, simply because of eternal life they possess with God’s grace? Rom 3:8; Rom 6:23. It is a rhetoric question implying an exclamatory negative, No! God forbid!
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. What then shall we say? Throughout this chapter the Apostle proves, that they who imagine that gratuitous righteousness is given us by him, apart from newness of life, shamefully rend Christ asunder: nay, he goes further, and refers to this objection, — that there seems in this case to be an opportunity for the display of grace, if men continued fixed in sin. We indeed know that nothing is more natural than that the flesh should indulge itself under any excuse, and also that Satan should invent all kinds of slander, in order to discredit the doctrine of grace; which to him is by no means difficult. For since everything that is announced concerning Christ seems very paradoxical to human judgment, it ought not to be deemed a new thing, that the flesh, hearing of justification by faith, should so often strike, as it were, against so many stumbling-stones. Let us, however, go on in our course; nor let Christ be suppressed, because he is to many a stone of offense, and a rock of stumbling; for as he is for ruin to the ungodly, so he is to the godly for a resurrection. We ought, at the same time, ever to obviate unreasonable questions, lest the Christian faith should appear to contain anything absurd.
The Apostle now takes notice of that most common objection against the preaching of divine grace, which is this, — “That if it be true, that the more bountifully and abundantly will the grace of God aid us, the more completely we are overwhelmed with the mass of sin; then nothing is better for us than to be sunk into the depth of sin, and often to provoke God’s wrath with new offenses; for then at length we shall find more abounding grace; than which nothing better can be desired.” The refutation of this we shall here after meet with.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom. 6:2.Necessary connection between faith in Christs death and abhorrence of sin. Heathen writers speak of the wise and good as dead to sensualities and animal pleasures (Wordsworth).
Rom. 6:3. Baptised into His death.In relation to His deathi.e., faith in it, acceptation, appropriation, and imitation of it. The relation symbolised by baptism is in its own nature moral and spiritual.
Rom. 6:4.Baptism by immersionand where that cannot be conveniently done, by effusionrepresents death and burial, as the emerging again figures a new life (Dean Stanhope).
Rom. 6:5.For if we become connate with Him by the likeness of His death, surely we shall also become by the likeness of His resurrection (Wordsworth).
Rom. 6:6.Sin is here personified. The body of sin is our own body so far as it is the seat and the slave of sin.
Rom. 6:7.The maxim in its physical sense proverbial among the Jews. Thus in the Talmud it is said, When a man dies, he is freed from the commands.
Rom. 6:10.Died unto sin once.Made sin for the Churcha sin offering.
Rom. 6:11.To both, our oneness with Him being the ground of our dying to sin, etc. To fulfil Gods will, live to Him alone.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rom. 6:1-11
Buried, but living.An evil propensity was generated by the first Adam. A good propensity was generated by the Second Adam. The carnal Adamites moved along a descending scale, while the spiritual Adamites move along an ascending scale. Death brooded over the racea death that had in it no compensating qualities. Christ undertook death that He might educe life. He died unto sin once, that He and the race might live unto God. Christs death was a death for sin and to sin. On Calvary sin received its deathblow. It is true that sin still works, but it works as a maimed force, and finally it must be for ever destroyed. He that is dead is freed from sins power, and must walk henceforth in newness of life. Grace does not lead to licentiousness, but to holiness of heart and of life. This is confirmed by a consideration of:
I. The spiritual facts.The great spiritual, central, and foundation fact of Christian life is that the old man is crucified with Christ.
1. Crucifixion was a process of suffering. How true is the symbolical teaching! What suffering is sometimes endured while the old man is being crucified! There are gentle natures, good creatures, that seem to be good from their birth and give a negation to the doctrine of original sin, who do not understand the suffering entailed by the moral process called the crucifixion of the old man. But even they sympathetically suffer as they enter into the sufferings of the crucified Saviour. Even they may feel that there is in them an old man that must be crucified. However, there is in other naturesperhaps the natures of the noblestgreat suffering as the old man is being crucified. The noblest heroes have strong passions and fierce conflicts. The greatest battles are fought and the sublimest victories won not on earths gory battle-fields, but in soul spheres.
2. Crucifixion was a lingering death. It was a surprise to find that Christ was dead already. In some the old man of sin is long in dying. We think he is dead. We rejoice in our freedom; and the moment of rejoicing is the moment of disaster. The old man shakes the bonds, loosens the nails, and gives immense trouble. Perhaps the fault with some is that the crucifixion is not complete. A partial crucifixion is a mistake. Crucified with Christ, we must be crucified entirely. The old man in every limb must be slain if there is to be complete victory.
3. Crucifixion was a sure death at last. There could be no ultimate escape. The old man may seem to assert himself, but he has been nailed to the tree, and must die. If we have been crucified with Christ, then we cannot live in sin with pleasure.
II. The moral teaching.For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. This is a moral likeness. Christs death is lifted out of the mere material aspect. We do not sufficiently consider the death of Christ in its moral and spiritual relations. Socinianism derives some of its false force from our materialism. Morally we are assimilated with Christ in His death, and so are we in His resurrection. And resurrection is not a resurrection of skin, nerves, bones, and muscles, but a resurrection of soul power. Christ rose to be the dispenser of blessings, to live a crowned life. The believer rises to live a crowned lifethe life of peace, of joy, and of holiness. The believer rises to be in his sphere the dispenser of blessings. The believer is a king and a priestroyal being master and king over himself, sacred being dedicated to God and to the promotion of the universal sanctities. He walks in newness of life. If there can be anything new to Jesus, then we may say that He walks in newness of life amid the bright sons of life and of glory,newness of life to the Unchangeablenewness of life, for He is now the mediator and intercessor. Being assimilated with Christ, we walk in the spirit world. Life is ever new. Fresh breezes blow over earths dreary plains. Heavens zephyrs fan the brows of the new immortals.
III. The public profession.The early Christians were baptised into Jesus Christ, into the name of Jesus Christ, into the death of Jesus Christ. There was first the change and then the profession. Public profession is against open sin. Some say that the doctrines of grace promote sin, and these objectors would not be the last to point the finger of scorn against the professor who leads an unholy life. The man who professes to be a Christian should be Christlike. We profess in baptism by our sponsors. How few earnestly take up the obligation! Some few profess too much. A vast number practise too little.
IV. The inward account.This reckoning should be constantly carried on. Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This moral arithmetic is ennobling. Dead to sin. Alive to God,alive to the Source of the highest life; alive to the infinite goodness; alive to the enriching outcome of the divine nature; alive to all the stirring motives to nobility of character which come from the eternal throne. The outcast from God becomes the friend of God, being alive to and by God. The soul of man is ever reaching upwards when it is reckoning itself to be alive unto God. It is opening itself out to be kissed into moral beauty and sweetness and fragrance by the refreshing beams that flow from the eternal Light.
Rom. 6:4. Newness of life.If Christ died for our sins, He rose for us tooHe rose for our justification. If He is our model in His death, He is also our model in His resurrection from the dead. We have been buried with Him by baptism into death, says the apostle, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. The great apostle cannot be understood to ascribe Christs resurrection to the Father in such sense as to exclude the agency of the Son or of the Spirit. St. Pauls point is, that the Resurrection is the work of God, and as such it occupies a common ground with the new birth or conversion of the soul; for, indeed, no truth is so clearly revealed to us as thisthat spiritual life, whether given us at the first in our new birth to Christ, or renewed after repentance in later years, is the free, fresh gift of the Father of our spirits. Nature can no more give us newness of life than a corpse can rise from the dead by its unassisted power. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. A sense of prudence, advancing years, the love of society around us, family influences, may remodel the surface form of our daily habits; but divine grace alone can turn the inmost being to Godcan raise it from the death of sin to the life of righteousnesscan clothe it in that new man which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. There are three characteristics of the risen life of our Lord which especially challenge attention. The first is its reality. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a real resurrection of a really dead body. The piercing of our Saviours side, to say nothing of the express language of the evangelists, implied the literal truth of His death; and being thus truly dead, He really rose from the dead. As St. Luke says, epitomising a history in a single expression, He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs. The nearer men came to the risen Jesus, the more satisfied they were that He had risen indeed. So it is with the soul. Its newness of life must be, before everything else, real. What avails it to be risen in the imagination and good opinion of other people, if, in fact, we still live in the tomb of sin? Were it not better for us if we were dead than that men should think and speak of us as being what we are? Even if our new life be not purely an imagination on the part of others, what is the value of a mere ghost of a moral renewal, of prayers without heart in them, of actions without any religious principle, of religious language far in advance of our true convictions and feelings? The first lesson which the risen Christ teaches the Christian is reality, genuineness. A second characteristic of Christs risen lifeit lasts. Jesus did not rise that, like Lazarus, He might die again. I am He that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death. So should it be with the Christian. His, too, should be a resurrection once for all. It should be. Gods grace does not put any sort of force upon us, and what it does in us and for us depends on ourselves. The Christian must reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. A last note of Christs risen life. Most of it was hidden from the eyes of men. They saw enough to be satisfied of its reality; but of the eleven recorded appearances five took place on a single day, and there is accordingly no record of any appearance on thirty-five days out of forty which preceded the Ascension. His visible presence after the Resurrection is the exception rather than the rule. Here is a lesson for the true Christian life. Of every such life the most important side is hidden from the eyes of man. It is a matter of the very first necessity to set aside some time in each day for secret communion with God. In these three respects the true Christians life is modelled upon the Resurrection. It is sincere and real. It is not a passing caprice or taste, for it lasts. It has a reserved side apart from the eyes of men, in which its true force is nourished and made the most of.Canon Liddon.
Life in Christ here and hereafter.The death and resurrection of Christ constitute the substance of the gospel, and our concern with them as doctrinal truths includes more than our admitting them into our creed. They must become internal principles, and produce in us corresponding effects. He died, and we must be dead,dead to the law, not as a rule of life, but as a covenant of works; dead to the world, not as the scene of Gods wonderful works, nor as a sphere of duty, nor as a field of usefulness, but as the enemy of God and our portion; dead to sinthis includes nothing less than our avoiding it; but it intends much more: we may be alive to it even while we forsake it; but we must no longer love or relish it, and thus no longer live in it. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? We must be dead with Him. We are dead with Him virtually; for He is the head and representative of His Church, and therefore what He did for His people is considered as done by them. We are dead with Him efficiently; for there is an influence derived from His cross which mortifies us to sin; and this influence is not moral only, consisting in the force of argument and motivethough this is true, and nothing shows the evil of sin or the love of the Saviour like Calvarybut it is spiritual also. He died to purify as well as to redeem; and He not only made reconciliation for the sins of His people, but received gifts for men, and secured the agency of the Holy Spirit. There is no real holiness to separate from the grace of the cross. There He draws all men unto Him. We are dead with Him as to resemblance. We are planted together in the likeness of His death, and therefore our death is called, as well as His, a crucifixion. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. I am, says the apostle, not only dead, but crucified, with Christ. Because Christ lives, we shall live also. For we are quickened together with Christ, and are raised up and made to sit together in heavenly placesthat is, in His company. Where I am, there shall also My servant be. We have much in heaven to endear it. We may live with another, but not live like him; we may be with another, and behold his estate, but not share it. But when He who is our life shall appear we shall also appear with Him in glory. I appoint unto you, says He to His disciples, a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; that ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Even our vile body shall be fashioned like His own glorious body. And the same duration attaches to His blessedness and ours. I am alive, says He, for evermore; and our end is everlasting life. Finally, Paul believed all this. And let us do the same; but let us believe it as he didthat is, let us believe that we shall live with Him if we be with Him. Some believe it without this. Their faith is only presumption Whatever they rely upon, whether their knowledge, or orthodoxy, or talking, or profession, they are only preparing for themselves the most bitter disappointmentif they are not dead unto sin and delivered from the present evil world; for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. But let us also believe that if we be dead with Him we shall also live with Him. The inclusion is as sure as the exclusion, and takes in every diversity and degree of grace. Whatever be their apprehensions of themselves, none of them all shall come short of this glory. It is as certain as the promise and oath and covenant of God, and the death and intercession of the Saviour, and the pledges and earnests of immortality, can render it. Therefore be not faithless, but believing. It was used by Christians to animate and encourage each other in the apostles days, as a common and familiar aphorism; and they gave it full credit: It is a faithful saying: for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him.W. Jay.
Rom. 6:1. Was the Sabbath abrogated?The apostle wrote thus because certain men had perverted a gracious doctrine into an excuse for continued indulgence in wickedness. They heard of the grace of God, and then concluded that, since the presence of sin in the world gave God a splendid opportunity for exhibiting His grace, it were well to sin so that the grace of God might never cease to be manifested. Paul refutes this in this chapter. Bearing this in mind, we may pass on to the question, If we say that we may continue in sin so that grace may abound, may we not take any of Gods laws, and say, I will break this, and thus afford God greater scope for the exercise of His grace? If we answered affirmatively, we should clear the way for a violation of all the moral laws. To arrive at a conclusion as to whether Gods commandments are binding on Christians, we will take the fourth. Was the Sabbath abrogated? If not, then argue that the whole law stands good to-day. Arguments advanced to prove that the Sabbath is of universal and perpetual obligation:
I. The historic aspect of the question proves that the Sabbath was not an exclusively Jewish institution, and therefore the advent of Christianity did not annul it.
1. Evidence coming from times before the Christian era.
2. Evidence from history of other nations. Uniformity of a septenary division of time throughout the Eastern world. The ancientsHomer, Hesiod, Callimachus, and othersindicate the seventh day as sacred.
3. Evidence from the doings of Christians. A change of day, but not a change of principle.
II. Which of the laws was abrogated by the advent of Christianity?[Note.There were three separate deliverances of the lawthe civil, the ceremonial, and the moral.] Christ did not come to destroy the moral law; but His advent did away with the necessity for the civil and ceremonial.
III. Notice the relation of the fourth commandment to the other portions of the Decalogue.Objectors say it differentiates from the other nine; but no reason for declaring it ceremonial and the others moral, and that Christ therefore sifted the law and eliminated that which referred to the Sabbath.
IV. Christ did not repudiate the Sabbath.
1. Would He expose the whole race to the disabilities Jehovah designed to save the Jews from? If men were to be free in the one point, why restrict them in nine other directions?
2. In dealing with Pharisees, etc., not a word did Christ speak which tended to degrade the Sabbath. He set the Sabbath right; Jews had deified it, and degraded man.
3. While admitting that Jesus modified Jewish notions regarding the Sabbath, modification is not abrogation.
V. The New Testament does not countenance any contention for the abolition of the Sabbath.
1. Some say Rom. 14:5 implies a revocation of the divine institution at the dawn of Christianity (see following outline).
2. They also rely on Gal. 4:10.
3. The Colossian Christians thought good works a necessary security of salvation (Col. 2:16-23).
VI. The presumption is against the abrogation of the moral law, and therefore against the abrogation of the Sabbath.
1. Suppose the abrogation of the seventh commandment. What terrible results might be anticipated, considering the awful wickedness of the pagan world when Christ lived!
2. Suppose the abrogation of the first commandment. Think of the idolatry of the Greek and Roman worlds in Christs time, and the character of the idol-worship was so bad.
3. Suppose the abrogation of the sixth commandment. The world, in Christs time, reeked with bloode.g., the arena. Could it be supposed Christ would abrogate any of these laws? Surely there was no slackening in any of them, and why suggest a slackening in the fourth?
VII. The Sabbath is a sine qu non of human life.Hence abrogation, in the light of our knowledge of Gods feeling for man, is impossible.
1. Man has always required a day of rest.
2. Never more so than now.
3. The growth of secularising tendencies rendered a Sabbath necessary, to afford opportunity for spiritual growth and worship. So long as human nature holds sway, so long will men require safeguards in things moral and social. The spirit of the age is such that men need such safeguards; hence God will not remove those which He has established. The foregoing arguments having established the continued necessity for the Sabbath, so it is argued that all the other commandments remain in force to-day. All Gods commandments are binding on Christians, who have no right to ignore any of His laws under the plea that they do not belong to the present dispensation.Albert Lee.
I. Sabbath not a Jewish institution.The Sabbath not an exclusively Jewish institution.
1. Evidence coming from times before the Christian erae.g., the periodical worship of Cain and Abel. Also, the Sabbath mentioned as a well-known solemnity before the promulgation of the law. It is expressly taken notice of at the fall of manna; and the incidental manner in which it is then mentioned is convincing proof that the Israelites were no strangers to the institution.
2. Evidence from history of other nations leads us to believe that the Israelites were not alone in their observance of a week of seven dayse.g., the Assyrians and Babylonians in the native account of the Creation speak of Anu having put the finishing touches to the work, and on the seventh day a holy day appointing, and commanding on that day a cessation from all business. Uniformity of septenary division of time throughout all the Eastern worldIsrael, Assyria, Egypt, India, Arabia, Persia, etc. Homer, Hesiod, Callimachus, and others constantly indicate the seventh day as sacred to their countrymen. No one would venture to suggest that this idea was borrowed from Moses; for Linus, e.g., who flourished before Moses, speaks of the seventh day as observed by pious persons.
3. Evidence culled from the doings of Christians. There was a change of day, but not a change of principle.
II. Moral law now in force.It must be remembered that there were three separate deliverances of the law to the Jewsthe civil, the ceremonial, and the moral. We admit that there was a repeal in the case of the first two; but nowhere do we find a particle of evidence to sustain the contention that the moral law was abrogated. Those who contend that this was the case forget to clear their minds of local considerations. They need to be reminded that the civil law, rehearsed in the wilderness, was set forth only for the Jews, for their especial guidance, under the peculiar circumstances of their residence, both in the wilderness and Canaan. When we consider the typical or ceremonial law, then, inasmuch as that law was a type of Christ and good things to come, we are fully prepared to see it pass away when Christ appears upon the scene. To declare that the Sabbath, together with the whole law, had its fulfilment in Christ is a strange idea to spring upon the Church. Christ certainly did not annul the moral law, whatever action He may have taken in regard to the civil and ceremonial. He distinctly rehearsed the moral law in a comprehensive sentence or two: Thou shalt love, etc. It is true that the Sabbath receives a large share of attention in the civil and ceremonial laws; but it is equally true that it is brought into prominence in the moral law. Since Christ did not come to destroy this last, and actually insisted upon its observance, who shall say that He eliminated the Sabbath portion, but left the others undisturbed?
III. Review of disputed passages.Passages presented by anti-Sabbatarians.
1. Rom. 14:5. It is contended by them that this passage implies a revocation of the divine institution at the dawn of Christianity.
(1) But the discussion had reference only to the peculiar customs of the Jews, to the rites and practices which they would attempt to impose on the Gentiles, and not to any questions which might arise among Christians as Christians.
(2) Alford, predisposed to argue the abolition of the Sabbath, says that Pauls language is so sweeping as to do away with the divine obligation of keeping the Sabbath. And yet the apostle says, Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Could such a vital question as that of Sabbath observance be left to men to interpret, according to every crotchet, especially of the ignorant and godless? It is a question whether there was any allusion to the Sabbath; and even if so, it would not be a question of observing the Sabbath, but rather one of observing the seventh day rather than the first, as Christians were beginning to do.
(3) One of the most able comments on this passage runs thus: It will not do to take it for granted that the Sabbath was merely one of the Jewish festival days, simply because it was observed under the Mosaic economy. If the Lawgiver Himself said of it, when on earth, The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day, it will be hard to show that the apostle must have meant it to be ranked amongst those banished Jewish festival days which only weakness could imagine to be still in force, a weakness which those who had more light ought, out of love, merely to bear with.
2. Gal. 4:10. Objectors use this to prove that the observance of the Sabbath is a matter of indifference. Note that in the passage the terms Sabbath or Lords day are not here mentioned; but assuming that they are implied, we must convict Paul of instability, and shall have reason to doubt his authority if he should allow the Romans to take one course and the Galatians another. Paul, as Olshausen observed, wished to assure the Galatians that the solemnisation in itself of certain ceremonies is not blamed (the old Church, too, had already its festivals), but what was superstitious in iti.e., the opinion that it was necessary to salvation. Men were not to rest their hopes upon the false assumption that if they observed days and months and times and years superstitiously, they had done all that was necessary to salvation. Findlay, in his work on the Galatians, explains the attitude of the Christians in Galatia. They had already fallen in with the directions of the Jewish teachers. These had made the keeping of holy days a prominent and obligatory part of Christianity, and, as the Romish Church has done, multiplied them superstitiously beyond all reason. Paul called such things beggarly elements, and meant, doubtless, to convince the Galatians that they were falling into the mischievous tendency to regard the observance of certain days as meritorious. There is not a particle of evidence to prove that Christians were freed from the observance of the Sabbath day.
3. Col. 2:16-23. In the Colossian Church there was the idea that good works were a security of salvation. This would tend to divert Christians from relying solely on the complete work of Jesus. This explanation is applicable to Col. 2:16-23. They had trusted to philosophy, and vain traditions, and worshipping of angels, and to legal ceremonies, whereas all these things had ended in Christ. Some might be disposed to think themselves under obligation to keep the last day of the week, and the first. If so, they were not to judge those who kept the Lords day only. Dr. Maclaren points out that Paul does not say, Therefore let no man observe any of these distinctions of meat, feast, and Sabbaths any more; but takes up the much more modest ground, Let no man judge you about them.Albert Lee.
Rom. 6:9. One victorious life.Two things we are said to know in connection with the death of Christ. The one is the resurrection of Christ as an historical fact. We have no reason to suppose that sacred history is less reliable than secular history. The former more reliable than the latter, for it has been assailed, and yet its testimony is unshaken. The witnesses of the Resurrection are numerous and unimpeachable. We too often lose sight of the fact that our Lord was seen after His resurrection by the large number of five hundred brethren. St. Paul could not have mentioned this number to the Corinthian Church if it were not a well-authenticated fact. The other is a revealed truth that Christ dieth no more, and arises as a natural consequenceperhaps rather a moral consequencefrom the Resurrection. If He rose from the deadand certainly He did risethen there is no need for a second encounter with death. Let us look at the:
I. One death.What a vast multitude is that of the dead! It seems almost impossible for us to grasp the number of the living that tread this thickly peopled planet! When a man who has led a lonely life in the country goes to London, he is astonished and bewildered as he gazes at the seething mass of humanity. What would be our feelings if from some eminence we could look at the race collected together on an extensive plain? But what is the army of the living when compared with the army of the dead? We see, as we look at the living, one or two generations; while, as we consider the dead, we have to consider generation after generation, through thousands of years, that have passed into the dark and silent shades. Now of all the multitude of deaths which have occurred from the time of Adam to the present day, the death of Christ is pre-eminent and conspicuous; so that we speak of it as the one death to which the ages before Christs coming look forward, and to which the ages after His resurrection look backwardthe one death in its solemn grandeur, in its sublime portents, in its moral and spiritual significance.
II. One conquest.Christ died once, but, being raised from the dead, He dieth no more. And why?
1. Because the conquest is complete and final. We fight our battles, both natural and moral, over and over again. One nation conquers another, but the conquered nation recovers strength, recruits its exhausted resources, and then returns to the attack. Individually we conquer our vices, and suppose them dead, when they astonish us by a return, and the conflict is renewed. Christ, by His one death, conquered death and sinso conquered that they cannot appear as formidable opponents. They may skirmish and do immense damage, but we must believe that their ancient power has departed. Death and sin still work, but surely not as regnant forces in Christs redeemed world. They move about in chains, and can only do as He permits who has the keys of Hades and of death.
2. Because the conquest has served the designed moral purpose. The death of Christ is the one death, for it answered to the movings and designs of infinite love. The death of Christ is the darkest mystery of our humanity if there be no demand for it in the moral government of the infinitely just, holy, and merciful. It is said, Why should Jesus suffer because a vindictive God so demanded? It may be asked, Why should Jesus suffer if He only died the death of a martyr? Let us remember that His sufferings were more than physical. He suffered in soul. He suffered as no martyr ever did or ever could suffer, for He suffered as sins victim. The sharp iron of suffering entered into His holy and sensitive soul; the burden of the worlds sinful load bowed His sacred head, and made the bead-like drops of sweat stand on His immaculate brow. Grief broke His heart of infinite love. The gloomy desolateness of the fatherly love being withdrawn crept over His darkened spirit. Why this intense sorrow? We are not here to satisfy the critical minds who do not earnestly desire satisfaction, but we feel that the only consistent explanation of Christs death is the old one of evangelical teachers. And if Christ died as a sacrifice, and His death was accepted, then there is no need that He should die any more.
3. Because the death has evidenced the divine love. If men will not believe in the love of God as shown in the mediatorial scheme, neither would they be persuaded though Christ should come again from the invisible world and go through the same career that He enacted in the land of Palestine. We may say it with all due reverence, that the infinite God exhausted His resources when He spared not His Son to convince men of His vast love. Christ once died at loves call. He dieth no more to convince unconvinceable creatures. A second death could not accomplish that which the first death has failed to procure. O Love divine, touch unloving hearts, and lead them to see and feel Thy infinite love!
III. One victorious life.Death hath no more dominion over the risen and glorified Christ. On His sacred head are many crownsthe brightest is the crown of redemptionand He will never be any more as an uncrowned being. The sceptre of life will never again be wrested from His grasp. Strange that the Prince of life should be subject unto death; but the marvel is lessened as we think of the moral purpose, as we consider the infinite love, as we contemplate the victorious life. He sees of the unimagined travail of His soul, and is abundantly satisfied. Can there be new joys, fresh emotions, to an infinite nature? In some way or other there must be fresh emotions stirred in the soul of Jesus, for He, when on earth, looked to the joy before, and now He delights in the newly gained pleasure. He sits euthroned the Prince of life in the kingdom of life and blessedness. He dieth no more.
IV. One blessed consequence.All true believers live with Himlive with Him in a larger sense than would have been before or otherwise possible. Life is enlarged and glorified by the risen life of the once crucified Saviour. Christ dieth no more: then we have an ever-living intercessor. Christ dieth no more: then we have an abiding helper. Christ dieth no more: then we need no other sacrifice and no other priest. Christ dieth no more: then we need not fear, for the Good Shepherd will ever watch over His sheep, and lead them in pastures of delight.
Rom. 6:9. Christ risen, dieth no more.In these words we have two points which are at the bottom of all true Easter joy:
1. The reality of the Resurrection, Christ being raised from the dead.
2. The perpetuity of Christs risen life, Christ being raised, dieth no more. The Resurrection is not merely an article of the Creed, it is a fact in the history of mankind. If the testimony which can be proved for the Resurrection concerned only a political occurrence or a fact of natural history witnessed some eighteen hundred years ago, nobody would think of denying its cogency. Those who do reject the truth of the Resurrection, quarrel, not with the proof that the Resurrection has occurred, but with the prior idea that such a thing could happen under any circumstances. No proof would satisfy this class of minds, because they have made up their minds that the thing cannot be. We Christians may well say it is the first of miracles, and as such it must be unwelcome to those who make their limited personal experience of the world of nature the measure of all spiritual as well as all physical truth. This is the joy, the happiness, which is brought to many a human soul by such a fact as the resurrection of Christ. It tells us that matter is not the governing principle of this universe. It assures us that matter is controlled; that there is a Being, that there is a will, to which matter can offer no effective resistance; that He is not bound by the laws of the universe; that He, in fact, controls them. The Resurrection was not an isolated miracle, done, and then over, leaving things much as they had been before. The risen Christ is not, like Lazarus, marked off from every other man as one who had visited the realms of death, but knowing that He must again be a tenant of the grave. Christ being risen, dieth no more. His risen body is made up of flesh, bone, and all things pertaining to the perfection of mans nature, but it has superadded qualities. It is so spiritual that it can pass through closed doors without collision or disturbance. It is beyond the reach of those causes which slowly or swiftly bring down our bodies to the dust. Being raised from the dead, it dies no more. The perpetuity of the life of the risen Jesus is the guarantee of the perpetuity of the Church. Alone among all forms of society, the Church of Christ is ensured against complete dissolution. Christ, risen from death, dying no more, is the model of our new life in grace. I do not mean that absolute sinlessness is attainable by any Christian here. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. But faithfulness in our intentions, avoidance of known sources of danger, escape from presumptuous sinsthese are possible and necessary. Those lives which are made up of alternating recovery and relapserecovery, perhaps, during Lent, followed by relapse after Easteror even lives lived with one foot in the grave, without anything like a strong vitality, with their feeble prayers, half-indulged inclinations, with weaknesses which may be physical, but which a regenerate will should do at once away withmen risen from the dead, yet without any seeming promise of endurance in life,what would St. Paul say to these? Christ being no more. Just as He left His tomb this Easter morning once for all, so should the soul once risen be dead to sin. The risen life of Jesus tells us what our own new life should be. Not that God, having raised us by His grace from spiritual death, forces us, whether we will or not, to live on continuously. But how, you ask, how can we rejoice in our risen Lord if we are so capable in our weakness of being untrue to His example? I answer, Because that resurrection life is the strength of our own as well as its model. Pray then in the spirit of this text that at least if you have risen you may persevere. Perseverance is a grace, just as much as faith, hope, charity, contrition. The secret strength of perseverance is a share in the risen life of Jesus. Perseverance may be won by earnest prayer for union with our risen Lord.Canon Liddon.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom. 6:1-11
Christians dead to sin.The words, according to their most obvious meaning, seem to refer merely to the engagement to avoid sin, which is implied in the act of becoming Christians. God forbid! exclaims the apostle, that any person should so grievously pervert the doctrine of Christ as to think that it encourages continuance in sin in order to afford the more ample scope for the exercise of divine grace, for by the very act of becoming Christians we became dead to sin. This strong expression means simply that we professed ourselves ready to die unto sin, to resist all its temptations, and through the aid of divine grace to overcome them; and how then can we continue in the practice of that which we have so solemnly renounced? This would be contradicting, in our conduct, the profession which we have made, and showing that our profession is insincere and hypocritical, and that we have no title to the sacred character of Christians to which we lay claim. No true Christian can act on a principle so directly incompatible with the engagements implied in assuming the Christian character.Ritchie.
Christ died a sin offering.For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. To die unto sin, by the common Scripture use of the words, means to cease to commit sin. But this cannot be affirmed of any but those who have lived in the practice of it, and therefore it is wholly inapplicable to our blessed Saviour, who did no sin. No doubt the words may be so paraphrased as to make them applicable to Him without any paraphrase: For in that He died, He died by sin oncethat is, died on account of it; sin was the cause of His dying. Or perhaps still more appositely, He died for sinthat is, for a sin offering. The expression He died for sin once indicates that this once offering up of Himself was sufficient, and that therefore no further sacrifice was necessary But in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. This clause admits of being rendered like the former: He liveth by Godthat is, by the power of God; the allusion being to what is said in the fourth verse, that Jesus was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father. But the more obvious and natural idea suggested by the words is that He liveth to the praise of GodHe lives to promote the glory of God by carrying the plan of providence founded on the mediatorial dispensation forward to its appointed issue, and thus accomplishing the holy and gracious purposes which the Almighty hath determined to bring to pass. The verse might therefore be paraphrased: For in that He died, He died once for all as a sacrifice for sin; but in that He liveth, He liveth for ever to promote the glory of God. Thse words convey the important and consoling doctrine, so often quoted in Scripture, that the death of Christ is a sacrifice for sin, all perfect in its nature and sufficient to reconcile us to God, and that therefore He needed not repeat it, the once offering of Himself being sufficient to perfect for ever them that are sanctified. And they convey the further encouraging truth that Christ, being raised from the dead, is now vested with all power as mediator of the new covenant, and able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.Ritchie.
Believers death to sin gradual.We conclude by saying that death to sin is not an absolute cessation of sin at any moment whatever, but an absolute breaking of the will with it, with its instincts and aspirations, and that simply under the control of faith in Christs death for sin. The practical application of the apostles doctrine regarding this mysterious death, which is at the foundation of Christian sanctification, seems to me to be this: The Christians breaking with sin is undoubtedly gradual in its realisation, but absolute and conclusive in its principle. As in order to break really with an old friend whose evil influence is felt half measures are insufficient, and the only efficacious means is a frank explanation, followed by a complete rupture which remains like a barrier raised beforehand against every new solicitation; so to break with sin there is needed a decisive and radical act, a divine deed taking possession of the soul, and interposing henceforth between the will of the believer and sin (Gal. 6:14). This divine deed necessarily works through the action of faith in the sacrifice of Christ.Godet.
Purpose of our death in Christ.Christ once lived under the curse of sin and in a body over which death ruled. He died, and arose from the dead. By dying once He escaped for ever from the curse of sin, and from death, the result of sin. He now lives a life of which God is the only aim. In former days we did the bidding of sin, and were thus exposed to the anger of God. To make it consistent with His justice to save us, God gave Christ to die, and raised Him from the dead. His purpose is to unite us to Christ, so that we may share Christs life and moral nature. For this end we were formally united to Christ in baptism. We were thus joined to One who was by death set free from death, and was raised by God into a deathless life. Therefore if the purpose of God be realised in us, we are practically dead with Christ. And if so, all law proclaims us free. We therefore infer that the purpose of our death with Christ is to free us from the service of sin. And if so, we also infer that our union with Christ is more than union with His death. For we see Christ not only free from sin, but living a life devoted to God; and we know that such devotion to Himself is what God requires from us. Therefore we are sure that God designs us to be united to Christ, both in His freedom from sin and in His active devotion to God. Consequently to live in sin is to resist Gods purpose for us, and to renounce the new life to which baptism was designed to lead us.Beet.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 6
Rom. 6:4. A converted Bechuana.The missionary Casilis told us that he was one day questioning a converted Bechuana as to the meaning of a passage analogous to that before us (Col. 3:3). The latter said to him: Soon I shall be dead, and they will bury me in my field. My flocks will come to pasture above me. But I shall no longer hear them, and I shall not come forth from my tomb to take them and carry them with me to the sepulchre. They will be strange to me, as I to them. Such is the image of my life in the midst of the world since I believed in Christ.
Rom. 6:5-7. Carthage must be destroyed.It is reported of Cato that he never spake in the Senate upon public business, but he ended his speech by inculcating the necessity of destroying Carthage; his well-known maxim was, Delenda est Carthago. The believers motto is, The old man must be crucified. Destruction of sin.Five persons were studying what were the best means to mortify sin: one said, to meditate on death; the second, to meditate on judgment; the third, to meditate on the joys of heaven; the fourth, to meditate on the torments of hell; the fifth, to meditate on the blood and sufferings of Jesus Christ; and certainly the last is the choicest and strongest motive of all. If ever we would cast off our despairing thoughts, we must dwell and muse much upon and apply this precious blood to our own souls; so shall sorrow and mourning flee away.Mr. Brooks.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Text
Rom. 6:1-11. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Rom. 6:2 God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? Rom. 6:3 Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Rom. 6:4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. Rom. 6:5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; Rom. 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; Rom. 6:7 for he that hath died is justified from sin. Rom. 6:8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; Rom. 6:9 knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him. Rom. 6:10 For the death that he died, he died unto sin once: but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Rom. 6:11 Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
REALIZING ROMANS, Rom. 6:1-11
229.
How would grace abound by our continuing in sin?
230.
Who believes that sin makes grace abound?
231.
Is this belief a temptation today? Why?
232.
When did we die to sin? Did we die when Christ died? cf. Gal. 2:20. Did we also die later?
233.
What is the point of the argument of Rom. 6:2?
234.
In what sense could we say the saints in Rome were ignorant?
235.
In what sense were we baptized into Christ?
236.
How does being baptized into the death of Christ hinder sinning?
237.
Into what were we buried? Is there any objection to saying this represents Holy Spirit baptism?
238.
In what way (specify) is the Christian life new?
239.
We were united with Christ. Where and when?
240.
What resurrection is discussed in Rom. 6:5?
241.
What is the old man of Rom. 6:6? Where was he crucified with Christ?
242.
What is the body of sin?
243.
We are in bondage to sin when we continue in it, but we cannot continue in sin, for we are dead. Is that the argument of Rom. 6:7?
244.
What circumstance of living with Christ is discussed in Rom. 6:8here or hereafter?
245.
The type of death and resurrection Christ experienced is an example for us. How so?
246.
We are dead and alive at the same time. Explain.
Paraphrase
Rom. 6:1-11. We who have declared the malignity of sin in killing men, what do we say when we teach the superabounding of grace? Do we say, Let us continue in sin, that grace may abound in our pardon?
Rom. 6:2 No. We who have died by sin corporally and spiritually, can we hope to live eternally by continuing in it? The thing is impossible, unless the nature of God and of sin were changed.
Rom. 6:3 Our baptism teaches us, that we have died by sin. For are ye ignorant, that so many of us as have by baptism become Christs disciples, have been baptized into the likeness of his death, (Rom. 6:5.) have been buried under the water, as persons who, like Christ, have been killed by sin? Rom. 6:10.
Rom. 6:4 Besides, we have been buried together with Christ by baptism, into the likeness of his death, (Rom. 6:5.), to teach us this other lesson, that though we have been killed by sin, (Rom. 6:6), yet like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the power of the Father, to live forever, (Rom. 6:9), even so we also, by the same power, shall enjoy a new and never-ending life in heaven with him.
Rom. 6:5 For seeing Christ and we have been planted together in baptism, in the likeness of his death as occasioned by sin, certainly, by being raised out of the water of baptism, we are taught that we shall be also planted together in the likeness of his resurrection.
Rom. 6:6 Ye know this also to be signified by baptism; that our old corrupt nature was crucified together with him, that the body, with its affections and lusts, (Gal. 5:24), which sin has seized, might be rendered inactive, in order that we may not any longer as slaves serve sin in the present life.
Rom. 6:7 Sin has no title to rule you; for, as the slave who is dead is freed from his master, he who hath been put to death by sin is freed from sin.
Rom. 6:8 Since then we have died with Christ by sin, we believe, what our baptism likewise teaches us, that we shall also rise and live together with him in heaven, to die no more.
Rom. 6:9 For we know that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more: death no more lordeth it over him; but he will live eternally in the body, as we shall do also after our resurrection.
Rom. 6:10 I say, dieth no more. For Christ who died, died by the malignity of sin once, that being sufficient to procure our pardon; but Christ who liveth after having died, liveth in the body for ever by the power of God;
Rom. 6:11 So then, from Christs death and resurrection, conclude ye yourselves to have been dead verily by sin, but now made alive by God, who at present delivers you from the spiritual death by regeneration, and will deliver you from the bodily death by a blessed resurrection, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Summary
We are not to continue in sin that favor may abound. On the contrary, as we died to sin before our immersion, it would be inconsistent to still live in it now. By being immersed into Christ we were immersed into his death, and so were buried with him; and as he rose to live a new life, so we also, being risen like him, are to live in newness of life. We became united with Christ by being buried with him; and we are to remain united with him by doing as he does, not living our former, but a new life. We were crucified with Christ in order to render inactive our sinful bodies, and this is to the end that we might not serve sin. As we died with Christ and rose with him, so we must now live like himwe must live a new life free from sin. Christ being raised from the dead, is to die no more; and so with us. We have died to sin once, and this must be the end of our dying. In order to this we must sin no more. In dying, Christ died to sin once for all, but now lives to God; so our death to sin must be a finality; we must now constantly live to God, and consequently commit no more sin.
Comment
1. Objection as to the Abundance of Grace. Rom. 6:1-14
The Objection stated. From what Paul had said about sin and grace (where sin did abound grace did abound more exceedingly) it would seem to some that they would be encouraged to go on sinning. If more sin means more grace, why not continue in sin that grace may abound? Rom. 6:1
The apostle is horrified at such a suggestion. He cries out, God forbid. Then follow the reasons for the denial. Rom. 6:2 a
The whole answer to this objection is associated either directly or indirectly with the true meaning of baptism. Note:
a. We cannot continue in sin any more than a corpse could continue in its former life. Just as the dead man has died to his former life, so we have died to sin. Just as he cannot live any longer in his former life because of his death, we cannot live any longer in sin because of our death. This condition was brought about by our belief and repentance preceding our baptism. Rom. 6:2 b
b. Then follow comments upon that act that brought about our separation from sin. Since the thought of death to sin in repentance and the separation from sin in baptism were always so closely associated (cp. Act. 2:38; Act. 3:19) the author places this comment in a self explanatory question. Being baptized, we were baptized into Christ and at the same time baptized into his death. This gives abundant reason for not continuing in sin. Not only have we died to sin through our repentance, but in our baptism we have become identified with Christ in his death. The thought of the impossibility of a dead man still manifesting life is developed from a twofold position: (1) our death to sin; (2) our union through baptism with Christs death. Rom. 6:3
c. We find next a description of that act in which we came into the death of Christ. How did we find union with Christ? How did we become associated in his death? The answer is by being buried with him through baptism into his death. But that is not all, for even as Christ did not remain in the tomb, but was raised by the glory of the Father to that new life, even so, we who have met his death in baptism and have thus been buried with him must also be raised to walk in a new life. Here we see a further reason for not continuing in sin. How could we think of continuing in sin following our burial and resurrection any more than Christ could have continued in his former life following his burial and resurrection? The fifth verse expresses this very thought: For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, (this has been thoroughly described) we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. (In other words, we are to follow Christ in this point also; even as Christs life was not the same after his resurrection, so ours is to be like his. Following our resurrection from the waters of baptism we are to live and walk in a resurrected life.) Rom. 6:4-5
d. Verse six carries a word picture of what has already been said. Our old man so often spoken of as the animal nature, or as Paul calls it, the flesh, has been nailed to the cross. When we were being immersed we were thereby signifying that we had died to sin and were now being buried. In the act of baptism we came into his crucifixion. This was carried out for the purpose of nullifying the body of sin or the flesh so we could be given freedom from the bondage in which we were held by the animal nature, The method of attaining the crucifixion of self and thus being released from the bondage of the flesh is by way of faith and repentance before baptism, and repentance and prayer following baptism. This all, of course, presents a further reason for not continuing in sin, for if the whole purpose of our salvation was to free us from the bondage of sin, through self, we would be defeating the very economy of God to continue in sin, The final word of proof on this point is offered in the seventh verse which speaks of a legal fact. There can be no legal claims made on a man who is dead; his death has released him from any such claims. Just so with the Christian and sin, since he is dead, sin can lay no claim to him; through his death he is free from its power. Rom. 6:6-7
e.
But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him (Rom. 6:8). It must be kept in mind that the apostle is still answering the objection. He has beautifully portrayed our death with Christ, and in this portrayal we saw many reasons why we could not continue in sin. Now he adds one further thought, and that is that if we were in Christ when he died, surely we would be in him when he arose; hence we must live like him, like he now is in his resurrected state. Being in Christ means something; it means living as a transformed new creature in Christ Jesus. Rom. 6:8
f. A parallel is formed in the next three verses which serves to illuminate, illustrate and enlarge what has just been said. We have been told that when Christ died and arose again we were in him and thus were to participate in the benefits of his death (by our repentance and baptism) and to walk in the glories of the resurrected life. Notice now the description given of his death and resurrection. See the completeness of his death; behold the glories of his victory over the grave. Well, Christians of Rome, your death to sin is to be like his death. He died unto sin once; even so, you are not to fall back into sin and then have to die all over again. And your new life is to be like his: the life that he liveth he liveth unto God. Rom. 6:11
123.
State the first objection to the proposition.
124.
Give the first answer as found in Rom. 6:2 b.
125.
Give the second answer as found in Rom. 6:3. (This answer is twofold.)
126.
Give the third answer as in Rom. 6:4-5.
127.
State in your own words the fourth answer as in Rom. 6:6-7.
128.
What is the fifth reason for not continuing in sin as found in Rom. 6:8?
Rethinking in Outline Form
OBJECTIONS TO THE PROPOSITION Rom. 6:1Rom. 7:25
1.
Objection as to the Abundance of Grace. Rom. 6:1-14
Objection Stated: If more sin means more grace, why not continue in sin that grace may abound? Rom. 6:1
Objection answered, or reasons for not continuing in sin. Rom. 6:2 a Rom. 6:11
a.
We cannot continue in sin because we have died to sin. We are as dead to sin as a corpse is to its former life. Rom. 6:2 b
b.
We cannot continue in sin, for we are in union with Christ and his death. Being in the sinless one, we cannot continue in sin. Being in his death, we can no more live in sin than he could while he was dead. Rom. 6:3
c.
We have been raised into a resurrected life, a new life. If we have been raised, how can we think of walking in our former lusts? Rom. 6:4-5
d.
The very purpose of our crucifying the old man was that the body of sin (or the flesh) might be done away. Now, if that was the purpose of our death, burial and resurrection, would we not be nullifying the purpose of our redemption if we continued to live after the desires of the flesh? Rom. 6:6
e.
It is a legal fact that there can be no claim brought against a man after his death. We are dead to sin. Would it not be a ridiculous spectacle to allow sin to lay claim to our hearts and lives? Rom. 6:7
f.
If we were in Christ when he died, surely we would be in him when he arose; hence we must live with him now or like himlike he now is in his resurrected state. Rom. 6:8
g.
Note the death of Christ to sin: he died once; he lives unto God. Imitate him . . . die once to sin, be alive and live unto God in Christ Jesus. Rom. 6:9-11
Let us describe what happens when we continue in sin. Our members become instruments in the hands of Satan. A call comes to present ourselves to God as alive from the dead and use our members as his instruments for righteousness. Rom. 6:12-13
We can know that we are under grace and can be forgiven any time we might stumble, so there is really no reason why sin should have dominion over us. Rom. 6:14
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Shall we continue in sin?Again the Apostle is drawn into one of those subtle casuistical questions that had such a great attraction for him. But he soon returns to the root-ideas of his own system. In previous chapters he had dealt with one of the two great root-ideas, justification by faith; he now passes to the second, union with Christ. The one might be described as the juridical, the other as the mystical, theory of salvation. The connecting-link which unites them is faith. Faith in Christ, and especially in the death of Christ, is the instrument of justification. Carried a degree further. it involves an actual identification with the Redeemer Himself. This, no doubt, is mystical language. When strictly compared with the facts of the religious consciousness, it must be admitted that all such terms as union, oneness, fellowship, identification, pass into the domain of metaphor. They are taken to express the highest conceivable degree of attachment and devotion. In this sense they are now consecrated by the use of centuries, and any other phrases substituted for them, though gaining perhaps somewhat in precision, would only seem poor and cold. (See Excursus G: On the Doctrine of Union with Christ.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
VI.
(1-5) These considerations might seem to lead to an Antinomian conclusion. If the increase of sin has only led to a larger measure of forgiveness it might be thought well to continue in sin, and so to enhance the measure and glory of forgiving grace. But to the Christian this is impossible. In regard to sin he is, in theory and principle, dead. When he was converted from heathenism and received Christian baptism he gave himself up unreservedly to Christ; he professed adhesion to Christ, and especially to His death; he pledged himself to adopt that death as his own; he entered into fellowship with it in order that he might also enjoy the fellowship of the resurrection of Christ. This fellowship or participation is both physical and ethical.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 6
DYING TO LIVE ( Rom 6:1-11 ) 6:1-11 What, then, shall we infer? Are we to persist in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we who have died to sin still live in it? Can you be unaware that all who have been baptized into Jesus Christ have been baptized into his death? We have therefore been buried with him through baptism until we died, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, so we, too, may live in newness of life. For, if we have become united to him in the likeness of his death, so also shall we be united to him in the likeness of his resurrection. For this we know, that our old self has been crucified with him, that our sinful body might be rendered inoperative, in order that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For a man who has died stands acquitted from sin. But, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, for we know that, after Christ was raised from the dead, he dies no more. Death has no more lordship over him. He who died, died once and for all to sin; and he who lives, lives to God. So you, too, must reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
As he has so often done in this letter, Paul is once again carrying on an argument against a kind of imaginary opponent. The argument springs from the great saying at the end of the last chapter: “Where sin abounded, grace superabounded.” It runs something like this.
The Objector: You have just said that God’s grace is great enough to find forgiveness for every sin.
Paul: That is so.
The Objector: You are, in fact, saying that God’s grace is the most wonderful thing in all this world.
Paul: That is so.
The Objector: Well, if that is so, let us go on sinning. The more we sin, the more grace will abound. Sin does not matter, for God will forgive anyway. In fact we can go further than that and say that sin is an excellent thing, because it gives the grace of God a chance to operate. The conclusion of your argument is that sin produces grace; therefore sin is bound to be a good thing if it produces the greatest thing in the world.
Paul’s first reaction is to recoil from that argument in sheer horror. “Do you suggest,” he demands, “that we should go on sinning in order to give grace more chance to operate? God forbid that we should pursue so incredible a course as that.”
Then, having recoiled like that, he goes on to something else.
“Have you never thought,” he demands, “what happened to you when you were baptized?” Now, when we try to understand what Paul goes on to say, we must remember that baptism in his time was different from what it commonly is today.
(a) It was adult baptism. That is not to say that the New Testament is opposed to infant baptism, but infant baptism is the result of the Christian family, and the Christian family could hardly be said to have come into being as early as the time of Paul. A man came to Christ as an individual in the early Church, often leaving his family behind.
(b) Baptism in the early Church was intimately connected with confession of faith. A man was baptized when he entered the Church; and he was entering the Church direct from paganism. In baptism a man came to a decision which cut his life in two, a decision which often meant that he had to tear himself up by the roots, a decision which was so definite that it often meant nothing less than beginning life all over again.
(c) Commonly baptism was by total immersion and that practice lent itself to a symbolism to which sprinkling does not so readily lend itself. When a man descended into the water and the water closed over his head, it was like being buried. When he emerged from the water, it was like rising from the grave. Baptism was symbolically like dying and rising again. The man died to one kind of life and rose to another; he died to the old life of sin and rose to the new life of grace.
Again, if we are fully to understand this, we must remember that Paul was using language and pictures that almost anyone of his day and generation would understand, It may seem strange to us, but it was not at all strange to his contemporaries.
The Jews would understand it. When a man entered the Jewish religion from heathenism, it involved three things–sacrifice, circumcision and baptism. The Gentile entered the Jewish faith by baptism. The ritual was as follows. The person to be baptized cut his nails and hair; he undressed completely; the baptismal bath must contain at least forty seahs, that is two hogsheads, of water; every part of his body must be touched by the water. As he was in the water, he made confession of his faith before three fathers of baptism and certain exhortations and benedictions were addressed to him. The effect of this baptism was held to be complete regeneration; he was called a little child just born, the child of one day. All his sins were remitted because God could not punish sins committed before he was born. The completeness of the change was seen in the fact that certain Rabbis held that a man’s child born after baptism was his first-born, even if he had older children. Theoretically it was held–although the belief was never put into practice–that a man was so completely new that he might marry his own sister or his own mother. He was not only a changed man, he was a different man. Any Jew would fully understand Paul’s words about the necessity of a baptized man being completely new.
The Greek would understand. At this time the only real Greek religion was found in the mystery religions. They were wonderful things. They offered men release from the cares and sorrows and fears of this earth; and the release was by union with some god. All the mysteries were passion plays. They were based on the story of some god who suffered and died and rose again. The story was played out as a drama. Before a man could see the drama he had to be initiated. He had to undergo a long course of instruction on the inner meaning of the drama. He had to undergo a course of ascetic discipline. He was carefully prepared. The drama was played out with all the resources of music and lighting, and incense and mystery. As it was played out, the man underwent an emotional experience of identification with the god. Before he entered on this he was initiated. Initiation was always regarded as a death followed by a new birth, by which the man was renatus in aeternum, reborn for eternity. One who went through the initiation tells us that he underwent “a voluntary death.” We know that in one of the mysteries the man to be initiated was called moriturus, the one who is to die, and that he was buried up to the head in a trench. When he had been initiated, he was addressed as a little child and fed with milk, as one newly born. In another of the mysteries the person to be initiated prayed: “Enter thou into my spirit, my thought, my whole life; for thou art I and I am thou.” Any Greek who had been through this would have no difficulty in understanding what Paul meant by dying and rising again in baptism, and, in so doing, becoming one with Christ.
We are not for one moment saying that Paul borrowed either his ideas or his words from such Jewish or pagan practices; what we do say is that he was using words and pictures that both Jew and Gentile would recognize and understand.
In this passage lie three great permanent truths.
(i) It is a terrible thing to seek to trade on the mercy of God and to make it an excuse for sinning. Think of it in human terms. How despicable it would be for a son to consider himself free to sin, because he knew that his father would forgive. That would be taking advantage of love to break love’s heart.
(ii) The man who enters upon the Christian way is committed to a different kind of life. He has died to one kind of life and been born to another. In modern times we may have tended to stress the fact that acceptance of the Christian way need not make so very much difference in a man’s life. Paul would have said that it ought to make all the difference in the world.
(iii) But there is more than a mere ethical change in a man’s life when he accepts Christ. There is a real identification with Christ. It is, in fact, the simple truth that the ethical change is not possible without that union. A man is in Christ. A great scholar has suggested this analogy for that phrase. We cannot live our physical life unless we are in the air and the air is in us; unless we are in Christ, and Christ is in us, we cannot live the life of God.
THE PRACTICE OF THE FAITH ( Rom 6:12-14 ) 6:12-14 Let not sin reign in your mortal body to make you obey the body’s desires. Do not go on yielding your members to sin as weapons of evil; but yield yourselves once and for all to God, as those who were dead and are now alive, and yield your members to God as weapons of righteousness. For sin will not lord it over you. You are not under law but under grace.
There is no more typical transition in Paul than that between this passage and the preceding one. The passage which went before was the writing of a mystic. It spoke of the mystical union between the Christian and Christ which came in baptism. It spoke of the way in which a Christian should live so close to Christ that all his life can be said to be lived in him. And now, after the mystical experience, comes the practical demand. Christianity is not an emotional experience; it is a way of life. The Christian is not meant to luxuriate in an experience however wonderful; he is meant to go out and live a certain kind of life in the teeth of the world’s attacks and problems. It is common in the world of religious life to sit in church and feel a wave of feeling sweep over us. It is a not uncommon experience, when we sit alone, to feel Christ very near. But the Christianity which has stopped there, has stopped half-way. That emotion must be translated into action. Christianity can never be only an experience of the inner being; it must be a life in the marketplace.
When a man goes out into the world, he is confronted with an awesome situation. As Paul thinks of it, both God and sin are looking for weapons to use. God cannot work without men. If he wants a word spoken, he has to get a man to speak it. If he wants a deed done, he has to get a man to do it. If he wants a person encouraged, he has to get a man to do the lifting up. It is the same with sin; every man has to be given the push into it. Sin is looking for men who will by their words or example seduce others into sinning. It is as if Paul was saying: “In this world there is an eternal battle between sin and God; choose your side.” We are faced with the tremendous alternative of making ourselves weapons in the hand of God or weapons in the hand of sin.
A man may well say: “Such a choice is too much for me. I am bound to fail.” Paul’s answer is: “Don’t be discouraged and don’t be despairing; sin will not lord it over you.” Why? Because we are no longer under law but under grace. Why should that make all the difference? Because we are no longer trying to satisfy the demands of law but are trying to be worthy of the gifts of love. We are no longer regarding God as the stern judge; we are regarding him as the lover of the souls of men. There is no inspiration in all the world like love. Who ever went out from the presence of his loved one without the burning desire to be a better person? The Christian life is no longer a burden to be borne; it is a privilege to be lived up to. As Denney put it: “It is not restraint but inspiration which liberates from sin; not Mount Sinai but Mount Calvary which makes saints.” Many a man has been saved from sin, not because of the regulations of the law, but because he could not bear to hurt or grieve or disappoint someone whom he loved and someone who, he knew, loved him. At best, the law restrains a man through fear; but love redeems him by inspiring him to be better than his best. The inspiration of the Christian comes, not from the fear of what God will do to him, but from the inspiration of what God has done for him.
THE EXCLUSIVE POSSESSION ( Rom 6:15-23 ) 6:15-23 What then? Are we to go on sinning because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid! Are you not aware that if you yield yourselves to anyone as slaves, in order to obey them, you are the slaves of the person whom you have chosen to obey–in this case, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But, thank God, you, who used to be slaves of sin, have come to a spontaneous decision to obey the pattern of teaching to which you were committed, and, since you have been liberated from sin, you have become the slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms, because unaided human nature cannot understand any others. Just as you yielded your members as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness which issues in still more lawlessness, so now you have yielded your members as slaves to righteousness and have started on the road that leads to holiness. When you were slaves of sin, you were free as regards righteousness; but then what fruit did you have? All you had was things of which you are now heartily ashamed, for the end of these things is death. But now. since you have been liberated from sin, and since you have become the slaves of God, the fruit you enjoy is designed to lead you on the road to holiness and its end is eternal life. For sin’s pay is death, but God’s free gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
To a certain type of mind the doctrine of free grace is always a temptation to say, “If forgiveness is as easy and as inevitable as all that, if God’s one desire is to forgive men and if his grace is wide enough to cover every spot and stain, why worry about sin? Why not do as we like? It will be all the same in the end.”
Paul counters this argument by using a vivid picture. He says: “Once you gave yourselves to sin as its slave; when you did that, righteousness had no claim over you. But now you have given yourselves to God as the slave of righteousness; and so sin has no claim over you.”
To understand this, we must understand the status of the slave. When we think of a servant, in our sense of the word, we think of a man who gives a certain agreed part of his time to his master and who receives a certain agreed wage for doing so. Within that agreed time he is at the disposal and in the command of his master. But, when that time ends, he is free to do as he likes. During his working hours he belongs to his master, but in his free time he belongs to himself. But, in Paul’s time, the status of the slave was quite different. Literally he had no time which belonged to himself; every single moment belonged to his master. He was his master’s absolutely exclusive possession. That is the picture that is in Paul’s mind. He says: “At one time you were the slave of sin. Sin had exclusive possession of you. At that time you could not talk of anything else but sinning. But now you have taken God as your master and he has exclusive possession of you. Now you cannot even talk about sinning; you must talk about nothing but holiness.”
Paul actually apologizes for using this picture. He says: “I am only using a human analogy so that your human minds can understand it.” He apologized because he did not like to compare the Christian life to any kind of slavery. But the one thing that this picture does show is that the Christian can have no master but God. He cannot give a part of his life to God, and another part to the world. With God it is all–or nothing. So long as man keeps some part of his life without God, he is not really a Christian. A Christian is a man who has given complete control of his life to Christ, holding nothing back. No man who has done that can ever think of using grace as an excuse for sin.
But Paul has something more to say, “You took a spontaneous decision to obey the pattern of the teaching to which you were committed.” In other words, he is saving, “You knew what you were doing, and you did it of your own free will.” This is interesting. Remember that this passage has arisen from a discussion of baptism. This therefore means that baptism was instructed baptism. Now we have already seen that baptism in the early Church was adult baptism and confession of faith. It is, then, quite clear that no man was ever allowed into the Christian Church on a moment of emotion. He was instructed; he had to know what he was doing; he was shown what Christ offered and demanded. Then, and then only, could he take the decision to come in.
When a man wishes to become a member of the great Benedictine order of monks he is accepted for a year on probation. During all that time the clothes which he wore in the world hang in his cell. At any time he can put off his monk’s habit, put on his worldly clothes, and walk out, and no one will think any the worse of him. Only at the end of the year are his clothes finally taken away. It is with open eyes and a full appreciation of what he is doing that he must enter the order.
It is so with Christianity. Jesus does not want followers who have not stopped to count the cost. He does not want a man to express an impermanent loyalty on the crest of a wave of emotion. The Church has a duty to present the faith in all the riches of its offer and the heights of its demands to those who wish to become its members.
Paul draws a distinction between the old life and the new. The old life was characterized by uncleanness and lawlessness. The pagan world was an unclean world; it did not know the meaning of chastity. Justin Martyr has a terrible jibe when talking about the exposure of infants. In Rome unwanted children, especially girls, were literally, thrown away. Every night numbers of them were left lying in the forum. Some of them were collected by dreadful characters who ran brothels, and brought up to be prostitutes to stock the brothels. So Justin turns on his heathen opponents and tells them that, in their immorality, they had every chance of going into a city brothel. and. all unknown, having intercourse with their own child.
The pagan world was lawless in the sense that men’s lusts were their only flaws; and that lawlessness produced more lawlessness. That, indeed. is the law of sin. Sin begets sin. The first time we do a wrong thing, you may do it with hesitation and a tremor and a shudder. The second time we do it, it is easier; and if we go on doing it, it becomes effortless; sin loses its terror. The first time we allow ourselves some indulgence, we may be satisfied with very little of it; but the time comes when we need more and more of it to produce the same thrill. Sin leads on to sin; lawlessness produces lawlessness. To start on the path of sin is to go on to more and more.
The new life is different; it is life which is righteous. Now the Greeks defined righteousness as giving to man and to God their due. The Christian life is one which gives God his proper place and which respects the rights of human personality. The Christian will never disobey God nor ever use a human being to gratify his desire for pleasure. That life leads to what the Revised Standard Version calls sanctification. The word in Greek is hagiasmos ( G38) . All Greek nouns which end in -asmos describe, not a completed state, but a process. Sanctification is the road to holiness. When a man gives his life to Christ, he does not then become a perfect man; the struggle is by no means over. But Christianity has always regarded the direction in which a man is facing as more important than the particular stage he has reached. Once he is Christ’s he has started on the process of sanctification, the road to holiness.
“Leaving every day behind
Something which might hinder;
Running swifter every day;
Growing purer, kinder.”
Robert Louis Stevenson said: “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.” What is true is that it is a great thing to set out to a great goal, even if we never get the whole way.
Paul finishes with a great saying that contains a double metaphor. “Sin’s pay is death,” he says, “but God’s free gift is eternal life.” Paul uses two military words. For pay he uses opsonia ( G3800) . Opsonia was the soldier’s pay, something that he earned with the risk of his body and the sweat of his brow, something that was due to him and could not be taken from him. For gift he uses charisma ( G5486) . The charisma or, in Latin, the donativum, was a totally unearned gift which the army sometimes received. On special occasions, for instance on his birthday, or on his accession to the throne, or the anniversary of it, an emperor handed out a free gift of money to the army. It had not been earned; it was a gift of the emperor’s kindness and grace. So Paul says: “If we got the pay we had earned it would be death; but out of his grace God has given us life.”
-Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)
Fuente: Barclay Daily Study Bible
1. What say This question simply introduces the argument like the opening questions of chapters 3 and 4.
Continue in sin Sin as either an internal mental state, or an external habit or course of action.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?’
The question is put in Paul’s terms but probably had in mind charges that had been made against his teachings, or arguments that had actually been put forward by people who made it an excuse for sin. Either way it is a distortion of Paul’s teaching. As he will now stress, it is far removed from what he actually taught.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Reigning In Life Through Christ By Dying With Christ, And Rising With Him (6:1-14).
The question is asked in Rom 6:1, ‘What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?’. This brings home the fact that what is now to follow does not just deal with the question of how men and women can be accounted righteous through Christ, but also with the question of how they can become actively righteous. It was necessary to make a reply to the calumny that Paul could be seen as teaching that being ‘accounted righteous through faith alone, freely and without cost’ encouraged sin. Indeed, there were claims that he actually taught that it was good to sin because it brought out the grace of God (compare Rom 3:8). But that is not the main reason for Paul’s argument. Rather his purpose is to call on Christians to realise their potential, and to reign in life through Christ (Rom 5:17). He therefore answers the calumny by pointing out that his very doctrine, of dying with Christ and rising with Him, is in fact the greatest argument against sin and in favour of living righteously, that it is possible to have. For as he says in Rom 6:2, ‘we who died to sin, how shall we any longer live in it?’ And the remainder of the passage expands on that question.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Christians Have Been Freed From The Tyranny Of Sin By Dying With Christ And Rising With Him And Are Therefore To Triumphantly Seize The Opportunity Of Being So Freed From Sin (6:1-23).
Having ended the previous chapter with the thought of sin ‘reigning in death’, this whole chapter now deals with the question of this tyranny of sin, and how the Christian can be delivered from it so that he can reign in life (Rom 5:17). The implication of to such a deliverance is that the whole world lies under such tyranny. Thus the world continues in sin (Rom 6:1), and sin reigns in men’s mortal bodies (Rom 6:12). This is because sin has dominion over them (Rom 6:14). They are servants of sin (Rom 6:17). And sin pays poor wages for it results in death (Rom 6:23). But it is not to be so with Christians, for they have been delivered through the power of Christ’s death and resurrection. In consequence they are to rise above sin. They are to yield their members as instruments of righteousness to God. This will result in the process of their being made holy (Rom 6:22), and finally in their enjoyment of eternal life ‘in Christ Jesus our LORD’ (Rom 6:23).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Salvation To The Uttermost (5:1-8:39).
The depths of our sin having been revealed in Rom 1:17 to Rom 3:23, and Jesus Christ’s activity, (His activity in bringing about our salvation through the cross by means of the reckoning to us of His righteousness by faith), having been made known in Rom 3:24 to Rom 4:25, Paul now sets about demonstrating the consequences of this for all true believers (Rom 5:1 to Rom 8:39). He wants us immediately to recognise that being ‘accounted as righteous’ by God will necessarily result in our becoming alive in Christ (e.g. Rom 6:4; Rom 6:11; Rom 6:22-23; Rom 7:4; Rom 8:2; Rom 8:9-11), in our ‘sanctification’ (Rom 6:22) and in the work of the Spirit within us (Rom 5:5; Rom 7:6; Rom 8:2; Rom 8:4-12).
As has been pointed out by scholars this whole section is presented in chiastic form:
A We are assured of future glory and the basis of this is what Christ has accomplished for us as we suffer for Him (Rom 5:1-21).
B This is inworked in us through His death and resurrection (Rom 6:1-11).
C Deliverance from the sin that rules within (Rom 6:12-23).
C Deliverance from the law of sin (Rom 7:1-25).
B This through the inworking in us of His death and resurrection (Rom 8:1-17).
A We are assured of future glory and the basis of this is what Christ has accomplished for us as we suffer for Him (Rom 8:18-39).
Central therefore in the chiasmus is the Christian’s deliverance from the slavery and guilt of sin. This is a reminder that God has not done His perfect work simply in order to make us acceptable to Him. He also has in mind our being perfected, our becoming like Him in His glory. And all this is the consequence of our ‘having been accounted as righteous by faith’ (Rom 5:1)
Furthermore all this comes to us ‘through our LORD Jesus Christ’ (the LORD Jesus Christ Who was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead – Rom 1:4). We put LORD in capitals in order to stress that it is expressing the highest form of Lordship, the Lordship of ‘God the LORD’. LORD is regularly found in parallel with God in the New Testament and 1Co 8:6 makes clear that it is of equal weight. In the Old Testament the Greek translators translated the Name of God (YHWH) as ‘LORD’ (kurios). This phrase, ‘through our LORD Jesus Christ’ and its parallel ‘in our LORD Jesus Christ’ is indeed one of the themes of this section. Being the One Who has been ‘declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead’, it is through His power that we can experience His salvation. It is through Him that we have peace with God (Rom 5:1); it is through Him that we boast in God (Rom 5:11); it is through Him that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life (Rom 5:21); it is in Him that we receive the gift of God which is eternal life (Rom 6:23); it is through Him that thanks for deliverance and victory are due to God (Rom 7:25); and it is in Him that we are participants in the love of God from which we will never be separated by any power whatsoever (Rom 8:39). He is the file leader of our salvation (Heb 2:10), the author and finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2), our Perfecter in readiness for that day (Eph 5:25-27).
At first sight it might appear, that in spite of the opening phrase, ‘being justified by faith’ (Rom 5:1), being followed by a description of the consequences of such justification (Rom 5:2-5), chapter 5 continues on with the theme of justification, especially in the latter part (Rom 5:6-21). And to some extent this is correct. But this is because in the economy of God justification (the accounting of men as righteous) can never be far away. It is the basis of all other benefits that we receive from God.
On the other hand it should be noted that in what follows Rom 5:1 there is a notable difference in emphasis. Whilst justification by faith is still seen as undergirding the Gospel (Rom 5:6-11; Rom 5:15-19), it now does that as something which results in ‘sanctification’ (Rom 6:22). Thus Rom 5:2-5 initially indicates how justification results in a series of experiences whereby God proceeds to ‘sanctify’ His people. And this is required because they are ‘weak’ and ‘ungodly’ (Rom 5:6) and ‘sinful’ (Rom 5:7). Consequently , this weakness has to be dealt with by means of justification (accounting as righteous) and reconciliation through the cross. But this is not to be seen as the final result. It is to be seen as leading on to a ‘saving by His life’ (Rom 5:10).
In Rom 3:24 to Rom 4:25 the emphasis had been wholly on justification (being accounted righteous) as making men right with God. Now the new element is entering in that its purpose is to result in men being made holy and righteous. Until the doctrine was firmly established, such an addition to it might have provided a misleading emphasis, for it might have suggested to some that it was necessary for justification, but now that it has been made clear that our acceptance with God is made possible by faith alone, without the need for anything else, the idea of sanctification can be introduced, an idea first mooted in Rom 5:1-11. Rom 5:12-21 then continues on with the thought that justification through the gift of the righteousness of Christ (Rom 5:15-19) is basic to the reigning life that Christians should now be leading, and to the final reception of eternal life through the reigning of God’s grace through Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17; Rom 5:21).
Thus from Rom 5:1 onwards justification is seen as undergirding subsequent sanctification and the reception of eternal life. This is a new emphasis. And then in Rom 6:1-11 another aspect of justification, that we have died with Christ and risen with Him, is presented, as the basis:
1) for our living in ‘newness of life’ (Rom 6:4).
2) for our ‘living with Him’ (Rom 6:8).
3) for our ‘being alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (Rom 6:11).
Thus teaching in Rom 5:1 to Rom 6:11 about justification is to be seen as undergirding the teaching of Rom 5:1 to Rom 8:39 on the work of the Holy Spirit and the reception of eternal life, both present and future (John speaks of both as ‘eternal life’, Paul thinks of the present experience as ‘life’ and the future experience as ‘eternal life’).
This may all be presented in a summary as follows. Note the continual mention of either the Spirit (of life), or of life, or of eternal life:
The Consequences of Justification.
1) Justification is the precursor to experiencing the glory of God (Rom 5:2, compare Rom 8:38-39) by means of endurance and character building experiences, which are utilised by the Holy Spirit in our sanctification as He sheds abroad God’s love in our hearts (Rom 5:1-5).
2) Justification and reconciliation are seen as the first steps towards dealing with our state of weakness which has resulted from our ungodliness and sinfulness, with the consequence being that we will be ‘saved by His life’ (Rom 5:10) and will be able to rejoice in God through our LORD Jesus Christ (Rom 5:11). (Rom 5:6-11).
3) All have sinned because of Adam, resulting in death for all, whether under the Law or not. But this is something which has been countered by ‘the One Who was to come’ (Rom 5:14), Who has brought the free gift of His righteousness (Rom 5:17). This has resulted firstly, in the consequent justification, and secondly, in the ability for His people, through God’s abundant grace and the gift of righteousness, to reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17), and this as a consequence of grace reigning through righteousness unto eternal life ‘through Jesus Christ our LORD’ (Rom 5:12-21).
4) Considering the question ‘are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?’ in chapterRom 6:1, Paul deals with it by pointing out that our justification has been obtained for us through His death (mentioned in each verse from 3 to 8), with the consequence being that, as we have been conjoined with Him in His death, we have ourselves died to sin, thus making it impossible that we should think in terms of continuing to live in sin. Thus, because Christ not only died but also rose from the dead (Rom 5:4-5; Rom 5:9) we can, as a result of being conjoined with Him (Rom 5:5), walk in newness of life (Rom 5:4), experience ‘living with Him’ (Rom 5:8), and enjoy ‘being alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (Rom 5:11). What follows from this is then that we should yield ourselves as instruments of righteousness to God (Rom 5:13), escaping the dominion of sin because we are ‘not under the Law but under grace’ (Rom 6:1-14).
5) Dealing with the question ‘are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace?’ in Rom 6:15, Paul points out that as a result of obedience from the heart to the body of teaching that we have received (originally the Apostolic tradition, now the New Testament), we are freed from the slavery of sin in order that we might become ‘the slaves/servants (douloi) of righteousness’ (Rom 6:17-18), that is, ‘slaves of God’ (Rom 6:22), which will result in the fruit of sanctification, the end of this being eternal life (Rom 6:22-23). (Rom 6:15-23).
6) As a result of dying with Christ through His sacrificial death we have been released from under the Law so that we might be conjoined with Him Who has risen from the dead so as to bring forth fruit unto righteousness. Being discharged from the Law we can therefore live in ‘newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter’. Compare how ‘circumcision of the heart’ (a true spiritual change in people wrought by God) was also said to be ‘in the spirit and not in the letter’ (Rom 2:29). (Rom 7:1-6). This in Christ we have become the true circumcision, that is, true Jews (Rom 2:28-29), a theme later taken up in chapters 9-11.
7) The parallels in Paul’s words between the effects of the tyrant ‘sin’ and the effects of the Law (see below) then raise the question, ‘is the Law to be equated with sin?’ Paul reacts strongly to such a suggestion. ‘Certainly not!’ he declares. He then goes on to point out that his position is proved by his own personal experience (demonstrated by the change from ‘we, us’ to ‘I, me’), by which it was through ‘the commandment’ that he became aware of his own sin and acknowledged his sinfulness, with the sad result for himself that instead of gaining life he lost it (Rom 5:9-11). This demonstrated that it was not the Law which was at fault. The Law was ‘holy and righteous and good’. But it also demonstrated the inability of the Law to make men acceptable in the eyes of God. This then leads into the question of what is ‘spiritual’ and what is ‘fleshly’. (Rom 7:7-13)
8) Taking up the contrast in Rom 7:6 (compare also Rom 2:2) between ‘the newness of the Spirit and the oldness of the letter’, Paul now illustrates from his own present personal experience (the past tenses have become present tenses) the fact that the Law is ‘spiritual’ (pneumatikos) while he is ‘carnal, fleshly’ (sarkikos). This is why, indeed, the Law appears to fail. It is because it can do nothing to aid him in his fleshliness. Note the implied contrast between ‘spirit’ (pneuma) and flesh’ (sarx) which is found elsewhere (e.g. in Rom 8:4-13; Gal 5:16 onwards). The Holy Spirit, introduced in Rom 5:5, and Who is active in the Christian life in Rom 7:6, is therefore now seen as involved in evidencing the holiness of the Law. The Law is ‘spiritual’ (to be received through the Spirit and effective in the realm of the Spirit). It thus caters for those who are truly spiritual, that is, for those who, whether Jew or Gentile, are ‘true Jews’ (Rom 2:29). But its fulfilment required God’s sending of His own Son ‘for sin’, condemning sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3). And as a result it will be seen as fulfilled in those who ‘walk after the Spirit’ (Rom 8:4), that is, those who ‘have the mind of the Spirit’ (Rom 8:6). In contrast to this is man as he naturally is, who, like Paul himself, is in a part of himself ‘fleshly’ (Rom 2:14; Rom 2:18), a part within him which contains ‘nothing good’, and makes him unable to respond satisfactorily to the ‘spiritual’ Law. This is because being fleshly he is driven by ‘the sin which dwells within him’ (Rom 7:17; Rom 5:20), something that results in his doing the opposite of what he really wants to do. In his inward man and in his mind he delights in the law of God, factors which involve him in a war with ‘the law of sin’ in his members (Rom 7:22-23). But in this war he only too often finds himself ‘taken captive’ and defeated (Rom 7:23), something evidenced by contrary behaviour in which he wants to do good but instead does evil (Rom 7:15-17). Crying out for deliverance he discovers the answer in ‘Jesus Christ our LORD’ with the result that he, as he is in himself, serves the law of God, although in his fleshly disposition also still serving the law of sin (Rom 7:25). And this deliverance is in consequence of the fact that ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ has intervened in his captivity and ‘has made him free from the law of sin and death’ (Rom 8:2) as a result of Christ’s sacrifice on his behalf. Thus while he still fails and sometimes panders to the flesh he knows that he is acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, and that the Spirit will enable him to walk after the spirit, albeit with some of the lapses previously described. The ‘I’ ‘me’ verses go from Rom 7:7 to Rom 8:2 thus justifying the inclusion of Rom 8:1-4 with Rom 7:7-25 for interpretation purposes. (Rom 7:14 to Rom 8:4).
9) Paul now contrasts those who walk after the flesh and have the mind of the flesh with those who walk after the Spirit and have the mind of the Spirit (Rom 8:5-6). The former are unable to please God (Rom 8:8), but the latter, being indwelt by the Spirit, and having Christ within them, are dead through Christ’s death but alive through the Spirit Who gives life because of righteousness (Rom 8:9-10). In consequence the Christian puts to death the deeds of his body so that he might live (Rom 8:13), for if he were to live after the flesh he would die (Rom 8:13). This being led by the Spirit of God demonstrates that God’s true people are sons of God (Rom 8:14). It is the consequence of their having received the Sprit of adoption whereby they can call God ‘Father’ (Rom 8:15), and as a result they recognise that they are children of God, having become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:16-17). (Rom 8:5-17)
10) God’s people, however, continue to experience suffering in this present age, for they are a part of the whole creation which is groaning in its present state. But one day their bodies will be redeemed (at the resurrection – Rom 5:11) and they will enter into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom 8:21; Rom 8:23), something for which the groaning creation awaits with eagerness for thereby it too will be delivered. This process is aided by the fact that the Spirit Himself is groaning through God’s people and on behalf of God’s people in a way that is effective (Rom 8:18-27).
11) Paul closes this section with a glorious presentation of the certainty of the deliverance of God’s people, a process which began in eternity and will continue until their glorification, their being meanwhile kept secure by the love of Christ and of God, so that nothing will be able to separate them from His love (Rom 8:28-39).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Sanctification thru Death with Christ In order to begin the process of sanctification, we must first reckon ourselves dead to sin. Note that the words “dead, death, died” are used 13 times in Rom 6:1-14. The words “life, live, liveth, alive” occur 5 times in Rom 6:1-14.
Spirit-filled Living Spirit-filled living comes by (1) knowing it (Rom 6:6), (2) reckoning it so (Rom 6:11), (3) yielding to it (Rom 6:13), and (4) obeying Christ Jesus (Rom 6:17) Therefore, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. [168]
[168] Stephen Everett, “Sermon,” Fort Worth, Texas, 1 May 1983.
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:1
In Rom 6:1 Paul asks the rhetorical question if we should continue in sin now that we are under grace. Paul will proceed to answer his own question by explaining that our desire, or drive, to sin has ceased once we are born again. Our nature has been changed because our hearts are brand new. Our spirit-man now hates to commit sin, as Paul explains in Rom 7:14-25.
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:2
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Rom 6:4
Rom 6:4 “that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father” Comments – Note that the epistle of Romans emphasizes the office and ministry of God the Father. Thus, Paul refers to the activity of God the Father in raising Christ from the dead in Rom 6:4. It was the glory of God filled Jesus’ tomb and the Spirit of God raised Jesus from the dead. Hence, Rom 8:11, “If the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead.”
Rom 8:11, “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
Rom 6:4 Comments – Rom 6:4 refers to more than the believer’s identification with Christ’s death and resurrection. Paul tells the church at Corinth that as Christ became weak and was raised in power, so is the believer raised up together with Him in this power. In this position of identification with Christ is made available the power and anointing that Christ received. Paul refers to this in 2Co 13:3-4.
2Co 13:3-4, “Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you. For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.”
In 2Co 13:3-4 Paul was speaking this within the context of the defense of his apostleship, which was evidenced with miracles and signs (2Co 12:12). Thus, we are raised with Christ to also partake of His anointing, which allows the Holy Spirit to operate through us to work miracles as the Spirit wrought the same through Jesus Christ. This is a part of our resurrection life that Paul is referring to in this chapter in Romans.
2Co 12:12, “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.”
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:5
Darby, “For if we are become identified with him in the likeness of his death, so also we shall be of his resurrection;”
NAB, “For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.”
TCNT, “If we have become united with him by the act symbolic of his death, surely we shall also become united with him by the act symbolic of his resurrection.”
Weymouth, “For since we have become one with Him by sharing in His death, we shall also be one with Him by sharing in His resurrection.”
Rom 6:5 Comments – How have we been planted together in the likeness of His death? We have been baptized into body of Christ Jesus (1Co 12:13).
1Co 12:13, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:6
2Co 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Gal 5:24, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”
Rom 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 6:8 Rom 6:9 Rom 6:9
Heb 2:14-15, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death , that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
Rom 6:10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Rom 6:11 Rom 6:11
Illustration:
Rom 8:18
Rom 6:11 “to be dead indeed unto sin” – Comments – It is no longer your nature to sin, but rather, it is your nature to live for Jesus.
Rom 6:11 “but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” Comments – How are we made alive unto God? This is done so by God’s Spirit that dwells in us:
Rom 8:11, “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
We live in the spirit:
Gal 5:25, “If we live in the Spirit , let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Col 3:3-3 – Living Bible, “your real life is in heaven with Christ in God”:
Col 3:3-4, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God . When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
Scripture References – Note:
Joh 11:25, “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:”
Col 3:4, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
Rom 6:11 Comments – Rom 6:11 is a key verse that summarizes verses 2-10. How do we live this truth? By mortifying the deeds of the flesh, and yielding ourselves as servants of righteousness. Then, death and sin have no more dominion over us.
Rom 8:10, “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
Note the following translation of Rom 6:11, “Thus also you (plural) yourselves reckon (emphatic) yourselves (to be) dead (plural) indeed with reference to sin and living (alive) with reference to God in Christ Jesus.”
Rom 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:12
When sin reigns, it rules, controls, and influences our lifestyles. A person comes into bondage to a continuous practice of sin. God will make a way to escape so that sin does not have to reign in our lives (1Co 10:13).
1Co 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:13
Rom 6:13 “but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” – Comments – That is, yield your heart, the inner man, to God and offer the members of your physical body in service to God (Rom 12:1).
Rom 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
Note that our will is involved as to whether we chose to sin or not. Man has a will, and regardless of all God’s supernatural manifestations and anointings, men can still chose to sin.
Rom 6:11 tells us that we are dead unto sin, but alive unto God.
Rom 6:11, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:14
Col 1:13, “ Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness , and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”
In order for sin will not have dominion over you, you have to yield your life to God (Rom 6:13), so that you will not be yielding to sin any longer. If sin no longer has dominion over us, and if sin is the root cause of sickness, then sickness no longer has dominion over us.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Doctrinal Message: The Doctrine of Justification (An Exposition of The Gospel of Jesus Christ) In Rom 1:8 to Rom 11:36 Paul the apostle gives an exposition of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; but it is presented from the perspective of the office and ministry of God the Father as He makes a way of justifying mankind and bringing him into his eternal glory in Heaven. Thus, we can describe Rom 1:8 to Rom 11:36 as an exposition of the doctrine of justification through faith in Jesus Christ. The body of the epistle of Romans discusses God the Father’s method of justification for mankind (Rom 3:21 to Rom 8:16), while His predestination is emphasized in the introduction (Rom 1:1-7), His divine calling introduces this section of doctrine (Rom 1:8 to Rom 3:20), and His plan of glorification for the Church (Rom 8:17-28) and for Israel are given (Rom 9:1 to Rom 11:36) are given last.
In this grand exposition of the doctrine of justification through faith in Jesus Christ Paul uses a number of examples to explain God’s way of justifying mankind. For example, Abraham’s faith is used to explain how we also put our faith in Christ to be justified before God. The analogy of Adam being a type and figure of Christ is used to explain how divine grace takes effect in the life of the believer. He uses the example of the laws of slavery and freedmen to explain our need to walk in our new lives, no longer under the bondages of sin. The illustration of marriage and widowhood is used to explain how we are now free from the Law and bound to Christ. It is very likely that the Lord quickened these examples and analogies to Paul while he sought to understand and explain this doctrine of justification in the synagogues and to the Gentiles during his years of evangelism and church planting. So, when he sat down to write out an exposition of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul drew upon many of the examples that he had used over the years under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. The Calling of Gentiles Rom 1:8 to Rom 3:20
2. God’s Righteousness Revealed In Christ Rom 3:21 to Rom 8:16
3. Glorification by Divine Election: Glorification Rom 8:17-28
4. Summary of God’s Divine Plan of Redemption Rom 8:29-39
5. Divine Election and Israel’s Redemption Rom 9:1 to Rom 11:32
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Believer’s Life of Justification: Persevering by Being Led by the Spirit We have been declared sinners (Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20), justified through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 3:21 to Rom 4:25), and positioned under God’s grace (Rom 5:1-21). Paul then explains the process of how we are to walk in our lives (Rom 6:1 to Rom 8:16). We must first reckon ourselves dead to sin (Rom 6:1-14) and free from the Law (Rom 6:15 to Rom 7:6). Paul then takes a moment to explain that the Law is holy as evidenced by our struggle to overcome the very sins that are declared by the Law (Rom 7:7-25). Paul then reveals the secret to walking in the liberty of Christ Jesus, which is found as we learn to be led by the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:1-16). We learn from this passage that as we are led by the Holy Spirit we are walking in our justification provided to us by God the Father through Jesus Christ His Son. Thus, justification is maintained by walking in the Spirit, but man returns to condemnation by walking in the flesh.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Sanctification thru Death with Christ Rom 6:1-14
2. Sanctification thru Liberty In Christ Rom 6:15 to Rom 7:6
3. Sanctification Confirms the Law Rom 7:7-25
4. Sanctification in the Holy Spirit Rom 8:1-16
Six Aspects of the Believer’s Life of Justification – In this passage, we find six things that God has done for us, the Church. Through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we were crucified with Him. We also died, were buried, were quickened, were raised, and were seated in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Sanctification as a Fruit of Justification.
Justification does not lead to indulgence of sin:
v. 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
v. 2. God forbid! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
The apostle has concluded his exposition of the doctrine of justification, bringing out, throughout the argument, that salvation is full and free. He now feels constrained to meet the most common, the most plausible, and yet the most unfounded objection to the doctrine of justification by faith, namely, that it permits men to live in sin, to continue doing evil, in order that grace might abound. What shall we then say? What inference shall we draw from the doctrine of grace? Shall we remain with sin, in sin, in order that grace may abound? This conclusion has ever been advanced by the enemies of Christ, from the early period of the Church down to the most recent times; the argument that the doctrine of justification by grace through faith furthered sin and undermined true morality. But Paul rejects the very insinuation with horror: By no means! Only one that knows nothing whatever of grace will speak and argue thus. Any one that has the faintest idea of the glory and beauty of grace will always hate and abhor sin and will bring out his appreciation of God’s mercy in his entire life. How should we, how could we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Because the believers have tasted the richness of God’s mercy, because they have died unto sin, have given up all communion with sin, therefore they can no longer live in sin. Death and life are opposites, they exclude each other. We turned our backs definitely upon sin when we received Christ as our Savior. It is therefore a contradiction in terms to say that free justification is a license to sin. The very fact that we died to sin, and are therefore free from sin, no longer under its dominion and in its power, must result in our hating sin, in shunning every transgression of the holy will of God. God delivered us from the bondage of sin, and this fact is the foundation of Christian sanctification. The state of a Christian is a state of freedom from sin.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Rom 8:1-39
(7) Moral results to true believers of the revelation to them of the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God having been announced as revealed in the gospel (Rom 1:17), set forth as available for all mankind (Rom 3:21-31), shown to be in accordance with the teaching of the Old Testament (Rom 4:1-25), viewed with regard to the feelings and hopes of believers fell Rom 5:1-11) and to the position of the human race before God (Rom 5:12-21), the necessary moral results of a true apprehension of the doctrine are treated in this section of the Epistle. And first is shown from various points of view
Rom 7:1-6
(a) The obligation believers of holiness of life. The subject is led up to by meeting certain supposed erroneous conclusions from what has been said in the preceding chapter. It might be said that, if where sin abounded grace did much more aboundif in the obedience of the one Christ all believers are justifiedhuman sin must be a matter of indifference; it cannot nullify the free gift; nay, grace will be even the more enhanced, in that it abounds the more. The apostle rebuts such antinomian conclusions by showing that they imply a total misunderstanding of the doctrine which was supposed to justify them; for that our partaking in the righteousness of God in Christ means our actually partaking in itour being influenced by it, loving it and following it, not merely our having it imputed to us while we remain aloof from it; that justifying faith in Christ means spiritual union with Christ, a dying with him to sin and a rising with him to a new life, in which sin shall no longer have dominion over us. He refers to our baptism as having this only meaning, and he enforces his argument by three illustrations: firstly, as aforesaid, that of dying and rising again, which is signified in baptism (Rom 7:1-14); secondly, that of service to a master (Rom 7:15-23); thirdly, that of the relation of a wife to a husband (Rom 7:1-16). It will be seen, when we come to it, that the third of these illustrations is a carrying out of the same idea, though it is there law, and not sin, that we are said to be emancipated from.
Rom 6:1
What shall we say then? So St. Paul introduces a difficulty or objection arising out of the preceding argument (cf. Rom 3:5). Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Referring to the whole preceding argument, and especially to the concluding verses (Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21).
Rom 6:2
God forbid! ( : St. Paul’s usual way of rejecting an idea indignantly). We who (, with its proper meaning of being such as) died (not, as in the Authorized Version, “are dead.” The reference is to the time of baptism, as appears from what follows) to sin, how shall we live any longer therein! The idea of dying to sin in the sense of having done with it, is found also in Macrob., ‘Somn. Scip.,’ 1.13 (quoted by Meyer), “Mori etiam dicitur, cum anima adhuc in corpora constituta corporeas illecebras philosophia docente contemnit et cupiditatum dulces insidias reliquasque omnes exuit passiones.”
Rom 6:3
Or know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death! , if taken in the sense of “or,” at the beginning of Rom 6:3, will be understood if we put what is meant thus: Do you not know that we have all died to sin? Or are you really ignorant of what your very baptism meant? But cf. Rom 7:1, where the same expression occurs, and where appears only to imply a question. The expression occurs also in 1Co 10:2 and Gal 3:27; in the first of these texts with reference to the Israelites and Moses. It denotes the entering by baptism into close union with a person, coming to belong to him, so as to be in a sense identified with him. In Gal 3:27 being baptized into Christ is understood as implying putting him on () The phrases, , or , or , were understood to imply the same idea, though not so plainly expressing it. Thus St. Paul rejoiced that he had not himself baptized many at Corinth, lest it might have been said that he had baptized them into his own name ( ), i.e. into such connection with himself as baptism implied with Christ alone. Doubtless in the instruction which preceded baptism this significance of the sacrament would be explained. And if “into Christ,” then “into his death.” “In Christum, inquam, totum, adeoque in mortem ejus baptizatur” (Bengel). The whole experience of Christ was understood to have its counterpart in those who were baptized into him; in them was understood a death to sin, corresponding to his actual death. This, too, would form part of the instruction of catechumens. St. Paul often presses it as what he conceives to be well understood; and in subsequent verses of this chapter he further explains what he means.
Rom 6:4
Therefore we were buried (not are, as in the Authorized Version) with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. The mention here of burial as welt as death does not appear to be meant as a further carrying out of the idea of a fulfilment in us of the whole of Christ’s experience, in the senseAs he died and was buried, so we die and are even buried too. Such a conception of burial being in our case a further process subsequent to our death in baptism, is indeed well expressed in our Collect for Easter Eve: but the form of expression, “buried into death,” does not suit it here. The reference rather is to the form of baptism, viz. by immersion, which was understood to signify burial, and therefore death. So Chrysostom, on Joh 3:1-36., . The main intention of the verse is to bring out the idea of resurrection following death in our case as in Christ’s. The sense, therefore, isAs our burial (or total immersion) in the baptismal water was followed by entire emergence, so our death with Christ to sin, which that immersion symbolized, is to be followed by our resurrection with him to a new life. As to the , through which Christ is here said to have been raised, see what was said under Rom 3:23. “ est gloria divinae vitae, incorruptiblitatis, potentiae, et virtutis, per quam et Christus resuscitatus est, et nos vitae novas restituimur, Deoque conformamur. Eph 1:19, seqq.“ (Bengel). In some passages our Lord is regarded as having been raised from the dead in virtue of the Divine life that was in himself, whereby it was impossible that he should be holden of death. (see under Rom 1:4). And he said of his own , “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (Joh 10:18). But here as most commonly elsewhere, his resurrection is attributed to the operation of the glory of the Fatherthe same Divine power that regenerates us in him (cf. 1Co 6:14; 2Co 13:4; Eph 1:19, etc.; Col 2:12; also our Lord’s own prayers to the Father previously to his suffering, as given by St. John). The two views are not inconsistent, and may serve to show Christ’s oneness with the Father as touching his Godhead. The marked association here and elsewhere of union with Christ, so as to die and rise again with him, with the rite of baptism, supports the orthodox view of that sacrament being not only a signum significans, but a signum efficax; as not only representing, but being “a means whereby we receive” regeneration. The beginning of the new life of believers, with the power as well as the obligation to lead such a life, is ever regarded as dating from their baptism (cf. Gal 3:27; Col 2:12). It is true, however, that in all such passages in the New Testament the baptism of ,adults is referred to; that is, of persons who at the time of baptism were capable of actual repentance and faith, and hence of actual moral regeneration, and they are supposed to have understood the significance of the rite, and to have been sincere in seeking it. Hence what is said or implied cannot fairly be pressed as applicable in all respects to infant baptism. This, however, is not the place for discussing the propriety of infant baptism, or the sense in which all baptized persons are regarded by the Church as in their very baptism regenerate.
Rom 6:5
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. So the Authorized Version. But the English word “planted” (though the idea expressed by it has the support of Origen, Chrysostom, and other ancient Fathers; also of the Vulgate, and, among moderns, Beza, Luther, and others; while some, including Erasmus, Calvin, Estius, Cornelius a Lapide, understand “engrafted”) probably suggests what was not intended. is from (not ), and need only express being made to grow together in close association. In classic authors it commonly means innate. It seems here used, not to introduce a new figure, whether of planting or grafting, but only to express the close union with Christ, already intimated, into which we entered in baptism. The Revised Version has “have become united with him,” which may perhaps sufficiently express what is meant, though hardly a satisfactory rendering of , Tyndale and Cranmer translate “graft in deeth lyke unto him;” and perhaps “graft into” may be as good a rendering as any other. Meyer, Tholuck, Alford, and others take the dative as governed by , equivalent to (Tholuck). But it may be better to understand : “Graft into Christ, in the likeness of his death,” being added because Christ’s death and ours, in the senses intended, are not the same kind of death literally, ours only corresponding to, and in a certain sense like his. The main purpose of this verse, as of Rom 6:4, is to press resurrection with Christ as following death with him. But why here the future ? Did we not rise with Christ to a new life when we emerged from our baptismal burial? Future verbs are used also with a similar reference in Rom 6:8 and Rom 6:14. Now, there are three senses in which our resurrection with Christ may be understood.
(1) As above (cf. Col 2:12, etc., where the expression is ).
(2) Our realization of our position of power and obligation in subsequent lifeactually in practice “dying from sin and rising again unto righteousness” (cf. below, Rom 6:12-14).
(3) The resurrection of the dead hereafter. Some (including Tertullian, Chrysostom, (Ecumenins) have taken sense
(3) to be here intended; but, though the words themselves, and in Rom 6:8, suggest this sense, it can hardly be intended here, at any rate exclusively or prominently, since the drift of the whole passage is to insist on the necessity of an ethical resurrection now; and it is evident that the clause before us corresponds with , etc., in the previous verse, and to Rom 6:11, et seq. The future is understood by some as only expressing consequencea necessary conclusion from a premiss, thus: If such a thing is the case, such other thing will follow.
If so, sense (1) might still be understood; so that the idea would be the same as in Col 2:12, etc., viz. that of our rising in baptism itself to a new life with Christ, in which sin need not, and ought not to, have dominion. But still the repeated use of the future tense (especially in Col 2:14), together with the whole drift of what follows, seems rather to imply sense (2); that is, our realization of our position in our actual lives subsequent to baptism. If it be objected that in this case we should expect “we ought to be” rather than “we shall be” it may be replied that it is what God will do for us, rather than what we shall do for ourselves, that the apostle has in view. If he has made us partakers in the atoning death of Christ, having forgiven us all trespasses, etc. (Col 2:13, seq.), he will also make us partakers, as our life goes on, in the power of his resurrection too, delivering us from sin’s dominion. Further, if this be so, the thought may also include sense (3) For elsewhere the future resurrection seems to be regarded as only the consummation of a spiritual resurrection which is begun in the present life, Christians being already partakers in the eternal life of God, of which the issue is immortality; of. Eph 1:5, Eph 1:6; Col 3:3, Col 3:4; Gal 2:20; also our Lord’s own words, which are peculiarly significant in this regard, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you. The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (Joh 5:24, Joh 5:25). Again, “I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die’ (Joh 11:25, Joh 11:26).
Rom 6:6, Rom 6:7
Knowing this (cf. , Rom 6:3), that our old man was (not is, as in the Authorized Version) crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed (or abolished, or done away, ), that henceforth we should not serve (, expressing bondage, or slavery; and so throughout the chapter in the word , translated “servants”) sin. For he that hath died is freed from sin. The word “crucified” has, of course, reference to the mode of Christ’s death into which we were baptized. It does not imply anything further (as some have supposed) as to the manner of our own spiritual dying, such as painfulness or lingering; it merely means that in his death our old man died (cf. Col 2:14, ). The term “old man” ( ) occurs also Eph 4:22; Col 3:9. It denotes man’s unregenerate self, when under sin and condemnation; the or being his regenerate self. It is, of course, a different conception from that of and of 2Co 4:16. In Ephesians and Colossians the old man is said to be put away, or put off, and the new one put on, as though they were two clothings, or investments, of his personality, determining its character. Here, by a bolder figure, they are viewed as an old self that had died and a new one that had come to life in its place (cf. 2Co 5:17, ). The idea of a new man being born into a new life in baptism was already familiar to the Jews in their baptism of proselytes (see Lightfoot, on Joh 3:1-36.); and our Lord, discoursing to Nicodemus of the new birth, supposes him to understand the figure; but he teaches him that the change thus expressed should be no mere change of profession and habits of life, but a radical inward change, which could only be wrought by the regenerating Spirit. Such a change St. Paul teaches to be signified by Christian baptism; not only deliverance from condemnation through participation in the benefits of the death of Christ, but also the birth or creation of a new self corresponding to his risen body, which will not be, like the old self, under the thraldom of sin. “The body of sin” may be taken as meaning much the same as “our old man;” sin being conceived as embodied in our former selves, and so possessing them and keeping them in bondage. It certainly does not mean simply our bodies as distinct from our souls, so as to imply the idea that the former must be macerated that the latter may live. The asceticism inculcated elsewhere in the New Testament is in no contradiction to the ideal of mens sana in corpore sano. Our former sin-possessed and sin-dominated personality being now crucified with Christ, dead, and done away with, we are no longer, in our new personality, in slavery to sin, and are both bound and able to renounce it; “for he that hath died is freed [a,, literally, ‘is justified’] from sin.” In Scotland, one who is executed is said to be justified, the idea apparently being that he has satisfied the claims of law. So here ‘ . The word , be it observed, in verse 6 introduces by the way the second figure under which, as above said, the apostle regards his subject, though it is not taken up till verse 16.
Rom 6:8
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; i.e. as explained with regard to the future under Rom 6:5. The explanation there given accounts for the phrase here, , without its being necessary to refer our living with Christ exclusively to the future resurrection. For the continuance of God’s vivifying grace during life after baptism is a subject of belief.
Rom 6:9
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. When it is implied here that death had once dominion over him, it is not, of course, meant that he was in his own Divide nature subject to death, or that ‘it was possible that he should be holden of it.” All that is implied is that he had made himself subject to it by taking on him our nature, and voluntarily submitted to it, once for all, as representing us (cf. Joh 10:17; Act 2:24).
Rom 6:10
For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. “Died unto sin” certainly does not mean here, as some have taken it, died by reason of sin, or to atone for sin, but has the sense, elsewhere obvious in this chapter, of , followed by a dative, which was explained under Rom 6:2. Christ was, indeed, never subject to sin, or himself infected with it, as we are; but he “bore the sins of many;” “the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.” He submitted for us to the condition and penalty of human sin; but, when he died, he threw off its burden, and was done with it for ever (cf. Heb 9:28, “Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation”). The purpose of thus describing the permanent life to God of the risen Christ is, of course, to show that the new life of us who are accounted to have risen with Christ must in like manner be permanent and free from sin. “Quo docere vult hanc vitae novitatem tota vila esse Christianis persequendam, Nam si Christi imaginem in se repraesentare debent, hanc perpetuo durare necesse est. Non quod uno momento emoriatur caro in nobis, sicuti nuper diximus: sed quia retrocedere in ea mortificanda non liceat. Si enim in coenum nostrum revolvimur, Christum abnegamus; cujus nisi per vitae novitatem consortes esse non possumus, sicut ipse vitam incorruptibilem agit” (Calvin). The next verse expresses this clearly.
Rom 6:11
Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In the verses which follow (12-14) the apostle exhorts his readers to do their own part in realizing this their union with the risen Christ, to give effect to the regenerating grace of God. For their baptism had been but the beginning of their new life; it depended on themselves whether sanctification should follow on regeneration, as it needs must do in order to salvation.
Rom 6:12
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof. (The reading of the Textus Receptus, “obey it in the lusts thereof,” has but weak support.) Though our “old man” is conceived of as crucified with Christthough this is theoretically and potentially our positionyet our actual lives may be at variance with it; for we are still in our present “mortal body,” with its lusts remaining; and sin is still a power, not yet destroyed, which may, if we let it, have domination over us still. Regeneration is not regarded as having changed our nature, or eradicated all our evil propensions, but as having introduced into us a higher power”the power of his resurrection” (Php 3:10)in virtue of which we may resist the attempted domination of sin. But it still rests with us whether we will give our allegiance to sin or to Christ. (Chrysostom). The lusts, obedience to which is equivalent to letting sin reign, are said to be those of our “mortal body,” because it is in our present bodily organization that the lusts tempting us to evil rise. But it is not in their soliciting us, but in the will assenting to them, that the sin lies. “Quia non consentimus desideriis pravis in gratia sumus”. “Cupiditates corporis sunt fomes, peccatum ignis” (Bengel). The epithet (“mortal”) is fitly used as distinguishing our present perishable frameworkthe earthen vessels in which we have our treasure (2Co 4:7)from our real inward personality, (2Co 4:16), which is regarded as having risen with Christ, so as to live to God for ever. “Vos enim, viventes, abalienati estis a corpore vestro (cf. Rom 8:10)” (Bengel).
Rom 6:13
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. By our members seem to be meant, not merely the several parts of our bodily frameeye. tongue, hand, foot, etc.but generally all the parts or constituents of our present human nature, which sin may use as its instruments, but which ought to be devoted to God (cf. Col 3:5). Many commentators would translate “weapons” rather than “instruments,” on the ground that St. Paul usually uses the word in this sense (Rom 13:12; 2Co 6:7; 2Co 10:4; Eph 6:11, Eph 6:13); and also that in Rom 6:22, taken in the sense of the pay of a soldier (as in Luk 3:14; 1Co 9:7), is supposed to imply that the apostle has had all along the idea of warfare in view. The second of these reasons really proves nothing. Whatever the meaning of in Rom 6:23, it is too far removed from the passage before us to be taken in any connection with it. Neither is the first reason at all cogent. bears the sense of instruments as well as of weapons, and may more suitably bear it here. When St. Paul elsewhere speaks of armour, it is the armour of light, or of righteousness, which we are told to take up, and to put on, in order to fight against our spiritual enemies. Such a conception is inapplicable to our own members, which we have already, which we may use either for good or evil, and which require the protection of heavenly armour rather than being themselves armour; and we certainly could not be told to take them up or put them on. We may, in the next place, observe that the two clauses of this verse are differently expressed in two respects.
(1) It is our members only that we are forbidden to yield to sin; but ourselves, with our members, we are bidden to yield to God. For few of the persons addressed, if even any, could be supposed, deliberately and of choice, to offer their whole being to the service of sin as such; they were only liable to succumb to sin, in this or that way, through soliciting lusts. But the regenerate Christian offers and presents his whole serf to God, and desires to be his entirely.
(2) In the first clause we find the present imperative, ; but in the second the aorist imperative, . The distinction between the two tenses in the imperative is thus expressed in Matthiae’s ‘Greek Grammar:’ “that the aorist designates an action passing by, and considered abstractedly in its completion, but the present a continued and frequently repeated action.” Our giving ourselves to God is something done once for all; our yielding our members as instruments of sin is a succession of acts of yielding.
Rom 6:14
For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under law, but under grace. As to the force of the future here, , see what was said under Rom 6:5. Here also no more seems, at first sight, to be meant than that God, if we respond to his grace, will not let sin have dominion over us; we shall, in fact, if we are willing, be enabled to resist it. “Invitos nos non coget [peccatum] ad serviendum tibi” (Bengel). And the reason given is suitable to this meaning: “For ye are not under law” (which, while it makes sin sinful and exacts its full penalty, imparts no power to overcome it), “but under grace” (which does communicate such power). Thus understanding the verse, we see the distinction between in Rom 6:12 and here. In Rom 6:12 we are exhorted not to let sin reign; we are to own no allegiance to it as a king whose rule we must obey. But it still will try to usurp lordship over usin vain, however, if we resist the usurpation: . The sense thus given to the verse is what its own language and the previous context suggest. But Rom 6:15, which follows, suggests a different meaning. “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace?” Such a question could not arise on the statement of the preceding verse, if its meaning were understood to be that grace will enable us to avoid sin; it rather supposes the meaning that grace condones sin. Hence, in Rom 6:15 at least, a different aspect of the difference between being under law and being under grace seems evidently to come in; namely, thisthat the principle of law is to exact complete obedience to its behests; but the principle of grace is to accept faith in lieu of complete obedience. If, then, ) in Rom 6:14 is to be understood in agreement with this idea, it must mean, “Sin, though it still infects you, shall not lord it over you so as to bring you into condemnation.” Calvin has a good note on the verse. He allows the first of the expositions of it given above to be “una quae caeteris prohabilius sustineri queat.” But he thinks that Rom 6:15, following, requires the other, and he concludes thus: “Vult enim nos consolari apostolus, ne animis fatiscamus in studio bene agendi, propterea quod multas imperfectiones adhuc in nobis sentiamus. Uteunque enim peccati aculeis vexemut, non petest tamen nos subigere, quia Spiritu Dei superiores reddimur: deinde in gratia constituti, sumus liberati a rigida Legis exactione.” It may be that the apostle, when he wrote Rom 6:14, meant what the previous context suggests, but passed on in Rom 6:15 to the other idea in view of the way in which his words might be understood. In what follows next (Rom 6:15-23) is introduced the second illustration (see former note), drawn from the human relations between masters and slaves. It comes in by way of meeting the supposed abuse of the statement of Rom 6:14; but it serves as a further proof of the general position that is being upheld. The word in Rom 6:14 suggests this particular illustration. We being under grace, it had been said, sin will not be our master, whence the inference was supposed to be drawn that we may sin with impunity, and without thereby subjecting ourselves to the mastery of sin. Nay, it is replied, but it will be our master, if in practice we consent to be its servants.
Rom 6:15, Rom 6:16
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace! God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey (literally, unto obedience), his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? This is not a truism, as it would seem to be if it only meant, “whoso servants ye become, his servants ye are.” “Ye yield yourselves” (, cf. Rom 6:13) denotes acts of yielding. “Ye are” () denotes condition. The meaning is that by our conduct we show which master we are under; and we cannot serve two (Mat 6:24; Luk 16:13; of. Joh 8:34, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin;” and 1Jn 3:7, “He that doeth righteousness is righteous”). The two incompatible services are here said to be of sin and of obedience, with their respective tendencies or results, death and righteousness. A more exact antithesis to the first clause would have been “of righteousness unto life;” life being the proper antithesis of death, and righteousness being afterwards said, in Rom 6:18 and Rom 6:19, to be what we ought to be in bondage to. But though the sentence seems thus defective in form, its meaning is plain. means here specifically obedience to God, not obedience to any master as in Rom 6:16; and though in English “servants of obedience,” as though obedience were a master, is an awkward phrase, yet we might properly say, “servants of duty,” in opposition to “servants of sin;” and this is what is meant. It may be that the apostle purposely avoided here speaking of believers being slaves of righteousness in the sense in which they had been slaves of sin, because subjection to righteousness is not properly slavery, but willing obedience. He uses the expression, indeed, afterwards (Rom 6:18), but adds at once, , etc. (see note on this last expression). Death, “unto” which the service of sin is here said to be, cannot be mere natural death, to which all are subject. Meyer (with Chrysostom, Theophylact, and other ancients) takes it to mean eternal death, as the final result of bondage to sin; , antithetically correlative, being regarded as applying to the time of final perfection of the faithful in the world to come”the righteousness which is awarded to them in the judgment.“ Seeing, however, that the word is used throughout the Epistle to denote what is attainable in this present life, and that is often used to express a state of spiritual death, which men may be in at any time (see additional note on Rom 6:12; and cf. Rom 7:9, Rom 7:10, Rom 7:13, Rom 7:24; Rom 8:6, Rom 8:13; also Joh 5:24; 1Jn 3:14), it is at least a question whether the final doom of the last judgment is here at all exclusively in the apostle’s view.
Rom 6:17, Rom 6:18
But thanks be to God, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine whereunto ye were delivered. (Not, as in the Authorized Version, which was delivered you). Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. There is no contradiction between what is here said and the fear previously implied lest the persons addressed might still serve sin. He refers them back to the time of their baptism, when he conceives them both to have understood their obligation (cf. Rom 6:3), and also to have been heartily sincere. The fear was lest they might have relaxed since, perhaps through infection with antinomian teaching. By the “form of doctrine” or “of instruction” ( ) is not at all likely to be meant (as some have supposed) any distinctive type of Christian teaching, such as the Pauline (so Meyer). Usually elsewhere, where St. Paul uses the word , it is of persons being examples or patterns to others (1Co 10:6; Php 3:17; 1Th 1:7; 2Th 3:9; 1Ti 4:12; Tit 2:7). Somewhat similarly, in Rom 5:14, Adam is ; and in 1Co 10:6 the things which happened to the Israelites in the wilderness were to us. These are all the instances of the use of the word in St. Paul’s Epistles. Here, therefore, it may be best to understand it (so as to retain the idea of pattern) as the general Christian code into which converts had been indoctrinated, regarded as a norma agendi “Norma ilia et regula, ad quam se conformat servus, tautum ei per doctrinam ostenditur; urgeri eum non opus est” (Bengel on ).
Rom 6:19
I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. Here (“I speak humanly”) may be taken as referring to the expression immediately preceding, viz. . St. Paul may mean, “In saying you were made slaves to righteousness, I am using human language not properly applicable to your spiritual relations. For you are not really in bondage now; you have been emancipated from your former bondage to sin, and are now called upon to render a free willing allowance to righteousness; being, in fact, sons, not slaves.” This view of the true position of the Christian being one of freedom recurs so often and so forcibly with St. Paul that it is peculiarly likely to be the thought before him here; the very word would be likely to suggest it (cf. Rom 8:15, seq.; 2Co 3:17; Gal 4:4-7; Gal 5:1, Gal 5:13). If (he would say) you fully realized your position as sons of God, you would feel it impossible even to think of sinning willingly; but, in accommodation to your human weakness, I put the case as if you had only been transferred from one bondage to another, so as to show that, even so, you are under an obligation not to sin. According to this view of the meaning of the passage, “the infirmity of your flesh” has reference to dulness of spiritual perception, being opposed in a general sense to . Had they been , they would have discerned without need of any such human view of the matter being put before them (cf. 1Co 2:14). Some, however, taking to denote moral weakness, which renders the attainment of holiness difficult for man, understand as meaning, “I require of you no more than is possible for your frail humanity; for I call on you only to render to righteousness the same allegiance you once rendered to sin.” This interpretation gives a totally different meaning to the clause. It has the support of Origen, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Calvin, Estius, Wetstein, and others; but it does not appear so natural or probable as the other, which is accepted by most modern commentators. For as ye yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto sanctification (rather than holiness, as in the Authorized Version; the word is , always so translated elsewhere). This is a setting forth of what must follow in practice from the view that has been taken of the change in the Christian’s position resembling the transference of bondservants from one master to another. They must devote their members (see above on Rom 6:13) to the service of the new master in the same way as they had done to that of the old one; the aims or results of the two services being also intimated. The old service was in giving themselves up to uncleanness (with reference to sins of sensuality), and generally to , i.e. lawlessness, or disregard of duty; and its result is expressed by a repetition of the latter word. For sin leads to nothing positive; lawless conduct only results in a habit or state of lawlessness; whereas the service of righteousness in itself leads to sanctification to the abiding result of participation in the holiness of God. “Qui justitiae serviunt, proficiunt; , iniqui, sunt iniqui, nil amplius” (Bengel).
Rom 6:20-23
For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness (more literally, to righteousness; i.e. ye were not in any bondage to righteousness). What fruit had ye then (i.e. when you were formerly slaves of sin) in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?, for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and made servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification; and the end life eternal. For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of god is life eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord. The logical connection with the previous context of the above series of verses, beginning with Rom 6:20, as well as the sequence of thought running through them (intimated by the particles , and ), is not at once obvious. It seems to be as follows: the in Rom 6:20 introduces a reason for the exhortation of Rom 6:19, , etc. But Rom 6:20 is not in itself the reason, being only an introduction to the statement of it in the verses that follow. The drift of the whole passage seems to be this: Yield ye your members to the sole service of righteousness; for (Rom 6:20) ye were once in the sole service of sin, owning no allegiance to righteousness at all; and (Rom 6:21) what fruit had ye from that service? None at all; for ye know that the only end of the things ye did then, and of which ye are now ashamed, is death. But (Rom 6:22) your new service has its fruit: it leads to your sanctification now, and in the end eternal life. Authorities, however, both ancient and modern, are divided as to the punctuation, and consequent construction, of Rom 6:21. In the Vulgate and the Authorized Version (as in the interpretation given above) the stop of interrogation is placed after “ashamed;” the answer, none, being understood, and “for the end,” etc., being the reason why there is no fruit The other way is to take the question as ending at “had ye then,” and “those things whereof,” etc., as the answer to it, and for the end, etc., as the reason why they are ashamed. Thus: “What fruit had ye then (when you were free from righteousness)? The works (or pleasures) of which you are now ashamed were the only fruit; you are ashamed of them now; for their end is death.” The latter interpretation is defended by Alford on the ground that it is more consistent “with the New Testament meaning of , which is ‘actions,’ the ‘ fruit of the man’ considered as the tree, not ‘wages’ or ‘reward,’ the ‘fruit of his actions.'” This is true. But, on the other hand, it may be argued that such use of the word by St. Paul is always in a good sense; he usually regards sin as having no fruits at all; to the fruit of the Spirit is opposed, not any fruit of a different character, but the works () of the flesh (Gal 5:19, Gal 5:22); and in Eph 5:11 (again in opposition to the fruit of the Spirit) he speaks of the unfruitful works ( ) of darkness. Thus the idea of Eph 5:21, understood as in the Authorized Version, seems closely to correspond with that of the passage last cited. “The things of which ye are now ashamed,” in Eph 5:21, are “the works of darkness” of Eph 5:11; and in both places they are declared to have no fruit. Sin is a barren tree, and only ends in death. Cf. what was said above with respect to and in Eph 5:19. It is true, however, that the expression in the next chapter, (Rom 7:5), in opposition to , in some degree weakens the force of the above argument. We observe, lastly, on Eph 5:23, that to the “wages” of sin ( , used usually to denote a soldier’s pay) is opposed “free gift” ( for sin earns death as its due reward; but eternal life is not earned by us, but granted us by the grace of God. As to the phrase, , in Eph 5:22, it can be used without the need of any such apology as seems to be implied in Eph 5:19 (according to the meaning of the verse that has been preferred) for speaking of our becoming slaves to righteousness. For we do belong to God as his , and to Christ, having been “bought with a price” (cf. 1Co 7:23); and St. Paul at the beginning of his Epistles often calls himself (cf. also Luk 17:10). But it does not follow that our service should be the service of slaves; it may be a free, willing, enthusiastic obedience notwithstanding; we obey, not because we are under bondage to obey, but because love inspires us (cf. Gal 4:6, etc., “Because ye are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no longer a servant, but a son”).
HOMILETICS
Rom 6:1-11
The meaning of Christ’s resurrection.
The prominent position occupied by the resurrection of our Lord in the apostolic writings and preaching need occasion no surprise; an event in itself so wonderful, and in its consequences so momentous, could not but be constantly in the minds and upon the lips of those to whom it was the supreme revelation of God. It may be well to gather up in a few sentences the import and significance of this central fact of Christianity.
I. AS A FACT, THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST HAS A GENERAL AND WORLD–WIDE INTEREST. The historian of humanity, the philosopher reflecting upon the most important factors in human life, is constrained to acknowledge the central and universal interest of our Lord’s rising from the dead.
1. It was a fulfilment of predictions, and a realization of hopes sometimes dim and sometimes bright.
2. It was the starting-point of the Christian religion. The existence of the Church of Christ is only to be explained by remembering how firmly the first promulgators of the new faith held the belief that their Lord had risen from the dead.
3. It was, in the view of the Christian community, the pledge of the general resurrection of all men to another life; it gave definiteness and power to the belief in personal immortality.
II. AS A DOCTRINE, THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST HAS A SPECIAL CHRISTIAN INTEREST.
1. It is the chief external evidence of the Messiahship and Divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. It was in fulfilment of his own express declarations that, after enduring a death of violence, he rose victorious from the grave. His resurrection is in harmony with his claim to a nature and character altogether unique.
2. It is the seal of the efficacy of his mediatorial sufferings. However the humiliation and sacrifice of the Redeemer were related to the forgiveness and justification of men, it is certain that Christ’s rising from the dead was the completion of his redemptive undertaking on man’s behalf.
III. AS A POWER, THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST HAS A PERSONAL AND SPIRITUAL INTEREST. This is the aspect of this great fact which is insisted upon most strenuously in this passage, and its practical importance to every individual Christian is manifest. The true believer in Christ shares in his Lord’s resurrection.
1. Our sins were crucified in Christ’s death upon the cross, and in his resurrection we were delivered from their power.
2. Our past sinful life became dead to us as Christ died; and our newness of life began in his rising from the tomb. We have the sign of this, the apostle teaches us, in baptism, with its teaching regarding renewal and consecration.
3. By our faith in the resurrection of our Saviour, we are raised above trial, doubt, temptation, darkness, and fear. The cross tells us that it may consist with the wisdom and the goodness of God that for a season we should endure trouble, disappointment, and seeming failure. But the empty tomb assures us that for every good man and for every good work there is a resurrection appointed. Death is for a season; God’s people cannot be “holden of it.” The corn of wheat dies, but it dies to live, and to bring forth much fruit.
4. In Christ’s resurrection the Christian is begotten to a living hope of an immortal inheritance, His people are appointed to share his triumph and his glory.
Rom 6:4
“Newness of life:” a New Year’s sermon.
Things new and old make up the sum of human experiences. All that is new becomes old, and the old disappears to come before us again in new combinations, in new shapes. The mind of man seems to have a natural leaning in both directions; we like the old because it is old, and the new because it is new. This is one of the contradictions inseparable from human nature. There is some truth in the common saying that the young prefer novelty and the aged cling to “use and wont.” It is easy to see how, to the youthful, change should be welcome, for their knowledge is yet very limited, and new experiences are the appointed means of furnishing and equipping the mind. It is less easy to explain the conservatism of age and its dread of innovation, for experience must have taught the old how imperfect is everything that concerns man’s culture and condition; this trait of character may be largely owing to the increasing feebleness which indisposes to the unwonted exertion of the faculties, or to accommodation to new circumstances. True religion takes advantage of both these tendencies of human nature. It appeals to the natural attachment we feel to what is ancient and sanctioned by prolonged existence; and it appeals also to the yearning for progress and for fresh experiences, which we all either have felt in the past or feel today. But observe in what way revelation makes use of these natural tendencies, and remark the harmony there is between the moral necessities of man and the Divine communications of Scripture. Broadly speaking, whatever concerns God is commended by its antiquity and unchangeableness; whilst that which refers to man approaches us with the charm and the allurement of novelty. A moment’s reflection will show us why this should be so with true religion. Man, in his brief life, with his feeble purposes and his petty achievements, looks away from himself for the eternal and the unchanging. This he knows is not in himself or in his race; and he seeks it in the unseen God. And herein he is right. He does not seek these attributes in vain. For, knowing God, he knows that in him there is absolute being, unaffected by the changes to which all creation is subject. Man can find his true stability and his true peace only when he rests in the care and love of “the Father of lights, who is without variableness and shadow of turning.” But, on the other hand, man, when he knows himself, is aware that his past has been a past unsatisfactory to himself, and blamable by his Creator and Judge. His changes have often been from evil to evil; and he looks forward, rather than behind him, for relief. His only hope is in his future. The old he can regard only with pain, with regret, with distress. If there is improvement, it must be in what is newin a new condition, new impulses, new principles of the soul, in new associations and new help. Accordingly, Christianity comes to man with gifts of heavenly newness in her hand. Christianity establishes with man a “new covenant,” and gives to him a “new commandment;” makes of him a “new creation,” transforms him into a “new man.” It opens up to him a “new way” unto the Father by the Mediator of a “new testament,” gives him a “new name,” and teaches him a “new song,” and inspires him with the hope of a “new heaven anti a new earth.” In short, it enables him to serve in “newness of spirit,” and to walk in “newness of life.” “Life” is, in the New Testament, used as equivalent to the history of the spiritual nature. The Lord Jesus professed to be “the Life,” “the Life of men;” he came that “we might have life, and that more abundantly,” and the acceptance of him as the Divine Saviour is designated the “passing from death unto life.” This being understood, it will not be supposed that by “newness of life” the Apostle Paul refers to the life of the body, or to the outward circumstances in which physical life may be passed. And yet the context shows that he is not treating of the future and blessed life in the nearer presence of God. Accordingly, we understand by “newness of life” that which contrasts with the spiritual deadness which hung as a cloud of darkness over heathen humanity, and which contrasts also with the earlier and imperfect developments of spiritual vitality. It is a newness of life which is peculiar to the Christian dispensation, but is yet found wherever Christ is known, trusted, and loved. We greet the new year with gladness and with hope, because it seems to offer us the opportunity to begin life anew. We are thankful for the relief of leaving the past behind, and we cherish the hope that each new year will be one of greater spiritual progress and happiness than the years that are past. Christians wish to forget the things that are behind, and to reach forth to those things that are before. Some who have been undecided as to their course have resolved with the new year to make a fresh beginning in life, and henceforth to live by the faith of the Son of God, and to his service and glory. The subject ought, therefore, to be appropriate and welcome to such as are hopefully and prayerfully aspiring unto “newness of life.”
I. The newness of the Christian life will appear from the consideration that it is A LIFE IS CHRIST. This very language must be at first unintelligible to a person unacquainted with the gospel. That life should be in a person seems monstrous and meaningless. Yet Christ himself has said, “Abide in me, and I in you;” and his Apostle Paul has taught us that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” Christ is the Basis upon which the Christian builds, the Foundation of the edifice of his new and higher life. Christ is the Vine-stem into which the Christian is grafted, and from which he draws all his vitality, his vigour, and his fruitfulness. Christ is the Head, in dependence upon whom the Christian is a living, active, and obedient member. The signs and evidences of this life are these:
1. The renewed man learns who Christ is, and what Christ has done and suffered for him.
2. The renewed man admits the claim Christ has upon his gratitude, his faith, his love; and trusts in him.
3. The renewed man consciously accepts life as the gift of God in Christ.
4. The renewed man, by maintaining fellowship with Christ, advances in the new and higher life.
II. The newness of the Christian life is manifest from THE AGENCY BY WHICH IT IS EFFECTED.
1. A spiritual agency.
2. A Divine agency.
3. A freely acting and gracious agency.
4. A transforming agency.
5. A ceaseless and progressive agency.
III. The newness of the Christian life is displayed in THE MOTIVES AND PRINCIPLES BY WHICH IT IS GOVERNED.
1. The love of Christ revealed and responded to is the motive power of this life.
2. The law of Christ becomes a law of friendship.
3. The approval of Christ is an animating and cheering power in the heart.
4. Thus self and the world, the common motives to action, fall into their proper place, or are banished from the Christian’s soul.
IV. NEW ASSOCIATIONS are a feature of the Christian’s new life.
V. The Christian life tends and points to A FURTHER AND HIGHER REGENERATION IN THE FUTURE.
APPLICATION. Newness of life depends comparatively little upon outward circumstances. There is nothing in the colour of a man’s skin, the climate of a man’s birthplace, the nature of a man’s occupation, his condition whether of poverty or wealth, his education whether scanty or liberal, his age or his station,there is nothing in all these things which can interfere with or hinder him from becoming a new man in Christ. Does it seem to any one that for him this is an impossibility, because of the unfavorable circumstances in which he finds himself? Disabuse yourself of this illusion, for illusion it is. It may not be within your power to become a learned man, or an eloquent man, a rich man, or a powerful man; but the circumstances which may prevent you from becoming learned or wealthy, mighty or persuasive, have no force to hinder you from becoming “a new man.” The obstacles to this renewal are to be sought within, not without; they are to be found in the will, which is often resolved to resist the authority, to reject the truth, and to ignore the love of God. If you take a savage from his native woods, clothe him in civilized attire, place him in a lordly palace, surround him with books and with music, with paintings and with flowers, does he cease to be a savage? Not until the mind is changed. The man himself may remain the same, whilst all his surroundings are altered. These external changes do not make of him a new man, and his life has not in virtue of them become a new life. So is it with man in relation to the kingdom of Christ. Deprive a human being of the liberty which he has abused, remove him from his evil companionships, shut out from him the temptations to which he has been wont to yield, introduce him into Christian society, constrain him to frequent the means of religious instruction; yet his life has not thereby become a new life. The old nature is still there. The Ethiopian has not changed his skin, nor the leopard his spots. The man’s true life lies in the bent of his thoughts, the affections of his heart, the bias of his will; and whilst all these are toward evil, the old nature is supreme, and the new life is not yet. Love is the one only potentate at whose master-bidding old things will pass away. Before’s Love’s wizard wand alone, the ancient shadows will depart from the gloomy cave of the unregenerated soul, and that cave will become a temple peopled with the forms of the holy, and echoing with the songs of heaven. Divine love can make the wilderness a paradise, can change each thorn into a flower, and all the thistles into fruits. When Love smites the rock, the spring of health and of refreshing will gush forth. He who hears Love’s voice shall forget the weakness and the weariness of the pilgrimage; and his footstep, erst so heavy and so dull, shall bound elastic onwards.
Rom 6:14
The enfranchisement by grace.
The Law, by exhibiting the heinousness of sin and its awful consequences, was the occasion of the introduction of the gospel and of the victories of God’s grace. If, then, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds, some sophistical reasoner may propose to continue in sin. It is against this wretched argument that the apostle appeals in the language of the text. “Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under law, but under grace.” The very fact which was adduced by some as an excuse for sin is shown to be the chief reason for freedom from sin.
I. SIN HAS HAD, AND HAS, MASTERY OVER MEN. Sinners are under the rule and bondage of a tyrannical and wicked lord. Turning away in a rebellious spirit from their rightful King and Ruler, they have submitted themselves to the usurper’s sway. Sin takes possession of their affections, their judgment, and their will.
II. UNDER THE LAW, MEN WERE COMMONLY AND HABITUALLY UNDER THE MASTERY OF SIN. By the Law, the apostle means chiefly the Jewish Law; yet not this exclusively; for it appears that the unwritten law generally is intended in the argument of the Epistle. They were “under the Law” who lived under legal ordinances and sanctions, and who, in theory at all events, acknowledged its claim. Sin to them was transgression, and the motive for avoiding transgression was the fear of penalty to be inflicted by the Lawgiver and Judge. Now, it is urged that those under the Law were in very many cases the slaves of sin; for the Law entered that the offence might abound. History, sacred and profane, bears out these assertions. The standard of morality by which men judged themselves was low, and even to this they did not generally approach, much less attain. This was so with the Jews, and more conspicuously with the Gentiles.
III. IT IS THE EFFECT OF THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE TO SET MEN FREE FROM THE MASTERY OF SIN.
1. What is it to be “under grace”? It is voluntarily and consciously to receive the free favour of God bestowed through Jesus Christ upon all who believe. It is to participate in the new and distinctively Christian righteousness. It is in the exercise of faith to be brought into harmony with God’s government and purposes. It is to come under the influence of a new, Divine, and powerful motive, furnished by the infinite love and clemency of God.
2. How does being “under grace” set and keep a man free from sin? The apostle explains the process by employing three figures. According to the first, by baptism, the initiative act of faith and consecration, the Christian is joined to his Saviour in his death upon the cross, and, thus being united to an almighty Saviour, must consequently rise in the likeness of his resurrection to a new and holy life. According to the second, the Christian, forsaking the service of sin, yields himself by faith to the service of Christ, and is therefore bound to fulfil the obligations which he has undertaken. The third figure represents his state under the Law as abolished by faith in Christ, just as a woman is released from her husband by his death; fidelity to Christ’s service and law are as binding upon the Christian as is fidelity to her second husband on the part of the newly married woman. Duty and love combine to render the obligation to holiness stringent and effective.
IV. THE POWER OF GRACE EXCEEDS THE POWER OF THE LAW. In explaining how this is we may observe:
1. The principles appealed to are higher; love and gratitude are higher than fear and interest.
2. The aid afforded is greater; it is the aid of the Holy Spirit of God.
3. The example set before the Christian is more stimulating and inspiring.
4. The prospects presented are more alluring and glorious.
Rom 6:17
The mould of Christian doctrine.
The Christian, in remembering what he was, deepens his impression of Divine grace, to which he owes it that the. change has been effected in which he now rejoices. St. Paul took a peculiar satisfaction in reviewing his own experience, and acknowledging his indebtedness to that Divine grace which had fashioned his character anew. And if the Christian will consider the state in which he would have been apart from the supernatural doctrine and influences of Christianity, he will see reason for gratitude in the provision made for the transformation and renewal of his character. In this verse the change is attributed, instrumentally, to the power of Christian doctrine, which is, as it were, a pattern by which he is reconstructed, or a mould into which the metal of his nature has been cast, in order to its taking a new and divinely ordered shape and form.
I. THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE IS AS A MOULD PREPARED IN ORDER TO GIVE A NEW SHAPE AND FORM TO THE HUMAN CHARACTER. When iron is “cast,” it is run, in a liquid state, into a shape or mould of earth or sand of the desired form; and thus the artificer produces a bolt or a cannon. Thus, in the intellectual and spiritual realm, ideas govern men; and the character and life are largely owing to the thoughts which are familiar and congenial And Christian doctrine is not an end, but a means; the righteousness and love of God, revealed in Christ, having power to reconstruct the character and to renew the life. The doctrine is alive with the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
II. THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE IS CAST INTO THIS SPIRITUAL MOULD, THAT HE MAY TAKE ITS NEW SHAPE AND FORM. The old elements of human nature, old errors and old sins, are dissolved and melted down when brought into contact with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Old things pass away, in order that all things may become new. We may fancy that the doctrine is delivered unto us, to do what we like with it; but the reverse is the case. We are delivered unto it, in order that it may do its work upon us. So it is with the Christian education of the young, and with the evangelization of the heathen. The mould of Christian doctrine imparts to him who is brought into living contact with it a new motive to holiness, in the redeeming and sacrificial love of the Saviour; a new rule of holiness, in his law and life; and new help towards holiness, in the provision of the Spirit’s help and grace. A moral transfiguration is effected, as the natural result of intelligent acceptance and voluntary allegiance. For if faith is the soul of obedience, obedience is the body of faith. There is no change so wonderful and so admirable as that which is wrought in human character by the moulding power of Christian doctrine.
HOMILIES BY C.H. IRWIN
Rom 6:1-14
The practical power of the Resurrection.
Here the apostle enlarges still more fully upon the truth that the Christian’s faith leads not merely to the pardon of sin, but also to deliverance from its power. Because grace has abounded over sin, and our unrighteousness has commended the righteousness of God, it does not therefore follow that we are to continue in sin. If we have a real union with Christ, we have been baptized into his death. We are buried with him by baptism into death; “that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).
I. THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION. That the resurrection of Christ is surrounded with mystery, no one will deny. But the evidence by which the great central fact itself is established is so strong, so clear, so decisive, that even scepticism has sometimes to admit itself convinced. The effect of the most able and adverse criticism has only been to establish more and more certainly the fact of the Resurrection, and thus to confirm more strongly the Christian’s faith. It is remarkable that two of the greatest rationalists of the present century, who doubted almost every fact of the New Testament history, admitted that the Resurrection was a fact which they could not doubt. Ewald, who deals destructively with most of the gospel incidents, “regarding some as mythical, some as admitting of a rationalistic interpretation, and some as combining the elements of both,” is unable to destroy or explain away the Resurrection. “Rejecting all attempts to explain it, he accepts the great fact of the Resurrection on the evidence of history, and declares that nothing can be more historical.” The testimony of De Wette is even more remarkable. He was more sceptical than Ewald; so much so that he was called “The Universal Doubter.” Nevertheless, such is the force of the evidence, that this great rationalistic critic, in his last work, published in 1848, said that the fact of the Resurrection, although a darkness which cannot be dissipated rests on the way and manner of it, cannot itself be called in question any more than the historical certainty of the assassination of Julius Caesar.
1. The fact of the Resurrection is attested by the four evangelists. The four Gospels were written by men widely separated both in time and place. Their very variations are a proof of their substantial truth. They give varying accounts of the Resurrection, as would naturally be expected from men whom so great an event impressed in different ways, but they all agree in testifying that the event occurred.
2. The narrative of the Resurrection was accepted by the early Christians who lived at the time when the event took place. It is spoken of constantly in the Epistles to the various Churches as an event with which they were all familiar, and about which there was not the slightest doubt. When Peter is proposing the appointment of a successor to Judas, he speaks of the Resurrection as one of the great subjects of apostolic preaching. Indeed, it would appear that he regarded the preaching of the Resurrection as the great subject for which the apostle should be chosen. His words were, “Wherefore of these men who have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.”
3. The conversion of St. Paul, and his subsequent advocacy of the doctrine of the Resurrection, are perhaps the strongest proofs of its truth. Paul was a persecutor and a bigoted Pharisee. He suddenly became a member of the sect that was so hated and despised. The explanation that he himself gave of this change was that Jesus Christ had appeared unto him. It was not likely that Paul, a clear-headed man, accustomed to weigh evidence, would be deceived as to Christ’s appearance. He could not be lightly led to take a step of such immense importance to his whole life. Something more than a mere dream or hallucination must be found to account for his whole subsequent career. He was not likely to undertake those missionary journeys through Asia Minor, through Macedonia, and through Greece, and to persevere in them, in the face of much opposition, ridicule, persecution, and many hardships and dangers, for the sake of a mere fancy. He was not a mere visionary or fanatic. His Epistles show him to have been a man of robust mind, great reasoning power, and soberness of judgment. And yet, in every instance in which a public speech of his is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles; in his address at Antioch in Pisidia, in his address at Athens, in his address to the multitude when he was taken prisoner at Jerusalem; whether he is in the presence of the high priest, of Felix, or of Festus and Agrippa, he most distinctly proclaims the fact of the resurrection of Christ.
4. As the life of the Apostle Paul was changed, so the lives of all the apostles were changed from the moment that the risen Christ appeared to them. Before that they were timid and frightened. The boldest of them became so cowardly as to deny that he knew Christ at all. They had all forsaken him and fled when the time of crucifixion drew near. After the crucifixion they became disheartened and depressed. We can easily see what would have become of Christianity had there been no resurrection, as we study the conduct and words of the disciples when they knew that their Master was so soon to be taken from them, and when they thought he was still in the grave. But the Resurrection altered everything. The change that occurred can only be explained by the actual reappearance of Christ to them. The timid became brave again. They cannot but speak the things which they have seen and heard. They endure persecution and suffering and martyrdom now, for the grave is no longer dark, and the crown of life is beyond the struggle and the pain.
II. THE DOCTRINES WHICH IT TEACHES.
1. That there shall be a general resurrection of the dead. “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Act 17:31).
2. That those who believe on the Lord Jesus shall live with him for ever. “I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (Joh 11:25). And here the apostle says, “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (verse 8). Christ has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He has satisfied the yearning of the human heart for a life beyond the presenta yearning so strong that one of the greatest thinkers of our own time, though the logical conclusion of his system is universal death, nevertheless tries to avoid or overcome this dreary prospect by the suggestion that out of this death another life may spring. Our poet-laureate has expressed that yearning thus. Speaking of love, he says
“He seeks at last
Upon the last and sharpest height
Before the spirits fade away,
Some landing-place, to clasp and say,
‘Farewell! We lose ourselves in light!'”
Yes, it is when the grave is near, it is when our loved ones are suddenly taken from us by death, that we learn what a precious truth the resurrection of Jesus is to rest on.
III. THE PRACTICAL LESSONS WHICH IT CONVEYS. “That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (verse 4); “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (verse 12). Elsewhere the apostle expresses the same truth. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God” (Col 3:1). This is the practical power of the fact and doctrine of the Resurrection. If we have in our hearts the hope of being with Christ, what a transforming influence that hope should exercise upon our lives! We should “yield ourselves unto Cod, as those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (verse 13). Thus the risen life of Christ enters into and becomes part of the present life of his people. Thus their life enters into and becomes part of his. “Our life is hid with Christ in God.”C.H.I.
Rom 6:15-23
The two services and their rewards.
In the closing part of the fifth chapter, and throughout this chapter, the apostle is contrasting the operation of two great principles. The one is the principle of sin; the other is the principle of righteousness. He compares them to two kings reigning in the world, controlling men’s lives, and influencing men in certain directions and to certain actions. Sin reigns unto death. That has been its operation all through human history. But a new power has entered to dispute its influence. That power is the free grace of God, exhibited in Christ, God’s Son. That power operates in righteousness. It provides a righteousness for men by the blood of Christ. It produces a righteousness in men. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” And now in these immediate verses St. Paul is making an appeal to his readers. He has set before them the two great principles. He has contrasted them in their operation and their results. Now he makes the matter personal. He enforces his appeal by the question of the sixteenth verse, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sic unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” And then he says, “As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness” (Rom 6:19).
I. EVERY LIFE IS A SERVICE OF SOME SORT.
1. Some are servants of the love of money. Of money and how to make it they are always thinking; for the sake of it they will go through many risks and toils and hardships. Their first question about everything is, “Will it pay?” and all their money-grasping does not pay them in the end. They may have much goods laid up for many years; they may have good securities for their investments; but they have made no provision for their immortal souls; they have laid up no treasure that will be of use to them beyond the grave. That is a poor service for a being who must soon go into the presence of the eternal God.
2. Some are servants of the love of dress. Even in our Lord’s time, he found it necessary to warn his hearers against thinking too much about their dress. Even Christian people, who profess to be the servants of Christ, are too frequently the servants of fashion. There is sometimes more attention given to the dress of our neighbours or of ourselves in the house of God than there is to the voice of our Creator and our Saviour, or than there is to the question whether we have the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, or the spotless robe of Christ’s righteousness. It is said that St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who rebuked princes, and fired all Europe with a new crusade, all the while living himself in utter poverty, used to ask himself every day the stern question, “Bernarde, ad quid venisti?””Bernard, wherefore art thou here?“ So it would be well if we would ask ourselves more frequently what is the purpose of our lives.
3. Others, again, are the servants of ambition. To be higher than their fellow-men, to be fawned upon and flattered, to receive the homage of the poor and the favour of the rich, to be talked about in the gossip of society,that is the object for which many persons live. Yet, when attained, it brings no lasting peace or contentment to the mind. The praise of men, moreover, is a very fickle and uncertain thing. The hero of today will be forgotten tomorrow. Earthly fame has ever been
“Like a snow-flake on the river,
A moment seen, then lost for ever.”
Such are some of the services to which men devote their thoughts, their time, their energies. How vain and profitless are they all! When the hour of death draws nigh, let any one who has spent his life in the service of any of these masters ask them to help him in the death-struggle, to give him hope for the future: will they be able to give him any assistance? They cannot even keep his poor mortal body from the dust; much less can they give life to the soul. They have already helped to produce death in the soul. They have dragged him downwards to the earth. And so it is that, when the soul must go from this world into the unseen, it is earthly still. There is no fitness for heaven in it at all. The pleasures and possessions of the world, innocent in themselves, become positively harmful to many. They become sinful to them, because they keep the soul away from God.
II. THE SERVICE OF SIN AND ITS RESULTS. Even what we call the more innocent service of the world results in death at last. The death of the body is accompanied by the death of the soul. Much more is this true of all kinds of positive sin. The apostle seeks to point out here the result of being the servant of sin. “His servants ye are to whom ye obey, wether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (Rom 6:16); “The end of those things is death” (Rom 6:21); The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Even in this life there is a clear connection between sin and death. The service of sin is a fatal service. Take, for instance, those who are the servants of the craving for intoxicating drink. A special committee of the British Medical Association brought in a report at the meeting of 1887 on the relation of alcohol to disease, which stated that, after careful and prolonged examination of the subject from a scientific point of view, they came to the conclusion that every man who indulged in alcohol beyond the most moderate amounts shortened his life by at least ten years. The President of the United States, General Harrison, has testified that of a class of sixteen young men who graduated with him, almost all had gone to early graves through intemperate habits. Even in this world the sin of intemperance leads to death. But it brings a more lasting and more terrible death than this. The besotted mind, the darkened intellect, is but a beginning of blackness of darkness in the future. “No drunkard shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” When drink becomes the master, how terrible are the results for time and for eternity! In like manner it is true of all other sinful services, that they lead to death. “He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption;” “The wages of sin is death.”
III. THE SERVICE OF CHRIST. “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Rom 6:18); “But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Rom 6:22). This is the only service that leads to everlasting life. It is the only service which is not slavery. It is the only service which men never regret entering into. It is the only service which can be called an unmixed good, the only service that brings perfect peace to heart and mind and conscience. It is an easy service, for it is a service of love. Instead of growing weaker by our efforts in the service of Christ, as we do by our efforts to serve sin, we grow stronger; for the true Christian is a better man, a stronger man spiritually, every day he lives. It is the only service that has a hope beyond the grave. It was because Christ saw us perishing in the service of sin, guilty, lost, and helpless, that he came to save us. He calls us now to believe on him, to follow him, and he promises to all who do so the gift of everlasting life. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“How long to Streams of false delight
Will ye in crowds repair?
How long your strength and substance waste
On trifles light as air?”
Over the triple doorways of the Cathedral of Milan there are three inscriptions spanning the beautiful arches. Over one is carved a beautiful wreath of roses, and underneath is the legend, “All that which pleases is but for a moment.” Over the other is sculptured a cross, and there are the words, “All that which troubles us is but for a moment.” But underneath the great central entrance to the main aisle is the inscription, “That only is important which is eternal.” If we would only realize these three truths, we should not let the world or its pleasures keep us from Christ, we should not let trifles trouble us, we should not hesitate long about making our choice. “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.“C.H.I.
HOMILIES BY T.F. LOCKYER
Rom 6:1-11
Buried and risen with Christ.
Attaching to almost all privileges and blessings there are dangerous possibilities of abuse. So with the blessed doctrine of justification by faith, which has been so largely dwelt on hitherto. So especially with that aspect of it just referred to (Rom 5:20). How readily the question might spring to the lip, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” But how readily, from every Christian heart, would spring the response, “God forbid! How shall we?” This answer amplified in the following verses: The relation of the believer, through the death and resurrection of Christ, to sin and holiness.
I. THE DEATH.
1. The relation of the death of Christ to sin. Two elements entering into the atoning work of Christ, each of which, in its bearings, must be distinguished from the otherthe Divine, and the human.
(1) As to guilt. The guilt of the race an accomplished fact; the stain ineffaceable; the white purity of the infinite Law blotted. What are the bearings of Christ’s atonement, divinely and humanly, on this guilt of the past?
(a) Divinely: condemnation for ever;
(b) humanly: expiation for ever.
(2) As to sin. An existent, a persistent fact; a possibility always; a strong power of evil. What are the bearings of Christ’s atonement on this sin of the present?
(a) Divinely: stamp of condemnation; the thing which has brought guilt that must be expiated by death, is by that very death a branded thing;
(b) humanly: renunciation and conflict; the thing which is branded, in the atonement, on the part of God, is forsworn on the part of man.
2. Our relation through the death of Christ to sin. A natural identification of Christ with us, as federal Head of the race; and a spiritualthis latter of voluntary, sympathetic oneness. So a corresponding identification of ourselves with Christ: natural and spiritual. This latter, by faith; the spiritual analogue corresponding with the historical fact, or, in other words, our voluntary spiritual sympathy with Christ’s own work.
(1) As to guilt.
(a) Acquiescence in the condemnation: every mouth stopped;
(b) acquiescence in the. expiation: for me!
(2) As to sin.
(a) A thing condemned of God: so we regard it henceforth, as bearing a stigma of evil;
(b) a thing forsworn by us: so we regard it henceforth; perpetual war.
Therefore our faith in Christ not merely gives us pardon and peace with God, but commits us too a stern and uncompromising battle with all that is opposed to God. “Ye see your calling, brethren!” Your very baptism is your pledge to wage such warfare.
II. THE LIFE.
1. The relation of the life of Christ to God. Two elements entering into the resurrection-life of Christ: raised by God, raised as Man.
(1) As to favour with God.
(a) Divinely: the accepted sacrifice; “through the glory of the Father;”
(b) humanly: from darkness into light; “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” (Luk 24:26).
(2) As to devotion to God.
(a) Divinely: God could not suffer his Holy One to see corruption; “having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost” (Act 2:33);
(b) humanly: “he liveth unto God;” for us.
2. Our relation through the life of Christ to God. Identification as beforepotential for all, actual through faith.
(1) As to favour with God.
(a) Acquiescence in the approval: gratitude;
(b) acquiescence in the joy: for me!
(2) As to devotion to God.
(a) A life claimed by God: henceforth we bear these “marks;”
(b) a life yielded to God: “the likeness of his resurrection.”
So our faith in Christ has regard, not only negatively to sin, but positively to God. We are his; freemen in Christ; risen ones!
“Reckon ye” this! The potential fact will but aggravate our condemnation and our woe, if it be not actualized through faith. Enter into spiritual sympathy with the work of the Redeemer; be dead to the past, be alive to all the glorious future of an immortality in God.T.F.L.
Rom 6:12-14
The two dominions.
A renewed application of the subject just discussed. The reign of sin; the reign of grace.
I. THE REIGN OF SIN.
1. The self yielded to sin. Man’s higher selfreason, conscience, and willshould dominate over the “soul” and the “flesh,” the mere passions and lusts; man’s spirit should be king. But the true self has been discrowned, and the lower selfthe lustshas gained the mastery. And in this false mastery of the flesh, sin reigns. Oh, degradation! we are led in chains, and sin lords it over us!
2. The members yielded to unrighteousness. Man’s lower nature should be the instrument of the higher, for the working of all that is just and good. In Paul’s philosophy of human nature the “body” is synonymous with all the active life; and is not the activity of our whole life to be used subordinately to the dictates of the enlightened will? But the activity of life is yielded to the usurping power of sin, instrumental to unrighteousness.
II. THE REIGN OF GRACE.
1. The self yielded to God. Man is not an irresponsible ruler of his own nature; his sovereignty is delegated by God. And only in absolute devotion to God does he realize a true self-conquest. God claims again possession of the spirit which has been torn from him by the power of sin. The claim is one of authority; but the authority is the authority of love.
2. The members yielded to righteousness. God requires the homage of the heart; he also requires the service of the life. Only through the heart can the life be rightly swayed. “Not under law.” A resurrection, and a resurrection-power. Yes, because he lives, we may live also! But the appropriation of this power is of man: “Present yourselves.” Here is the marvellous gift of human freedom, which may be a freedom unto death; but there is the boundless power of love and life! Therefore choose life, that thou mayest live!T.F.L.
Rom 6:15-23
Servants to obey.
A slight but suggestive difference between the question of Rom 6:15 and that with which the chapter opens. “Shall we continue in sin,” the apostle had asked, “that grace may abound?” And he had flung away such a thought by the presentation of the believer’s new life as a life pledged to God through Christ. In Rom 6:12-14 also he had insisted on the consistent fulfilment of the pledge. But now he supposes another and more subtle questionShall we, not “continue” in sin, but sin, once and again, as we may please, presuming on the easily procured pardon of a gracious God? Alas! how this question insinuates itself into the Christian consciousness: how readily we condone our carelessness by thoughts of the restoring mercy of God! But we are grievously wrong if we think to ourselves that sin and obedience may be played with. We have the dread power to choose our master; but he is a master, and our choice in either case commits us to a course, and. to a consequence. The train may be turned on to this line or that, but the line must be followed, and the destinations are wide as the poles apart. Let us look at these three thoughtsA choice, a course, a consequence.
I. A CHOICE. The false doctrine of law in the necessarian scheme of moralsso many weights upon the scale. But man’s will is not a dead scale, determined by weights; it is a living thing, and unless its peculiar life be taken into account all calculations must be wrong. True, if we know the causes, we can predict the result, And certain teachers have saidThese are the causes: man’s own susceptible nature, and the divers influences which play upon it. Therefore, given the temperament and the influences, we can predict the result. Very plausible. True, if these are the only causes, the result may thus be known. But the cause of causes is the will itself. This is the great factor in the problem. And, after all, when the most scientific calculations have been made, this self-determining power in man may defy all your calculations to predict a right result. Let us not attempt to prove this freedom by elaborate arguments; we need but appeal to each one’s consciousness. “I know that I am free; I have power of choice; when I have willed, I know that I might have willed otherwise.” This must be each one’s true confession. Just as surely as we know that we exist, by the same intuition, which is deeper and truer than all reasoning, do we know that we can yield ourselves to any one of all the manifold motives that are playing upon our will. Does not the history of the Fall illustrate this freedom? For what is the essential truth of that history, but that man had it in his power, either to obey God or to gratify himself, and that he chose self-gratification rather than obedience? But the results were not by any means so transient as the choice itself might seem to be. In the highest sense, freedom was gone. There still remained freedom of choice among the various objects of self-gratification, but there was no longer the power to serve God as before. A great gulf was fixed between man and God. And in this consists what is called the total depravity of man: totally separated from God, and without the power to return. And certain, moreover, to drift from bad to worse. But under the redeeming influences with which God visits the heart of man, and more especially in view of the great redeeming fact with which God has visited the world, this total depravity becomes in some sense neutralized, man’s enfeebled will receives new power, and it is once more possible for him to place his choice on God. The freedom of true duty is once more within his reach; from the depths he may yet climb back to God. So, then, taking men as they now are, and especially taking them as we find them in contact with the redeeming truths of the gospel of Christ, we see that each has his alternative choice between godliness and ungodliness, truth and falseness: the right and good, and the wrong and bad, or, in the words of St. Paul, between obedience and sin. “Ye yield yourselves:” the supreme fact of every one’s life is wrapped up in those words. From childhood upwards good and bad influences contend for the mastery. God and sin ask for our service, and we cannot but “yield ourselves” to the one or the other. We make our choice, whether consciously and with full deliberatenes of purpose, or well-nigh unconsciously and with careless neglect. We choose sin, and thereby’ set the seal on our own death; or we choose God, and thereby rise to newness of life. But in either case our own choice determines our course, and the course to which we commit ourselves works out its inevitable consequence.
II. A COURSE. Let us now consider the course to which our choice in either case commits us.
1. In the one case we become servants, or slaves, of sin. Our Lord’s words (Joh 8:32-36). Man may refuse to bow to sin; but when he does bow, sin holds him fast. Nay, he may yet rise from his thraldom and be free; but every yielding is the taking on of a new chain, and every continuance in sin is the rivetting of the chain. The slave of sin? Oh, it is no fiction! The man who yields to sin is led captive by a master stronger than himself. So with the inebriate, the man of passion, the miser. Yes; dragged in chains. And yet it is a “free” man, forsooth, who has thus sold himself to serve sin!
2. In the other case we become servants, or slaves, of obedience. The same law works, whatever the material of its working. Hence the degrading slavery of the servant of sin is but the dark side of the result of that same law which, in its brighter results, is the safeguard and glory of our righteousness. But is not the result slavery still? Ah! let us ask, what is slavery? Mere serviceintent, earnest, unremitting serviceis not. Service is slavery when it is forced. Contrast the service of a Crusader, and that of a captive among the Moors. It is slavery also when, even if not forced, it is degrading and low. Contrast slave-trader, and pure, virtuous man enthralled. So Epictetus. The service of sin, then, is slavery because it is degrading and base; whereas, to yield obedience to God, and thenceforth to serve him with unremitting ardour and with the enthusiasm of lofty joy, that is not slavery, that is freedom of the highest kind (so Joh 8:36). Yes; this the secret of liberty: the “spirit of a son” (Gal 4:6, Gal 4:7).
III. A CONSEQUENCE. But now let us consider the consequence to which such a course of conduct in either case must lead.
1. “Sin unto death.“ Yes, towards this inevitable result the service of sin must tend. A fixity of corrupt character. Recovery of freedom possible now; not always. Deaththe death of man’s best nature,this the doom which the service of sin ensures. The victims of Circe: so the slaves of sin. But no wizardry can undo that death!
2. “Obedience unto righteousness.“ A fixity again. This the process of all true moral life. So was it to have been with the first man; so was it with the second (“yet learned he obedience “). So, doubtless, with the angels. And so with us: we are fighting towards the crown which Paul desired (Php 3:12; 2Ti 4:7, 2Ti 4:8), the crown of a consummate righteousness, or, in other words Rev 2:10), “the crown of life.” Such the two consequences of the two courses, to one or other of which each man, by his free choice, commits himself. But whereas death is the wages of sin, the eternal life is God’s free gift.
And to all of us, in words of hope, the voice from heaven says, “Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life! “T.F.L.
HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE
Rom 6:3, Rom 6:4
The significance of baptism.
To suppose that the acceptance of the grace of God in Christ renders us careless about the further committal of sin is to misapprehend the nature of redemption. We cannot dissociate the external results of Christ’s work from a consideration of its inward effects upon the mind and heart of the man who profits by it. For a practical refutation of the supposition, the apostle points to the acknowledged meaning of the ceremony wherein each believer indicates his close relationship to the Saviour.
I. BAPTISM THE SYMBOL OF AN ALTERED LIFE. What can more forcibly set forth an abandonment of former feelings and, behaviour than being “dead and buried”? The allusion here to immersion is questioned by none, and a water grave speaks eloquently of a changed attitude to sin and the world. We are so constituted that this appeal to the senses powerfully impresses both the actual participator in the act and the spectators of the living picture.
II. A SYMBOL OF COMPLETE FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST. The follower of Christ repeats in his inward experience the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. These were necessitated by the presence and enormity of sin, and to “put on Christ” as our Redeemer is to adopt his crucifixion and subsequent triumph as our expression of hatred against all that perverts the moral order of the world. To be immersed into the death of Christ is to be completely surrendered to the claims of the Son of God, and to share his hostility to evil, rejoicing in his conquest over death and the grave, and the adversary of mankind. By compliance with his commandment does the disciple signify his entire dedication to his Master’s service.
III. CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS NEW LIFE. Emerging from the Burial, the candidate rises with Christ as his Example and Companion. His is to be an active life, “a walk,” not a dreamy repose of self-absorption into the bliss of Nirvana. The contrast to the old career was exemplified in the resurrection gladness and glory of the Lord. No more was sin to exert its baleful influence; the body of the risen Lord no longer could be tortured with hunger and thirst and suffering. The Saviour was limited no longer by material barriers; he was endowed with full authority from on high, and crowned with ever-increasing splendour. When the Apostle Paul saw his Lord, the Brightness excelled the noonday sun. These triumphs are in their degree repeated in the spiritual life of the baptized believer. He casts off the works of darkness and puts on the armour of light. He keeps his body under, so that the spirit rules. The voice from heaven proclaims him God’s beloved son. Instead of anguish there is peace and joy. He sits in heavenly places, and God causeth him always to triumph in Christ Jesus. Such is the ideal life of fellowship with Christ in his resurrection, shadowed forth By the ascent from the baptismal waters.S.R.A.
Rom 6:16
Not masters, but servants.
The knowledge of a truth is not synonymous with its practical recognition in our daily life. “Know ye not? ‘ calls plain attention to the consequences of behaviour. It is the business of Scripture and preaching to emphasize the importance of our personal acts. We are not really masters in any condition. The curbed or uncurbed steed of our desires is working in some service, be it of sin or of God.
I. THE ALTERNATIVE. ‘We yield to the motions either of “sin unto death” or of “obedience unto righteousness.” No middle course is possible. Though the notorious transgressor may do a kind action, and the distinguished saint disappointingly err, yet the distinction is real. Characters are only of two sorts; they verge to good or evil. It is not for others, but ourselves, to estimate our position and tendency. Men are deluded by the imaginary difficulty of drawing a boundary-line because of the way in which apparently the good shades off into evil. In the one service or the other we are actually enlisted.
II. THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE. There is the option of the two careers; we are not compelled to either. Motives, longing, circumstances, do not amount to constraint. The apostle pictures men as voluntarily yielding themselves, presenting themselves to the chosen employer. This does not mean that men willingly elect sin as such. The moral bent, the image of God, is shown in their use of terms to hide the viciousness of actions; “a gay life” instead of debauchery; “embellishing a story” instead of a perversion of the truth. Milton describes sin as leaping from the head of the arch-fiend, a form that struck the rebel host at first with horror, “but familiar grown she pleased.” That is the death of the soul when evil is deliberately selected: “Evil, be thou my good.” And the freedom of choice does not imply the absence of obligations to serve God. To delay is to adhere to sin.
III. THE SERVICE OF SIN A DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD. The statement of the alternative, by its sharp antithesis of “sin” and “obedience,” indicates the essential nature of sin. Disobedience is the wanting our own way in opposition to some command of a rightful authority. God’s government being moral, to elect a course of life which violates his laws is to give one’s self to the service of God’s enemy. As compliance with some small order evinces the loyalty of the soldiers; so with us, like our first parents, it may be a so-called trifling matter which tests our disposition. To sin is to disobey a physical, moral, or religious commandment, and this transgression is not merely an individual concern; it affects the Ruler of the universe. Treason is the worst crime against the state, and no man can be allowed to become a centre of infection to the body politic. The disobedience may be in thought, affection, or will, apart from any outward act. Human laws can rarely take note of the inner man; but it is the perfection of Divine laws to regard the heart of the agent.
IV. THE HAPPY RESULT OF OBEDIENCE. Obedience to “the highest we know” is justified by its consequences, “righteousness” and “life.” Men are often afraid lest, by keeping the commandments, they may be debarred from gain and enjoyment; yet is it obedience which augments true power and satisfaction. The laws of God were framed and written upon the heart of man to secure his well-being; to break them is to mar the working of the beautiful machine. If conscience warn you of danger, only folly will silence the monitory voice and darken the beacon-light. Note the work of Christ in removing hard thoughts of the Lawgiver, and exhibiting the beauty of a blamelessly obedient life. He manifested the goal of obedience to be peace, joy, triumph. Our obedience is not the life of despotism, where to reason is illegal; nor of slavery, where is work without a recompense; nor of penance, where merit is sought by righteous deeds as a title to heaven; but Christian obedience is rendered as the joyous intelligent outcome of salvation through Christ, bringing us righteousness and life. Persevering obedience begets a habit of virtue, and surrounds us with a holy environment, wherein it is easier to do right than wrong. Conscience as the approving faculty ministers constant delight. This, at least, is the ideal, to which we may increasingly conform. Compare the lines, spoken by Adam to Michael, in the ‘Paradise Lost’
“Henceforth I learn that to obey is best,
And love, with fear, the only God, etc.;
and the angel’s reply
“This having learnt, thou hast attained the sum
Of wisdom: hope no higher,” etc.
S.R.A.
Rom 6:17
The gospel a mould of obedience.
Some memories are best forgotten, like a horrid dream. Not so the Christian’s recollection of his conversion. As the Corinthians were reminded of their previous wretched career“ such were some of you”so here the Romans. In reading the Authorized Version stress must be laid on the past tense, “were;” then it suggests the clearer translation of the Revised edition.
I. THE FORMER SLAVERY. Absolute freedom is impossible to man, who is surrounded by higher powers, and has a Divine law impressed on his nature. The headstrong youth is really in bondage to sin; and the recluse in his solitude, whilst free from some of the restrictions of civilization, yet deprives himself of some advantages, and thereby imposes on himself certain limits. The description of sin as bond-service is just when we think of the manner in which men are worn out by vice. The silken cords of pleasure become adamantine bonds. The man who delays to reform his life becomes a prisoner, unable to turn the key in the rusty lock. Dislike of the epithet, “servants of sin,” must not blind us to its accuracy, in spite of the euphemistic terms which would hide the flagrancy of our transgressions. Without supposing that statistics of the members of Churches accurately embrace all servants of righteousness, the condition of slavery is all too common, even in Christian England. Press home this fact, and remember that the great, question is not whether we can fix the date and enumerate the details of our conversion, but whether we are conscious of a renewed heart and life.
II. THE NEW SERVICE. The text speaks of a changed state of obedience to God and adoption of righteousnessa state sanctioned by conscience, ratified by the judgment, pleasing to the Almighty, and every way beneficial to ourselves and others. Its cause is the new teaching concerning Jesus Christ. The tense is definite; these Christians had received the doctrine and embraced it gladly. Perhaps the good news is today too much encumbered with technical phraseology, or, having been frequently listened to from infancy, fails to excite in us the glad wonder which it evoked when fresh to the ear. To the Romans it brought tidings of the abrogation of the Sinaitic Law as a covenant of life; it told of the one perfect Offering whereby those that believe are sanctified; it spoke of the all-providing love of the Father for his erring children. The gospel comes as a law to be obeyed, but supplies adequate motives and spiritual power for its fulfilment. The code is discipleship to Christ, hearkening to his preaching and copying his life. This doctrine is represented in the text as “a mould” into which the life of the obedient is cast, imparting to them a righteous forma likeness to their teacherChrist. And in hearty obedience true freedom is realized. The father, toiling home laden with gifts for his children, does not look upon his load as a wearisome burden. The mother, with her fresh responsibilities and cares, delights in the maternal yoke. Love alters the bias, oils the wheels of duty. Christ has won the hearts of his people, and to serve him is an honour and a joy. He strikes off the shackles of sin, and we welcome the golden chains of righteous obedience. We do not deny that sin has its pleasures; but, in comparison with the sense of purity and elevation which the service of Christ furnishes, there is the difference between the hot, stifling atmosphere of the music-hall and the sweet bracing air of the mountain-top.
III. THE THANKSGIVING FOR THE DELIVERANCE. None could think that the rendering of the Authorized Version implied Paul’s delight at the former unrighteousness; but the Revised rendering is less ambiguous to the hurried reader. The phrase, “thank God,“ used to be a stock insertion in ordinary letters. Here it is no unmeaning ascription, filling up the interstices of speech, but a devout acknowledgment of sincere gratitude to him who instituted the gracious plan of salvation, giving up his beloved Son, and by his Spirit opens the hearts of an audience to attend to the message of everlasting life. It is the outpouring of the heart for the safety and honourable obedience of fellow-Christians. A pastor may offer it for his flock, a teacher for her scholars. Give glory to God! thank him with lip and life, by seeking to understand and obey the statutes and principles of the Word of truth, and by leading others to know the joys of redemptive obedience.S.R.A.
Rom 6:23
Covet the best gift!
Contrast heightens effect, as artists by a dark background throw the foreground into brighter relief. So the apostle places two careers in close proximity. He will not allow that it makes little difference which path men tread, in which condition they are found, or what qualifications they seek.
I. A MOMENTOUS BLESSING. “Eternal life.” All life is wonderful Easy is it to destroy the ephemeral life of a moth, but to restore it is beyond human skill. The disciples were assured of eternal life, yet they died; consequently the life they received was not to be measured in ordinary scales, nor to be probed by a material dissecting knife. Eternal life is a different kind of life from mere transitory existence; it passes unharmed through the crucible of animal death, for spiritual powers are untouched by earthly decay and corruption. Eternal life means the quickening of the moral nature, its resuscitation from the sleep of trespasses and sins. And as ordinary life in its fulness involves freedom from pain and sickness, and a vigorous activity, so spiritual life, when fully realized, implies peace of mind and the power to do right. They are feeble Christians who do not know the joyous energy of children “with quicksilver in their veins,” delighting to exercise their limbs and thus to develop their growing faculties.
II. THIS BLESSING RECEIVED AS A GIFT. By a sinful course of action we merit death, as a soldier by his service earns his rations and his pay. We disobey the Law, and bring the sentence upon ourselves. But we have no power available to procure for ourselves acquittal and favour. Much as the youth joys to see his first-earned sovereign glittering in his palm, he could take no delight in the stripes which his disobedience brings upon him. Human weakness has been provided for in God’s plan of salvation. He who breathed natural life into man comes again graciously to inspire his creatures with spiritual life. God knows the needs of his creatures, and the gift is pre-eminently suitable. The Romans loved the games of the amphitheatre; but when famine threatened the city, the curses were loud and deep against Nero because the Alexandrian ships expected with corn arrived instead with sand for the arena. And men like a beautiful present; let us not, therefore, hang back from accepting the royal bounty so adapted to our wants. Treat the gilt with care, prize and use the treasure.
III. THE BEARER OF THE GIFT. It comes “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He is the Channel through which new life streams into us, the envelope containing the promise of life. Life in the abstract we cannot comprehend; it is ever connected with some person or organism. “In him was life; .. Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Life has been scientifically declared to consist in the harmonizing of our external and internal conditions. The chief condition on our part is sinfulness, on God’s part righteousness; and it is Christ who reconciles us unto God, putting away sin by the cross, and investing us with the righteousness of the Holy One. In his words, example, and offices we find all help and blessedness. As the navigator passing through the Straits of Magellan into the Pacific connected its tranquility with the southern cross gleaming in the sky above, so can we rejoice in the peace which Christ brings. It is not a creed we are invited to accept, but a living Person, with whom we may hold converse, and be instructed in perplexity and cheered when despondent. We have this earthly life as the period and opportunity of “laying hold on eternal life.”S.R.A.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR
Rom 6:1-11
Justification securing sanctification.
St. Paul has been speaking in the previous paragraph of “grace abounding,” and a very natural insinuation might be made that continuance, permanent abiding, in sin would be the condition of the most abounding grace. If, therefore, our pardon and acceptance are secured through Christ’s obedience unto death, what motive can the justified have in warring with sin? Why not sin up to our bent, that grace may abound? It is this immoral insinuation that the apostle combats, and combats successfully, in the present section. He does so by bringing out the full significance of Christ’s death to the believer. Now, the peculiar beauty of our Lord’s history lies in this, that, as Pascal long ago pointed out, it may have, and is intended to have, its reproduction in the experience of the soul. The salient facts of Christ’s historyfor example, his death, burial, and resurrectionget copied into the experience of the regenerated soul. The apostle had experienced this himself. At Damascus he had experienced
(1) a burial of the past;
(2) a resurrection into a new life;
(3) a walking in newness of life.
This he believes to be the normal experience of the believer in Jesus. Let us see how these facts of Christ’s history, death, burial, and resurrection, get duplicated in our experience.
I. OUR BAPTISM INTO CHRIST IMPLIES A BAPTISM INTO HIS DEATH. The apostle speaks to the baptized Roman Christians in these terms: “Are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death” (Revised Version). What we have got first to determine here is the exact meaning of being baptized in or into the name of a Person. In a remarkable essay on ‘ Baptism and the Third Commandment,’ a thoughtful writer says, “There is an evident connection between these two. We are baptized in the Name of the Lord our God. And that is the Name which we are commanded not to take in vain It is to tell that we are the Lord’s, claimed by him for his service, called to be followers of him ‘as dear children’ (Eph 5:1). This is the real meaning of a phrase, much used but little reflected ona Christian name. Such are the names, John, James, Thomas, among men; Jane, Mary, Elizabeth, among women. They tell that the bearers belong to Christ. We have two names. The latter of these, our surname, distinguishes us as the children of our earthly father; the former avouches us as the children of a Father in heaven. And let us mark well what comes out of this solemn verity. If we have upon us the name of the God of gentleness while we ourselves are men of strife, or the name of the God of purity while our own lives are impure, or the name of the God of truth while we are given to lying, we are taking that name in vain.” Following out this clue, let us notice that baptism into Christ implies a baptism into his death. For Jesus “died unto sin once;” “he died for the ungodly;” “he died for us;” that is, he passed through the experience of crucifixion to save the lost. Now, the counterpart of this death for sin is found in us if we believe upon him. We realize that we have died in him unto or for sin. “If One died for all, then all died” (2Co 5:14). Accordingly, we are to “reckon ourselves to be dead” in Jesus Christ “unto sin.” Coleridge has rightly remarked, in his ‘Literary Remains,’ that “in the imagination of man exist the seeds of all moral and scientific improvement;” and it is by placing ourselves imaginatively on the cross with Christ, and realizing in his atoning sacrifice our death for sin, that we come to appreciate our individual justification before God. We are thus baptized into his death.
II. OUR BAPTISM INTO DEATH IMPLIES A BURIAL WITH JESUS. For our blessed Lord not only died upon the cross; he was also buried in the tomb. Friends begged the body, took it down tenderly from the accursed tree, wrapped it in spices, and laid it in Joseph’s well-known sepulchre. Now, in burial one thought overpowers all others; it is the putting of the dead out of sight, out of all relation to the struggling world around. As long as a man’s body remains in the tomb
“He has no share in all that’s done
Beneath the circuit of the sun.”
Such a separation took place through burial between the once-living Christ and the bustling world. The throngs might seethe around the temple court and settle down to selfishness again, but the Master-spirit who had been among them is now withdrawn, and sleeping for a season in his tomb. Now, the apostle implies in this passage that a similar sharp separation is experienced by the truly Christian soul from the world. In casting in his lot with Christ, he is buried out of sight, so to speak, and becomes a stranger in the world. His reception by baptism into the Christian community implies his withdrawal from the previous worldly relations in which he stood to other men. And here it is only right to guard against the superficial use made of the burial reference, as if it implied a mode in baptism. “This word (), ‘we were entombed,’ contrary to the opinion of many commentators,” says Dr. Shedd, “has no reference to the rite of baptism, because the burial spoken of is not in water, but in a sepulchre Burial and baptism are totally diverse ideas, and have nothing in common. In order to baptism, the element of water must come into contact with the body baptized; but in a burial, the surrounding element of earth comes into no contact at all with the body buried. The corpse is carefully protected from the earth in which it is laid. Entombment, consequently, is not the emblem of baptism, but of death.” Consequently, the idea of the apostle is that we are spiritually separated from the world by our reception into the Christian community by baptism, just as Jesus was physically separated through his burial in the tomb. Godet, in a note to his comment upon this passage, gives a beautiful illustration of the truth from what a Bechuana convert said to the missionary Casalis some years ago. The convert was a shepherd, and thus expressed himself: “Very soon I shall be dead, and they will bury me in my field. My sheep will come and pasture above me. But I shall no more attend to them, nor go out of my tomb to seize them and carry them back with me into the sepulchre. They will be strange to me and I to them. Behold the image of my life in the midst of the world, from the time that I have believed in Christ.” The idea, therefore, is that by our baptism, i.e. by our union with the Christian Church, we are buried out of the world. The Church proves, so to speak, the cemetery where, in holy peace and blissful fellowship, God’s people rest. And so, as we manfully throw in our lot with Christ, we pass into the grave-like peace of the Christian Church, and enjoy therein fellowship with Christ and his peaceful people. It is to this burial out of the world and into the kingdom of God we are called.
III. ALONG WITH THIS DEATH AND BURIAL WITH CHRIST THERE IS EXPERIENCED A CRUCIFIXION OF OUR OLD NATURE. Historically the crucifixion precedes the death, but experimentally we shall find that, as the apostle here puts it, it succeeds it (verse 6). It is when we have realized our death in Jesus for sin, and our burial with Jesus out of the world, that the crucifixion and mortification of our old nature begin. A counterpart of the crucifixion is realized within us. The “body of sin,” elsewhere called “the flesh” (), must be destroyed, and we nail it to the cross, so to speak, with as much alacrity as the Roman soldiers crucified Christ. We “crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts;” we “mortify our members which are upon the earth” (Gal 5:24; Col 3:5). We feel that “our old man” is incapable of amendment; that the only way in which to improve him is to improve him off the face of the earth and out of existence. This is, consequently, the steady effort of the regenerate soul to kill, by patient crucifixion, the old nature within. As the Saviour was several hours on the cross, as crucifixion, though in his case comparatively speedy, is yet a tardy ordeal, not a momentary execution; so the death of our old nature takes time for its accomplishment, and must be patiently passed through. We must be crucified with Christ, as well as feel that we have died in Christ for sin (Gal 2:20).
IV. OUR BURIAL WITH JESUS IS WITH A VIEW TO OUR RESURRECTION WITH HIM INTO NEWNESS OF LIFE. After death and burial there came to Jesus, as the Father’s glorious gift, resurrection to a new life. Let us consider what resurrection as an experience brought to Jesus. From the cradle to the cross Christ had been the “Man of sorrows.” The weary weight of all this sinful, sorrow-stricken world lay on him; the Father had laid on his strong and willing shoulders the iniquity of us all. It was not wonderful, then, that his life was one long burden, taking end only on the cross. But the first glimpse we get of the risen Saviour conveys the notion of sturdy, stalwart strength, for the Magdalene mistakes him for the gardener. And all that we can gather from subsequent interviews with his disciples goes to show that life has ceased to be the burden it was once, and is now free, joyous, triumphant. All sense of sin-bearing is gone like a dream of the night; he is out in the glad morning of the resurrection with everlasting joy upon his head. Now, such a joyful experience should be the possession of every regenerate soul. We should feel not only that guilt is cancelled through the death of Jesus for us, and that we are “accepted in the Beloved,” but also that a new life is oursa life of fellowship with God. For just as Jesus during “the great forty days” was more in the unseen with the Father than in the seen with the disciples, so in our new life we shall largely cultivate fellowship with the Father.
V. THE NEW LIFE WE LEAD WILL BE LIKE OUR LORD‘S, ONE OF ENTIRE CONSECRATION TO GOD. Now, of the risen Saviour it may well be said that he lived unto God. All his faculties and powers were instruments of righteousness unto God. So it is in the Christian life. It is one of entire consecration. In this way it will be seen that justification leads necessarily to sanctification. The leading facts of our Lord’s history get duplicated in our experience, and death, burial, resurrection, and consecration become ours.R.M.E.
Rom 6:12-23
The reign of grace.
We saw in last section how the leading facts of our Lord’s life get copied into the experience of the regenerate; so that we have a death and burial, and crucifixion, and resurrection, and new life along with Christ. Sanctification in this way naturally issues out of justification. The apostle consequently proceeds to show that the dominion of sin is broken by the same means as the removal of our condemnation, viz. by outlook to Jesus. We find ourselves to be no longer under law as a condemning power, but under a reign of grace. But if we are under a reign of grace, and not under a condemning law, might we not be tempted to think lightly of sin; nay, more, to sin that grace may abound? To meet this objection, the apostle discusses the reign of sin, and contrasts it with the reign of grace. Sin may be our master, but as the slave of sin we shall get rewarded in shame and death; or righteousness, that is, the God of grace himself may be our Master, and, as the slave of righteousness or slave of God, we shall have our rewarda reward of grace, in the development of holiness, and in the gift of eternal life. We cannot do better, then, than contrast the reign of sin with the reign of grace.
I. THE REIGN OF SIN. (Rom 6:12, Rom 6:13, Rom 6:21.) And in this connection let us notice:
1. Sin is a very exacting tyrant. In fact, when we become slaves of sin, we cease being our own masters. We lose the dignity of our nature; we lose self-command; we lose will-power and decision of character. Our bodies become the instruments of unrighteousness, and the lusts of the flesh are obeyed. The prodigal in the parable presents vividly the condition of one under the tyranny of sin (Luk 15:11-25). Then we notice:
2. Sin is a very poor paymaster. For even allowing that it has pleasures to bestow, these are found to be only for a season (Heb 11:25). After these come shame, remorse, and the horrible tempest which infuriated sin entails. Then comes death, the real wages, or rations ( from , “cooked meat,” see Shedd, in loc.). This means, of course, alienation from God, and, when it sets finally into the experience, proves a hopeless and helpless condition.
3. The sooner all slaves of sin change their master the better. The reign of sin only tends to torment. The soul that sells itself to such a tyrant is a fool. He is beside himself, like the prodigal, when he does so. He comes to himself when he renounces the tyranny and transfers his allegiance.
II. THE REIGN OF GRACE. (Rom 6:16-23.) Now, in this passage the apostle uses no less than three terms to express the new and better reign. These are “grace,” “obedience,” “righteousness.“ And then, dropping personification altogether, he shows how we become subjects and slaves of God. From the slavery of sin it is possible to pass into the service and slavery of God. We may get free from sin, and then shall we be at liberty to serve God and be his slaves. We shall not make much mistake if we take up Paul’s teaching under the idea of a reign of grace, And here we have to notice:
1. We enter of our own free-will into the slavery of the God of grace. We are not forced into it; we are “made willing in the day of God’s power” (Psa 110:3). The slavery to God is voluntary. It is a yielding of ourselves. In both slaveries we must remember that the will is not forced, but free. We are free in our slavery to sin; we are free when we turn from it to the slavery of a God of grace. No one forces our hand.
2. We enter our state of grace through obeying from the heart “that form of teaching whereunto we were delivered“ (Revised Version). This refers clearly to the all-important doctrine of justification by faith, through the reception of which we get delivered from condemnation, and started on our course of sanctification. It is most important, therefore, that that doctrine should be faithfully and clearly stated to the soul which is enslaved through sin. It is the very charter of its spiritual freedom.
3. We find that in serving a God of grace we secure holiness of character. For this voluntary and gracious slavery implies the dedication of all our powers to God. We lay ourselves as “living sacrifices” on God’s altar. We find ourselves in consequence visited by an increasing sense of consecration. We learn to live not unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again (2Co 5:14). This sense of consecration becomes habitual. We feel that we are not our own, but bought with a price, and therefore bound to glorify God with our bodies as well as spirits, which are God’s. (1Co 6:20).
4. We find this service of grace happy as well as holy. In other words, we find in God an excellent Paymaster. His service is delightful. Feeling that we are less than the least of all his mercies, feeling that we are at best but unprofitable servants, we accept joyfully whatever he sends; we feel that he daily loadeth us with his benefits, and then, regarding the great future, he gives us therein “eternal life.” Doubtless we do not, strictly speaking, deserve such rewards; they are rewards of grace, not of debt; they are free” gifts” from a gracious Master. Yet they are none the less welcome. Let us, then, renounce the reign of sin, and accept the reign of grace. Its fruit, increasing with the consistent years, is unto holiness, and its end is everlasting life. We are real freemen only when we have become the slaves of a gracious God.R.M.E.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Rom 6:1. The Apostle having now proved, by three distinct arguments, that both Gentiles and Jews can be pardoned, and made partakers of the privileges and blessings of the kingdom of God under the Messiah, no otherwise than by the grace of God, through faith alone; he next proceeds, in proper order, to shew the obligations that both Gentiles and Jews were under to a life of holiness in this their new state, and the means and advantages which they enjoyed for that purpose. This he does, not only to instruct the Christians, and to prevent their mistakes, but also to wipe away a calumny industriously spread, as if, in asserting justification by grace without works, he had taught that we are under no obligation to obedience, chap. Rom 3:8. Against this objection, mistake, or calumny, he puts in a caveat, chap. Rom 3:31 and handlesthe point at large. See the introductory notes to this chapter.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 6:1 . ] In consequence of what is contained in Rom 5:20-21 .
With . . [1377] Paul proposes to himself, as a possible inference from what he had just said “de pleonasmo gratiae” (Bengel), the problem, whose solution in the negative was now to be his further theme a theme in itself of so decisive an importance, that it does not require the assumption of a Jewish-Christian church (Mangold) to make it intelligible. On the introduction in interrogative form by , comp Dissen, a [1379] Dem. de cor. p. 346 ( ;). As however the “ what shall we say then ?” inquires after a maxim in some sort of way to be inferred, the deliberative “ shall we continue, etc? .” could at once follow directly, without any need for supplying before it a repeated , or , and for taking in a hortatory sense (van Hengel, Hofmann).
., to continue in sin , not to cease from it. Comp Rom 11:22 f.; Col 1:23 ; 1Ti 4:16 ; Act 13:43 ; Xen. Hell. iii. 4, 6; Oec. 14, 7 : .
[1377] . . . .
[1379] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Second Section.The contradiction between sin and grace. The calling of Christians to newness of life, since they were translated by baptism into the death of Christ from the sphere of sin and death into the sphere of the new life.
Rom 6:1-11
1What shall we say then? Shall [May]1 we continue in sin, that grace may 2abound? God forbid[Let it not be!].2 How shall we, that are dead [who died]3to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as [all we who]3 were baptized into Jesus Christ [Christ Jesus]4 were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we are [were] buried with him by [through] baptism into death: that [in order that] like [omit like] as Christ was raised up from the dead by [through] the glory of the Father, even [omit even] so we also should walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been planted together in [become united5 with]6 the likeness of his death, we shall be also in [with] the likeness of his resurrection: 6Knowing this, that our old man is [was] crucified with him, that [in order that]7 the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforthwe should not serve [be slaves to]8 sin. 7For he that is dead [hath died]9 is freed [acquitted] from sin. 8Now if we be dead [died] with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:10 9Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him [dominion over him no more]. 10For in that [or, the death that]11 he died, he died unto sin once 11[for all]: but in that [or, the life that] he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise [Thus] reckon ye also yourselves to be [omit to be]12 dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord [ , in Christ Jesus, omit our Lord].13
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The section Rom 6:1-11. Survey. The death of Christians to sin, and their new life.
a. The effect and demand of grace: death and life, Rom 6:1-2.
b. According to baptism, Rom 6:3-4.
c. According to the connection with Christ in His death and resurrection, Rom 6:5-6.
d. According to the power and import of death, especially as a dying with Christ, Rom 6:7-8.
e. According to the power of the new life as an incorruptible life with Christ, Rom 6:9-11.
Rom 6:1. What then shall we say? The introduces the true conclusion from the previous verses, Rom 5:20-21, by repelling the false conclusion which might be deduced from what is said there. [, the deliberative subjunctive. See note on , p. 160.P. S.]
Rom 6:2. Let it not be []. See Rom 3:4; Rom 3:6 [and Textual Note6, p. 112.P. S.]
How shall we who died to sin [.] [decribing the quality], as such who. Living in sin is utterly contradictory to the character of Christians. And the contradiction is very intense, not simply because of the aversion and repulsion between natural death and life referred to by Rungius (see Tholuck).14 The Christian is specifically dead to sin; and the life in sin, as a definitely false life, is opposed to this definite death. We have here an expression, therefore, not merely of freedom from all life-fellowship with sin [so Meyer], but also of the positive contradiction and repulsion between sin and Christian life. The reality of this contradiction is decided, figuratively exhibited, and sacramentally sealed by baptism. Yet the Apostle does not simply borrow his expression of it from baptism; but, rather, the death and resurrection of Christ underlie the figurative meaning of baptism.
[, we died (not, are dead, E. V.), is the historic aorist, as , v. 12, and , Col 2:20; comp. Gal 2:19, ; Rom 7:4. The act of dying refers to the time of baptism, Rom 6:3 (Bengel, Meyer, Philippi, Alford, Wordsworth), which, in the Apostolic Church, usually coincided with conversion and justification, and implied a giving up of the former life of sin, and the beginning of a new life of holiness. The remission of sin, which is divinely assured and sealed by baptism, is the death of sin. Sin forgiven is hated, sin unforgiven is cherished. This, too, shows the inseparable connection between justification and sanctification; and yet they are kept distinct: the justified is sanctified, not vice vers; first we are freed from the guilt (reatus) of sin, then from the dominion of sin; and we are freed from the one in order to be freed from the other. , as far as regards sin; it is the dative of reference, as Gal 2:19; 1Pe 2:24; while in Col 2:20 Paul uses with the genitive in the same sense. A similar phrase is , Gal 6:14, to be crucified to the world, so as to destroy all vital connection with it, and to have no more to do with it, except to oppose and hate it. expresses the possibility, which is denied by the question (Meyer), with a feeling of indignation (Grotius: indignum est si loti in lutum revolvimur). covers the whole future. To live in sin, to hold any connection with it, is henceforth and forever incompatible with justification.P. S.]
Rom 6:3. Know ye not [Or are ye ignorant, ;]. This form of speech, like Rom 7:1, is undoubtedly a reminder of something already known to the readers (Tholuck), yet it imparts at the same time a more definite consciousness and a fuller view of what is known. It is very questionable, says Tholuck, whether other apostles exhibit baptism with the same mystical profoundness as Paul did. But 1Pe 3:17-22 is a modification of the same fundamental thought. So, too, 1Jn 5:4-6. [Paul evidently regarded baptism not merely as a sign, but also as an effective means of grace (comp. Gal 3:27; Col 2:12; Tit 3:5; Eph 5:26); else he would have reminded his readers of their conversion rather than their baptism. We must always remember, however, that in the first missionary age of the Church the baptism of adults implied, as a rule, genuine conversionthe baptism of Simon Magus being an exception.P. S.]
That so many of us (all we who were). , quotquot. [It denotes universality, as many of us as, all without exception, but it is not stronger than , which indicates the quality, such of us as.P. S.] The phrase retains the most direct figurative reference of baptism. It means strictly, to immerse into Christ (Rckert)that is, into the fellowship of Christ. [Comp. Rom 6:4 : ; Gal 3:27 : ; Mat 28:19 : . Alford: Into participation of, into union with Christ, in His capacity of spiritual Mastership, Headship, and Pattern of conformity.P. S.] The explanation of Meyer [accepted by Hodge], that it never means any thing else than to baptize in reference to, with relation to, and that the more specific definitions must arise from the context, fails to do justice to this original meaning. [Comp. Lange and Schaff on Matthew, pp. 555 (Textual Note6), 557, 558, 560.P. S.] But the baptizing into the full, living fellowship of Christ, is, as the Apostle remarks, a baptism into the fellowship of His death. And there is implied here, according to the idea of a covenant, the Divine adjudication of this saving fellowship on the one hand, and the human obligation for an ethical continuance of the fellowship on the other. The explanation of Grotius and others, the idea of imitation, is digressive, and weakens the sense. See Gal 3:27; Col 2:11; Tit 3:5.
Rom 6:4. Therefore we were buried with him [ . . To be buried is a stronger expression than to die, for the burial confirms death and raises it beyond doubt; it withdraws the dead from our sight, and annihilates him, as it were. The same figure in Col 2:12. The mystic in , as also in , , &c., signifies the life-union of the believer with Christ; comp. the remarks of Tholuck, p. 281 f.P. S.]. Buried in death; an oxymoron, according to which burial precedes and death follows, as is illustrated in the immersion into the bath of baptism. The analogous feature in the life of Christ was His rejection by the world, and His violent death on the cross. The expression denotes not only a burial before death and for death, but it is likewise an expression of the decision and completion of death, and, finally, a reference to the transition from death to the resurrection. The finished , as the bringing about of the ; Col 2:12.15
Into death [ ]. The death of Christ is not merely a death of the individual Jesus, but the death which, in principle or power, comprehends all mankind, and which absolutely separates the old world and the new world. Therefore it must not here be particularized (Calov.: the declared death of sin; others give different interpretations). [ must be closely connected with , baptism into the death of Christ for the appropriation of its full benefit, viz., the remission of sins and reconciliation with God.P. S.]
In order that, as Christ was raised up [ , …]. The purpose of dying with Christ. The power that raised our Lord was the of the Father. Thus the resurrection of Christ is traced back to the highest Cause. God is the Father, as Origin and Author of the spiritual world comprehended in Christ. Before the Fathers name the creature-world ascends into the spiritual world, and the spiritual world is conjoined in the Son. The glory of the Father is the concentrated revelation of all the attributes of the Father in their unity, especially of His omnipotence (1Co 6:14; Eph 1:19), wisdom, and goodness; or of His omnipotent love in its faithfulness, and of His personality in its most glorious deed.16 Before the glory of the Father the whole living world goes to ruin, is doomed to death, in order that the dead Christ may be made alive as Prince of the resurrection. Applications of the to the divinity of Christ (Theodoret [ ], and others); in gloriam patris (Beza [inadmissible on account of with the genitive]); in paterna gloria resurrexit (Castalio).
From the dead, . The world of the dead is regarded as a connected sphere. Also antithesis to .
So we also should walk in newness of life [ ]: In newness of life; that is, in a new kind and form of life, which is subsequently denoted as incorruptibility, and therefore also by implication as continual newness and perpetual renewal of existence. Consequently, more than (Grotius).17 [Meyer, Alford: Not a new life;nor are such expressions ever to be diluted away thus.P. S.] Walk gives prominence to the practical proof of this newness in new, free conduct of life.
Rom 6:5. For if we have grown together [ ]. The expression , denoting originally inborn [innate]; born with [congenital, connate], means here the same as , grown together by nature. [Grotius: coaluimus; Tholuck, Philippi, Meyer: zusammengewachsen, verwachsen mit, concretus; Stuart: become homogeneous; Alford: intimately and progressively united.P. S.] The expression complantati (Vulgate, Luther [E. V.: planted together]) goes too far, and is not justified by the language;18 while the interpretation grafted into (Erasmus [Calvin, Estius, Conybeare and Howson], and others) does not express enough here [and would require , insititius.P. S.] The figure denotes: believers as a unity of different branches in one root or one trunk. These characters, which are united in one spirit, as the grapes of a cluster, have sprung from one gospel or new principle of life. Thus believers have grown into an image or analogue of the death of Jesus ( , dative of direction), but not with such an analogue (Meyer, Tholuck), with which we cannot connect any clear thought. [Philippi and Meyer explain: grown together, or, intimately connected with the likeness of His death; the being spiritual death, so that the meaning is: If we are spritually dead to sin, as Christ was physically dead, &c. So in the other clause our spiritual resurrection is the of the bodily resurrection of Christ.P. S.] Neither can be the dative of instrument: We have grown together with Christ [ being understood as in Rom 6:6] through the resemblance of His death-baptism, the likeness of His death (Erasmus [Beza, Grotius], Fritzsche, Baur [Van Hengel], and most others). For [this would require after , and] believers are not grown together by the likeness of the death of Christ, but by His death itself in a religious sense, as cause (through the medium of the gospel), in order that, as an organism, they should now exhibit as a copy His death in the ethical sense.
We shall be also with his resurrection [ ]. The antithesis is strengthened by [which is used sometimes also by the classics for the rapid and emphatic introduction of the antithetical idea, in the apodosis after a hypothetical protasis; see Meyer in loc., and Hartung, Partikellehre, ii. p. 40.P. S.]. We shall also be grown together with Him into the likeness of His resurrection (Beza, Grotius, Meyer, Philppi; Tholuck: abbreviated comparative). Not (Erasmus, Calvin, Olshausen, and others).19 The reference of the expression to the resurrection of the body (by Tertullian, and others) is not in harmony with the context (see Rom 6:4); yet is altogether authorized by Rom 6:9, if we regard the new life as continuing to the bodily resurrection (therefore an ethical and physical resurrection, which Meyer and Tholuck oppose). The future, , is indeed not imperative (Reiche [Olshausen, Stuart: expressive of obligation]); nor does it denote willingness (Fritzsche), but the certainty of the result, the necessary consequence of dying together with Christ [Tholuck, Meyer, Hodge], if we understand thereby not merely a natural consequence, but an ethical one, which involves an ever-new willingness. This is likewise indicated by what immediately follows.
Rom 6:6. Knowing this. That objective relation of the resurrection is not only confirmed by the subjective consciousness (Meyer), but it is also conditioned by it.
That our old man [ ]. Meyer: our old ego. This is liable to misunderstanding, and expresses too much. Meyer further explains: Personification of the entire state of sinfulness before the (Joh 3:3; Tit 3:5; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9). This expresses too little. The old man is the whole sinfulness of man, which, proceeding from Adam, and pervading the old world and making it old, has become, in the concrete human image, the pseudo-plasmatic phantom of human nature and the human form20 (see Rom 8:3). Tholucks explanation is almost unintelligible: Indication of the ego of the earlier personality; as in , , 1Pe 3:4.21
Was [not is, as in the E. V.] crucified with him [ , comp. Gal 2:20 : , ]. Namely, at the time when we were baptized, says Meyer [referring to Rom 6:3-4]. But this is rather a superficial view. Baptism has actually and individually realized a connection which had already been realized potentially and generally in the death on the cross; see 2Co 5:14-15; Gal 2:19; Col 3:1. Tholuck: Calovius says very properly against Grotius: non similitudinem notat, verum simultatem, ut ita dicam, et communionem. The accessory idea of pain, or of gradual death [advocated by Grotius, Stuart, Barnes], could hardly have been thought of in this connection by the Apostle. Yet we are also reminded of the violence and effective energy of the death on the cross by the following: in order that the body of sin might be destroyed. The destructive power of the death on the cross involves not merely pain and sorrow, but also the ignominy of the cross of Christ. According to Meyer, Paul only made use of the expression because Christ had died on the cross.
In order that the body of sin might be destroyed [ ; comp. , Col 2:11, and , Rom 7:24]. It is self-evident, from Paul and the whole Bible, that there is not the slightest reference here to a [literal] destruction of the body [i.e., of this physical organism which is only dissolved in physical death, and which, instead of being annihilated, is to be sanctified; comp. 1Co 6:20; 1Th 5:23; Rom 13:14.P. S.]. As the old man is the pseudo-plasmatic phantom of man, so is the body of sin the phantom of a body in man consisting of his whole sinfulness; and so, further on, is the body of death (Rom 7:24) the phantom of a corporeal power of death encompassing man. It is remarkable that most of the later expositors (with the exception of Philippi, p. 210 ff.) reject the constructions that are most nearly correct, to substitute for them others which are dualistic.
1. Figurative explanations. Sin under the figure of a body.
a. The totality of sin (Origen, Grotius). [Chrysostom: . Calvin: Corpus peccati non carnem et ossa, sed massam designat. More accurately: Sin is personified as a living organism with many members (vices), which may be put to death. So Philippi: Die Masse der Snde als gegliederter Organismus. Bloomfield: is the same with , and means that sin is a body consisting of many particular members or vices, an imperium in imperio.P. S.]
b. The nature or substance of sin (Schttgen).
c. The figure of sin with reference to the figure of the crucifixion (Calov., Wolf, and others).
d. The tendency of alienation from God and conformity to the pleasures of the world (J. Mller, and others; Tholuck, p. 290).
e. More strongly: The whole man in his departure from God; the natural man (Augustin, Luther, Calvin [Hodge: The body of sin is only another name for the old man, or rather for its concrete form]).
f. Reduced to a minimum: Bad habit (Pelagius).
2. Literal explanations:
a. The flesh as flesh of sin, (Rosenmller).
b. The body belonging to the principle of sin, the body ruled by sin. The old man had such a body, and this , as far as it is a body of sin, should be completely destroyed by crucifixion with Christ (Meyer). An utter confusion of the figurative and literal construction. [Winer, Gramm., p. Rom 177: the body which belongs to sin, in which sin has its existence and dominion, almost the same with , Col 1:22. Similarly Alford, after De Wette: the body, which belongs to or serves sin, in which sin rules or is manifested, = , Rom 6:13, in which is , Rom 7:23. Wordsworth: the body of sin is our body, so far as it is the seat and instrument of sin, and the slave of sin.P. S.]
c. The body as , and the latter the seat of sin (Semler, Usteri, Rckert, Ritschl, Rothe, Hofmann; see Tholuck, p. 290).22
3. The anti-dualistic expositors, who interpreted this as the real body or the natural man, were compelled to render improperly the , as: evacuaretur, might be made inoperative and powerless. [Tertullian, Augustin; also Stuart and Barnes: might be deprived of efficiency, power, life. Alford: rendered powerless, annulled, as far as regards energy and activity.P. S.]
That henceforth we should not be slaves to sin. [Calvin: finem abolitionis notat.] Sin is regarded as the controlling power (see Rom 6:16); Joh 8:44. If this power is to be broken, the body of sin must be crucified. The reason for this is given in what follows. [ is a more concrete expression of the aim than the preceding clause, , …. See Winer, p. 569.P. S.]
Rom 6:7. For he that hath died is acquitted from sin. [ ; comp. 1Pe 4:1 : , . The interpretations of this passage depend upon the meaning of , whether it is to be taken in a physical, or in a moral (legal), or in a spiritual (mystic) senseP. S.] The chief and only question here is not ethical dying, or dying with Christ (Erasmus, Calvin, Cocceius, Bengel, Olshausen [De Wette, Philippi], and others. And the reason for this is, first, because justification must not be regarded as the consequence, but the cause of the ethical dying with Christ. Second, because not merely the being justified or freed from sin should be proved, in and of itself, but the being justified or freed from sin by death. An earlier, already present, universal, moral, and theocratical law of life is thus used to illustrate the new, religious, and ethical law of life in Christianity, in the same way that Rom 7:1-6 has reference to such a law. The universal principle which the Apostle makes his groundwork here in the figurative expression, is the word in Rom 6:23 : The wages of sin is death. The Grecian and Roman form of this antithesis was: by execution the offender is justified and separated from his crime (Alethus, Wolf, and others). The theocratic form was the same decree of death for sin, according to Gen 2:17; Gen 9:6; Lev 23:1 ff. The sinner who was made a curse-offering, Cherem, was morally destroyed in a symbolical sense, but, at the same time, his guilt also, as well as his life of sin, was destroyed in a symbolical sense. According to Gen 2:17, the same thing held good of natural death, not so far as it, as a momentary power, put an end to the sinners present life (Chrysostom, and others), but rather because it made a penal suffering extending into eternity (Sheol) the punishment of sin. All these modifications are grouped in the primitive law: death is the wages of sin; and this is the law which the Apostle makes the image of the Christian law of life. The Christian dies to sin by being crucified with Christ. Now, the being justified does not mean here justification by faith in itself (although dying with Christ is connected therewith), but justification as a release from sin by the death of the sinner himself. Because Meyer ignores the complete Old Testament idea of death, he attacks the statute of Jewish theology: death, as the punishment of sin, atones for the guilt of sin. He explains the Apostles declaration thus: He is made a by death, not as if he were now free from the guilt of his sins committed in life, but so far as he sins no more. The explanation of ethical death with Christ (Rothe, Philippi, and others already mentioned) here makes what is to be proved the proof itself (as Meyer properly remarks). Meyer refers the passage to physical death as exit from the present lifea view in which regard is not paid to penal suffering.23 Better than this is the view: As activity ceases in the dead, and sin with it, so should it also be with you who have died with Christ (Theodoret, Melanchthon, Grotius). But there is the same inadequateness of the comparison. Tholucks exposition is utterly untenable (with reference to Calvin, Bengel, Spener, and others), that sin should here be regarded as a creditor who has just claims on man, &c.; for, while a debtor is released by death from his creditor, there is by no means a of the debtor from his debt.24
Rom 6:8. Now if we died with Christ, &c. [ ]. announces the transition to the new thought, that believers, having died with Christ, would also live with Him. But this is not a mere conclusion from the being dead to the new life; the accent rests on the qualification with Christ, because Christ lives. As we are dead with Christ in His death, in its profoundest meaning and effectwhich death comprises the separation from the entire old world, and its sin and vanityso do we believe that we shall also live with him [ ] in the supremely highest and most intense lifewhich life is eternal, and is an eternal life. Meyer emphasizes simply the inference from the ethical death with Christ to ethical participation in the new and enduring life of Christ. He is much in error in excluding here [with Philippi] the idea of the Christians future share in the blessedness of the glorified Saviour (see chap. 8), as Origen, Chrysostom, Grotius, Reiche, and others are in confining to the future life. Rosenmller, Tholuck, and others, have properly comprised both these elements; yet the chief emphasis rests upon the assurance of the new ethical life as implying the full freedom from all sin in the fellowship of Christ. Tholuck, with Erasmus, Calvin, and others, emphasizes once for all [, Rom 6:10] as an eternal destination to new life. This destination is commensurate with the certainty of being dead with Christ. Yet, granting full force to the conclusion, it is still an object of faith (), which rests mainly on Christ as the risen One. (Different interpretations of : Confidence in Divine assistance, Fritzsche; in the Divine promise, Baumgarten-Crusius; in God as the Finisher of the commenced work of grace, Philippi [comp. 1Th 5:24; 2Th 3:3; 2Ti 2:11]).
Rom 6:9. Knowing, &c. From faith in the risen One there arises the certain knowledge that henceforth He can never die; because He could die but once, inasmuch as, with the guilt of sin, He had assumed also the judgment of death. [Alford: Death could not hold Him, and had no power over Him further than by His own sufferance; but power over Him it had, inasmuch as He died. Meyer: The of death over Christ was decreed by God (Rom 6:8-10), and brought about by Christs voluntary obedience (Joh 10:18; Mat 20:28). The conviction that Christ lives for ever furnishes the ground and support to our own life-union with Him.]
Rom 6:10. For in that he died, or, the death which he died. The expression, , may mean: as far as His death is concerned (Winer); or, as far as the death which He died is concerned (De Wette); or that which He died, so that is viewed as the subject [or rather as the accusative of the object; comp. Gal 2:20 : .P. S.]. We prefer the last exposition, but do not refer the , with Benecke (after Hilarius, and others) to the mortal part of Christ [that which died in Christ], but to Christs great and unexampled experience of death. All his dying was abhorrence of sin, induced by sin, directed against sin.Unto sin he died [25 ]. Explanations: ad expianda peccata (Grotius, Olshausen); or, ad expianda et tollenda p. (Tholuck [Reiche, Fritzsche], Philippi); [or, to destroy the power of sin (Chrysostom, Beza, Calvin, Bengel, Ewald]). Indefinite reference to death (Rckert, De Wette [Alford], and others). Meyer: His death paid the debt to sin, and now it can have no more power over Him. Hofmann: With His death, all passive relation to sin has ceased. Certainly the parallel in Rom 6:11 [ ] seems to require a similar rendering. Yet we must not merely bring out prominently the repulsiveness of sin to the life of Jesus, but rather the repulsiveness of His life to sinwhich repulsiveness was consummated in His death. Both together constitute the absolute separation.
Once []. Once for all. [The one sacrifice on the cross, as the sacrifice of the infinite Son of God, has infinite value both as to extent and time, and hence excludes repetition; comp. Heb 7:27; Heb 9:12; Heb 9:26; Heb 9:28; Heb 10:10; 1Pe 3:18.P. S.]
But in that he liveth, or, the life that he liveth [ , ]. All His life, His whole glorious life, is for God. As His death consisted wholly in the ethical reaction against sin, so His life consists wholly in consecration to God, His honor, and His kingdom. [Christs life on earth was also a life for God, but in conflict with sin and death, over which He triumphed in the resurrection.P. S.] Theophylacts view is wrong: by the power of God.
Rom 6:11. Thus reckon ye also yourselves (account yourselves) dead indeed unto sin [ ]. A of Christ does not stand as a parallel to (which is imperative, and not indicative, as Bengel would have it).26 It should rather be derived from the meaning of the death of Christ, according to Rom 6:10.
But alive unto God in Christ Jesus [ ..]. That is, in fellowship, or living union with Him (not merely through Him).27 It refers not simply to living to God (Rckert, De Wette [Alford]), but also to being dead to sin [Reiche, Meyer]. The requires of Christians that they should understand what they are as Christians, as members of Christ, according to the duties of common fellowship (Tholuck, Philippi); but not that they should attain to this condition by moral effort (Baur). That is, Christian life proceeds upon the believing presupposition of our completion in Christ; but this completion is not, reversely, brought to pass by a moral effort. Of course, the telic completion then meets the principial completion as the goal of effort.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. See the Preliminary Remarks on chaps. 68, and the inscription to the present section, chap Rom 6:1-11.
2. On Rom 6:1. The false conclusion which anomianism has ever derived from the fact that sin, in its complete development, occasions a still more glorious revelation of grace, rests on the erroneous supposition that the ethical and organic relation on both sides is a purely natural relation, which justifies to an altogether passive conduct in religious and moral things. This anomianism appears in Indian heathendom, as well as in modern humanitarianism, chiefly in a pantheistic form. But in Christian religiousness it appears only sporadically in this form; yet mostly, on the other hand, in dualistic forms. This is as much as to say, that if the flesh be indulged in its sphere, the spirit will likewise maintain the ascendency in its sphere; or, grace will overcome sin, and the like. But in every form this anomianism is to the Apostle an object of religious and moral abhorrence, which he expresses by . He opposes this false conclusion by the truth of the relation according to which the whole of Christianity is rooted in a thoroughly religious and moral actthe death of Jesus.
3. Baptism, in its full meaning, is a dying with Christ, which is potentially grounded in the dynamic meaning of His dying for all (2Co 5:14), and is actually realized in the dynamical genesis of faith. It follows from this that it is not only a partial purification of the living sinner, but his fundamental purification by a spiritual death and burial; that, further, it not merely represents sensibly and seals the single parts and acts of the Christian life, but its whole justification, in all its parts; and therefore that it is available, operative, and obligatory once for all. It follows, finally, that baptism is not simply an ecclesiastical act performed on the individual, when the individual is passive, but an ethical covenant-transaction between Christ and the one who is baptized; wherefore even the baptism of children presupposes in the family, the parents, or the sponsors, a spirit of faith which represents and encompasses the child.
From all this it will be seen how very much baptism is obscured and desecrated by regarding it either as a mere ceremony which certifies the Christian life of the person baptized, or, on the other hand, as a onesided and magical act which is supposed to create the Christian life.
[In opposition to the low and almost rationalistic views now prevailing in a large part of Protestantism on the meaning and import of Christian baptism, it may be well to refer to the teaching of the symbols of the Reformation down to the Westminster standards, and of the older divines, which is far deeper. Take, for instance, the Westminster Confession of Faith (chap. 28): Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church, but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his in grafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life. (Comp. the Larger Catechism, Qu. 165, and Shorter Catechism, Qu. 94). Calvin says: In treating the sacraments, two things are to be considered: the sign, and the thing signified. Thus, in baptism, the sign is water; but the thing signified is the cleansing of the soul by the blood of Christ, and the mortification of the flesh. Both of these things are comprised in the institution of Christ; and whereas often the sign appears to be ineffectual and fruitless, that comes through mens abuse, which does not annul the nature of the sacrament. Let us learn, therefore, not to tear apart the thing signified from the sign; though, at the same time, we must be on our guard against the opposite fault, such as prevails among Papists. For, failing to make the needful distinction between the thing and the sign, they stop short at the outward element, and there confidently rest their hope of salvation. The sight of the water, accordingly, withdraws their minds from Christs blood and the grace of the Spirit. Not reflecting that, of all the blessings there exhibited, Christ alone is the Author, they transfer to water the glory of His death, and bind the hidden energy of the Spirit to the visible sign. What, then, must be done? Let us not separate what the Lord has joined together. We ought, in baptism, to recognize a spiritual laver; we ought in it to embrace a witness to the remission of sins and a pledge of our renewal; and yet so to leave both to Christ and the Holy Spirit the honor that is theirs, as that no part of the salvation be transferred to the sign.Dr. John Lillie, in his excellent posthumous Lectures on the Epistles of Peter (New York, 1869, p. 252), in commenting on 1Pe 3:21, remarks: But what, you will ask, is baptism, then, a saving ordinance? Certainly; that is just what Christs Apostle here affirms. Nor is this the only place, by any means, in which the New Testament speaks of baptism in a way that would now offend many good people, were it not that the perplexing phraseology is unquestionably scriptural. Recollect, for instance, Peters own practical application of his pentecostal sermon: Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. And so Ananias in Damascus to the humbled persecutor: Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins. Paul, too, expressly calls baptism the laver of the water by which Christ purifies His Church; and again, the laver of regeneration by which God saves us. Frequently, also, he represents it as that by which we are united to Christ, and made partakers of His death and resurrection. Nay, Christ Himself, in sending forth His gospel among all nations, named baptism as one condition of salvation. We need not, then, hesitate to call it a saving ordinance. But how does it save? Just as any other ordinance savesnot through any inherent virtue of its outward signs and processes, but solely as it is a channel for the communication of Divine grace, and used in accordance with the Divine intention. On the one hand, while grace is ordinarily dispensed through ordinances, it is not confined to them, God being ever higher than His own appointments, and acting, when it so pleases Him, independently of them altogether. And, on the other hand, there must be on the part of man, besides the observance of formal precept, a yielding of his whole nature to the quickening and transforming influence. Take for an example that greatest ordinance, the Word of God. It is able, says James (Rom 1:21), to save your souls. But how? Not simply as it is preached, or heard, or read. That it may be the power of God unto salvation, it must first be accompanied with the demonstration of the Spirit, and then received with meekness, and so become the ingrafted word. It is not the foolishness of preaching that saves; but it pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now, just so with baptism: equally with the gospel itself, it is a Divine institution, whereby God ordinarily dispenses His grace. But its whole efficacy is due to that grace of God, and to our fitting reception and use of the ritenot to its mere external administration, by whatsoever priestly or apostolic hand.P. S.]
4. According to the Apostle, the burial as well as the death of Christ is represented in the meaning and effect of baptism. But as the burial of Christ not only seals His death, but also brings to pass the mysterious form of His transition to new life, so is it also with the worlds renunciation of the secret inward life of the Christian, which develops from a germ in mysterious growth, and is hid with Christ in God. (For fuller information on being baptized into the death of Christ, see Tholuck, p. 280, and Philippi, p. 205.)
5. Christianity is not only a new life, but a newness of lifea life which never grows old, but has ever a more perfect and imperishable renewal. But as the resurrection of Christ rests on a deed of the glory of the Father, so is it with the new birth of the Christian. See the Exeg. Notes.
6. Although believers are so intimately connected or grown together in a living organism as to appear to be living on the same vine or the same branch, they are nevertheless not grown together in the form of natural necessity. While unchurchly and unhistorical sectarianism ignores the organic internal character and historical structure of the Christian communion, hierarchism, on the other hand, disregards its ethical and free inward character. The life of Christ is repeated and reflected, after His death and resurrection, in His imagethe Church; but not in the sense that it is quantitatively a supplement or substitute for Him, but that it completely unites itself qualitatively with Him as its living head. Because the Christian suffers death in Christ, rises, and is justified, Christ, as the crucified and risen One, lives in him. (See. Rom 8:29; Eph 1:4; Col 1:22-24; Col 2:11; Col 3:1, &c.)
7. The Apostles doctrine of the old man, the body of sin, the body of death, the law in the members, &c., shows a divinatory anticipation of the idea of the pseudo-plasmas, which has first appeared in the modern science of medicine. The old man is not the real man, nor the natural man, but sin, which has pervaded man as the plasmatic phantom of his nature, and, as an ethical cancer, threatens to consume him. (On the various theological interpretations of the old man, see Tholuck, p. 287. For a more complete interpretation of Pauls pseudo-plasmatic ideas, see Exeg. Notes on Rom 7:24.)
8. Those who designate the real body of man as the source of sin, abolish the real idea of sin. Even the expression, that the body is not the source, but the seat of sin, is not correct in reference to the tendency of the wicked, and is only conditionally correct in reference to the life of the pious, in whom sin, as sinfulness, as a tempting propensity in the bodily part of the being, has its seat, and will continue to have its seat, until the old form of the body is laid off.
9. On being free from the debt of sin by death, see the Exeg. Notes. Death removes guilta definition which may be further formularized thus: the kind of death corresponds as justification to the kind of guilt; the depth of death corresponds to the depth of guilt. Therefore the death of Christ is the potential justification of humanity, because it plunged the absolutely guiltless and holy life into the absolute depth of the death of mankind.
10. On the expression body of sin, in Rom 6:6, compare the elaborate discussion by Tholuck, p. 288 ff. Likewise the same author, on Rom 6:9, or the relation of Christ to death; p. 306.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
On the relation of sin and grace: 1. It is true that the more powerful sin is, the more powerful is grace also; but it cannot be inferred from this, 2. That we should continue in sin. But, 3. We should wish, rather, not to live in sin, to which we died (Rom 6:1-2).To what would continuance in sin lead? 1. Not to grace, for he who sins wilfully, trifles with grace; but, 2. To the terrible looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the rebellious (Rom 6:1-2). Heb 10:26.Of Christian baptism. 1. What is it? a. a baptism into Christ; b. a baptism into the death of Christ. 2. Of what service is baptism to us? a. We die and are buried by it in repentance; b. we are raised by it in faith (Rom 6:3-4).By baptism we enter into a double communion with Christ: 1. Of His death; 2. Of His resurrection.Christians are, 1. Companions in the death of Christ; but also, 2. In His resurrection (Rom 6:5).The crucifixion of our old man: 1. The manner and form of the old man; 2. his crucifixion.The glorious immortality of Christ: 1. Its foundation; 2. Its importance to us (Rom 6:8-10).We should reckon ourselves dead in relation to sin, but alive in relation to God; that Isaiah , 1. We should, by faith, be ever taking our stand-point more perfectly in Christ; and, 2. First of all in His death, but also in His life (Rom 6:11).
Starke: The suffering and death of a Christian are not to destruction, but a planting to life.
Hedinger: Under the grace of God we are not permitted to sin.Mller: Life and death cling together; the more the old dies and goes to ruin, the more gloriously does the new man arise.Either you will slay sin, or sin will slay you.Where faith is there is Christ, and where Christ is there is life.
Gerlach: The baptism of Christians is a baptism into Christs death; that is, into the complete appropriation of its roots and fruits.
Besser: Paul places the gift of baptism first, and connects with it the duty of the one baptized.
Heubner: Recollections of our former covenant of baptism: 1. What has God done for us in baptism? 2. What have we to do in consequence of baptism?Thomasius: The power of baptism in its permeation of the whole Christian life.Florey: We are baptized into the death of Christ. Namely: 1. Upon the confession that He died for us; 2. On the pledge that we should die with Him; 3. In the hope that we shall live by Him.Harless: The impediments to Christian life: 1. The pleasure of life, which is terrified at evangelical preaching on death; 2. The dulness and unbelief of spiritual death, which is terrified at evangelical preaching on life; while yet, reversely, 3. The pleasure, power, and pious conduct of the Christian rests upon the death which he has died for newness of life.
[Sherlock: As the death of Christ was not barely a natural death, a separation of soul and body, but a sacrifice for sin, to destroy the dominion of it, so our dying to sin is the truest conformity to the death of Christ; and as we must consider His resurrection as His living to God and advancement into His spiritual kingdom, so our walking in newness of life is our conformity to His resurrection, and makes us true subjects of His spiritual kingdom.Henry: As natural death brings a writ of ease to the weary, so must we be dead to all the sins of our former rebellious life. We must be as indifferent to the pleasures and delights of sin, as a man that is dying is to his former diversions. As natural death cuts off all communication with life, so must sanctification in the soul cut off all communication with sin.Macknight: We should daily recollect our baptism, and be stirred up by it to every religious act and thought possible, for it is this that sets before us the death and resurrection of Christ.Clarke: The sacrificial death of Christ is the soil in which believers are planted, and from which they derive their life, their fruitfulness, and their final glory.Hodge: It is those who look to Christ not only for pardon, but for holiness, that are successful in subduing sin; the legalist remains its slave. To be in Christ is the source of the Christians life; to be like Christ is the sum of his excellence; to be with Christ is the fulness of his joy.J. F. H.]
Footnotes:
[1]Rom 6:1.[The reading of the Rec. () is poorly supported? A. B. C. D. F. read ; adopted by Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, Wordsworth. The above emendation is supported by the last two editors. . K., and some cursives, have .
[2]Rom 6:2.[ is a very forcible negative. How it should be rendered, is perhaps a matter of taste, but the God forbid expresses its forcibleness as no other English phrase can. Comp. Gal 2:17; p. 49, note.
[3]Rom 6:3.[The E. V. is literally correct, but the reference seems to be to those baptized as a whole (Meyer); hence the emendation, which is adopted by Alford, Wordsworth, Amer. Bible Union.
[4]Rom 6:3.[B., and a number of cursives and fathers, omit . The order in almost all authorities is .
[5]Rom 6:5.[Wordsworth renders : have become connate with. This is literal and exact, but connate would scarcely be proper in a popular version. Meyer, Lange: zusammengewachsen, grown together. United (Alford, Amer. Bible Union) is adopted in lieu of a better word. The E. V.: planted together, is based on a wrong view of the etymology of .
[6]Rom 6:5.[In of the E. V. is not found in the Greek. With, in both clauses, is borrowed from . Any further emendation must be based on exegetical views of the verse.
[7]Rom 6:6.[, telic, in order that. The next clause is telic also; but as a different form is chosen in Greek, it is better to let the simple that remain. Amer. Bible Union reverses the position of in order that, that, leaving it indefinite whether the first clause is telic.
[8]Rom 6:6.[The verb means, first, to be a servant, or slave, then, to serve. The personification of sin, implied in this passage, makes the primary meaning more correct here, and slaves is preferable to servants, for obvious reasons.
[9]Rom 6:7.[This verse has an aorist () in the first part, and a perfect () in the second. Yet the rendering: He that died has been justified from sin (Amer. Bible Union) does not convey its meaning properly. The aorist refers to something antecedent to the perfect, while the perfect states what continues to be true; hence, in English, we must invert, rendering the aorist by has died, the perfect by is acquitted. The Apostle is stating a general proposition, which is not theological, but legal; hence, acquitted is preferable to justified.
[10]Rom 6:8.[The reading , is found in . B1. D. F., and is now generally adopted. Rec.: found in B2. L. C. K., have ; which Lange considers a legal correction to the hortatory. F. has .
[11]Rom 6:10.[The grammatical question respecting is indicated by the two renderings given in each member of this verse. The meaning is essentially the same, whichever be adopted (Meyer).
[12]Rom 6:11.[Rec., 3. K. L., insert after ; 1. B. C., before; it is omitted in A. D. E. F. G., by most modern editors.
[13]Rom 6:11.[The E. V. is unfortunate in rendering , through, since the point of the whole passage is, that we are alive in virtue of our union to Christi.e., in Christ Jesus. The Rec. adds , on the authority of. C. K. L., some versions and fathers. The words are omitted in A. B. D. F., most versions, by many fathers, Meyer, Alford, Wordsworth.R.]
[14][Tholuck quotes from Rungius: Significat non modo vulgarem quandam abstinentiam a proposito peccandi, sed quandam , qualis est inter mortuos et vivos.P. S.]
[15][All commentators of note (except Stuart and Hodge) expressly admit or take it for grunted that in this verse, especially in and , the ancient prevailing mode of baptism by immersion and emersion is implied, as giving additional force to the idea of the going down of the old and the rising up of the new man. Chrysostom on John 3., Hom. xxv. (al. xxiv., Opp., tom. viii. p. 151): , , , , . He then quotes Col 2:12; Rom 6:6. Bloomfield: There is a plain allusion to the ancient mode of baptism by immersion; on which, see Suicers Thes. and Binghams Antiquities. Barnes: It is altogether probable that the Apostle has allusion to the custom of baptizing by immersion. Conybeare and Howson: This passage cannot be understood, unless it be borne in mind that the primitive baptism was by immersion. Webster and Wilkinson: Doubtless there is an allusion to immersion, as the usual mode of baptism, introduced to show that baptism symbolized also our spiritual resurrection, X. Comp. also Bengel, Rckert, Tholuck, Meyer. The objection of Philippi (who, however, himself regards this allusion probable in Rom 6:4), that in this case the Apostle would have expressly mentioned the symbolic act, has no force in view of the daily practice of baptism. But immersionists, on the other hand, make an unwarranted use of this passage. It should be remembered, that immersion is not commanded here, but simply alluded to, and that the immersion, or , is only one part of the baptismal act, symbolizing the going down of the old man of sin; and that the emersion, or , of the new man of righteousness, is just as essential to complete the idea. Hence, irrespective of other considerations, the substitution of the onesided and secular term immersion for baptism, in a revision of the English Bible, would give a merely negative view of the meaning of the sacrament. Baptism, and the corresponding verb, which have long since become naturalized in the English language, as much so as Christ, apostle, angel, &c., are the only terms to express properly the use of water for sacred, sacramental purposes, and the idea of resurrection as well as of death and burial with Christ. Immersion is undoubtedly a more expressive form than sprinkling; yet the efficacy of the sacrament does not depend upon the quantity or quality of water, nor upon the mode of its application.P. S.]
[16][ and are closely related; comp. the Hebrew , and , Col 1:11. Meyer explains , die glorreiche Gesammivollkommenheit Gottes.P. S.]
[17][So also Koppe, Reiche, Stuart: I regard as a Hebraistic form, in which the first noun supplies the place of the adjective. Against this dilution, comp. Winer, p. 211, Meyer and Alford in loc. The abstract noun gives greater prominence to the quality of newness, which is the chief point here; comp. 2Th 2:11; 1Ti 6:17.P. S.]
[18][ is not derived from , to plant (, used by Plato), but from , or , to grow. Comp. on the different meanings of , Reiche, Fritzsche, and Philippi in loc.P. S.]
[19][Grammatically, this is not impossible, since is constructed with the genitive as well as with the dative; but would have been more natural in this case; hence it is better to supply , so that depends upon . .P. S.]
[20][One of Langes hardest sentences: Der alte Mensch ist die einheitliche Sndhafligkeit des Menschen, wie sie von Adam ausgehend, die alte Welt durchziehend und zur alten machend in dem concreten Menschenbilde zum pseudoplasmatischen Scheinbilde der Menschennatur und Menschengestalt geworden ist. In like manner he explains the body of death, Rom 7:24, and the law in the members, Rom 7:23, with reference to the physiological and medical doctrine of plasma and pseudo-plasma, as if Paul had by intuition anticipated modern science.P. S.]
[21][The is the personified, or the , Rom 7:14; Rom 7:18i.e., the fallen, sinful nature before regeneration, in opposition to the , or , or the , the renewed, regenerated man; Col 3:9-10; Eph 4:22-24; 2Co 5:17. The term man is used because sin controls the whole personality, as, on the other hand, regeneration is a radical change of the whole man with all his faculties and dispositions. The phrase, the old man, the man of sin, is traced to rabbinical origin by Schttgen, Bloomfield, Stuart; but the passage quoted by Schttgen from the comparatively recent Sohar-chadash (first published in 1599) has a different meaning, according to Tholuck, p. 287. The Talmud, however, calls proselytes new creatures, and says of them they became as little children; see Schttgen, Hor. i. p. 328, 704 f.; Wetstein and Meyer on 2Co 5:17. Meyer says: The form of the expression ( ) is rabbinical; for the Rabbins considered a convert to Judaism as . The Christian idea of the , of course, is far deeper.P. S.]
[22][Tholuck takes in the literal sense, but viewed as the seat and organ of sin (p. 303), and enters in this connection into a full discussion of the meaning of , and its relation to sin, p. 296 ff.; but the proper place for a biblico-psychological excursus on , , , , , is chap. 7. See below.P. S.]
[23][Meyers view is, that he who is physically dead is free from sin, because he is free from the body, the seat of sin. But this, as Philippi remarks, is contrary to the biblical and Pauline anthropology.P. S.]
[24][We add the views of leading English and American commentators: Scott, Macknight, and Hodge: He who is dead with Christ is freed from the guilt and punishment of sin by justification. Stuart and Barnes: The Apostle applies a common Jewish proverb concerning physical death, to one who is spiritually dead as to sini.e., he must become free of its influence. Bloomfield: He whose corrupt nature has been crucified with Christ is freed from its power and slavery. Alford: As a man that is dead is released from guilt and bondage among men: so a man that has died to sin is acquitted from the guilt of sin and released of its bondage, so that sin (personified) has no more claims on him, either as a creditor or as a master, cannot detain him for debt, nor sue him for service. Forbes combines the view of legal freedom from the guilt of sin (Fraser, Haldane) with the interpretation of spiritual freedom from the power and dominion of sin. It is to sin as a whole, to its power as well as to its guilt, that the believer has virtually died in Christ as his representative and substitute. All is already objectively accomplished in Christ, yet remains to be realized subjectively in the believers individual experience, which will not be completed till after the literal death of the body.P. S.]
[25][The dative of reference or relation; in point of fact, in the case of it is the Dativus incommodi, or detrimenti; while in the next clause is the Dat. commodi.P. S.]
[26][The indicative would rather require: , instead of the second person. Alford is quite mistaken, when he says: Meyer only holds it to be indicative. Meyer, on the contrary, takes to be the imperative, in harmony with the hortative character of what follows.P. S.]
[27][Meyer: X., I. is not per Christum (Grotius, Fritzsche, al.), but denotes the element in which the being dead and being alive holds. Comp. Winer, Gramm., p. 364.P. S.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 1845
THE GOSPEL SECURES THE PRACTICE OF HOLINESS
Rom 6:1-4. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
WE are told that the Gospel was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; whilst to all who had an experience of it in their souls, it was both the power of God, and the wisdom of God [Note: 1Co 1:23-24.]. The grounds on which the Jews and Greeks so greatly inveighed against it were various: its apparent contrariety to the revelation given by Moses rendered it offensive to the one; and its proposing to us a Saviour, who appeared unable to save himself, rendered it contemptible to the other. But there was one ground of offence which exposed it equally to the reprobation of all; and that was, the unfavourable aspect which it had in relation to holiness. Men of every religion were ready to cry out against it in this view: and therefore the Apostle, having stated the plan of the Gospel salvation with all possible clearness, takes up this objection, and gives an answer to it;such an answer, indeed, as neither Jews nor Gentiles could have anticipated; but such as must approve itself to all whom God enables to comprehend it.
From the words of my text, I will take occasion to shew,
I.
The supposed tendency of the Gospel to encourage sin
The Gospel certainly, when stated as St. Paul stated it, has, to a superficial observer, this aspect
[It greatly magnifies the grace of God in the salvation of fallen man. It sets forth that grace, in all its freeness, and in all its fulness. It offers salvation freely, without money and without price. It offers salvation through the righteousness of another, even the righteousness of our incarnate God and Saviour. It offers salvation by faith alone, without works; saying, To him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness [Note: Rom 4:5.]. Nor does it make its offers to the most righteous only; but to all, not excepting even the vilest of mankind; saying, Where sin hath abounded, grace shall much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, so shall grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord [Note: Rom 5:20-21.].]
Hence men in every age have characterized it as licentious
[In St. Pauls day, many drew from his statements this inference, that, supposing his statements to be true, men might very safely continue in sin, that so the grace of God, in pardoning it, might be the more abundantly displayed. At this day also, wherever the Gospel is faithfully delivered, men bring the same objections against it. Because we offer salvation to the chief of sinners, saying, All that believe shall be justified from all things [Note: Act 13:39.], we appear to them to make light of sin. And because we declare, that the good works of men make no part of a mans justifying righteousness; and that the best work that ever we performed would, if relied upon in ever so small a degree, not only not add any thing to the work of Christ, but would invalidate and render void all that he ever did and suffered for us; we seem to make light of holiness; since we declare, that the evil we have committed shall never condemn, nor shall the good that we may do ever justify, the believing soul. Men cannot imagine what inducement we can have to practise good works, if they are not to justify us; or to abstain from sin, if it may so easily be blotted out by one simple exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence the whole Gospel appears to them a strange, unintelligible, and licentious doctrine; calculated only to mislead the simple, and palatable only to hypocrites and fanatics.]
But, in answer to all such objections, I will shew,
II.
The security it gives for the practice of universal holiness
Doubtless, nothing but divine grace can secure the practice of holiness: and, to a man destitute of that sanctifying principle, all sentiments, of whatever kind, will be ineffectual for the purification of his soul. A man may profess the greatest regard for good works, yet not perform them; or he may profess the greatest regard for Christ, and not render to him the obedience of the heart: on the contrary, he may turn the grace of God into lasciviousness [Note: Jude, ver. 4.]. But, so far as any principles can prevail, those of the Gospel, when embraced in their purity, will be found to produce holiness both of heart and life. So the Apostle declares, in answer to the objection before stated.
To enter fully into the Apostles argument, see what a man professes at his first entrance into the Church of Christ
[He is baptized into Christ: into Christ, as dying for his offences, and as raised again for his justification [Note: Rom 4:25.]. To the Saviour, so dying and so rising, he feels himself bound to be conformed; dying to sin, as He died for sin; and rising, like him, to a new and heavenly life [Note: ver. 811.]. His immersion, at the time of his baptism, represented this to him: and he, in submitting to it, pledged himself to seek the experience of this change in his soul, and never to rest till he shall have attained it. Christ, after his crucifixion, was buried: and in baptism the believer is buried with Christ; and engages to become as separate from all his former lusts, as Christ was from all the concerns of this perishing world. And the same power that wrought in Christ, to raise him from the dead, works effectually in his soul, to accomplish in him this wondrous renovation after the Divine image. Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; and by the same glorious power the believer is enabled to walk in newness of life.
Now, all this a man professes in his baptism: he then, in the sight of God and of the world, acknowledges these to be his most decided sentiments, and his unalterable obligations. He declares, before all, that he owes every thing to Christ, and is bound to employ every faculty of his soul for Christ; living altogether for that Saviour who died for him and rose again [Note: Rom 14:7-8.].]
Now mark what aspect this profession must have on all his future life
[I grant, that he may be drawn aside from the path of duty, and go back to all the evil courses from which he professes to have been delivered [Note: 2Pe 1:9; 2Pe 2:20.]. But, in the midst of all he must say, This course of life does not proceed from my principles; nor is it in accordance with them. No: it is altogether in opposition to my avowed sentiments, and is one continued violation of my most solemn engagements. The Gospel is not to be blamed for what I do, any more than it was for the sins of Judas or of Peter, of Ananias or of Demas, or of any other person that ever dishonoured his Christian calling. In a word, the man who has been baptized into the faith of Christ bears in the face of the whole world this unequivocal testimony: The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, teaches me, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, I should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world: and, if it produce not this effect, the fault is in myself alone.
Now, I look upon this as a complete answer to the objection in my text. I admit that a person professing the principles of the Gospel may walk unworthy of them: but I utterly deny that the Gospel has any thing in it to encourage such a life: on the contrary, I assert, that a mans entrance into the Church by baptism is an open acknowledgment that a very different life becomes him; and that he cannot depart from holiness without expressly contravening all his principles and all his obligations.]
Application
1.
Is there now any one present who entertains the objection here made against the Gospel?
[Alas! there are many who will represent the preachers of the Gospel as saying to their hearers, Only believe; and you may live as you please. But methinks there is not one, amongst all this host of objectors, that believes his own statement. For it is a notorious fact, that those very persons, who decry our ministry as encouraging licentiousness, will, with the very next breath, cry out against us, as making the way to heaven so strait, that none but a few enthusiasts can walk in it. But, supposing them to be sincere, they only betray their own ignorance. St. Paul says in my text, Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? No: they know nothing of the matter: they know nothing of the Christians principles; nor do they at all consider his obligations. The Christian never accounts himself free from the moral government of the law, though he knows himself free from its condemning sentence. On the contrary, he feels a thousand motives for obedience, which a mere self-righteous moralist has no idea of: and if a proposal were made to him to sin, that grace might abound, he would reply with indignation and abhorrence, God forbid! To you, then, I say, be diligent in your inquiries, and candid in your judgment. Where, amongst the self-righteous moralists, did you ever find such attainments in holiness as in the Apostle Paul? These attainments were the genuine fruit of his principles; as he himself has told us: The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and rose again [Note: 2Co 5:14-15.]. Only receive the Gospel as he preached it; and it shall operate in you as it did in the Churches which were planted by him.]
2.
Is there any one here who, by his conduct, gives occasion for this objection?
[That there is not any avowed Antinomian amongst us, I can easily believe: but are there not those who, by their ungoverned tempers, or their covetous practices, or their unholy lives, give occasion to the enemies of religion to blaspheme, and to speak evil of the truths which Paul preached? Ah! brethren, if there be one such person in the midst of us, let him remember what our blessed Lord has said: Woe unto the world because of offences; for it must needs be that offences will come: but woe unto him by whom they come: for it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were cast into the midst of the sea, than that he should offend one of Gods little ones [Note: Luk 17:1-2.]. It is a lamentable fact, that one man who dishonours the Gospel by an unholy conversation, does more injury to the souls of men, than ten holy men can do them good. Every one, however blind to the excellencies of the godly, has his eyes open to behold the faults of those who profess godliness; aye, and his mouth open too, to report and aggravate all the evil that he has either seen or heard: for it is by this that worldly men seek to justify themselves in their contempt of a religion which is so disgraced. I charge you then, my dear brethren, guard against every thing which can produce these fatal effects; and beg of God rather to cut you off from the earth at once, than to suffer you to become a stumbling-block to the world, and a scandal to his Church.]
3.
I trust there are those present who bear in mind and exemplify their baptismal vows
[Yes, I hope there are amongst us many who walk worthy of their high calling, and adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour by a holy and heavenly conversation. To such persons I would say, be steadfast in your course, and endeavour to abound more and more. And, that you may see what heights are to be attained, set the Lord Jesus Christ before you both in his death and resurrection; that, being planted in the likeness of the one, ye may be also in the likeness of the other [Note: ver. 5.]. What had he to do with the cares or pleasures of this world, when he was buried in the grave? Or when has a moments intermission of his services to God occurred, since his resurrection from the dead? Let this, then, be your pattern, both in your death unto sin, and in your living unto righteousness: and, as you acknowledge yourselves to have been bought with a price, seek and labour to glorify Him with your bodies and your spirits, which are his [Note: 1Co 6:20.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
CONTENTS
The Doctrine of Justification by Christ, shewn to be a Doctrine of Godliness. And so far is it, in its Nature and Consequences, from leading to Licentiousness, that it is here proved to be the only Foundation for an holy Life in Christ.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? (2) God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (3) Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? (4) Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: (6) Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (7) For he that is dead is freed from sin. (8) Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: (9) Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. (10) For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. (11) Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Apostle having finished, in the five preceding Chapters, the great subject he had been upon, and having proved, with the clearest and fullest evidence, that justification before God, is wholly in, and by, Christ; begins at this Chapter to follow up the blissful doctrine, in shewing the gracious effects which flow from it. And well aware, how much the pride of the Pharisee, (which in his own person he had once so deeply felt,) would take alarm at the doctrine of free grace; and no less the profligacy of the carnal, would attempt to draw improper conclusions from the divine mercy, displayed in so rich a manner as in justifying the sinner without works: the Apostle opens the subject with putting a question into the mouth of both, yea, all classes of unbelievers, and such, as the Apostle knew, none but persons of their characters would venture to propose. If it be true, say they, that God doth all, and man doth nothing, towards his own justification; shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Shall we not live as we list, and run on in accumulating transgressions, that God’s grace may, (as Paul saith it doth,) more abound, where sin hath abounded? Dear Paul! hadst thou lived in the present day of the Church, and have seen as we see, thy sweet truths, taught thee by the Holy Ghost, wiredrawn by many of the various professors; divinely inspired as thou wert, when writing this Epistle, thou wouldest hardly have escaped the odium which is thrown upon those who subscribe, with full consent of soul, and from the same teaching, to the doctrines of free grace!
But, Reader! observe, with what abhorrence, what holy indignation, the Apostle instantly refutes the foul calumny. God forbid, saith he. It is as if he had said: Is there, can there be a man upon earth, capable of drawing so base and ungenerous a conclusion? Would any man in common life, make the experiment of breaking his bones, because some kind and skilful surgeon would immediately heal them? Is this the way to reason, in the affairs of things relating to the present life? And shall we so argue, in respect to the things of a better? Because God, in a rich, free, sovereign mercy, hath provided a remedy, for the recovery of his Church from the Adam-fall transgression, whereby the Lord himself will accomplish the whole, and man shall have nothing to perform in it but to receive the blessing: shall this bounty in God tend to increase the sin in man? Is it not as plain as words can make it, that God’s design by this reign of grace, is to destroy the reign of sin. The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. And God’s glory, in this instance, can only be promoted, where sin is destroyed. It is the want of grace, which makes men sin; and not the aboundings of grace which can tend to increase it. Reader! I pray you to attend to the subject, as the Apostle hath stated it. And, if the Lord be your teacher, will be bold to say, that you will discover, how unanswerable the conclusions of Paul are, in proof, that so far is the free grace of God in Christ, from opening, as some say, the flood-gates of sin; it is the only preservative to keep them shut. By this grace only, all truly regenerated believers in Christ, are upheld from the breakings out of indwelling sin, which remain in that body of sin and death, the best of men carry about with them. For, if (as the Apostle elsewhere saith) Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness, Rom 8:10 . And how (as the Apostle demands,) shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Not dead in sin, for that is the state of the un-awakened, unregenerated; being so by nature, and so remaining, while in the condition of unrenewed nature. Neither dead for sin, for Christ only hath died for sin, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God, 1Pe 3:18 . But dead to sin. And, which is the case of every regenerated, justified, sanctified believer, they are dead to the guilt of sin: for that is done away by the blood of Christ, Eph 1:7 ; Mic 7:17-19 ; Isa 35:5 ; Col 2:13-14 ; Rev 1:5-6 . They are dead to the dominion of sin. Verse 14, Eze 36:25-27 . And how then shall they live any longer therein; when the very principle which gave life to it in the heart, is destroyed? True, indeed, the child of God goeth humbly all his days, from feeling the remains of indwelling sin, and which he knoweth will never be wholly taken out, until death. Like the ivy in old walls, until the whole falls down, the root will remain. But grace keeps low the sproutings. And his consolation is, that though sin is in him; yet, through grace, he lives not in sin. His life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ who is his life shall appear, he will also appear with him in glory, Col 3:4 .
The Apostle having answered the unwarrantable, and unjust objection made by some to the doctrine of free grace, on the ground of its being supposed capable of inducing licentiousness; advanceth yet further, to shew the sanctity of life and conversation, among justified believers, from the doctrine of baptism. And the Apostle proposeth what he had to offer on this ground, in the form of a question, as a thing perfectly well known and received. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore, (said Paul,) we are buried with him by baptism into death. We are planted together in the likeness of his death. Our old man is crucified with him. The body of sin might be destroyed, And hence, he draws conclusions the most just and proper, that a new life in Christ must be the sure consequence of these things.
I cannot propose to enlarge on every particular the Apostle hath here stated. It would swell our pages too much. But it will be sufficient to observe, that as Paul refers the whole of what he advanceth, as so many consequences arising out of baptism; it must follow, that he could mean no other than the baptisms of the Holy Ghost. Water baptism, under whatever form administered, could never produce such blessed effects. The regeneration of the soul is the only cause of life, for being planted in the likeness of Christ’s death; and the only way by which the old man of sin becomes crucified with Christ, And very blessed it is, when, from the baptism of the Holy Ghost at regeneration, the soul is quickened, which was dead in trespasses and sins; and is led to trace, that grace-union with Christ, whereby, from the Father’s gift, before the foundation of the world, being chosen in him, now in the time-state of the Church Christ hath accomplished the salvation of his people; and God the Spirit, by the washing of regeneration, brings the soul from darkness to light, and from the power of sin and Satan, to the living God; Eph 1:4 ; Col 1:13-14 ; Tit 3:4-7 .
I cannot refrain, however, from detaining the Reader to a short observation on that sweet verse, where the Apostle, speaking of a oneness, and union, and interest in Christ, declares our participation both in the death and life of Jesus. Now, (saith he,) if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Reader! pause and calculate if you can, the blessedness of both states. Dead with Christ! When Jesus died on the cross, he died as the Head and Husband of his body the Church. He hung there the Public Representative of his Spouse, for whom he died. And every individual member of his mystical body was crucified with him. Precisely as our first father in the garden, when he sinned, all his natural seed then in his loins, sinned in him, and with him; and were equally involved in all the eventual consequences of that sin: So, in like manner, when Christ died for sin on the cross, all his spiritual seed were in him, and partook in all the blessedness of it; that is to say, in all the benefits of it, while He alone had all the glory.
Now then, (saith Paul,) if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. And, without all question, his seed, his people, have an equal privilege in all the benefits of his life, as they have in his death. Because I live, (saith Jesus,) ye shall live also, Joh 14:19 . Yea, they are united to him, and are one with him. The Person of Christ, that is, God and man in one, is united to every believer. And every believer, body, soul, and spirit, is united to the Person of Christ; Joh 17:21-23 ; 1Th 5:23 .
I must not stay to remark the numberless blessings which arise out of this most precious truth; but I beg the Reader not to pass away from the view of it, until he hath taken with him one or two observations, which when realized in the soul, will tend to make the subject very blessed.
Believers in Christ live with Christ, by virtue of their union with Jesus, and communion with Jesus in his righteousness, as justifying them before God. Accepted in the beloved, they are pardoned, and justified freely, in a perfect, uninterrupted, and everlasting righteousness: so that when Christ who is their life shall appear, they shall also appear with him in glory, Col 3:4 .
And as, from an union with Christ’s Person, the believer in Christ is justified in his righteousness: So is he also sanctified in Christ’s holiness. Indeed Christ is made of God unto all his people, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; that all the glory may be in the Lord, 1Co 1:30 . And, it is very blessed to see, how all the Persons of the Godhead concur in this great design. God the Father hath from the beginning chosen the Church to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit; to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2Th 1:12 ; Jud 1:1-25 ; 1Pe 1:2 ; Joh 17:19 ; 1Co 6:11 .
And, as the Church lives with Christ during the present time-state of grace, both in his righteousness to justify, and in his holiness to sanctify; so all the body is interested in the life of glory, which he is gone before to prepare for them. Indeed, the grace in Christ here is the same as the glory to be revealed hereafter. The only difference is, that the one is suited for the life that now is, and the other for that which is to come. But, the blessing itself is as much the believer’s portion now, as it will be then, in this sense, as well as many others, it may be said: he that hath the Son hath life, 1Jn 5:12 . And what a blessed state is the whole, from justification to glory!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
No Compromise
Rom 6:2
I. What did the Apostle mean by the Words Dead unto Sin? (1) He meant death of the Judicial Penalty of Sin beyond the power of sin to inflict its penalty upon us. The judicial idea runs through the whole Epistle. A criminal who has served his term of imprisonment for an offence against the law, at the expiration of his sentence is dead to that particular crime. The penalty will not be exacted of him twice over. Even so the Christian, who implicitly accepts Christ’s finished work for him upon the cross, becomes dead to the penalty of all his past transgression. (2) Death to the Appeals of Sin unresponsive to its temptations. How still, how unmoved the dead are! Fill the dead hand of the miser with gold, and his fingers do not clutch it. Even so it is with the believer in Christ (3) Complete and final severance from the practice and love of sin. Death is a state from which there is no return. Even so in Christ Jesus the Christian is to regard himself as finally and irrevocably separated from the life of sin.
II. Alive unto God. Then there is a positive side to Christian life. That is a truth which needs insistence in these weak and effeminate times. It was said of Mark Pattison that ‘he spent all his life in the tents of compromise’. What a wretched life to live! Why should we try to get to heaven by what Dr. Robertson Nicoll finely called ‘spiritual blondinism,’ when there is the highway of the Lord always open to us on which the ransomed of the Lord journey with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads? Turn to the Apostle’s words. What did he mean by them? (1) Obedience. The will has been yielded up to Christ in an intelligent, deliberate, and final act of surrender. (2) Fellowship. How sweet and refreshing is the communion of saints 1 Fellowship with God! What bliss it affords! (3) And, finally, as the result of daily responsive obedience to God and unbroken communion with God, the believer at last attains likeness to God. I cannot linger to name all the features of the Divine character which are reproduced in the Christian. Let me emphasise one only: ‘God is love’. To be alive unto God, therefore, is to live the life of pure, self-sacrificing love.
J. Tolefrae Parr, The White Life, p. 133.
References. VI. 3. F. St. John Corbett, The Preacher’s Year, p. 122. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 168. Bishop Westcott, Village Sermons, p. 271. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 48; ibid. vol. vi. p. 252. VI. 3, 4. J. M. Witherow, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 131. C. Parsons Reichel, Sermons, p. 95. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1627. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 275. VI. 3-5. J. N. Bennie, The Eternal Life, p. 102. VI. 3- 6. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 28. VI. 4. C. F. Aked, Baptist Times, vol. liv. p. 415. J. Keble, Village Sermons on the Baptismal Service, p. 246. B. J. Snell, Sermons on Immortality, p. 56. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvii. No. 2197. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 12. VI. 4-6. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 114. VI. 5. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 213. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 257. VI. 6. W. J. Knox-Little, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 228. H. C. Lees, The Record, vol. xxvii. p. 769. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 882. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 265. VI. 7. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 468. VI. 8-11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. No. 503.
The Model of Our New Life
Rom 6:4
Easter Day is like the wedding-day of an intimate friend: our impulse as Christians is to forget ourselves, and to think only of the great Object of our sympathies. On Good Friday we were full of ourselves full of our sins, of our sorrows, of our resolutions. If we entered into the spirit of that day at all, we spread them out, as well as we could, before the dying eyes of the Redeemer of the world; we asked Him, of His boundless pity, to pardon and to bless us. To-day is His day, as it seems, not ours. It is His day of triumph; His day of re-asserted rights and recovered glory; and our business is simply to forget ourselves; to intrude with nothing of our own upon hours which are of right consecrated to Him; to think of Him alone; to enter with simple, hearty, disinterested joy upon the duties of congratulation and worship which befit the yearly anniversary of His great victory. ‘This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us rejoice and be glad in it’.
I. ‘Like as even so.’ St. Paul’s words will suggest to a great many minds a question which must here be answered. What is the connection, they will say, between the raising Christ’s body from the dead, on the one hand, and our ‘walking in newness of life’ on the other?
The answer is, that the source, the motive power of the two things of Christ’s Resurrection, and of the Christian’s new life is one and the same. They are equally effects of one Divine agency. They belong, indeed, themselves, to two different spheres of being. But that does not interfere with the fact of one common cause lying at the root both of one and the other. St. Paul glances at this truth when he prays that the Ephesians may know ‘what is the exceeding greatness of God’s power to usward who believe, according to the greatness of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead’. Why should God’s power, as shown to us Christians, be according to the greatness of the power which He wrought at the Resurrection of Christ? Why? Because the same Divine Artist shows His hand in either work; because the Resurrection of Christ is in one sphere what the Baptismal New Birth or the Conversion of a soul is in another; because the manner and proportion of the Divine action here at the tomb of Christ, where it is addressed to sight and sense, enables us to trace and measure it there in the mystery of the soul’s life, where it is for the most part addressed to spirit.
II. Speaking roughly, then, there are three characteristics of the risen life of our Lord which especially challenge attention, as corresponding to certain features of the new life of Christians.
(1) Of these the first is its reality. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ was the real Resurrection of a really dead Body. The piercing of our Lord’s side, to say nothing of the express language of the Evangelists, implied the truth of His Death.
(2) A second characteristic of Christ’s risen life: it lasts. Jesus did not rise, that, like Lazarus, He might die again. ‘I am He’ so ran the message to St. John in Patmos ‘that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death.’ For evermore. No new life upon the earth to be followed by a death of pain and shame no new victory over the tomb awaited Him. Sin was conquered once for all. Christ’s triumphant life as Man with God the Father could not again be exchanged for a state of suffering. ‘Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over Him, for in that He died, He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth He liveth unto God.’ So with the new life of the Christian. It should be a resurrection once for all. I say, ‘it should be’; for God’s grace does not put force upon us, and what it does in us and for us depends upon ourselves. The Christian must ‘reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord’.
(3) A third note of Christ’s risen life. Much of it most of it was hidden from the eyes of men. They saw enough to be satisfied of its reality. But of His eleven recorded appearances, five took place on a single day; and there is accordingly no record of any appearance on thirty-three days out of the forty which preceded the Ascension. And yet we cannot help asking, what was the risen Christ doing during these long absences from His disciples? Ah! what? Who can doubt? Certainly He needed not strength, as we need it, but communion with the Father was His glory and His joy. And who can here fail to see a lesson and a law for all true Christian lives? Of every such life, much, and the most important side, must be hidden from the eyes of men. It is a matter of the first necessity to set aside some time in each day for secret communion with Him, in Whose presence we hope to spend our eternal future. Doubtless our business, our families, our friendships, our public duties, have their claims: in many a life, such claims may leave a very scanty margin for anything beyond. But where there is a will there is a way: and time must be made for secret earnest prayer, for close self-questioning, for honestly facing all that touches our present condition, and our tremendous destinies, for planting our foot, humbly yet firmly, upon the threshold of Eternity.
H. P. Liddon.
Free From Death
Rom 6:9
I. ‘Christ was raised from the dead.’ Then He was among them. It is a medicine good for all diseases. It is the light which turns what would otherwise be darkness and sorrow into brightness and joy. Do any men think that their sins cannot be forgiven? that they pass the mercies even of God? that the promises of the Holy Ghost were not meant for them? Christ was dead. Can anything be impossible after that? Can there be any sin that such a death will not wash away.
II. ‘Dieth no more.’ All this was done once, that it might be done for ever. And as with Him so with us. ‘It is appointed unto men once to die.’ He will have us to do that which He did but not more. It is a very bitter cup, but then we can only swallow it once. These bodies of ours will be so put together at the last day that they cannot come to pieces any more. We shall be like our Lord in that also. We, being raised from the dead, shall never die again.
III. Here, we are all in the dominion of death. But if God gives us grace to enter into His kingdom, then we shall be like unto our Lord, that is, shall be free from this dominion of death. Then, perhaps, we shall know better than we do now, how it has made bitter, how it has eaten into, how it has spoiled everything here. Here we shall never entirely lose it; there we cannot for a moment even fear it.
J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College Chapel, vol. ii. p. 64.
References. VI. 9-11. W. P. S. Bingham, Sermons on Easter Subjects, p. 15. J. H. Holford, Memorial Sermons, p. 56. VI. 10. J. C. M. Bellew, Sermons, vol. i. p. 1. VI. 10, 11. R. W. Church, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 152. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p. 138.
Rom 6:2
Am I wrong in saying that he who has mastered the meaning of those two prepositions now truly rendered ‘ into the Name,’ ‘ in Christ’ has found the central truth of Christianity? Certainly I would gladly have given the ten years of my life spent on the Revision to bring only these two phrases of the New Testament to the heart of Englishmen.
Westcott.
References. VI. 11. H. C. Lees, The Record, vol. xxvii. p. 769. W. J. E. Bennett, Sermons at the London Mission, 1869, p. 21. W. H. Evans, Sermons for the Seasons, p. 97. C. D. Bell, The Saintly Calling, p. 41. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 142. VI. 11, 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. li. No. 2933. VI. 12, 13. H. Howard, The Raiment of the Soul, p. 19. VI. 12-14. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 346.
Alive From the Dead (An Easter Sermon)
Rom 6:13
‘Alive from the dead.’ These words have the true Easter ring. The background of Easter is required to make clear their meaning. Good Friday lies behind us. Good Friday must always be sad, for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the revelation of the love of God; it is also the abiding monument of the shame of our race its revolt against goodness, its betrayal of the best, its refusal of ordinary justice, its fickleness and cowardice, its love of self, and its enmity against God. No man who looks at the cross and seriously reflects what it means can fail to be bowed down with shame and penitence. We cannot separate ourselves from that fearful act The best men have said ever since, ‘My sins helped to nail Him there’. We have wished that all our past, the good and bad of it alike, should simply go down into the grave with Christ, that the full force of our baptism should be realised and our old man, our former self, should be buried with Him. And we have learned that this is just what God grants to us in His wonderful forgiving love, that, as St. Paul tells us in this passage, we should be planted in the likeness of His death, and why? In order that we may be also with His Resurrection.
I. Easter meets us with its Splendid Hope and its Thrilling Charity. He died unto sin once; He liveth unto God. ‘Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’
‘Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.’ Christ is risen. We are risen. Easter has many messages, but that is the deepest and the highest of all. Easter tells of immortality. It is a sure pledge that death, though strong, is not the strongest. It speaks tender words of consolation to those who have parted with their dear ones for a while. It promises that our training here will not be wasted, but is a schooling for the higher life. It assures us also that the great God in heaven has accepted the sacrifice of Him Who died for our sins and rose again for our sanctification, and it tells us that in the great conflict between evil and good the triumph must be with God. Christ is living, conquering, reigning. ‘Alive from the dead.’
II. If that is its Message, what is its Challenge? ‘Yield yourselves unto God.’ Let the past be past Let it lie buried in the grave of Christ. God looks on you as He looks on His only begotten Son, Who has taken your nature and carried it to the cross and to the grave, and He says to you in Him, ‘This is My Son, Who was dead and is alive again. He has come back to be an obedient Son, to yield Himself to His Father’s will.’ ‘Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.’ Is it all too mysterious? Does it even sound unreal? No; I appeal to your spiritual being, to its experiences, or else to its needs. I speak that which some of you have known once and, it may be, have lost awhile through carelessness or wilful sin, which all of you may know if you will ask, that the Holy Spirit may be given to you to take the things of Christ and show them unto you.
III. What will it Mean for our whole Life, this yielding of ourselves to God? It will mean the study of the will of God, God’s will which is revealed to us in the Holy Scripture, as it is disclosed by the providence which sets us our daily task, and which is personally known to us by the promptings of the Holy Spirit in answer to our prayers for guidance; understanding what the will of God is, studying it in order to do it, and so yielding ourselves as instruments with which He may be able to work His will. It will mean that in the broadest sense, but in the particular it may be something different for each of us. We cannot say one for another, we cannot foresee for ourselves, what it may involve. We cannot know what it may cost, this offer of our new lives to God. Here is where great faith is demanded of us. Can we trust Him to lay no greater burden on us than in the strength which He gives us we can bear? This is where we mostly fail; yet this is what He asks most from us. A father loves to be trusted by his son. It is our Father Who bids us yield ourselves to Him. Did ever any trust in Him who was confounded?
References. VI. 13. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p. 240. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 443. VI. 14. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. i. p. 103. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 901, and vol. xxiv. No. 1410. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p. 293. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iv. p. 427; ibid. vol. x. p. 121. VI. 14, 15. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No. 1735. VI. 15-23. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 226. VI. 17. J. S. Boone, Sermons, p. 334. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 381.
Conduct, the Test of Character
Rom 6:16
In our text we are taught to look to the general tendency of life for the test of character and condition. If we have yielded ourselves, in resolve and in act, as servants to obey, whether it be to sin or to righteousness, then his servants we are whom we obey.
I. We are ready enough in our judgment of others, though often mistaken in our own conclusions about them.
No doubt there are sins so obvious that ‘they go beforehand unto judgment’. The profligate, the drunkard, the cruel and the sensual, the proud and the worldly, are condemned as those who have no inheritance in Christ with the sanctified. And our Lord teaches us, by His revelation of the severance at the last day, that the habitual negation of good, the non-doing of duty, is also decisive of character, and therefore of destiny. All this is known to God, and will be determined by Him; but again and again we are warned against attempting to assume His place by taking up the role of judge. Thus James says: ‘There is one Lawgiver, Who is able to save and to destroy; who art thou then that judgest another?’And our Lord, in His Sermon on the Mount, says: ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged’.
We are often misunderstood. We offend others innocently and inadvertently, and they think and say evil of us. On the other hand, we are sometimes far too highly thought of by those who do not know us well. We have undiscovered faults, and perhaps unrecognised virtues. We are both better and worse than others think us to be. Good Thomas Kempis said as truly as wisely: ‘Thou art not the more holy for being praised, nor the more worthless for being dispraised. What thou art, that thou art; neither by words canst thou be made greater than what thou art in the sight of God.’
II. But though all this and much more might be said of the judgment of a man by others, it does not lessen the responsibility resting on every one to judge himself. It was a pagan philosopher who left on record the immortal dictum: ‘Know thyself. And it was an inspired Psalmist who taught us where to find illumination for this when he exclaimed, ‘For Thou wilt light my candle; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness’. And another Psalmist, conscious of self-ignorance, prayed: ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting’.
The difficulties in the way of self-knowledge are greater now than in the Psalmist’s days, because the rush of life is swifter, and noisier, and meditation is, to many, almost impossible. But still, they are fools who, through thoughtlessness, fail to see how they stand in relation to God for this we may know, and ought to know for our own good always.
III. The Apostle further teaches us in this passage that character and habit tend to a consummation, ‘whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness’.
(1) In the twenty-third verse we read, ‘the wages of sin is death’. It is a solemn declaration. You may disbelieve it, or forget it, or refuse to consider it, but it abides true as ever. What it involves so far as life after death is concerned we do not know, except that all that is experienced here, whether good or evil, will be intensified there. But is there no death of the spiritual even on earth, the premonition of the eternal? There are those who so far make themselves the ‘servants of sin’ that their sensibilities are dulled, till they cannot feel and cannot pray. They have grieved the Spirit, and even quenched the Spirit. God and heaven, sin and salvation, have lost all meaning to them, and they already know what it is to ‘sin unto death’.
(2) God who begins this new work will carry it on, prompting us daily to the obedience which tends to righteousness. In other words, repeated acts of obedience to God’s known will end in established character.
Alfred Rowland, The Exchanged Crowns, p. 69.
Rom 6:16-18
There is but one passion which cannot go astray, cannot be too great the passion for righteousness embodied in Jesus. Philosophy and love are here the same thing. No vague ideals are these, dressed up in fine words, drawing on tomorrow because they have had no yesterday, but ascertained and ascertainable experience. Life is an art too complex for any rule but one, and that is the Imitation of Christ.
Dr. William Barry, in The Two Standards.
Rom 6:18
Your liberty will be sacred, so long as it shall be governed by and evolved beneath an idea of Duty.
Mazzini.
References. VI. 18. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1482. VI. 19. Basil Wilberforce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 149. VI. 21. G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons, p. 373. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 36. VI. 21-23. Ibid. pp. 205, 207, 211.
Rom 6:22
‘By holiness,’ says Mr. John Morley, ‘do we not mean something different from virtue? It is not the same as duty; still less is it the same as a religious belief. It is a name for an inner grace of nature, an instinct of the soul, by which, though knowing of earthly appetites and worldly passions, the spirit, purifying itself of these, and independent of reason, argument, and the struggles of the will, dwells in patient and confident communion with the seen and the unseen Good.’
References. VI. 22. F. Ballard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 113. VI. 22, 23. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 203.
Wages Or Gift?
Rom 6:23
I. What is the ‘eternal life’ which is here spoken of? It is endless life, undoubtedly, but it is more than that When we read (as in the Authorised Version), ‘The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord,’ we recognise, as Bishop Westcott says, ‘A general description of the work of Christ, of what He has wrought for us, standing apart from us’. But what Paul really wrote was, ‘Eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord,’ that is to say (to quote Westcott again), ‘Life is not an endowment apart from Christ, it is Himself, and enjoyed in Him’. Now we see that the adjective ‘eternal’ is not quantitative only but qualitative also; it indicates not endlessness simply, but a certain kind of life, the best and highest kind, life in Christ, the very life of God Himself. But if this be so, ‘eternal life’ is not a gift for the bestowal of which we must look in the world to come. Not till then, indeed, can it be ours in its fulness, but in measure at least it may be ours here and now.
II. How does this ‘eternal life ‘become the possession of man? The answer the astonishing answer of Paul is, that (to quote the Revised Version) it is ‘the free gift of God’. Now that is a conception of salvation that nowadays is often lost sight of. Salvation, we think, is to be from within; it must be wrought out by ourselves, it will come to us only as the last result of long and laborious striving. And, of course, there is much in all this that is profoundly true. But it was not so that Paul conceived the Gospel of Christ. No word indicates more clearly the whole drift of Paul’s thinking on this matter than the word ‘grace’. By ‘grace’ are we saved; and ‘grace’ speaks not of the doing of man, but of the giving of God. If I could sum up in one sentence the difference between these two opposite conceptions of the Christian life I think it would be this: the one makes God the centre of religion, the other finds it in man. The whole colour and tone of character of our religious life will be determined by the choice which (consciously or unconsciously) we make between these opposite conceptions of the meaning of salvation. (1) Why is it that so many of us have so little gladness in our Christian life? We have talked and lived as if the whole responsibility of our salvation rested on our own weak shoulders. (2) Why is it, again, that we make so little progress in the Christian life? Self is at the centre where only God should be. (3) Why is it that so many today hesitate even to enter upon the Christian life? Is not one answer at least this, that they wholly misconceive religion? They are weary and overburdened, and religion seems to add new burdens. Christianity tells not of something that man must do, but of something done for man.
G. Jackson, Table Talk of Jesus, p. 99.
Rom 6:23
‘For the present, however, consider Longchamp; now when Lent is ending, and the glory of Paris and France has gone forth as in annual wont. Not to assist at Tenebris masses, but to sun itself and show itself, and salute the Young Spring. Manifold, bright-tinted, glittering with gold; all through the Bois du Boulogne, in long-drawn, variegated rows; like long-drawn living flower-borders, tulips, dahlias, lilies of the valley; all in their moving flower-pots (of new-gilt carriages); pleasure of the eye and the pride of life. So rolls and dances the Procession: steady, of firm assurance, as if it rolled on adamant and the foundations of the world; not on mere heraldic parchment under which smoulders a lake of fire. Dance on, ye foolish ones; ye sought not wisdom, neither have ye found it. Ye and your fathers have sown the wind, ye shall reap the whirlwind. Was it not, from of old, written: The wages of sin is death?
Carlyle’s French Revolution, Book II. vi.
Compare the description of the second last of Hogarth’s series of pictures, in Mariage la Mode, given by Dr. Brown in Hor Subseciv (‘Notes on Art’ Distraining for Rent).
That is the worst of the wages of sin. Sinners cannot pay them all however willing, however passionately desirous even they may be to do so. Those wages are always paid in part, of necessity must be, by the innocent in place of the guilty.
Lucas Malet.
References. VI. 23. Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 182. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 223. E. J. Boyce, Parochial Sermons, p. 228. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii. No. 1868. Bishop Westcott, Village Sermons, p. 250. C. Ensor Walters, The Deserted Christ, p. 61.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Gospel According to Paul (Continued)
Rom 6:8
This weary but necessary “if” meets us once more. “If we be dead with Christ’ but is any man dead with the Saviour? Perhaps not. He is not dead because he has retired from the world. Monasticism is not self-extinction. But does any man wish to die with the Saviour? That is enough, in the meantime. Not “if we be dead” we are all dead in trespasses and sins; that is not the death referred to; the qualifying words are “with Christ.” Were we crucified upon his Cross? Have we known the fellowship of his sufferings? We may be dead to the world, and yet not dead with Christ; we may have retired from the world in mere sullenness and misanthropy, stung by a thousand disappointments; such withdrawment from the world is not death, in the sense in which Paul uses that term. We must consent to our own death; we must wish to die; we must feel that in going with Christ to the Cross we are fulfilling, not a momentary election of our own, but the very purpose of God before the world began.
This is a great mystery. Vulgarity has no status here; this lore can only be learned in the inner and upper school where the Holy Ghost alone is teacher. Paul’s joy breaks out upon every possible occasion. He is bound to recognise the darker facts of life, but he no sooner recognises them than he finds in them only the shadow of some great joy. That principle of interpretation is realised in this verse. “Now if we be dead with Christ” there all is gloomy, solemn, tragical, awful “we believe” is that a word of hesitancy, or a word of confidence? Sometimes we say, “We believe so,” when we are not certain about it; we do not affirm it, we simply attach a certain amount of credence to it “We believe so.” When the word is thus used, it is a word of little consequence in Christian education. Paul uses it as a word of confidence, triumph. “We believe” we are sure, we live in the assurance “that we shall also live with him.” What is Paul’s idea? It is that Christ and the Christian have the same fate. If Christ is dead, we should be dead too; if Christ lives, we shall live with him; if Christ has gone out into eternal extinction, we shall follow him into that infinite nothingness: but if Christ has a throne he will find on it a seat for every one who has trusted his Cross and followed his law. This was Christ’s own method of teaching; he said, “Where I am, there ye may be also.” How wondrously Paul works upon that connective word “also”! We cannot read the chapters immediately connected with this text without finding Paul always erecting that bridge. As with Christ, so also with the Christian. If, then, we would discover our own fate or destiny, we have simply to inquire into the fate or destiny of Christ. If we are one with him he will find us, we shall find him, and we shall spend eternity together. This is the Christian’s confidence. Hence the Christian’s joy. Christianity never carries out its argument without carrying out its music also.
Take the Gospel according to Paul at another point: “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” ( Rom 6:18 ). This is more than a play upon words. In the first instance we have emancipation: Being made free from sin free from the law, which is the creator of sin ye became the slaves of righteousness. Grace does not mean liberation from service. Roughly interpreting the Christian life and temper of the day, one would suppose that a man has only to unite himself in Christian fellowship in order to escape all Christian responsibility. Whilst he was an anxious inquirer, he spent days and nights in assiduously asking questions concerning the way to the kingdom of light and liberty, but no sooner was he persuaded that he had found that kingdom than he sat down, took his ease, lived upon the empty past, and fed himself upon the wind. Let every man examine himself herein. To unite with a Church is only to begin the Christian life. When we say we believe the Son of God, we simply put our hands upon the plough, we do not take them off; we begin the war, we do not cease it. Addiction to sin is bondage; so also is the service of righteousness: only we must never forget that there are two kinds of bondage one servile, humiliating, degrading; the other consenting, joyous, unanimous. Love is slavery. There is no one so much in bondage as the one who is most deeply influenced by love: there is no night there, there is no more sea, there is no need of the candle, call it moon or sun. Love is its own light; love thinks nothing a hardship by which it can promote its own deepest and sublimest purposes. This is the slavery of Christ. To be Christ’s slave is to be God’s free man.
Take another instance of the Gospel according to Paul: “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (vi. 21-22). The picture is that of two harvests. Paul will judge everything by the end. What does it come to when it is all told? is Paul’s searching and unfailing inquiry. Not, How does it go in the process, what are its occasional excitements and exhilarations? but, When all comes to all, what is the end of conduct? He first looks at the field of sin and says, This harvest is death: then he looks at the field of grace, and he says, Behold the abundance of the fruit; and this fruit is unto holiness, the end of this harvest is everlasting life. Paul was practical; Paul would judge religions by their results. He would not say a religion was false simply because he did not understand it. Paganism was not false to Paul because he had not been trained in it. Paganism was part of a great education. Christianity takes up poor blind Paganism and leads it into the light. Thus Paul treated the men of Athens; he said, Ye have come to the point of the Unknown; it is here that Christianity begins. From that point of ignorance he led his hearers on to points of religious consciousness and realisation. What does your life come to? is then the solemn inquiry. Judged by this standard, Christianity has nothing to fear. It turns out the grandest men in the world. Every Christian ought to be a sublime character, a monument of honour and of nobleness. Not every professing Christian. Some of the meanest souls in the world have professed Christianity hypocritically. Yet I care not how humble the lot and how poor the circumstances of a real Christian, you will find in him the point of nobility, the seal of royalty, somewhere. He will wear well. The electro will wear off; the silver is good to the last thread.
Take another instance without changing the line of thought: “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter” ( Rom 7:6 ). Still serving; never given over to mere wantonness or licence of life; but still under the discipline of the grace of God. This is larger serving. It is impossible for a man to do as well for you as he would do for himself. The most honest man cannot serve his employer as he would serve himself. He thinks he does: but he cannot. Have you searched into that point of necessity? It is not want of will, it is not want of honesty, it is not want of faithfulness and vigilance, not one word do we say to the detriment of the man’s character; but a man cannot work so well or so long for another as he can do for himself. Yet this is not selfishness; it is the larger realisation of a man’s own nature. I do not speak of the hireling, for he is the meanest of all reptiles. Never speak a good word of any hireling. By “hireling” I mean the man who renders only eye-service; the man who does not consider his work, but the wages; the man who is all the morning long asking what time it is. Have no faith in him; do not trust him; watch him at every point: he is a thief even when he is honest. I am speaking of the man who does not really know himself until he is cast fully upon his own resources. When you were receiving wages you were not doing probably one half the work you are doing now that you are paying them. You never did for your employer what you are doing for yourself; and you know it. Working for yourself, you never look at the clock, you see another opportunity and seize it; you take your business even into your dreams. You have come into a larger service, without subjecting yourself to one tittle of just accusation for neglect, even when you were under other circumstances. You cannot do so much for a stranger as you can do for your own child; you cannot sit up so long at night, you cannot revive your energy so continuously. Here we touch the very divinest element in man, the eternal love that lives to invent new opportunities for its own exercise. We have come into service, larger service, and if we have escaped literal discipline it is that we might be brought into obedience to spiritual sympathy, which is immeasurably larger than any mere discipline can be. It is right that we should bear the yoke in our youth, it is right that we should have difficulty with our alphabets and primers. As we have said before, there is no reading in all the world so hard as the alphabet, and yet we have come to speak of this and that as being “as easy as A B C.” We thus indicate our own growth, we have passed from discipline into sympathy; we have passed from the parsing of words into the grasp of thoughts. We are no longer the victims of a merely mechanical orthography, syntax, or prosody; we know the writer’s meaning, we enter into the writer’s spirit, we know the writer’s signature. He can no longer be kept away from us, and no substitute can be palmed upon us; we live in him, we breathe his breath, we are in sympathy with his soul. Something like this the Apostle means when he says we serve “in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” The letter measures duty; the letter is a clock; and by that clock it prescribes routine, as who should say, This shall be done at one, that shall be done at two, and at twelve such and such processes shall be inaugurated or completed. Love has no time, no clock, no sense of succession. The man who is in love with his work is surprised and annoyed to find that he must finish it. He accosts the time-teller with that vacant look of obstinate unwilling which signifies to the speaker that he has made a fool of himself; it is impossible, saith that look, that it can now be twelve o’clock by the sun, because I have hardly begun my work. It was twelve o’clock many hours ago according to the hireling: according to the lover, the devotee, the clock has hardly ticked his soul is in his work.
This also is the meaning of the great outburst ( Rom 8:1 ): “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” “Condemnation” means judgment, criticism; the little court is shut up, and love is tried only in the court of heaven. No other court could hold it; before no other judgment seat could the arbitration of love be determined. We have in our own jurisprudence the first court, and the second court, and the court of Appeal, and the House of Lords. There are some cases that could not be tried before the magistrate; he can only hear an outline of the evidence, and say, there is a first-face view; this ought to go farther. He himself is not equal to the occasion, and he knows it, and therefore he sends the case on; and the second court cannot grapple with it, and it knows it, without confessing it, and has to get the case put a little higher, it is so complicated and entangled, and needs such a wonderful knowledge of precedents; and then the case is finally sent to the highest point recognised in the law of the constitution of the land, and there it is at least muddled into a momentary adjustment. But there is the succession of courts; and the Apostle Paul says, It is just so with us; once we could be tried by the law, and the Judge would say, What saith the law? Now there is no condemnation, no initial magistrate, no little trumpery court by which the spiritual man can be judged; he can be judged only by his Saviour; the carnal cannot judge the spiritual, but he that is spiritual judgeth all things. He has the Divine insight, the eternal sagacity; he knows without learning. The books have not made him a scholar, but long intercourse with the Spirit of Wisdom.
The Apostle would have all believers to enter into this joy. He would have every man who loves Christ say to all earthly criticism, You do not know me; you do not understand me; you are too little, altogether too feeble, to comprehend the case; I am working from motives you never heard of. Therefore, when the Christian is to be judged he must be taken to the highest court of all. Are we, then, new in outward relations? The Apostle says, No. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Here is a new family. We are in the new family; we sustain all the larger relations of the new household. And being children, we are more. What more? Is there aught possible in addition to child-ship? Yes “if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” That is how the process runs, from the lower to the higher, from the law to grace, from the letter to the spirit, from drudgery to sympathy. He who has touched the point of sympathy is in the family; he calls God, Father, with a familiarity that never descends to frivolity, with a reverence which is never debased by servility, with a love that scorns all language, and asks to express itself in the music of heaven.
Prayer
Almighty God, we bless thee for all ministries that raise us from earth to heaven. Thou hast so made us as to desire the heavenly city. We hunger when we are away from home. There is no Father but in heaven. We have hewn out to ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Once we were as sheep going astray; now we have returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. This we have done by thy grace; by grace are we saved; in grace we stand: the grace of the Lord is infinite. Help each of us to realise individual responsibility; may the cry of each heart be, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? May thy servants be industrious, faithful, waiting for the coming of the Lord with patience and constant hopefulness. Save us from trusting to each other that the work will be done; may every soul feel that the work is his, and that he must do it, and thus by great individuality of consecration may we constitute a great unity of effort. Thou dost save man one by one; thou dost take us to the unseen state one by one; thou wilt judge every man according to his own doings in the body, whether they be good or whether they be bad. Give us to feel that this is the law within which we stand, and may we answer it with all faithfulness and gratitude. We come ever in the name of Jesus, the name that fills heaven and earth with its music; we come ever by way of the Christ, higher than all the stars, deeper than all the graves of men; conquering all death, and filling the universe with life. We come to confess our sins, to mourn them with penitence and brokenheartedness, to look to the fountain opened in the house of David for sin and for uncleanness: Lamb of God, have mercy upon us; Jesu, Saviour of the world, help us and save us, we humbly beseech thee. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XV
SALVATION IN US
Rom 6:1-8:39
We have considered hitherto in this letter what salvation has done for us in redemption, justification and adoption. We have now before us in Rom 6:1-8:39 what salvation does in us in regeneration and sanctification of our souls, and in the resurrection and glorification of our bodies.
Two questions properly introduce this section. In Rom 3:21 he says, “But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” In view of this, in Rom 6:1 he asks, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” The meaning is this: Does salvation by grace through faith in a debt-paying substitute encourage to more sin, because the sinner does not himself pay the penalty, and thus by more sin give greater scope to superabounding grace? Or, does imputation of the penalty of sin in a substitute make void the law to the sinner personally? Or does God’s justification of the sinner, through faith, instead of his personal obedience, turn loose a defiled criminal on society eager to commit more crime because his future offenses, like his past offenses, will be charged to the substitute? These are pertinent questions of practical importance and if, indeed, this be the legitimate result of the gospel plan of salvation, it is worthy of rejection by all who love justice.
While we have already considered this matter somewhat, let us restate a reply embodying the substance of this section. The reply is in substance as follows: Whom God justifies them he also regenerates and sanctifies in soul and raises and glorifies in body. In the first element of regeneration the application of the blood of Christ by the Holy Spirit the sinner is cleansed from the defilement of sin. See Psa 51:2 ; Psa 51:7 ; Eze 36:25 ; Tit 3:5 , first clause. “The washing of regeneration,” Eph 5:26 ; “born of water,” Joh 3:5 , all of which is set forth in the type of the red heifer, Heb 9:13-14 , an Old Testament teaching for ignorance of which Christ condemned Nicodemus, Joh 3:10 . See also Rev 7:14 ; Rev 22:14 , revised version. So that the justified man is not turned loose a defiled criminal on society.
In the second element of regeneration the justified sinner is delivered from the love of sin by his renewed nature, Psa 51:10 ; Eze 36:26 ; Joh 3:3 ; Joh 3:5-6 , “born from above . . . born of the Spirit;” Tit 3:5 , second clause, “and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” So that the regenerate man has the spirit of obedience, Eze 36:27 ; Tutus Rom 2:11-14 ; Rom 3:8 . And while the obedience of the regenerate is imperfect, yet through sanctification, when it is consummated, the regenerate in soul is qualified to perfect obedience, Phi 1:6 ; Phi 3:12-14 ; 2Co 3:17-18 . And when the body is raised and glorified then this justified sinner has become personally, in soul and body, as holy and obedient as Jesus himself, 1Jn 3:2 ; Psa 17:15 , all of which is pictorially set forth in our baptism, Rom 6:4-5 ; Col 2:12 . So that faith not only does not make void the law to us personally, but is the only way by which we shall be made able to keep the law personally, and not only does not encourage to sin, but furnishes the only motives by which practically we cease from sin.
The doctrine of baptism as bearing upon this point set forth in Rom 6:1-11 is this: A justified and regenerate man is commanded to be baptized. Baptism symbolizes the burial of a dead man dead to his old life his cleansing from the sins of the old life, and this resurrection to a new life. Christ died on the cross for our sins once for all. Being dead he was buried, raised to a new life and exalted to a royal and priestly throne. All this, in the beginning of his public ministry, was prefigured in his own baptism. As he died for our sins, paying the law penalty, so we in regeneration become dead to law claims because we died to sin in his death. Being dead to the old life, we should be buried. This is represented in our baptism: “Buried in baptism.” But in regeneration we are not only slain, but made alive, or quickened. The living should not abide in the grave, therefore in our baptism there is also a symbol of our resurrection. But regeneration not only slays and makes alive, but cleanses, therefore in our baptism we are symbolically cleansed from sin, as was said to Paul, “Arise, and be baptized and wash away thy sins.” So that not only both elements of regeneration, cleansing and renewal of soul are set forth pictorially in our baptism, but also the coming resurrection and glorification of our bodies.
In Rom 6:7 we have this language: “For he that hath died is justified from sin.” That means that there are two ways in which one can satisfy the law and meet all of its claims. He can either do it by perfectly obeying the law, or he can do it by meeting the penalty of the law. Therefore it says, “He that hath died is justified from sin.” It is just like an ordinary debt. If one pays the debt he is justified from the claim. If a man commits an offense and the law decision is that he suffer the penalty of two years in the penitentiary, and he serves the two years in the penitentiary, he is justified in the eyes of the law. The law can’t take him up and try him again. While the disobedience of the law is not justified in obedience, he has paid the full penalty. Now to make the application of that: Christ died for our sins; we died in his death, just as we died in Adam and came under condemnation for it. Now when we die with Christ, that death on the cross justifies us from sin. That is what it means.
The next point is the argument from the meaning of the declaration that he that is dead is justified from sin. That argument is presented in Rom 6:12-13 , and the reason for it is given in Rom 6:14 . Let us look at those verses. If we be dead to sin we should not let sin reign in our mortal body that we should obey the lusts thereof. Neither present our members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present ourselves unto God as alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. The reason assigned is, “For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under law, but under grace.” In other words, “It is true that you didn’t pay that law claim, but your substitute paid it, and that puts you from under the law of condemnation. Now if you set out to pay, you set out to pay unto grace. The spirit of obedience in you is not of fear, but of love to him that died for you.” That is what is called being under grace in a matter of obedience and not under law.
What is the force of the question, “Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace?” In other words, “Because my obedience is not a condition of my salvation, shall I therefore sin?” That is the thought, and his argument against that is this: “God forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” If a man presents himself unto grace as the principle of obedience, then it is not a life and death matter, but it is a matter of love and gratitude. It is on a different principle entirely. And in a very elaborate way he continues the argument down to verse Rom 6:23 : “For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Let us now explain the contrast in Rom 6:23 and give the argument. Here he contrasts two things, (1) the wages. This is a matter of law wages. (2) Over against that stands gift free gift. That is not a matter of wages. The wages of sin is death that is the penalty but now the free gift is eternal life. It is impossible to put his meaning any plainer than these words put it: “Are you expecting to be saved on the ground of earning your salvation as wages, or are you expecting to be saved through the free gift of God unto eternal life?” That is the thought.
Let us see the force of the illustration in Rom 7:2 : “For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband. So then if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man.” The force of that as an illustration of the married life is: “What God hath joined together let not man put asunder.” The obligation of a wife to a husband, and their fidelity to each other, is a matter of law growing out of the relation that holds them together. So long as a husband lives and a wife lives, neither one of them can be free to marry except in a certain case, and that exception is discussed elsewhere. He is just discussing the general principles here. Now apply that illustration: “The law holds you to absolute fidelity in obedience just as the law holds the woman bound to her husband, and the husband to his wife. If you died with Christ, you are dead to that law, and therefore you can enter into another relation. You are espoused to Christ. The law that binds you now is the law of that espousal to Christ, and that is the law of freedom; not like the other, it is a matter of grace.” That is the force of that statement.
Then in Rom 7:7 , “Is the law sin?” That is an important question and he answers it. Some things in connection with it have already been answered, and in answering it particularly I will take the following position:
(1) The law is not sin. It is holy, it is just, it is good. What, then, is the relation of the law to sin? He says here that it gives the knowledge of sin: “I had not known sin except through the law.” If people were living according to different standards, every man being a judge in his own case, what A would think to be right B would think to be wrong, and vice versa. People would think conflicting things, and as long as a man held himself to be Judge of what was right and what was wrong he would not feel that he was a sinner. So the real standard, not a sliding scale, is put down among all the varying ideas of right and wrong. What is the object? It is to reveal the lack of conformity to the law: “I had not known sin, except through the law.”
(2) The second reason is that it provokes to sin. He says, “Sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me.” If children were forbidden to climb telephone poles they would all desire to climb them, and they would never think of it if they were not forbidden. So that law was designed to show just what inherent nature will bring out. A snake is very pretty at certain times, and one may think that the enmity between him and the human race is hardly justifiable, but let him give a snake the opportunity to develop just what is in him, and then he will have a different opinion. Who would have supposed that it was in human nature to do the things done in the French Revolution? Man is a good sort of creature; he would not impale a body on a bayonet; he would not burn a woman at the stake; he would not put their fingers in a thumbscrew; he would not put a man on the rack and torture him; but nobody knows the evil that is in human nature until it has a chance to show what is in it.
(3) The law brings all that out; hence, one object of the law is to make sin appear to be sin, and to be exceeding sinful to make it seem what it is, and not just a peccadillo, or a misdemeanor, but an exceedingly vile, ghastly, and hateful thing.
(4) Then the object of the law is to work death: “Sin, taking occasion by the law, beguiled and slew me.” The death there referred to is the death in one’s own mind. It means conviction that one is lost that is the death he is talking about. For he explains immediately, where he says, “I was alive apart from the law once,” that is, he felt like he was all right, but when the commandment came he saw that he was a dead man under condemnation of death. And that is one of the works of the Holy Spirit bringing about conviction, making a man see that he is a sinner, making him feel that he is a sinner, that he is exceeding sinful.
And we may distrust any kind of preaching that is dry-eyed, that has no godly sorrow, that has no repentance. If one thinks that he is a very little sinner, then a very little Saviour is needed. We depreciate our Saviour just to the extent that we extenuate our sin.
The next passage is also of real importance, (Rom 7:15-25 ). There is only one important question on it: “Is the experience there related the experience of a converted man, or of an unconverted man?” If one wants to see how men dissent on it, let him read his commentaries.
Let us see some of the points: “That which I do I know not [the word “know” is used in the sense of approve]; for not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do. But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good. So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me . . . For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice. But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Now is that a saved or an unsaved man? Our Methodist brethren tell us that that is the experience of an unsaved man; that we don’t get to conversion until we come to Rom 8 . I say that there we strike sanctification. The point is this: If the mind of the flesh the carnal mind is enmity against God, if it is not subject to the law of God, and neither indeed can be, then how can that mind, “delight in the law of God in the inward man?” How can he approve that which is good? From Rom 7:16 to the end of Rom 7 he discusses a certain imperfection attending the regenerate state. The experience of every regenerate man will corroborate this: “I know a certain thing is right. I am ashamed to say I didn’t do it; I know a certain thing is wrong, and I approve the law that makes it wrong, and I am ashamed to say I have done that very thing.” And if there is one thing that disturbs the Christian and troubles him, it is to find a law in his members warring against the law of his mind. That is expressed here: “Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” That expression of Paul’s has been (and I think rightly) supposed to refer to an ancient penalty inflicted on a man that had committed a certain offense. He was chained to a dead body, and he had to carry that dead body with him everywhere he went. He alive, that body dead, he would want a pure atmosphere to inhale, and that body would be exhaling the stench of corruption. It was a miserable condition: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
One of the great French preachers preached on that subject before Louis XIV. We find a reference to it in Strong’s Systematic Theology . He was talking about the two l’s; “that which I approve I do not; that which I would not do that I do.” And the French preacher was pointing out the two men in a man, and how they fought against each other, and the king interrupted him in his sermon and said, “Ah, I know those two men.” The preacher pointed at him and said, “Sire, it is somewhat to know them, but, your majesty, one or the other of them must die.” It isn’t enough just to know them; one or the other of them is going ultimately to triumph. What is the meaning of Rom 8:4 : “That the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”? Here is the fulfilment in us. It is not imputed righteousness that is being discussed here; that is justification. But it is the object of regeneration and sanctification to make a personal righteousness. The object of regeneration and sanctification is that in us the law might be fulfilled as well as for us in the death of Christ. That is the meaning of the passage, and it is one of the profoundest gratifications to me that my salvation does not stop at justification. I am glad to think that the law has no claims on me, but I could not be happy, being only justified and loving sin. I not only want to be delivered from sin but from the love of sin in regeneration, and the dominion of sin in sanctification.
The apostle describes the two minds in Rom 8:5-8 : “For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh.” Here flesh does not mean the body. The flesh does not mean the tissues and the blood. That would constitute only a physical man. What he means by the flesh is the carnal mind. Now he is discussing the two. He continues: “But they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” There are the two minds: “For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace: because the mind of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be; they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” It is just like trying to wash away the soul’s sins in water.
We might take the sinner up and hold him under Niagara Falls and let it pour on him for ten thousand years and we could never wash away the soul’s sins. It was impossible for the blood of bullocks to take away sin. It is impossible for the water of baptism to take away sin. This carnal mind cannot be made into a Christian. We can whitewash it, and there are many preachers that do that sort of business. It may be outwardly beautiful, like a tomb, but inwardly it is full of rottenness and dead men’s bones.
QUESTIONS
1. What has been considered in this letter hitherto?
2. What now before us in Rom 6:1-8 -39?
3. What two questions properly introduce this section, and what their meaning?
4. What of the significance of these questions?
5. What is the reply to them embodying the substance of this section?
6. What is the doctrine of baptism bearing upon this point set forth in Rom 6:1-11 ?
7. What is the meaning of Rom 6:7 : “He that hath died is justified from sin”?
8. What is the argument based upon that statement?
9. What is the force of the question, “Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace”?
10. What is the contrast and argument in Rom 6:23 ?
11. What is the illustration in Rom 7:2 , and what the force of it?
12. In the law sin? If not, what its relation to sin?
13. Expound the passage, Rom 7:15-25 .
14. What is the meaning and application of Rom 8:4 ?
15. How does the apostle describe the two minds, and what the teaching?
XVI
SALVATION IN US (CONTINUED)
Rom 6:1-8:39
In this chapter we continue the discussion of salvation in us, or regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. Regeneration is a change of mind. The carnal mind cannot be made into a Christian, hence there must be a change. Is the change simply using the old mind, but modifying it, or is it a change like this: A woman put her baby in the cradle at night and the next morning there was another baby in the cradle which she called the changeling? That was not any imitation of the baby that was in there before. Just so we waste our time if we try to make a Christian out of the carnal mind. We can’t do it. That is why regeneration is called a creation, which is to make something out of nothing not out of a material having already existed.
What Paul is expressing here is that we may take the fallen nature of man which he has inherited from Adam and commence an educational process in the cradle, and continue it up to the adult stage and get a very respectable church member, but not a saved person.
Education has no creative power at all. He may be very proper in his behavior; he may pay the preacher; he may go to Sunday school; he may do everything in the world that will enable him to appear to be a Christian, and yet not be a Christian. There must be a breaking up of the fallow ground. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Except ye be born from above, ye cannot even see the kingdom of heaven.”
The conclusion reached by the apostle in this argument is in Rom 8:11 : “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Now the question, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death, this evil mind this evil body? It comes through Christ, but it is Christ working through the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that made Christ’s body alive; it is the Holy Spirit that will make our bodies alive at the resurrection; it is the Holy Spirit that will glorify these bodies and when they come out they will be spiritual bodies and not carnal bodies.
There is a test presented in verse Rom 8:14 : “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Who are God’s children? Those that have the Spirit those that are led by the Spirit. We are regenerated by the Spirit, and under the guidance of that Spirit we turn away from sin. If we fall we try to fall toward heaven, and get up and try again. There is a sense of wanting to get nearer and nearer to God. We want to know whether we are Christians. Here is the test: We are led by the Spirit of God.
That brings us to the word “adoption.” What is adoption? Etymologically it is that legal process by which one, not a member of a family naturally, is legally made a member of it and an heir. There are three kinds of adoption which the apostle discusses in this letter:
1. National adoption, Rom 9:4 : “My kinsman according to the flesh who are Israelites, whose is the adoption.” Many times in the Old Testament Israel is called God’s son, the nation as a nation being his particular people.
2. The adoption of the soul of the justified man, Rom 8:15 : “Ye received the spirit of adoption.”
3. The adoption of our bodies when they are redeemed from the grave and glorified, Rom 8:23 : “Waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
The fact of our adoption is certified to us in Rom 8:15-16 : “For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God.” That is a matter of our subjective experience. As in the case of justification there must be a difference of time between the fact of our justification and our realization of its privileges, so there must be and indeed often is a difference in time between the fact of our adoption and our realization in experience that we are adopted. The cry, “Abba, Father,” means that in our experience a filial feeling toward God comes into the heart. Antecedent to this when we thought of God he seemed to us to be distant and dreadful, but when through the Holy Spirit given unto us came this conscious realization that God is a Father, it drove out all fear.
We do not feel ourselves under bondage to law, but we have the sense in our hearts of being God’s children, and as a little child readily approaches a parent in expectation of either help or comfort, we have this feeling toward our heavenly Father. It is one of the sweetest experiences of the Christian life. There is no distinction of meaning between the spirit of adoption and the Spirit’s bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, or if there is a distinction it is not appreciable in our consciousness, since it is the Spirit that bestows that filial feeling.
As an illustration of this filial feeling in the heart I cite a story of the west well-known to our boys. While two children, a little boy and his sister, were playing, the boy was stolen by the Indians and reared among them until he caught the spirit of an Indian and gloried in the Indian life. Finally he became chief of the tribe. In a war between his tribe and the white people, he was captured and it was discovered that he was not an Indian but a white man. Finally the proof accumulated as to who were his parents, yet he refused to acknowledge them. With the sullenness of a captured Indian he pined away for the wigwams and the freedom of his Indian life. Every effort to make him realize that he was a white man failed until his sister, then a grown woman, brought the toys with which the two were playing when the boy was stolen. As he looked at them his memory awakened and he stretched out his hands and claimed them as his and said, “Where is my mother?” Now here in him was a consciousness of filial feeling towards his parents from whom he had been so long alienated. Analogous to this very impression is our experience that God is our Father.
In a vivid way the apostle represents the earth, man’s habitat, as entering sympathetically into man’s longing for his complete restoration to God’s favor through adoption, Rom 8:20-23 : “For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body,” the meaning of which is that this earth was made for man; to him was given dominion over it, but when he sinned the earth was cursed. In the language of the scripture, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” In Isa 55:12-13 , we have this vivid imagery following conversion: “The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all of the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” In other words, the joy that is in the heart of the Christian constitutes a medium of rose color through which all creation seems to him more beautiful than it was before. The birds sing sweeter, the flowers exhale a sweeter perfume, the stars shine brighter, all of which is a sign, or forecast, of the redemption of the earth from the curse when man’s redemption is complete. This curse as originally pronounced upon the earth was not through any fault of creation, as our text says: “Subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who had subjected it in hope.” And very impressive and vivid is the imagery that the groaning of the earth is as travail, waiting to be redeemed from the defilement and scars and crimson stains that have been put upon it through man’s inhumanity to man on account of sin.
Other scriptures very clearly show that this redemption of the earth accompanies the redemption of man. As the earth was cleansed from defilement of sin practiced by the antediluvians through the flood, so at the coming of our Lord and the resurrection of our bodies it will be purged by fire. The language of the apostle Peter upon this subject is very impressive: “For this they wilfully forget that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God; by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens that now are and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. . . . But the day of the Lord will come as a thief: in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? But according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2Pe 3:5-7 ; 2Pe 3:10-13 ). In John’s apocalypse, referring to the restitution of all things after the judgment, he says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more” (Rev 21:1 ). This is the day of fire referred to in Mal 4:1-3 : “For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts.” This is the day of fire which the apostle Paul says shall try every man’s work: “But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire” (1Co 3:12-15 ).
In continuation of the theme of this section the apostle further shows the power of the work of salvation in us through the Holy Spirit the Paraclete. But the Greek word Paraclete needs to be defined. While our Lord was on the earth he was the paraclete, to whom as the paraclete the disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray,” and in many examples of his own praying and in many special lessons on prayer he taught the disciples, and they were sad at heart when at the last supper he announced his speedy going away from them, but comforted them with the assurance that he would pray the Father to send them another paraclete the Holy Spirit, who would teach them to pray acceptably. Prayers not according to the will of God are not answered. We may ask for things, being in doubt as to whether it is God’s will that such things should be granted, but the Holy Spirit is not in doubt. He knows what is according to the will of God, and hence when he moves us intensely to offer prayers those prayers will always be according to God’s will, and so will be answered. Thus while Jesus in heaven makes intercession for us before the mercy seat, the other Paraclete the Holy Spirit here on earth makes intercession in us. We are not to understand that the Holy Spirit directly prays for the Christian, but his method of intercession is to prompt us to make the right intercession, and it is in that way that he makes intercession for us. He teaches us how to pray, and what to pray for. That is why great revivals of religion are in connection with these spiritual prayers offered by God’s people. Hence the prophet says, “Thorns and briers shall come up on the land of my people till the Spirit is poured out from on high.”
The most vivid illustration of the thought is found in the prophecy Zechariah in connection with an event yet in the future, to wit, the salvation of the Jewish nation. The language is,
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day shall there by a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Meggidon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the houses of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. Zec 12:10-13:1 .
It is on account of the Spirit’s intercession in us that backsliders are ever reclaimed. As we wander away from God we lose the spirit of prayer, and while we go through with the forms of prayer we are conscious that our prayers do not rise, do not take hold of the throne of God, but when the Spirit comes upon the backslider then his hard heart is melted, the fountain of his tears is unsealed, the spirit of grace and supplication comes upon him, and he is conscious that he is taking hold of the throne of mercy in his prayers.
As an illustration, many Texans have experienced the hardships of a long-continued drought, when the heavens seem to be brass and the earth seems to be iron. When vegetation dies, when dust chokes the traveler on the thoroughfare, and thirst consumes him, suddenly he comes to a well and in it is an old-fashioned pump. He leaps down from his horse, rushes to the pump, but in moving its handle he causes only a dry rattle. The reason is that through very long disuse and heat the valves of the pump have shrunk and hence cannot make suction to draw up the water. In such case water must be poured down the pump until the valves are swollen, and then as the pump handle is worked, suction draws the water as freely as at first. As that pouring the water from above down the dry pump is to its efficacy in bringing water up, so is the Spirit’s intercession in us, causing us to pray successfully and according to the will of God. In that way the two elements of the gospel plan of salvation cooperate to the everlasting security of the believer. At the heaven end of the line Jesus, the first Advocate, or Paraclete, makes intercession for us as High Priest, pleading what his expiation has done for us, while the Holy Spirit, the second Advocate, or Paraclete, works in us an intercession for us here on earth. So that both ends of the line are secure in heaven above and on earth beneath. No backslider has ever been able to work himself into the true spirit of prayerfulness any more than a dry pump can be made to bring up water by working the handle. Whenever he does pray prevailingly, it is when the Spirit works in him the grace of supplication.
QUESTIONS
1. What is regeneration? negatively and positively?
2. What is the real import of what Paul says about it?
3. What is the conclusion reached by Paul in this argument?
4. What is the test presented in Rom 8:14 ?
5. What is adoption?
6. What are the three kinds of adoption which the apostle discusses in this letter?
7. How is the fact of our adoption certified to us?
8. What is the meaning of the soul’s cry, “Abba, Father”?
9. Is there any distinction between the spirit of adoption and the Spirit’s bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God? If so, what?
10. Illustrate the filial feeling that comes to us when we are saved.
11. In what vivid way does Paul represent the earth, man’s habitat, as entering sympathetically into man’s longing for his complete restoration to God’s favor through adoption?
12. What other scriptures very clearly show this redemption of the earth accompanying the redemption of man?
13. In continuation of the theme of this section, how does the apostle further show the power of the work of salvation in us?
14. Expound and illustrate this passage.
XVII
THE FINAL WORK OF SALVATION IN US
Rom 6:1-8:39
The final work of salvation in us is expressed in Rom 8:23 the redemption of our body concerning which he adds: “For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” The body is an essential part of the normal man, who was made dual in nature, and even in paradise God had provided for the elimination of the mortality of man’s body, through the continued eating of the tree of life. But the immortality of the body in sin would have been an unspeakable curse to man, and hence God, in expelling man from the garden, said, “Lest he put forth his hand and take of the tree of life and live forever.” But when our souls are regenerated the hope enters the heart that the body also will be saved, and we wait patiently for that part of our salvation. While the meaning of a passage in Job is somewhat disputable, the author believes that the common version is correct. It expresses the idea of Job in these words: Oh, that my words wee now written) Oh, that they were inscribed in a book I That with an iron pen and lead They were graven in the rock forever! But as for me, I know that my redeemer liveth, And that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, Yet in my flesh shall I see God. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, And not another: though my reins be consumed within me. Job 19:23-27 .
And the passage is akin to the expression in Psa 17:15 : “I will be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness.” This harmonizes with another very striking passage in Job: For there is hope of a tree, If it be cut down, that it will sprout again, And that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old ill the earth, And the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, And put forth boughs like a plant. But a man dieth, and is laid low: Yea, mail giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, And the river wasteth and drieth up; So man lieth down and riseth not: Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, Nor be roused out of their sleep. Oh, that thou wouldst hide me in Sheol, That thou wouldst keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, That thou wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember met If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, Till my release should come. Thou wouldst call, and I would answer thee: Thou wouldst have a desire to the work of thy hands. Job 14:7-15 .
Here Job is deeply impressed with the hope of a tree cut down reviving. There is a resurrection for it, but he Bays, “When a man dies, where is he [that is, as to his soul] and if a man die shall he [as to his body] live again?” Inasmuch as the body was the work of God’s hands and originally intended to be immortal, he expresses the hope that God would hide him in the grave and appoint a set time to remember him there and then desire the work of his hands and call him forth from his long sleep.
The fulness of the salvation in us is the regeneration of the soul, its ultimate sanctification, and the resurrection and glorification of the body. It has ever been impossible to satisfy the cravings of a human heart with the hope of soul salvation only. It is ingrained in the very constitution of our being that we long for the revivification of the body. A bird escaping from its shell to fly with a new life in the air cares nothing for the cast-off shell. A butterfly emerging from the chrysalis state cares nothing for the shell that is left behind. But from the beginning of time, through this ingrained hope of immortality for the body, man has cared for the body shell after the spirit has escaped. It is evidenced in the care for the dead body characteristic of all nations. It is evidenced in the names given to graveyards. They are called cemeteries, that is, sleeping places. It is evident in the sculpture on the tombstones and in the inscriptions thereon, all tending to show that man desires an answer to the question, “If I die, shall I live again?” And the thought being, not with reference to the continuity of existence in his spiritual nature, but in his body. Hence the resurrection of the dead is made in the Christian system, a pivotal doctrine, as we learn from the letter to the Corinthians: that our faith is vain, our preaching is vain, we are yet in our sins, our fathers have perished and God’s apostles are false witnesses, if the dead rise not. That is the conclusion of the doctrine of salvation in us. All the rest of Rom 8 is devoted to a new theme.
THE EVERLASTING SECURITY OF THOSE WHO ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH
The argument extends from Rom 8:26 to the end of the chapter, and it is perhaps the most remarkable paragraph in inspired literature. It should be memorized by every Christian. Every thought in it has been the theme of consolatory and encouraging preaching.
Let us now consider item by item this argument on the security of the believer:
1. He takes the latitudinal view, from top to bottom. Down here he finds a Christian. Up yonder at the other end of the line is the Advocate. But there is an Advocate here, too. And these Advocates, one here on earth in the depths, and the other yonder in the heights of heaven, are going to see to it that that Christian gets there all right through prayer and faith. If a Christian sins, he must confess it and ask God to forgive him. Sometimes he has not the spirit of prayer and does not feel like asking. But God provides an advocate, the Holy Spirit, that puts into his heart the spirit of grace and supplication. And the Holy Spirit not only shows him what to pray for, but how to pray. That makes things secure at this end of the line. Up yonder the advocate in heaven, Jesus Christ the righteous, takes these petitions that the Spirit inspired on earth and goes before the Father, and pointing to the sufficiency of his shed blood in his death on the cross, secures this salvation from depth to height.
2. The unbroken sweep of the providence of God: “To them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.”
With Christ on the mediatorial throne in heaven holding in his hand the scepter of universal dominion, constraining everything beings in heaven above and on the earth beneath and in hell below to work, not tangentially, but together for good not evil to them that love God, in the sweep of this providence all elements and forces of the material world and the spiritual world, are laid under tribute fire, earth, air, storms and earthquakes, pestilences, good angels and bad, the passions of men, the revolutions in human government all are made, under the directing power of Jesus our King, to conspire to our good. Fortune and misfortune, good report and evil report, sickness or health, life or death, prosperity or adversity, it is all one the power of God is over them all. Satan is not permitted to put even the weight of a little finger upon the Christian to worry him except in the direction that God will permit, and that will be overruled for his good.
3. This sweep of providential government under our mediatorial King accords with a linked chain of correlative doctrines reaching from eternity before time to eternity after time. The links of this chain are thus expressed in Rom 8:29-30 : “For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Before there was any world, a covenant of grace and mercy was entered into between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the evidences of which covenant are abundant in the New Testament, and the parts to be performed by each person of the God-head are clearly expressed, viz.: The Father’s grace and love in agreeing to send the Son, his covenant obligation to give the Son a seed, his foreknowledge of this seed, his predestination concerning this seed, his justification and adoption of them here in time.
Then the Son’s covenant was the obligation to assume human nature in his incarnation, voluntarily renouncing the glory that he had with the Father before the world was, and in this incarnation of humility to become obedient unto the death of the cross. The consideration held out before him, as a hope set before him, inducing him to endure the shame of the cross, and the reward bestowed upon him because of that obedience, was his resurrection, his glorification, his exaltation to the royal priestly throne and his investment with the right of judgment. And then the Spirit’s covenant-obligations were to apply this work of redemption in calling, convicting, regenerating, sanctifying and raising from the dead the seed promised to the Son, the whole of it showing that the plan of salvation was not an afterthought; that the roots of it in election and predestination are both in eternity before the world was, and the fruits of it are in eternity after the judgment. The believer is asked to consider this chain, test each link, shake it and hear it rattle, connected from eternity to eternity.
Every one that God chose in Christ is drawn by the Spirit to Christ. Every one predestinated is called by the Spirit in time, and justified in time, and will be glorified when the Lord comes.
4. It is impossible for finite beings to say anything against the grounds of this security, because “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Because, “He that spared not his own Son, to deliver him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?” Then the challenge is sent to the universe to find anyone who can lay any charge against God’s elect who in heaven, who among the angels, good or bad, who on the earth? No charge can be brought against a believer because it is God, the Supreme Judge, who has justified him. Justification is the verdict, or declaration, of the supreme court of heaven that in Christ the sinner is acquitted. This decision is rendered once for all, is inexorable and irreversible. It is registered in the book of life, and in the great judgment day that book will be the test book on the throne of the judgment. Whatever may be brought out from all the books that are opened, none of them are decisive and ultimate but one the book of life and it is not a docket of cases to be tried on that day, but is a register of judicial decisions already rendered; “and it shall come to pass that whosoever is not found already written in that book shall be cast into the lake of fire.” Therefore the thrill excited in the heart by that song which our congregations so often used to sing: When Thou my righteous Judge shall come, To take thy ransomed people home Shall I among them stand? Shall I, who sometimes am afraid to die Be found at thy right hand? 0, can I bear the piercing thought, What if my name should be left out!
5. The ground of this salvation is what Christ does. Spurgeon calls Rom 8:34 the four pillars upon which rests the whole superstructure of salvation. They are: (a) The death of Christ, (b) The resurrection of Christ, (c) The exaltation of Christ to the kingly throne, (d) His intercession as our great High Priest. These four doctrines are strictly correlative they fit into one another. The soul of the Christian does not at the beginning realize the strength of his salvation. Many a one has simply believed on Christ as a Saviour without ever analyzing in his own mind, or separating from each other in thought, the several things done by Christ in order to his salvation. But as he grows in knowledge of these things, he grows in grace and assurance. It was some time after my own soul was saved before I ever understood fully the power of Christ’s exaltation, or kingly throne, and still longer before I understood the power of his intercession. I got to the comfort of this last thought one day in reading a passage in Hebrews. “Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing be ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25 ). I had never before seen the difference between salvation in justification and salvation to the uttermost. In the same way we may not realize in our joy of regeneration the power of his continuing that good work in us until the day of Jesus Christ, and the great value of the Spirit’s work in taking the things of Christ and showing them to us. And as we learn each office of Christ, and just what he does in that office, the greater our sense of security. He is prophet, sacrifice, king, priest, leader, and judge.
6. The final argument underlying the security of the believer is presented in Rom 8:35-37 , that none can separate us from the love of Christ after our union is established with him. The words here are, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? In all these things we are more than conquerors.” The argument is in full accord with the statement of our Lord, Joh 10:29 : “My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” It is further expressed in another passage by the apostle when he says, “I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day.” And it is further expressed in the seal of the Holy Spirit. We are sealed “unto the day of redemption.”
When I was a schoolboy I was wonderfully stirred by an eloquent sermon preached by J. R. Graves in which he pointed out that fact that by faith we commit our lives to Jesus; that life is hid with Christ in God; that life is sealed with the impression of the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption, and then he asked, “Who can pluck that life out of the hands of God?” drawing this vivid picture: “If hell should open her yawning mouth and all of the demons of the pit should issue forth like huge vampires darkening water and land, could they break that seal of God? Could they soar to the heights of heaven? Could they scale its battlements? Could they beat back the angels that guard its walls? Could they penetrate into the presence of the Holy One on his eternal throne, and reach out their demon-claws and pluck our life from the bosom of God where it is hid with Christ in God?”
The pages of religious persecution are very bloody; rack, thumbscrews and fagot have been employed. Confiscation of property, expatriation from country, and bounding pursuit of the exile in foreign lands, exposedness to famine and nakedness and sword and other perils, and yet never has this persecution been able to effect a separation of the believer from his Lord. Roman emperors tried it, Julian the apostate tried it, Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles V, their son, and Philip II, his son, all tried it in their time. The inquisition held its secret court; war, conflagration, and famine wrought their ruin, but the truth prevailed.
All this illustrates the truth that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The Genevan, the German, the English State churches have tried, in emulation of the Romanist union of church and state, to crush out the true spirit” of Christianity. They have been able merely to scatter the fires, to make them burn over a wider territory as it is expressed concerning the decree to scatter the ashes of Wycliffe in the river.
Now upon these arguments, the two intercessors, the sweep of God’s providence, the link chain reaching from eternity to eternity, the impossibility of any being laying a charge against one whom God has justified, the four pillars, the inability of man or devil to separate from Christ upon these, the apostle reaches this persuasion:
“For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
QUESTIONS
1. What is the final work of salvation in us?
2. What provision did God first make for the immortality of man’s body?
3. What defeated that plan, and how is this immortality finally accomplished?
4. What is Job’s testimony to this hope; What the interpretation of the passage?
5. How is this hope in man evidenced in a singular way?
6. How does Paul elsewhere make the resurrection a pivotal doctrine in the Christian system?
7. Name the six arguments for the security of those who are justified by faith as taught in Rom 8 .
8. Explain the argument based on the two intercessors.
9. What is the providential argument, and what does it include?
10. What is the link chain argument, and how many and what links in the chain?
11. In the covenant of grace, what are the parts to be performed by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, respectively?
12. What is the nonchargeable elect argument, and what the book of life cited in this connection?
13. Recite the stanza from the old song given in this connection.
14. What is the ground of this salvation, and what the four-pillar argument?
15. Show how one may not comprehend all this when first converted, and how he may afterwards get great strength from it.
16. What the nonseparation argument, what J. R. Graves’, illustration of it, and how do the persecutions inflicted upon God’s people illustrate a great scripture truth?
17. In view of these arguments, what is Paul’s persuasion?
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Ver. 1. Shall we continue ] Quasi dicat, that were most unreasonable, and to an ingenuous nature, impossible. To argue from mercy to liberty, is the devil’s logic. Should we not after deliverance yield obedience? said holy Ezra, Ezr 9:13-14 . A man may as truly say, the sea burns, or fire cools, as that certainty of salvation breeds security and looseness.
1 14. ] No encouragement given hereby (see ch. Rom 5:20 ) to a life in sin: for the baptized are dead to sin, and walk in a new ( Rom 6:1-7 ) life, and one ( Rom 6:8-11 ) dedicated to God .
1. ] What then shall we say ? the introduction of a difficulty or objection arising out of the preceding argument, and referring to ch. Rom 5:20 . See ch. Rom 3:5 .
, ‘ must we think that we may persist ,’ the deliberative subjunctive. So , Eur. Ion 758: , Med. 1275. See Khner, Gramm. 464, and note on ch. Rom 5:1 . [ Are we to continue (‘ Must we think that we may persist ,” in other words] “ May we persist ”) in (our natural state and commission of) sin, that (God’s) grace may be multiplied (ch. Rom 5:20 )?
Rom 1:18 to Rom 11:36 . ] THE DOCTRINAL EXPOSITION OF THE ABOVE TRUTH: THAT THE GOSPEL IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION TO EVERY ONE THAT BELIEVETH. And herein, ch. Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20 , inasmuch as this power of God consists in the revelation of God’s righteousness in man by faith, and in order to faith the first requisite is the recognition of man’s unworthiness, and incapability to work a righteousness for himself, the Apostle begins by proving that all, Gentiles and Jews, are GUILTY before God, as holding back the truth in unrighteousness. And FIRST, ch. Rom 1:18-32 , OF THE GENTILES.
12 8:39. ] THE POWER OF GOD (ch. Rom 1:16 ) IS SET FORTH AS FREEING FROM THE DOMINION OF SIN AND DEATH, AND ISSUING IN SALVATION.
Rom 6:1-14 . In the fifth chapter, Paul has concluded his exposition of the “righteousness of God” which is revealed in the Gospel. But the exposition leaves something to be desired something hinted at in Rom 3:8 (“Let us do evil that good may come”) and recalled in Rom 5:20 f. (“Where sin abounded, grace did superabound”). It seems, after all, as if the gospel did “make void the law” (Rom 3:31 ) in a bad sense; and Paul has now to demonstrate that it does not. It is giving an unreal precision to his words to say with Lipsius that he has now to justify his gospel to the moral consciousness of the Jewish Christian; it is not Jewish Christians, obviously, who are addressed in Rom 6:19 ff., and it is not the Jewish-Christian moral consciousness, but the moral consciousness of all men, which raises the questions to which he here addresses himself. He has to show that those who have “received the reconciliation” (Rom 5:11 ), who “receive the abundance of the grace and of the gift of righteousness” (Rom 5:17 ), are the very persons in whom “the righteous requirement of the law” is fulfilled (Rom 8:4 ). The libertine argument is rather Gentile than Jewish, though when Paul speaks of the new religion as establishing Law, it is naturally the Mosaic law of which he thinks. It was the one definite embodiment of the concept. The justification, to the moral consciousness, of the Gospel in which a Divine righteousness is freely held out in Jesus Christ to the sinner’s faith, fills the next three chapters. In chap. 6 it is shown that the Christian, in baptism, dies to sin; in chap. 7, that by death he is freed from the law, which in point of fact, owing to the corruption of his nature, perpetually stimulates sin; in chap. 8, that the Spirit imparted to believers breaks the power of the flesh, and enables them to live to God.
Rom 6:1 . ; What inference then shall we draw, i.e. , from the relations of sin and grace expounded in Rom 5:20 f.? Are we to continue in sin ( cf. Rom 11:22 f.) that grace may abound? Lightfoot suggests “ the sin” and “ the grace” just referred to. The question was one sure to be asked by some one; Paul recognises it as a natural question in view of his doctrine, and asks it himself. But he answers it with an indignant negative.
Romans Chapter 6
That grace should so triumphantly rise above sin, even where sin abounded most, leads to the various objections of unbelief and the answers of the Holy Spirit for our furtherance and joy of faith. Grace in no way slights sin. From first to last Christianity and evil are proved to be incompatible.
“What then shall we say? Let us continue in sin that grace may abound? Let it not be. We who died to sin, how shall we still live in it? Are ye ignorant that as many of us as were baptized unto Christ Jesus were baptized unto his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism unto death, that, as Christ was raised from among [the] dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Ver. 1-4.)
Is this then the deduction from the gospel of God? May we continue in sin, in order that His grace may be the more richly displayed? Away with such a thought. But here the apostle deals with the wicked inference or imputation, not from its intrinsic heinousness, nor from its reflection on the character of God, as in Rom 3:8 , but from its flat contradiction of Christianity in its first principles. It is not again a motive drawn from the sense we have of our Saviour’s love; it is not here a question how can we so wound His heart or grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
The apostle replies from the starting-point of each confessor of Christ. Not merely did He die for our sins, laying us under an infinite obligation, but we died to sin:* how then shall we longer live in it? This is the meaning of our baptism. Are you ignorant of so plain a truth? It is not some special quality of blessing that is the privilege of a few Christians only; it is the common property of all the baptized. As many of us as were baptized unto Christ Jesus were baptized unto His death.
*The notion of Macknight and Rosenmller, that death by sin is intended, misses all the force of the passage, and is clean contrary to the argument in the context, which is founded on our being baptized unto the death of Christ.
Thus is laid down clearly and beyond question the fundamental truth that not more surely did Christ die for us, than we died to sin in His death. Our baptism sets forth this as well as that. The conclusion is inevitable: “We were buried then with him by baptism unto death, that, as Christ was raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Let us weigh the immense importance of this truth stated with the simplicity and the force characteristic of a divine revelation.
Evangelicalism (whether in national or dissenting bodies) takes its stand (at least it used to do so) on the truth of Christ dying for our sins. This is most true, and a capital truth; without which there is no bringing of the soul to God, no divine judgment of our iniquities, no possible sense of pardon. But it is very far from being the truth even of the Saviour’s death, to speak of no more now. Hence evangelicalism, as such, having no real apprehension of our death in Christ, never understands the force and place of baptism, is habitually infirm as to christian walk, and is apt to take the comfort of forgiveness by the blood of Christ so as to mix with the world and enjoy the life that now is, often helping on the delusion of ameliorating man and improving Christendom.
Mysticism on the other hand, whether Catholic or Protestant, dissatisfied with the worldly case and self-complacency of the evangelicals, is ever pining after a deeper reality, but seeks it within. Hence the continual effort of the pietist school is to die to self and so to enjoy God, unless perhaps with the few who flatter themselves that they have arrived at such a state of perfection as they can rest in. But for the mass, and I suppose indeed all whose conscience retains its activity, they never go beyond godly desires and inward strainings after holiness. They cannot dwell consciously in God’s love to them as a settled fact known in Christ, producing self-forgetfulness in presence of His own perfect grace which made Christ to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The system tends even in its fairest samples to turn the eye inwardly in a search after a love which may aspire to resemble as closely as possible the love of God, and so satisfy itself with the hope of a life ever higher and higher. Hence pious sentimentalism, which is little more than imagination at work in religion, reigns in the heart, not grace through righteousness.
Thus the ground the apostle here insists on is ignored by evangelicals and mystics; and indeed in Christendom at large it is excluded by its legalism and ordinances as decidedly as by rationalism. They are all, in every part, judged by the simple elementary truth couched under and expressed in baptism, that the Christian is dead to sin. To teach that we ought to die to sin is well meant, but it is not the truth, and therefore can but deeply injure the soul in its real wants. The true view is, no doubt, the reverse of death in sin; it is death to sin. Grace gives us this blessed portion – gives it now in this world from the commencement of our career – gives it once for all as the one baptism recognizes. Hence the Christian is false to the primary truth he confesses who should live still in sin. In his baptism he owns he died in Christ. He is bound to walk accordingly – as one already and always dead to sin.
Is there then no mortification? no practical carrying out of death with Christ? Unquestionably. It is the constant duty of the Christian; but then, mark well the difference: – christian practice consists, not in our dying to sin, but in our putting to death our members which are on the earth, even the various lusts of the old man. In his baptism the believer openly renounces all hope of himself or the first man; nor does he, like a Jew, merely hope for a Messiah to be born and reign on the throne of David. In baptism he confesses His death, and his own death therein – not only his sin but its end in the death of Christ. If we had not another life, who could thus give up his own life as dead? Yet what is attested in baptism is not life but death – our death to sin in Christ’s death – which we could not do save as living through Him.
Thus it is as different from Jewish ground as from that of the Gentiles who know not God, some of whose sages in West as well as East have tried to die to sin. The distinctive christian ground is that, as baptized unto Christ’s death, we died to Pin from the commencement of our career. “We were buried then with him in baptism unto death, that, even as Christ was raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life.” It is a poor interpretation to take the Father’s glory as equivalent to His almightiness or power. Every motive which animates Him morally, every way and end whereby He is set forth in His perfections, all that goes forth in excellence and delight, not toward the creature only but His Son, was exercised in raising up the Lord Jesus. After such a standard are we too called to walk in newness of life. It is no longer a question of original creation, still less of fallen Adam, but of Christ, who is the life of which by grace we live; and He is risen. May we walk accordingly!
The apostle carries out the comparison of our blessing after the pattern of Christ to actual resurrection. “For if we have become united in nature with the likeness of his death, we shall be also [with that] of his resurrection, knowing this that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin. For he that died has been justified from sin.”
Resurrection, as far as we are concerned, is a matter of hope. We have part with Christ in His death; we shall have in resurrection also for our bodies. Meanwhile, we, as alive through Him risen, have all the benefit of His death as a power delivering from sin. Our old man we know to be crucified with Him. Without this the root of evil had not been dealt with, nor consequently had we against self that weapon of divine temper which a God of resurrection puts in our hands. Nor is it a feeling – a consciousness – of death which might only minister to self-satisfaction. It is a fact objectively known, though only within the ken of faith: knowing () this, etc. Thus only as a practical means can the body of sin come to nought, that we should no more be slaves to it. Here the point of need is liberty from sin to do the holy will of God for those who were only slaves of sin. There is no other way, though when we take this the path of faith, there is much to help us along the road. If I have died, it is evident that there is no longer a question of sinning. A dead man cannot sin more; and the Christian is given to know himself dead in Christ’s death that he may henceforth enjoy this quittance from the power of sin. How can one dead be charged with going on in sin? For he that died (, the completed act) has been justified (, the subsisting effect of the past action) from sin. It is a deliverance worthy of God both in His wisdom and in His holiness; and as it is of grace, so it is by faith.
Hence verse 8 repeats the conclusion as to the future which follows from the death and resurrection of Christ. “Now if we died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him.” Our condition when actually risen is once more anticipated and rehearsed. “Knowing that Christ being raised from among [the] dead dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over him.” It is interesting to note the difference here. We only know because we are taught it, as a truth outside us, that our old man has been crucified with Christ. It is not really, what so many would like to make it, a matter of subjective experience; for this would flatter the flesh in its pious frames and aspirations, instead of honouring the grace of God in the death of Christ. On the other hand we have the inward conscious knowledge () that Christ, being risen, dies no more: death has no more dominion over Him. It is not a mere outward fact of knowledge: we feel from our soul that so it is and must be. Sin never had dominion over Him, but death had, that God might be glorified, sin judged, Satan’s power abolished, and we delivered.
“For in that he died, he died to sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth to God.” Life has now the victory, so much the more strikingly and conspicuously because that death seemed to gain it at first. Thus as sin never had the least advantage, so death has lost its claim through His bowing to it and thus securing our freedom who have part in His death. If sin’s wages are death, what a gain to us His death has been who, personally without sin, was made sin by God for us, as truly as we became the righteousness of God in Him.
Not of course that on the cross He was not as holy as in all that preceded it; but He gave Himself to be judicially treated according to all that was imputed to Him, and for which in grace He became responsible. In nothing did He spare Himself; in nothing did God, who forsook Him thus identified with our sin and all its consequences under divine judgment, that we might come out free. By dying all was ended; and we, having our part with Him, have done with sin. “So also do ye reckon yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” We are entitled so to reckon ourselves; we ought to do so; we wrong the death and resurrection of Christ if we do not account ourselves thus dead to sin and alive to God in Him – a great and wondrous boon to those who delight to have an end of sin, a real if but a small part of Christianity, yet even this, I may say, ignored in Christendom, its force misunderstood, its joy untasted.
It is to be observed that verse 11 carries the subject beyond the reasoning of verse 8, where our living with Christ is shown to be a just and sure consequence for the believer: if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. It is future. But now we have a weighty present result founded on what intervenes, especially verse 10. Christ died to sin once and lives to God; and He is the life as well as the resurrection. As thus alive to God, all closed as to sin in His death, we live of His life, and are thus also to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God, not here with Him, but through or in virtue of () Him. This epistle never, in its doctrinal province, goes so far as union with Him, though it does employ the truth of the body to enforce the right use of spiritual gifts on Christians. In the Epistle to the Ephesians we are shown to be quickened together with Christ and raised up together with Him. Here however we are alive to God in Him.
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey its lusts.”* (Ver. 12.) The truth is then, not that sin is dead, but that we are entitled by Christ’s death and resurrection to regard ourselves in the account of faith as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign. It is personified here as elsewhere sometimes, seeking the upper hand in our mortal body so as to subject us to its lusts. But through Christ it has no claim over us. As He lives to God who died to sin once for all, so also we are to reckon ourselves done with the dominion of sin and not to obey its lusts. As dead to sin we owe it no allegiance whatever.
*Beza notices the critical reading as that of the old interpreter (the Vulgate) and of Augustine, and as also so found in one Greek. This may serve to show how much more fully and accurately the authorities are now known; for it is so read in the Sinai, Vatican, Alexandrian, and Rescript of Paris (C); in six cursives; in the Coptic, Sahidic, Syriac, thiopic, Armenian, etc., besides the Latin, not to speak of many fathers Greek and Latin.
Nor is this all. The apostle pushes the matter farther. “Neither yield your members instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God as alive from out of dead [men], and your members instruments of righteousness to God.” (Ver. 13.) The first occurrence of “yield” means, in the form of the word, the habit of yielding; the second, by its form, implies the surrender already made. It is not a gradual improvement of the nature or the will as men speak, but the giving up of ourselves in a single and complete act to God as alive from among the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness to God.
This is the new place of positive blessing given to us, counting ourselves thus by faith. Such is the present practical consequence, as we have seen also what is future for us. “For sin shall not have dominion over you” – not sin as a personified ruler now, but no sin in any shape or measure; “for ye are not under law* but under grace.” (Ver. 14.) This closes the foregoing discussion and prepares for a new step taken in the argument following.
*The commentators torture themselves to reconcile these words with their own views, which they condemn; but even Calvin and Beza own that it is a question of law, moral law (not the law of our members, nor of ceremonies, still less national or political law). “Quare non est dubium, quin hic aliquam ab ipsa Domini Lege manumissionem indicare voluerit,” says the former (in loco). That is, the context decides for him beyond doubt that the apostle meant here to indicate some freedom from the very law of the Lord. But his explanation is altogether imperfect and unsound, falling in with and helping on mere natural thoughts, and thus contributing to bring about the low state of practice which prevails even among the godly portion of the Reformed. “Therefore, lest broken in mind by a consciousness of their infirmity they should despond, he seasonably comes to their help, by interposing a consolation derived from the consideration that their works are not now tested by the severe criterion of the law, but God, remitting their impurity, accepts them kindly and benignantly . . . . Therefore not to be under law means that we are no longer exposed to the law as requiring perfect righteousness, with death pronounced on all who have in any part deviated from it.” The notion is that, being under grace, we are freed from the rigorous exactions of law. Thus grace becomes a sort of mitigated law, which is just what flesh would desire – a law that prescribes but has no power to condemn. That this must of itself lead to laxity, and is therefore really Antinomian in principle, seems evident and certain. It is an unwarrantable mixture of law and grace, which destroys the true character and scope of both. The truth is that Christ redeemed such believers as were under law from the curse; but He has in no way taken away its curse from law. Our blessing is of faith that it might be by grace; but the law, as scripture says, is not of faith. As we were justified by faith, so by it we walk, for we are not under law but under grace. He who abstains from murder simply because the law forbids it is a wicked man, and not a believer.
What a blessed comfort thus far and how uncompromisingly laid down in the very portion that refutes the flesh’s misuse of God’s mercy and of the Christian’s liberty! “Ye are not under law but under grace.”
It is painful to see how those who profess to believe the gospel, valuing both Christ and His work, elude the force of His word, and essay to foist on the Christian subjection to law, which the Spirit is here flatly negativing. The law is the strength of sin; for by its restraint and interdict it can but provoke the flesh. It never gives power of holiness any more than life: grace, not law, quickens, saves, and strengthens. If believers could be under law, sin must have dominion over them.
It is in vain to say that the apostle is here treating of our being accounted righteous in Christ. Not so: he is discussing the walk of the Christian in answer to the cavil that grace tends to sanction lax ways. It is a question therefore of a rule of life, of its principle and spring. The objectors then as now had fallen into the error of supposing that the law, though unable to give the remission of sins, is the rule of righteousness for the Christian. Justification from sin, not from sins, is the point in hand, and as the blood of Christ washes away the sins of the believer in the sight of God, so he is cleansed from sin; not simply by Christ’s dying for him, but by his dying with Christ. For he that died is justified from sin. The nature is in question, and consequently the walk of the believer; and the remedy here, as everywhere, is in Christ; but it is in death with Him of which baptism is the sign.
Nor can there be a less holy doctrine than the notion so prevalent among the Puritans as well as others still less intelligent and with less godly desire, that the death of Christ has taken away the condemnatory power of the law for faith, but left the Christian under it as a directory of his ways. A law which can no longer condemn departure from itself or those guilty of it is nugatory. It is of the essence of law not only to prescribe duty but to condemn any and every infraction of its requirements. Hence our apostle teaches elsewhere, “as many as are of the works of the law” (i.e., as many people as are on the ground or principle of works of law, not merely as many as have broken the law) “are under the curse.”
It is false doctrine, then, and really Antinomian in its basis, that the law has lost its sting or condemnatory power for those under it. Such is not the boon of redemption. The law is not dead. It retains all its force against the wicked, as the apostle shows. It is not an evil thing but excellent, when used lawfully; but it is unlawfully imposed on the righteous and holy. The Christian, even if he had been a Jew, is not under law but under grace; and this not by the death of law, which cannot be and ought not to be, but by his own death with Christ. As a dead man can sin no more, so the law does not apply to one viewed as dead. Such is God’s way of considering the Christian, not only atoned for but dead with Christ; and faith considers him who possesses it as God does. Thus the law remains inviolable; and the deliverance of the Christian consists, not in the weakening or even mitigation of the law, but in the change of place which grace gives. The believer died with Christ, and is thus justified from sin and freed from law. Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace did not burn the less, though the three Hebrews were preserved unscathed. The curse fell on Christ crucified; the believer is in Christ risen. “There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
Verse 15 puts a new question. It is no longer, as in verse 1, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may exceed?” This is the primary objection to grace for Christians just delivered from the ruin of the first man. Moral relaxation is dreaded, if where sin abounded, grace still more exceeded. It was met by counter questions which prove that grace does not merely help by motive against sin, but delivers the believer from it by that most decisive and ultimate weapon, even death. How shall we that died to sin live any longer in it? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Christ Jesus were baptized unto his death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism unto death . . . . He that died is justified from sin. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign. Such is the apostle’s argument in answer to the first question.
“What then? are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? Let it not be.” (Ver. 15.) Thus his second question is not answered by our death with Christ. That we cannot live longer in sin is conclusively set aside by the fact that we died to sin with Christ and therefore are not to abide in it. All this sinful first Adam life is closed to us, both for the future in resurrection and for the present in the part we have with Christ for our souls. Christ dead and risen is the pattern for faith; His death is the principle of present deliverance from the reign of sin. But do we not need a mighty spring to move, and cheer, and strengthen us along the way of the Lord? Unquestionably we do; and this is none other than grace. Nothing else could keep the believer from yielding his members as implements of unrighteousness to sin, nothing else could enable him to act consistently with that surrender of himself, once for all, to God and of his members as implements of righteousness to God, which is characteristic of the Christian. And we are under grace, the power for holiness, as the Jew was under law, the strength of the sin he was so slow to feel and confess. And therefore sin, which for the present has absolutely governed the chosen nation, shall not lord it over the Christian. May we then sin because we are not under law that condemns, but under God’s free unmerited favour that imputes no sin, but justifies and saves? Far be it from us. Is it thus we would or could use our liberty? What could be more base? If I am by Christ thus freed, for what, for whom, shall I use my freedom? “Know ye not that to what ye yield yourselves bondmen to obey, ye are bondmen to what ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?”* (Ver. 16.)
*Think of Calvin’s temerity in saying that the apostle “improprie locutus est,” and this for so petty and technical a reason as this: “nam si partes partibus reddere voluisset dicendum erat: sive justitiae in vitam.” The apostle does (in ver. 19) guard his use of the figure of bondage; but here all is perfectly accurate – far more so than the correspondency suggested. “Righteousness unto life” might be gravely misunderstood and seems in every way a questionable statement.
This again is another characteristic of Christianity. Christ makes the soul, once the slave of sin, to be free, and calls it to stand fast in His liberty, never again to be held in a yoke of bondage. For there is no middle ground or other alternative. But grace uses this liberty to be so much the more His bondman, free from sin to serve the Lord Christ. It was precisely what He did here below, evermore the true and perfect servant. Into this love always leads. With Him we have communion in this, and in order to express its absoluteness we, however free from our old slavery, are said to be bondmen of Jesus, His will and work, or, as suits the argument here, “of obedience unto righteousness.” The Christian’s righteousness is never doing things because they are right, which is pride, independence, or deification of self, but because they are God’s will for us. We must obey in order to practical righteousness. How complete the change from all we were! “But thanks to God that ye were bondmen of sin, but ye obeyed from [the] heart [the] form of teaching into which ye were delivered.” (Ver. 17.)
Man does not suffice for himself; for he is but a creature and therefore necessarily dependent on God. If he seeks to be his own master, if he affects independence, he only falls the more thoroughly under Satan; and, instead of obeying God, he becomes the slave of sin. From this servitude redemption delivers the believer, but only to bind him heartily (and so much the more because under grace, not law) to do as the christian form of teaching instructs us; for obedience is always according to, and measured by, the relationship in which we stand. Legal obedience, if practicable, is not that which grace produces, which is in unison with the truth in Christ – that mould, as it were, into which the believer is cast.
Such then is the character and effect of christian deliverance and the vital connection which we shall see more fully afterwards between redemption by Christ and life in Him. “Being made free from sin ye became enslaved to righteousness.” (Ver. 18.) Two masters no man can serve. Freed from sin, we are now indissolubly bound to righteousness. Grace is the only power for righteousness. The law defined and demanded that measure and form of righteousness which God could not but exact from man in the flesh. But grace, under which the Christian is, makes good in his practice what we have been taught since Christ is revealed. Thus the very fact that God does not impute iniquity to the believer encourages and fortifies him in willing self-surrender to the Lord, instead of simply provoking sin and condemning the sinner as law did and could do nothing else. Under grace we are free, but withal servants. Freed from sin, we become bondmen to righteousness. Such is the effect of our hearty obedience of the gospel.
As the first question of our chapter, then, is met by the great fact of God’s judgment of the old man and deliverance of the Christian by the death and resurrection of Christ, as he confesses his own death with Christ (witnessed in baptism from the starting-point of Christianity), so the second is an appeal to his motives as set free according to the liberty of grace. Is he going to use it for sinning? Not as the power of sin is the law (1Co 15 ), grace is the power of holiness and makes him who is under it a more devoted bondman of righteousness to the God who imputes no sin, than the law even asked, but never obtained, with all its rewards and penalties: why this is will appear fully and definitely in Rom 7 , where the special question of man under law, even though converted and indeed only as converted, is brought to issue.
For having spoken of the Christian as enslaved to righteousness, the apostle hastens to excuse his language. He had shown the impossibility of a middle place, maintaining the absoluteness of the surrender to God, which is made good in the heart and ways of the believer; he had characterized the new relation as one of bondage to righteousness. This required explanation; for in truth it is real, and the only real, liberty of heart; yet is the bond none the less firm and thorough. “I speak after a human sort on account of the weakness of your flesh; for as ye yielded your members in bondage to uncleanness and to lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now yield your members to righteousness unto holiness.” (Ver. 19.) Their former estate manifested its corruption and wilfulness increasingly. Evil ripens and waxes worse and worse. Willing service issues not only in a just appreciation of our relative place to God and man, but in an ever deepening sense of separation to God. To this the saints are exhorted. The life is exercised and progress is looked for. Righteousness is here the practical maintenance of our responsibility according to the relation in which we now stand to God (our mere creature-place as of the first Adam being closed by death). Holiness is the intrinsic delight of the new life in good and its abhorrence of evil, according to God as revealed in Christ.
“For when ye were bondmen of sin, ye were free to righteousness. What fruit had ye then at that time? [Things] of which ye are now ashamed. For the end of those things [is] death.” (Ver. 20, 21.) There seems to be a grave but cutting irony in this allusion to their old condition, when the only freedom they knew was in respect to righteousness. They were slaves of sin and had nothing to do with righteousness. And what was the result? Nothing to boast of certainly: how much to fill these representatives with shame! And what is the .end of those things? Death.
Here then we stand on the ground of motives which test the heart. It is no longer, as at the beginning of the chapter, a great fact which is true of the Christian because he has a part with Christ in His death, and so is dead to sin and lives to God. It is an appeal to his appreciation of the grace of God which has freed him from his slavery to sin. To what account and use then is he going to turn his freedom? What was the fruit of his old life when he was free enough in relation to righteousness? Nothing, as far as he was concerned, but a source of present shame, save death the end.
How admirable is the wisdom of the inspired word! The sense of grace thus corrects the otherwise inevitable effect of the light of God, cast on the past and the present and the future: for if it were possible that a soul should be awakened to a just sense of its sinfulness and then left with earnest desires to serve God, to a new life, battling with its old evil, how occupied with self must be the whole of its experience! Alas! so it is too deeply as well as extensively among real children of God, who imperfectly know the blessed consequences for them of the work of Christ. They are not redeemed to be put under law, but contrariwise under grace. Saved by grace, they stand in grace. And this is the strongest motive to the renewed mind, the most fatal snare to the hypocritical professor, the ready objection of the natural mind, which sees the latter without being able to estimate the former.
“But now freed from sin, and made bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end life eternal.” Observe the relation of grace. It is not slaves to the law, but bondservice to God. Man in flesh was tried by the ten words; but they were too weighty for his weakness, and only riveted a chain of judgment on his guilt. But now, emancipated by the death and resurrection of Christ, received by faith, having the life of Him risen from the dead as well as redemption – the forgiveness of sins, we are freed from sin and enslaved to God. Hence follows not a mere test by certain commands, but subjection to Himself who speaks to us by all His word. Every part of scripture has His authority to our souls: only we must learn by the Spirit its just application; and this, holding fast our association with Christ no longer as in the first Adam. It is clear that this both gives a more intimate relation to God, and opens a boundless sphere in which our obedience is to be exercised.
Nor is it only subjection to God, which takes the place of the Jewish position under law; but, thus walking, we have our “fruit unto holiness, and the end life eternal.” Such is the pathway here, and such its crown in glory by and by. There is growth in the value of good and its issue in the attracted separation of the heart from evil to God; and the end is suited to the way, though surely according to the personal dignity of Christ, and that which alone meets the character and counsels of God.
“For the wages of sin [is] death; but the free gift of God life eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is a summary of the general truth; it is the result on man’s side and on God’s. He does not limit it to transgression, though of course its wages are no less; he takes man, the Gentile sinner, as well as the Jewish transgressor. Both were sinners; and the wages of sin is death. But the blessing is quite as rich and free: eternal life is the need of the Jew no less than of the Gentile: it is God’s free gift, and thus equally open to either or both. Let it be carefully noted that the Holy Spirit, by the structure of the phrase, carefully avoids intimating that the wages of sin are limited to death; for in truth judgment remains, and is appointed to man no less than death. Together they are the full wages of sin. Nor would it be safe to affirm that even eternal life exhausts the free gift of God; for, as we shall find in Rom 8 , no less than in many scriptures more, He gives the Holy Ghost to be the portion of the believer, not to speak of the relation of son and the accompanying inheritance. Boundless indeed is His grace to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rom 6:1-7
1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7for he who has died is freed from sin.
Rom 6:1
NASB”Are we to continue to sin that grace might increase”
NKJV”Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound”
NRSV”Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound”
TEV”That we should continue to live in sin so that God’s grace will increase”
NJB”Does it follow that we should remain in sin so as to let grace have greater scope”
This is a present active subjunctive. It literally asks the question, are Christians “to abide with” or “to embrace” sin? This question looks back to Rom 5:20. Paul used a hypothetical objector (diatribe) to deal with the potential misuse of grace (cf. 1Jn 3:6; 1Jn 3:9; 1Jn 5:18). God’s grace and mercy are not meant to give a license for rebellious living.
Paul’s gospel of a free salvation as the gift of God’s grace through Christ (cf. Rom 3:24; Rom 5:15; Rom 5:17; Rom 6:23) raised many questions about life style righteousness. How does a free gift produce moral uprightness? Justification and sanctification must not be separated (cf. Mat 7:24-27; Luk 8:21; Luk 11:28; Joh 13:17; Rom 2:13; Jas 1:22-25; Jas 2:14-26).
On this point let me quote F. F. Bruce in Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free,
“the baptism of Christians constituted the frontier between their old unregenerate existence and their new life in Christ: it marked their death to the old order, so that for a baptized Christian to go on in sin was as preposterous as it would be for an emancipated slave to remain in bondage to his former owner (cf. Rom 6:1-4; Rom 6:15-23) or for a widow to remain subject to ‘the law of her husband'” (pp. 281-82, cf. Rom 7:1-6).
In James S. Stewart’s book, A Man in Christ, he writes:
“The locus classicus for all this side of the apostles’ thought is to be found in Romans 6. There Paul, with magnificent vigor and effort, drives home to heart and conscience the lesson that to be united with Jesus in His death means for the believer a complete and drastic break with sin” (pp. 187-88).
Rom 6:2 “may it never be” This is a rare optative form which was a grammatical mood or mode used of a wish or prayer. It was Paul’s stylistic way (i.e., Hebraic idiom) of answering a hypothetical objector. It expressed Paul’s shock and horror at unbelieving mankind’s misunderstanding and abuse of grace (cf. Rom 3:4; Rom 3:6).
“we who died to sin” This is an aorist active indicative, meaning “we have died.” The singular “sin” is used so often throughout this chapter. It seems to refer to our “sin nature” inherited from Adam (cf. Rom 5:12-21; 1Co 15:21-22). Paul often uses the concept of death as a metaphor to show the believer’s new relationship to Jesus. They are no longer subject to sin’s mastery.
“still live in it” This is literally “walk.” This metaphor was used to stress either our lifestyle faith (cf. Eph 4:1; Eph 5:2; Eph 5:15) or lifestyle sin (cf. Rom 6:4; Eph 4:17). Believers cannot be happy in sin!
Rom 6:3-4 “have been baptized. . .have been buried” These are both aorist passive indicatives. This grammatical form often emphasized a completed act accomplished by an outside agent, here the Spirit. They are parallel in this context.
SPECIAL TOPIC: BAPTISM
“into Christ Jesus” The use of eis (into) parallels the Great Commission of Mat 28:19, where new believers are baptized eis (into) the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The preposition is also used to describe the believers being baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ in 1Co 12:13. Eis in this context is synonymous with en (in Christ) in Rom 6:11, which is Paul’s favorite way to denote believers. It is a locative of sphere. Believers live and move and have their being in Christ. These prepositions express this intimate union, this sphere of fellowship, this vine and branch relationship. Believers identify with and join with Christ in His death (cf. Rom 6:6; Rom 8:17), in His resurrection (cf. Rom 6:5), in His obedient service to God, and in His Kingdom!
“into His death. . .we have been buried with Him” Baptism by immersion illustrates death and burial (cf. Rom 6:5 and Col 2:12). Jesus used baptism as a metaphor for His own death (cf. Mar 10:38-39; Luk 12:50). The emphasis here is not a doctrine of baptism, but of the Christian’s new, intimate relationship to Christ’s death and burial. Believers identify with Christ’s baptism, with His character, with His sacrifice, with His mission. Sin has no power over believers!
Rom 6:4 “we have been buried with Him through baptism into death” In this chapter, as is characteristic of all of Paul’s writing, he uses many sun (with) compounds (e.g., three in Eph 2:5-6).
1. sun + thapt = co-buried, Rom 6:4; Col 2:12; also note Rom 6:8
2. sun + phu = co-planted, Rom 6:5
3. sun + stauro = co-crucified, Rom 6:6; Gal 2:20
4. sun + za = co-exist, Rom 6:8; 2Ti 2:11 (also has co-died and co-reign)
“so we too might walk in newness of life” This is an aorist active subjunctive. The expected result of salvation is sanctification. Because believers have received God’s grace through Christ and have been indwelt by the Spirit, their lives must be different. Our new life (zo) does not bring us salvation, but it is the result of salvation (cf. Rom 6:16; Rom 6:19; Rom 8:4; Rom 13:13; Rom 14:15; and Eph 1:4; Eph 2:8-10; Jas 2:14-26). This is not an either/or question, faith or works, but there is a sequential order.
SPECIAL TOPIC: SANCTIFICATION
“newness of life” This is “new” in quantity, not just new in time. It is used in a variety of ways in the NT to speak of the radical change the Messiah brings. It is the new age, cf. Isaiah 40-66.
1. new covenant, Luk 22:20; 1Co 11:25; 2Co 3:6; Heb 8:8; Heb 8:13; Heb 9:15
2. new commandment, Joh 13:34; 1Jn 2:7-8; 2Jn 1:5
3. new creation, 2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15
4. newness of life, Rom 6:4
5. newness of spirit, Rom 7:6
6. new man, Eph 2:15; Eph 4:24
7. new heavens and earth, 2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:1 (cf. Isa 66:22)
8. new name, Rev 2:17; Rev 3:12 (cf. Isa 62:2)
9. new Jerusalem, Rev 3:12; Rev 21:2
10. new song, Rev 5:9; Rev 14:3 (cf. Isa 42:10)
“Christ was raised” In this context the Father’s acceptance and approval of the Son’s words and works are expressed in two great events.
1. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead
2. Jesus’ ascension to the Father’s right hand
All three persons of the Trinity were involved in raising Jesus from the realm of the dead. See full note at Rom 6:9; Rom 8:11.
“the glory of the Father” For “glory” see Special Topic at Rom 3:23. For “Father” see Special Topic at Rom 1:7.
Rom 6:5 “if” This is afirst class conditional sentence, which is assumed to be true from the writer’s perspective or for his literary purposes. Paul assumed his readers were believers.
“we have become united with Him” This is a perfect active indicative which could be translated, “have been and continue to be joined together” or “have been or continue to be planted together with.” This truth is theologically analogous to “abiding” in John 15. If believers have been identified with Jesus’ death (cf. Gal 2:19-20; Col 2:20; Col 3:3-5), theologically they should be identified with His resurrection life (cf. Rom 6:10).
This metaphorical aspect of baptism as death was meant to show
1. we have died to the old life, the old covenant
2. we are alive to the Spirit, the new covenant
Christian baptism is, therefore, not the same as the baptism of John the Baptist, who was the last OT prophet. Baptism was the early church’s opportunity for the new believer’s public profession of faith. The earliest baptismal formula, to be repeated by the candidate, was “I believe Jesus is Lord” (cf. Rom 10:9-13). This public declaration was a formal, ritual act of what had happened previously in experience. Baptism was not the mechanism of forgiveness, salvation, or the coming of the Spirit, but the occasion for their public profession and confession (cf. Act 2:38). However, it also was not optional. Jesus commanded it (cf. Mat 28:19-20), and exemplified it, (cf. Matthew 3; Mark 1; Luke 3) and it became part of the Apostolic sermons and procedures of Acts.
Rom 6:6
NASB”knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him”
NKJV”knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him”
NRSV”We know that our old self was crucified with him”
TEV”And we know this: our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross”
NJB”We must realize that our former selves have been crucified with him”
This is an aorist passive indicative meaning “our old self has been once for all crucified by the Spirit.” The passive voice denotes divine agency. This truth is crucial to victorious Christian living. Believers must realize their new relationship to sin (cf. Gal 2:20; Gal 6:14). Mankind’s old fallen self (Adamic nature) has died with Christ (cf. Rom 6:7; Eph 4:22 and Col 3:9). As believers we now have a choice about sin as Adam originally did.
NASB, NKJV “that our body of sin might be done away with”
NRSV”so that the body of sin might be destroyed”
TEV”in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed”
NJB”to destroy the sinful body”
Paul uses the word “body” (soma) with several genitive phrases.
1. body of (the) sin, Rom 6:6
2. body of this death, Rom 7:24
3. body of the flesh, Col 2:11
Paul is speaking of the physical life of this age of sin and rebellion. Jesus’ new resurrection body is the body of the new age of righteousness (cf. 2Co 5:17). Physicalness is not the problem (Greek philosophy), but sin and rebellion. The body is not evil. Christianity affirms the belief in a physical body in eternity (cf. 1 Corinthians 15). However, the physical body is the battle ground of temptation, sin, and self.
This is an aorist passive subjunctive. The phrase “done away with” meant “made inoperative,” “made powerless,” or “made unproductive,” not “destroyed.” This was a favorite word with Paul, used over twenty-five times. See Special Topic: Null and Void (katarge) at Rom 3:3. Our physical body is morally neutral, but it is also the battleground for the continuing spiritual conflict (cf. Rom 6:12-13; Rom 5:12-21; Rom 12:1-2).
Rom 6:7 “he who has died is freed from sin” This is an aorist active participle and aperfect passive indicative, meaning “he who has died has been and continues to be free from sin.” Because believers are new creations in Christ they have been and continue to be set free from the slavery of sin and self inherited from Adam’s fall (cf. Rom 7:1-6).
The Greek term translated here as “freed” is the term translated elsewhere in the opening chapters as “justified” (ASV). In this context “freed” (NKJV, NRSV) makes much more sense (similar to its use in Act 13:39). Remember, context determines word meaning, not a dictionary or preset technical definition. Words only have meaning in sentences and sentences only have meaning in paragraphs.
What, &c. See Rom 3:5.
continue. Greek. epimeno. See Act 10:48.
sin. App-128.
that = in order that. Greek. hina.
grace. App-184.
abound. See Rom 5:20.
1-14.] No encouragement given hereby (see ch. Rom 5:20) to a life in sin: for the baptized are dead to sin, and walk in a new (Rom 6:1-7) life, and one (Rom 6:8-11) dedicated to God.
Chapter 6
What shall we say then? ( Rom 6:1 )
If where sin abounds, grace does much more abound,
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? ( Rom 6:1 )
No. Let’s let God reveal how much grace there is by continuing in sin. Paul’s answer is typical:
God forbid ( Rom 6:2 ).
Now he gives to you the new principal of life.
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? ( Rom 6:2 )
I have received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. In receiving Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior I have done that and the result is that I am born again. I am now a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ. If I am born again, then where is the old Chuck? He is dead. That old fellow who used to live after his flesh, he is dead. I now have a new life, a spiritual life, that life from Christ. Therefore, to say, “Well, let’s go ahead and just live in sin that grace may abound,” is folly. Because I am dead to sin, that old life is dead.
So know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? ( Rom 6:3 )
Don’t you realize that water represented the grave? Don’t you realize that as you were put in the water it was the burial of the old life? You were buried with Christ in the water of baptism.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life ( Rom 6:4 ).
It’s a whole new life, that new life after the Spirit and, of course, that is the old things. The old life after Adam is a life after the flesh. It is a life where the body is dominant, and the consciousness is occupied by the body needs. It is life on the animal plane–body and soul. The body supreme, the mind subjected and filled with the consciousness of the body needs.
Now, when you are born again, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. If you are born again by the Spirit of God, the new life that you now have is spirit, soul, and body. So now the spirit is the dominant feature and the new life is spiritual life, the old life was a fleshly life. The new life is a spiritual life. A spirit in union with God’s Spirit. So a spirit in union with God’s Spirit, my thoughts, my consciousness now is upon God and the things of God and how I might please Him by walking in the spirit. These are the things that dominate my conscious state. God’s love for me, God’s grace for me, God’s goodness for me, these things dominate my conscious state. No longer dominated by my fleshly desires or fleshly needs.
That is what baptism was all about. Buried with Christ, but yet raised in that newness of life in Him.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, [through baptism] we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection ( Rom 6:5 ):
As I come up out of the water, it’s like being resurrected–like Jesus resurrected coming out of the grave. That new resurrected life of Christ.
Knowing this, that our old man was [not is, was] crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed [or put out of business], that henceforth we should not serve sin ( Rom 6:6 ).
This body of sin was put out of business. It can no longer dominate my life. It can no longer rule over my consciousness, because that old man was crucified with Christ.
As Christians our biggest problem is with our flesh. For our flesh is still seeking to make its demands on us. Our flesh will still bring us under its control and power. As a Christian there is a warfare that is going on in me, for the flesh is warring against my spirit and my spirit is warring against my flesh and these two are contrary to each other.
There is this battle going on for the control of my mind, the control of my life. My flesh still wants to sit on the throne of my life and the spirit wants to sit on the throne of my life and there is a battle waging raging, actually, over the control of my life itself, the flesh and the spirit. I don’t always do the things that I would as we sang this morning. Then I shall be what I would be, and I shall be what I should be, things that are now nor could be soon shall be our own. The battle will be over one of these days and my spirit leaves this old body of flesh. I am still living in the body, that is my big problem. If I weren’t living in this body any longer then I would have no problems. But I am still living in the body, and as long as I am living in this body it is going to struggle for supremacy, and thus, I must keep my body under. You remember Paul the apostle said, “I beat myself to keep my body under.”
It is a struggle. It is a fight. My body wants control again. It wants to sit on the throne. I have to keep my body under. The way to do that is to reckon that old self to be dead. It is a reckoning process. “Lord, that is a part of the old life dominated by my flesh. I reckon that to be dead. That flare up, Lord, that belongs to the old life, that bitterness that belongs to the old life, that anger that belongs to the old life, that is dead.” Thank God that it is dead. I don’t have to live under that domination anymore. That was crucified with Christ and I am now living a new life in the resurrected Lord. So the old man was crucified with Him. But the body of sin might be put out of business, that I shouldn’t serve sin any longer.
For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death has no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he lives, he lives unto God ( Rom 6:7-10 ).
I am now in the risen Christ. I am living in Christ. I have that life in Christ. Sin no longer can reign as king in my mortal body. For Christ now reigns. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Account that to be…how many times I must account that to be in my own life? When the old flesh rears its ugly head and I do that which is not pleasing. The Spirit of God calls my attention to it and I feel so ashamed that I would have said, “I would have done that.” I cry out unto God and I say, “Lord, I reckon that to be dead a part of the old life, thank God I don’t have to live under its rule any longer. Help me, Lord.” So reckon ye also yourselves to be dead. Now reckoning is a word of faith. You see, if my own flesh were dead I wouldn’t have to reckon it to be dead. If it were actually dead. One day it will be. I am not going to have to reckon it any more after that. But my old flesh is still very much alive, too much alive. I am painfully, keenly aware of that, and so I have to take the position of faith, the position of reckoning, I reckon that to be dead.
Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord ( Rom 6:11 ).
Again, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts [or the desires] thereof ( Rom 6:12 ).
Don’t let sin . . . don’t let the flesh reign.
Neither yield your members [that is, the members of your body] as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God ( Rom 6:13 ).
My hands can be tools for God or they can be tools for my flesh. I love that song, “Take my life and let it be, consecrate it, Lord, to thee. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.” My feet have carried me into a lot of mischief. They have carried me away from a lot of mischief, faster than they carried me into it. But, God, take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.
I can yield my body as an instrument in God’s hands for God to use for His glory, or I can yield my body to fulfill the desires of my own flesh and body, and be ruled by the desires of my body. I am not to yield the instruments of my body as instruments of unrighteousness. But I am to surrender them to God that He might take and use my body for His glory. “Take my lips and let them sing always only of my King, always only of my King.” Your mouth, your words, they can speak the power and the blessing of God. People’s lives can be blessed and transformed by your words, and lives can be cut down and destroyed by your words.
Satan can use my body as his instrument of destruction, or God can use my body as His instrument of glory. Satan can use my life and fill it with hatred and cut people down, or God can use my life and fill it with His love and build people up. We are exhorted here that we should yield our bodies as instruments of righteousness unto God. “For sin,” and I love this. This is one of my favorite promises in the whole Bible.
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace ( Rom 6:14 ).
God told me sin is not going to have dominion over me. Thank God for that. Doesn’t mean that I don’t sin. The word sin means to miss the mark, and it doesn’t mean that I hit the mark every time. I am not perfect, far from it.
Paul the apostle, after walking with the Lord for thirty years, said, “I have not yet apprehended that for which I was apprehended by Jesus Christ, neither do I count myself perfect” ( Php 3:12 ). Oh, move over, Paul. I will join you. God has not yet fulfilled His complete purposes in my life. I’ve not yet apprehended that for which I would be apprehended. God had a plan and a purpose for my life when God apprehended me and called me to serve Him in His service. I haven’t yet completed that call of God, and neither do I count myself complete or perfect. I don’t hit the mark every time.
But thank God sin doesn’t have dominion over my life anymore. I’m not ruled by sin. I don’t have to be ruled by sin. I have freedom, glorious freedom from the tyranny of the flesh, the power of sin, and it shall not have dominion over me. For I am a child of God, born again by the Spirit, living that new life, that resurrected life in Christ.
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid ( Rom 6:15 ).
They are willing to jump on anything, aren’t they?
Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants, they are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? ( Rom 6:16 )
Every man is ruled. No man is supreme; no man is master of his fate or captain of his soul. We are all governed by an outside power. We are governed either by the power of God or by the power of Satan, and it is your choice. You can choose to be governed by God, or you can choose to live after Satan’s authority. You can choose to live like the devil, or you can choose to live like God. But whoever you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you become. This is the tragedy of the Garden of Eden. God said, “Thou shall not eat of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, and in the day you do, you are going to die.” Satan came along and said, “You ought to try the tree in the midst of the garden, it is good. It is delicious, and you won’t die. God is just trying to protect himself. He knows that that tree holds the key of the knowledge of good and evil and if you know knowledge of good and evil, you will be just like God, and He is just trying to protect Himself.”
“You ought to really try it. How can you put it down if you haven’t tried it? You know, just one bite. You don’t like it, you don’t have to finish it.” Now the action of Eve was a double action. It was, first of all, an action of disobedience to God, but in the same token it was an action of obedience to Satan. And she yielded herself in obedience to Satan, and thus, became a servant. Now you know that whoever you yield yourself servants to obey, his servants you become. And so man, through the disobedience, became a servant of Satan, that was the tragic consequence of disobedience to God, and the same is true of our lives. If I choose to yield myself to God and to His word and to His will, then I become a servant of God. But if I choose to yield myself as a servant of disobedience, and I become a servant of the disobedient one.
But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you ( Rom 6:17 ).
Once you were a servant of sin but now thank God, because we have chosen to follow after God. We have chosen to obey the voice of Jesus Christ. We who were once servants to sin are now made servants of righteousness.
Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. Now I speak after the manner of men because of the weakness of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness ( Rom 6:18-19 ).
If we would live just as hard for God as we live for the devil we could turn this world upside down. If we serve the Lord with the same gusto and zest that we served our flesh, think of what we could accomplish. And this is what he is encouraging us to do. Even as we yielded our members once as servants to uncleanness and iniquity, now let’s just yield ourselves to God.
Oh, God help us that we might start living full on for Jesus Christ, just totally gung ho for Him. I like that attitude. Let’s go for it. In talking about the things of the Lord and serving the Lord, let’s go for it. Let’s go all out for it. Let’s give ourselves totally and completely to live for Jesus Christ, yielding ourselves, our lives to Him, just to see what God would do and wants to do in this area through a bunch of people that are just sold out fools for Christ.
I think of how people make fools of themselves over such silly things. Get a few drinks, what a fool they can make of themselves. And yet, we become so proper and reluctant to step out for Jesus Christ to be considered a fool for Him.
For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. But what fruit did you have then in those things wherein you are not ashamed? ( Rom 6:20-21 )
When you were living in sin and you did those things for which you are so ashamed, what real fruit, what lasting fruit did you have in your life? Unfortunately, the fruit was miserable fruit, and it left misery in its wake.
for the end of those things is death ( Rom 6:21 ).
The life after the flesh.
But now being made free from sin, and having become the servants of God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life ( Rom 6:22 ).
Glorious fruit is now coming forth from my life. Fruit of righteousness unto God, the love with its joy and peace and long-suffering and gentleness and goodness and meekness and temperance. And eternal life the glorious ultimate results.
For the wages of sin is death ( Rom 6:23 );
Satan pays his servants. You get your wages. Serve him well, give him your best, you will be rewarded. The wages of sin is death. You can’t escape them if you continue in sin. But in contrast to the wages,
the gift of God ( Rom 6:23 )
Not the wages of God, because we can’t earn eternal life. It’s by grace.
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord ( Rom 6:23 ).
So we have the extreme contrast. The wages of sin, the life after the flesh, it ends in death. The gift of God, the life after the Spirit, ends in eternal life. Every man is in one of two categories: either a servant of sin, or a servant of God. Using my body as an instrument of sin or yielding my body as an instrument for God to use for His glory.
I agree with that song “I have decided to follow Jesus.” I want my life to count for God for eternity. The glorious gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, in Him, through Him, by Him. Oh the blessings that God has made available to us revealed in Jesus Christ, eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Father, we thank You for Thy word, a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, for the balanced life through the Word. Thank You for Your grace that abounds unto us. Thank You for this glorious position of justified by faith and the results in peace and joy and rejoicing and access into this grace. Lord, may we walk now after the Spirit, a life in fellowship with You, yielding, Lord, our bodies to You that they might become your instruments to do Your work, to bring Your love and Your peace and Your beauty to this poor sin froth world. In Jesus’ name we ask it, Father. Amen.
As we move next week into chapters 7 and 8, they are chapters of extreme contrast. Chapter 7 will take you into the depths of despair as I see the ideal, as I approve the ideal and as I try in my own strength and energy to achieve it. And the struggle, and the pain, and the defeat as I in my own strength try to live by the divine ideal that I accept and approve as desirable. But then chapter 8 will take you out of the despair as we see God’s plan for victory for His believer and the provisions that God has made for me to achieve and attain the ideal. Just like us, try first yourself. If it doesn’t work, look at the instructions. And so with the things of the Spirit, it seems we have to get our two cents in. Then we have to try it first, experience that failure and that frustration. And then finding God’s way, living that glorious life of victory that He has provided for us through His Holy Spirit.
May the Lord be with you and bless and keep you in His love. May you walk after the Spirit and may you indeed yield your body unto God this week that God might use your life as His instrument to do His work in this needy world. May others receive a word of encouragement, of love, of hope from you as you become God’s instrument to tell them of His goodness and of His love. In Jesus’ name. “
Paul finishes the last chapter by saying, That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say, then? What inference shall we draw from the super-abounding of grace over sin?
Rom 6:1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? That were very horrible inference. It is one great instance of the shocking depravity of man that the inference has been drawn sometimes, I hope not often, for surely Satan himself might scarcely draw an inference of licentiousness from love. Still, some have drawn it.
Rom 6:2. God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Now, he goes on by an argument to prove that those in whom the grace of God has wrought the wondrous change cannot possibly choose sin, nor live in it.
Rom 6:3. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
That is the very hinge of our religion. His death, not into his example merely, nor primarily into his life, but into his death. In this we have believed with a dying Saviour we are linked, and our baptism sets this forth. We were baptized into his death.
Rom 6:4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life.
The operations, therefore, of the Spirit of God forbid that a saved man should live in sin. He is dead; he is raised into newness of life: at the very entrance into the church, in the very act of baptism, he declares that he cannot live as he once did, for he is dead: he declares that he must live after another fashion, for has not he been raised again in the type and raised again in very deed from the dead?
Rom 6:5-6. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
There has a death taken place in us, and though there be relics of corruption still alive, yet they are crucified: they will have to die, they must die they are nailed fast to the cross to die in union with the death of Christ.
Rom 6:7. For he that is dead is freed from sin.
The man is dead. The law cannot ask more of a criminal than to yield his life. If, therefore, he should live again after death, he would not be one who could suffer for his past offences. They were committed in another life, and he that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 6:8-9 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
Or, death will have dominion over him no more: he will never come a second time under death, and neither shall his people. For in that he died, he died unto sin once. There was an end of it in the sense of once for all, no second death for Christ.
Rom 6:10-12. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Peradventure, there were some who would say that in their spirits truth and righteousness were supreme, but that in their bodies sin had the mastery Aye, but that will not do. There must be left no lurking piece for sin within the complete system of our manhood: it must be hunted out and hunted down thoroughly, out of the body as well as out of the mind.
Rom 6:13. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
We do not, I think, make enough of the passive part of our religion We are often for doing, and quite right, too, and the more active we can be the better; still, before the doing there must come a yielding, because we remember who it is that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his own good pleasure, and our activities after all are not so much our own as we deem, if they are right. They are the activities of the divine life within us, of the Spirit of God himself working in us to the glory of the Father. One great point, therefore, is to yield ourselves up, our members, to be weapons in Gods hands for the fighting of the spiritual war.
Rom 6:14. For sin shall not have domination over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
The reigning, ruling principle now, is not You must, you shall, for reward, or under fear of punishment, but God has loved you, and now you love him in return and what you do springs from no mercenary or self-serving motive. You are not under law, but under grace; yet in another sense you never were so much under law as you are now, for grace puts about you a blessedly sweet, delightful law, which has power over us as the word of command never had. I will write my law in their hearts, in their inward parts will I write them. Aye, that is the glory of the new life, the delight of him who hath passed from death unto life.
Rom 6:15. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?
Oh! this old question keeps coming up. Somebody wants to sin. Well, if he wants to sin, why does not he leave this business alone and go and sin? What has he to do with these theological questions at all? But still, he wants, if he can, to make a coverlet for his wickedness; he wants to enjoy the sweets of the child of God, and yet live like an enemy of God, and so he pops in his head over and over again: May we not sin because of this or that? To which the apostle answers again, God forbid. Oh! may God always forbid it to you, and to me: may the question never be tolerated among us.
Rom 6:15-16. God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
If you are doing the deeds of sin, you are the servants of sin and only as you are doing the will of God can you claim to be the servant of God. Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. That becomes the index of our condition. The man, then, that lives in sin and loves it, need not talk about the grace of God he is a stranger to it, for the mark of those that come under grace is this, that they serve God, and no longer serve sin.
Rom 6:17-18. But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Bondservants, you have got in our new translation, for so it was, and the apostle seems to excuse himself for using such a word by saying:
Rom 6:19. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
As you submitted yourselves to sin most cheerfully and voluntarily, and yet were slaves under it, so now come, and be slaves under Christ with most blessed cheerfulness and delight: endeavor now to lose your very wills in his will, for no mans slavery is so complete as his who even yields his will. Now, yield everything to Christ. You shall never be so free as when you do that, never so blessedly delivered from all bondage as when you absolutely and completely yield yourselves up to the power and supremacy of your Lord.
Rom 6:1. ; shall we continue?) Hitherto he treated of the past and the present: now he proceeds to treat of the future; and the forms of expression are suited to those, which immediately precede, whilst he speaks respecting the abounding of grace. In this passage the continuing in sin is set before us; in the 15th verse, the going back to sin, which had been overcome. The man, who has obtained grace, may turn himself hither or thither. Paul in this discussion turns his back on sin.
Rom 6:1
Rom 6:1
What shall we say then?-What inference are we to draw from the doctrine of sin and grace set forth in the preceding chapter?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?-[The doctrine of justification by faith without the works of the law was commonly misrepresented as encouragement to do evil that good might come; and, aside from such calumny, there was some real danger that the doctrine might be abused. (Gal 5:13). Paul here meets and exposes the wickedness of such perversion. There are people in this country who say, and who are encouraged by their teachers in saying: “If I believe I can no longer sin, sin is not in me, since Christ died for me and I believe in him.]
The apostle declared, “We died to sin,” that is, we were set free from our relationship to sin. On that basis he asked his question, How can we live in that to which we have died? Taking baptism as an illustration, he showed that it is the sign of death and resurrection. Therefore the injunction, “Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.” The whole new man is to be yielded to God, and his members are to become instruments of righteousness unto Him. The servant of sin is the slave of sin. The servant of righteousness is the bond servant of righteousness. The past experience of these people witnessed the yielding of themselves to sin, with the result that they were mastered by sin. The present experience is to see the yielding of the members to righteousness with the issue of experimental sanctification.
It is at the close of this statement that we have that verse so full of glorious meaning and so often quoted, “The wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sin as the master of the life pays the wage of death in every department of life. The contrast is not merely with reference to the finality, but with reference to the whole process, for God begins with life bestowed as a free gift, which is at once the root and the force, as it will be the final fruitage.
THE MYSTICAL UNION OF THE CHRISTIAN WITH CHRIST
6:1-14. If more sin only means more grace, shall we go on sinning? Impossible. The baptized Christian cannot sin. Sin is a direct contradiction of the state of things which baptism assumes. Baptism has a double function. (1) It brings the Christian into personal contact with Christ, so close that it may be fitly described as union with Him. (2) It expresses symbolically a series of acts corresponding to the redeeming acts of Christ.
Immersion = Death.
Submersion = Burial (the ratification of Death).
Emergence = Resurrection.
All these the Christian has to undergo in a moral and spiritual sense, and by means of his union with Christ. As Christ by His death on the Cross ceased from all contact with sin, so the Christian, united with Christ in his baptism, has done once for all with sin, and lives henceforth a reformed life dedicated to God. [This at least is the ideal, whatever may be the reality.] (vv. 1-11.) Act then as men who have thrown off the dominion of Sin. Dedicate all your powers to God. Be not afraid; Law, Sins ally, is superseded in its hold over you by Grace (vv. 12-14).
1 Objector. Is not this dangerous doctrine? If more sin means more grace, are we not encouraged to go on sinning?
2 St. Paul. A horrible thought! When we took the decisive step and became Christians we may be said to have died to sin, in such a way as would make it flat contradiction to live any longer in it.
3 Surely you do not need reminding that all of us who were immersed or baptized, as our Christian phrase runs, into Christ, i. e. into the closest allegiance and adhesion to Him, were so immersed or baptized into a special relation to His Death. I mean that the Christian, at his baptism, not only professes obedience to Christ but enters into a relation to Him so intimate that it may be described as actual union. Now this union, taken in connexion with the peculiar symbolism of Baptism, implies a great deal more. That symbolism recalls to us with great vividness the redeeming acts of Christ-His Death, Burial, and Resurrection. And our union with Christ involves that we shall repeat those acts, in such sense as we may, i. e. in a moral and spiritual sense, in our own persons.
4 When we descended into the baptismal water, that meant that we died with Christ-to sin. When the water closed over our heads, that meant that we lay buried with Him, in proof that our death to sin, like His death, was real. But this carries with it the third step in the process. As Christ was raised from among the dead by a majestic exercise of Divine power, so we also must from henceforth conduct ourselves as men in whom has been implanted a new principle of life.
5 For it is not to be supposed that we can join with Christ in one thing and not join with Him in another. If, in undergoing a death like His, we are become one with Christ as the graft becomes one with the tree into which it grows, we must also be one with Him by undergoing a resurrection like His, i. e. at once a moral, spiritual, and physical resurrection. 6 For it is matter of experience that our Old Self-what we were before we became Christians-was nailed to the Cross with Christ in our baptism: it was killed by a process so like the Death of Christ and so wrought in conjunction with Him that it too may share in the name and associations of His Crucifixion. And the object of this crucifixion of our Old Self was that the bodily sensual part of us, prolific home and haunt of sin, might be so paralyzed and disabled as henceforth to set us free from the service of Sin. 7 For just as no legal claim can be made upon the dead, so one who is (ethically) dead is certified Not Guilty and exempt from all the claims that Sin could make upon him.
8 But is this all? Are we to stop at the death to sin? No; there is another side to the process. If, when we became Christians, we died with Christ (morally and spiritually), we believe that we shall also live with Him (physically, as well as ethically and spiritually): 9 because we know for a fact that Christ Himself, now that He has been once raised from the dead, will not have the process of death to undergo again. Death has lost its hold over Him for ever. 10 For He has done with Death, now that He has done once for all with Sin, by bringing to an end that earthly state which alone brought Him in contact with it. Henceforth He lives in uninterrupted communion with God.
11 In like manner do you Christians regard yourselves as dead, inert and motionless as a corpse, in all that relates to sin, but instinct with life and responding in every nerve to those Divine claims and Divine influences under which you have been brought by your union with Jesus Messiah.
12 I exhort you therefore not to let Sin exercise its tyranny over this frail body of yours by giving way to its evil passions. 13 Do not, as you are wont, place hand, eye, and tongue, as weapons stained with unrighteousness, at the service of Sin; but dedicate yourselves once for all, like men who have left the ranks of the dead and breathe a new spiritual life, to God; let hand, eye, and tongue be weapons of righteous temper for Him to wield. 14 You may rest assured that in so doing Sin will have no claims or power over you, for you have left the rgime of Law (which, as we shall shortly see, is a stronghold of Sin) for that of Grace.
1. The fact that he has just been insisting on the function of sin to act as a provocative of Divine grace recalls to the mind of the Apostle the accusation brought against himself of saying Let us do evil, that good may come (3:8). He is conscious that his own teaching, if pressed to its logical conclusion, is open to this charge; and he states it in terms which are not exactly those which would be used by his adversaries but such as might seem to express the one-sided development of his own thought. Of course he does not allow the consequence for a moment; he repudiates it however not by proving a non sequitur, but by showing how this train of thought is crossed by another, even more fundamental. He is thus led to bring up the second of his great pivot-doctrines, the Mystical Union of the Christian with Christ dating from his Baptism. Here we have another of those great elemental forces in the Christian Life which effectually prevents any antinomian conclusion such as might seem to be drawn from different premises. St. Paul now proceeds to explain the nature of this force and the way in which the Christian is related to it.
The various readings in this chapter are unimportant. There can be no question that we should read for in ver. 1; and not in ver. 2; and that should be omitted at the end of ver. 11. In that verse the true position of is after ( * B C, Cyr.-Alex. Jo.-Damasc.): some inferior authorities place it after : the Western text (A D E F G, Tert.; cf. also Pesh. Boh. Arm. Aeth.) omits it altogether.
2. . Naturally the relative of quality: we, being what we are, men who died (in our baptism) to sin, &c.
3. : Can you deny this, or is it possible that you are not aware of all that your baptism involves? St. Paul does not like to assume that his readers are ignorant of that which is to him so fundamental. The deep significance of Baptism was universally recognized; though it is hardly likely that any other teacher would have expressed that significance in the profound and original argument which follows.
: were baptized unto union with (not merely obedience to) Christ. The act of baptism was an act of incorporation into Christ. Comp. esp. Gal 3:27 , .
This conception lies at the root of the whole passage. All the consequences which St. Paul draws follow from this union, incorporation, identification of the Christian with Christ. On the origin of the conception, see below.
. This points back to above. The central point in the passage is death. The Christian dies because Christ died, and he is enabled to realize His death through his union with Christ.
But why is baptism said to be specially into Christs death? The reason is because it is owing primarily to the Death of Christ that the condition into which the Christian enters at his baptism is such a changed condition. We have seen that St. Paul does ascribe to that Death a true objective efficacy in removing the barrier which sin has placed between God and man. Hence, as it is Baptism which makes a man a Christian, so is it the Death of Christ which wins for the Christian his special immunities and privileges. The sprinkling of the Blood of Christ seals that covenant with His People to which Baptism admits them. But this is only the first step: the Apostle goes on to show how the Death of Christ has a subjective as well as an objective side for the believer.
4. . A strong majority of the best scholars (Mey.-W. Gif. Lips. Oltr. Go.) would connect with and not with , because of (i) . . . . just before; (ii) a certain incongruity in the connexion of . with : death precedes burial and is not a result or object of it. We are not sure that this reasoning is decisive. (i) St. Paul does not avoid these ambiguous constructions. as may be seen by 3:25 , where goes with and not with . (ii) The ideas of burial and death are so closely associated that they may be treated as correlative to each other-burial is only death sealed and made certain. Our baptism was a sort of funeral; a solemn act of consigning us to that death of Christ in which we are made one with Him, Va. (iii) There is a special reason for saying here not we were buried into burial, but we were buried into death, because death is the keynote of the whole passage, and the word would come in appropriately to mark the transition from Christ to the Christian. Still these arguments do not amount to proof that the second connexion is right, and it is perhaps best to yield to the weight of authority. For the idea compare esp. Col 2:12 .
is best taken as = into that death (of His), the death just mentioned: so Oltr. Gif. Va. Mou., but not Mey.-W. Go., who prefer the sense into death (in the abstract). In any case there is a stress on the idea of death; but the clause and the verse which follow will show that St. Paul does not yet detach the death of the Christian from the death of Christ.
: here practically = power; but it is power viewed externally rather than internally; the stress is laid not so much on the inward energy as on the signal and glorious manifestation. Va. compares Joh 11:40; Joh 11:23, where thou shalt see the glory of God = thy brother shall rise again. See note on 3:23.
5. : united by growth; the word exactly expresses the process by which a graft becomes united with the life of a tree. So the Christian becomes grafted into Christ. For the metaphor we may compare 11:17 , , and Tennysons grow incorporate into thee.
It is a question whether we are to take . . directly with . … or whether we are to supply and make . dat. of respect. Probably the former, as being simpler and more natural, so far at least as construction is concerned, though no doubt there is an ellipse in meaning which would be more exactly represented by the fuller phrase. Such condensed and strictly speaking inaccurate expressions are common in language of a quasi-colloquial kind. St. Paul uses these freer modes of speech and is not tied down by the rules of formal literary composition.
6. : see Sp. Comm. on 1Co 8:1 (p. 299), where as contrasted with is explained as signifying appreciative or experimental acquaintance. A slightly different explanation is given by Gif. ad loc., noting this, as of the idea involved in the fact, a knowledge which results from the exercise of understanding ().
: our old self; cp. esp. Suicer, Thes. i. 352, where the patristic interpretations are collected ( Theodrt;; Euthym.-Zig., &c.).
This phrase, with its correlative , is a marked link of connexion between the acknowledged and disputed Epp. (cf. Eph 2:15; Eph 4:22, Eph 4:24; Col 3:9). The coincidence is the more remarkable as the phrase would hardly come into use until great stress began to be laid upon the necessity for a change of life, and may be a coinage of St. Pauls. It should be noted however that goes back to Plato (Grm.-Thay. s. v. , 1.e.).
: cf. Gal 2:20 . There is a difference between the thought here and in Imit. Xti. II. 1xii. 3 Behold! in the cross all doth consist, and all lieth in our dying thereon; for there is no other way unto life, and unto true inward peace, but the way of the holy cross, and of daily mortification. This is rather the taking up the cross of the Gospels, which is a daily process. St. Paul no doubt leaves room for such a process (Col 3:5, &c.); but here he is going back to that which is its root, the one decisive ideal act which he regards as taking place in baptism: in this the more gradual lifelong process is anticipated.
. For see on 3:3. The word is appropriately used in this connexion: that the body of sin may be paralyzed, reduced to a condition of absolute impotence and inaction, as if it were dead.
: the body of which sin has taken possession. Parallel phrases are 7:24 : Php 3:21 : Col 2:11 [ ] . The gen. has the general sense of belonging to, but acquires a special shade of meaning in each case from the context; the body which is given over to death, the body in its present state of degradation, the body which is so apt to be the instrument of its own carnal impulses.
Here must be taken closely together, because it is not the body, simply as such, which is to be killed, but the body as the seat of sin. This is to be killed, so that Sin may lose its slave.
. On with inf. as expressing purpose see esp. Westcott, Hebrews, p. 342.
: , as throughout this passage, is personified as a hard taskmaster: see the longer note at the end of the last chapter.
7. . The argument is thrown into the form of a general proposition, so that must be taken in the widest sense, he who has undergone death in any sense of the term-physical or ethical. The primary sense is however clearly physical: a dead man has his quittance from any claim that Sin can make against him: what is obviously true of the physically dead is inferentially true of the ethically dead. Comp. 1Pe 4:1 : also the Rabbinical parallel quoted by Delitzsch ad loc. when a man is dead he is free from the law and the commandments.
Delitzsch goes so far as to describe the idea as an acknowledged locus communis, which would considerably weaken the force of the literary coincidence between the two Apostles.
. The sense of is still forensic: is declared righteous, acquitted from guilt. The idea is that of a master claiming legal possession of a slave: proof being put in that the slave is dead, the verdict must needs be that the claims of law are satisfied and that he is no longer answerable; Sin loses its suit.
8. . The different senses of life and death always lie near together with St. Paul, and his thought glides backwards and forwards from one to another almost imperceptibly; now he lays a little more stress on the physical sense, now on the ethical; at one moment on the present state and at another on the future. Here and in ver. 9 the future eternal life is most prominent; but ver. 10 is transitional, and in ver. 11 we are back again at the stand-point of the present.
9. If the Resurrection opened up eternity to Christ it will do so also to the Christian.
. Still the idea of master and slave or vassal. Death loses its dominium over Christ altogether. That which gave Death its hold upon Him was sin, the human sin with which He was brought in contact by His Incarnation. The connexion was severed once for all by Death, which set Him free for ever.
10. . The whole clause forms a kind of cognate accus. after the second (Win. xxiv. 4, p. 209 E. T.); Euthym.-Zig. paraphrases , where however is not rightly represented by .
. In what sense did Christ die to sin? The phrase seems to point back to ver. 7 above: Sin ceased to have any claim upon Him. But how could Sin have a claim upon Him who had no acquaintance with sin (2Co 5:21)? The same verse which tells us this supplies the answer: , the Sinless One for our sake was treated as if He were sinful. The sin which hung about Him and wreaked its effects upon Him was not His but ours (cp. 1Pe 2:22, 1Pe 2:24). It was in His Death that this pressure of human sin culminated; but it was also in His Death that it came to an end, decisively and for ever.
. The decisiveness of the Death of Christ is specially insisted upon in Ep. to Hebrews. This is the great point of contrast with the Levitical sacrifices: they did and it did not need to be repeated (cf. Heb 7:27; Heb 9:12, Heb 9:26, Heb 9:28; Heb 10:10; also 1Pe 3:18).
. Christ died for (in relation to) Sin, and lives hence-forth for God. The old chain which by binding Him to sin made Him also liable to death, is broken. No other power but God.
This phrase naturally suggests the moral application to the believer.
11. . The man and his self are distinguished. The self is not the whole self, but only that part of the man which lay under the dominion of sin. [It will help us to bear this in mind in the interpretation of the next chapter.] This part of the man is dead, so that sin has lost its slave and is balked of its prey; but his true self is alive, and alive for God, through its union with the risen Christ, who also lives only for God.
: not indic. (as Beng. Lips.) but imper., preparing the way, after St. Pauls manner, for the direct exhortation of the next paragraph.
. This phrase is the summary expression of the doctrine which underlies the whole of this section and forms, as we have seen, one of the main pillars of St. Pauls theology. The chief points seem to be these. (1) The relation is conceived as a local relation. The Christian has his being in Christ, as living creatures in the air, as fish in the water, as plants in the earth (Deissmann, p. 84; see below). (2) The order of the words is invariably , not (Deissmann, p. 88; cp. also Haussleiter, as referred to on p. 86 sup.). We find however in Eph 4:21, but not in the same strict application. (3) In agreement with the regular usage of the words in this order . . always relates to the glorified Christ regarded as , not to the historical Christ. (4) The corresponding expression is best explained by the same analogy of the air. Man lives and breathes in the air, and the air is also in the man (Deissmann, p. 92).
Deissmanns monograph is entitled Die neutestamentliche Formel in Christo Jesu, Marburg, 1892. It is a careful and methodical investigation of the subject, somewhat too rigorous in pressing all examples of the use into the same mould, and rather inclined to realistic modes of conception. A very interesting question arises as to the origin of the phrase. Herr Deissmann regards it as a creation-and naturally as one of the most original creations- of St. Paul. And it is true that it is not found in the Synoptic Gospels. Approximations however are found more or less sporadically, in 1 St. Peter (3:16, 5:10,14; always in the correct text ), in the Acts (4:2 : 9, 10 : 12; 13:39 ), and in full volume in the Fourth Gospel ( , Joh 6:56; Job 14:20, 30; Job 15:2-7; 16:33; 17:21), in the First Epistle of St. John ( , , 2:5, 6, 8, 24, 27, 28; 3:6, 24; 5:11, 20; 5:12), and also in the Apocalypse ( 1:9; 14:13). Besides the N. T. there are the Apostolic Fathers, whose usage should be investigated with reference to the extent to which it is directly traceable to St. Paul*. The phrase occurs in 1 Clem. 32:4; 38:1; Ign. Eph. i. 1; Trall. ix. 2; Rom. i. 1; ii. 2 The commoner phrases are in Clem.-Rom. and which is frequent in Ignat. The distinction between and is by this time obliterated. In view of these phenomena and the usage of N. T. it is natural to ask whether all can be accounted for on the assumption that the phrase originates entirely with St. Paul. In spite of the silence of Evv. Synopt. it seems more probable that the suggestion came in some way ultimately from our Lord Himself. This would not be the only instance of an idea which caught the attention of but few of the first disciples but was destined afterwards to wider acceptance and expansion.
12. : cf. 5:21 of Sin; 5:14, 17 of Death.
With this verse comp. Philo, De Gigant. 7 (Mang. i.266) .
13. Observe the change of tense: , go on yielding, by the weakness which succumbs to temptation whenever it presses; , dedicate by one decisive act, one resolute effort.
: weapons (cf. esp. Rom 13:12; 2Co 6:7; 2Co 10:4). and are gen. qualitatis. For a like military metaphor more fully worked out comp. Eph 6:11-17.
14. . You are not, as you used to be, constantly harassed by the assaults of sin, aggravated to your consciences by the prohibitions of Law. The fuller explanation of this aggravating effect of Law is coming in what follows, esp. in ch. 7; and it is just like St. Paul to set up a finger-post, pointing to the course his argument is to take, in the last clause of a paragraph. It is like him too to go off at the word into a digression, returning to the subject with which the chapter opened, and looking at it from another side.
The Doctrine of Mystical Union with Christ
How did St. Paul arrive at this doctrine of the Mystical Union? Doubtless by the guiding of the Holy Spirit. But that guiding, as it usually does, operated through natural and human channels. The channel in this instance would seem to be psychological. The basis of the doctrine is the Apostles own experience. His conversion was an intellectual change, but it was also something much more. It was an intense personal apprehension of Christ, as Master, Redeemer and Lord. But that apprehension was so persistent and so absorbing; it was such a dominant element in the life of the Apostle that by degrees it came to mean little less than an actual identification of will. In the case of ordinary friendship and affection it is no very exceptional thing for unity of purpose and aim so to spread itself over the character, and so to permeate thought and feeling, that those who are joined together by this invisible and spiritual bond seem to act and think almost as if they were a single person and not two. But we can understand that in St. Pauls case with an object for his affections so exalted as Christ, and with influences from above meeting so powerfully the upward motions of his own spirit, the process of identification had a more than common strength and completeness. It was accomplished in that sphere of spiritual emotion for which the Apostle possessed such remarkable gifts-gifts which caused him to be singled out as the recipient of special Divine communications. Hence it was that there grew up within him a state of feeling which he struggles to express and succeeds in expressing through language which is practically the language of union. Nothing short of this seemed to do justice to the degree of that identification of will which the Apostle attained to. He spoke of himself as one with Christ. And then his thoughts were so concentrated upon the culminating acts in the Life of Christ-the acts which were in a special sense associated with mans redemption-His Death, Burial and Resurrection -that when he came to analyze his own feelings, and to dissect this idea of oneness, it was natural to him to see in it certain stages, corresponding to those great acts of Christ, to see in it something corresponding to death, something corresponding to burial (which was only the emphasizing of death), and something corresponding to resurrection.
Here there came in to help the peculiar symbolism of Baptism. An imagination as lively as St. Pauls soon found in it analogies to the same process. That plunge beneath the running waters was like a death; the moments pause while they swept on overhead was like a burial; the standing erect once more in air and sunlight was a species of resurrection. Nor did the likeness reside only in the outward rite, it extended to its inner significance. To what was it that the Christian died? He died to his old self, to all that he had been, whether as Jew or Gentile, before he became a Christian. To what did he rise again? Clearly to that new life to which the Christian was bound over. And in this spiritual death and resurrection the great moving factor was that one fundamental principle of union with Christ, identification of will with His. It was this which enabled the Christian to make his parting with the past and embracing of new obligations real.
There is then, it will be seen, a meeting and coalescence of a number of diverse trains of thought in this most pregnant doctrine. On the side of Christ there is first the loyal acceptance of Him as Messiah and Lord, that acceptance giving rise to an impulse of strong adhesion, and the adhesion growing into an identification of will and purpose which is not wrongly described as union. Further, there is the distributing of this sense of union over the cardinal acts of Christs Death, Burial and Resurrection. Then on the side of the man there is his formal ratification of the process by the undergoing of Baptism, the symbolism of which all converges to the same end; and there is his practical assumption of the duties and obligations to which baptism and the embracing of Christianity commit him-the breaking with his tainted past, the entering upon a new and regenerate career for the future.
The vocabulary and working out of the thought in St. Paul are his own, but the fundamental conception has close parallels in the writings of St. John and St. Peter, the New Birth through water and Spirit (Joh 3:5), the being begotten again of incorruptible seed (1Pe 1:23), the comparison of baptism to the ark of Noah (1Pe 3:20, 1Pe 3:21) in St. Peter; and there is a certain partial coincidence even in the of St. James (Jam 1:18).
It is the great merit of Matthew Arnolds St. Paul and Protestantism, whatever its defects and whatever its one-sidedness, that it did seize with remarkable force and freshness on this part of St. Pauls teaching. And the merit is all the greater when we consider how really high and difficult that teaching is, and how apt it is to shoot over the head of reader or hearer. Matthew Arnold saw, and expressed with all his own lucidity, the foundation of simple psychological fact on which the Apostles mystical language is based. He gives to it the name of faith, and it is indeed the only kind of faith which he recognizes. Nor is he wrong in giving the process this name, though, as it happens, St. Paul has not as yet spoken of faith in this connexion, and does not so speak of it until he comes to Eph 3:17. It was really faith, the living apprehension of Christ, which lies at the bottom of all the language of identification and union.
If ever there was a case in which the wonder-working power of attachment, in a man for whom the moral sympathies and the desire for righteousness were all-powerful, might employ itself and work its wonders, it was here. Paul felt this power penetrate him; and he felt, also, how by perfectly identifying himself through it with Christ, and in no other way, could he ever get the confidence and force to do as Christ did. He thus found a point in which the mighty world outside man, and the weak world inside him, seemed to combine for his salvation. The struggling stream of duty, which had not volume enough to bear him to his goal, was suddenly reinforced by the immense tidal wave of sympathy and emotion. To this new and potent influence Paul gave the name of faith (St. Paul and Protestantism, p. 69 f.).
It is impossible to be in presence of this Pauline conception of faith without remarking on the incomparable power of edification which it contains. It is indeed a crowning evidence of that piercing practical religious sense which we have attributed to Paul. The elemental power of sympathy and emotion in us, a power which extends beyond the limits of our own will and conscious activity, which we cannot measure and control, and which in each of us differs immensely in force, volume, and mode of manifestation, he calls into full play, and sets it to work with all its strength and in all its variety. But one unalterable object is assigned by him to this power: to die with Christ to the law of the flesh, to live with Christ to the law of the mind. This is the doctrine of the necrosis (2Co 4:10), Pauls central doctrine, and the doctrine which makes his profoundness and originality. Those multitudinous motions of appetite and self-will which reason and conscience disapproved, reason and conscience could yet not govern, and had to yield to them. This, as we have seen, is what drove Paul almost to despair. Well, then, how did Pauls faith, working through love, help him here? It enabled him to reinforce duty by affection. In the central need of his nature, the desire to govern these motions of unrighteousness, it enabled him to say: Die to them! Christ did. If any man be in Christ, said Paul,-that is, if any man identifies himself with Christ by attachment so that he enters into his feelings and lives with his life,-he is a new creature; he can do, and does, what Christ did. First, he suffers with him. Christ, throughout His life and in His death, presented His body a living sacrifice to God; every self-willed impulse, blindly trying to assert itself without respect of the universal order, he died to. You, says Paul to his disciple, are to do the same. If you cannot, your attachment, your faith, must be one that goes but a very little way. In an ordinary human attachment, out of love to a woman, out of love to a friend, out of love to a child, you can suppress quite easily, because by sympathy you become one with them and their feelings, this or that impulse of selfishness which happens to conflict with them, and which hitherto you have obeyed. All impulses of selfishness conflict with Christs feelings, He showed it by dying to them all; if you are one with Him by faith and sympathy, you can die to them also. Then, secondly, if you thus die with Him, you become transformed by the renewing of your mind, and rise with Him. You rise with Him to that harmonious conformity with the real and eternal order, that sense of pleasing God who trieth the hearts, which is life and peace, and which grows more and more till it becomes glory (ibid. pp. 75-78).
Another striking presentation of the thought of this passage will be found in a lay sermon, The Witness of God, by the philosopher, T. H. Green (London, 1883; also in Works). Mr. Green was as far removed as Matthew Arnold from conventional theology, and there are traces of Hegelianism in what follows for which allowance should be made, but his mind had a natural affinity for this side of St. Pauls teaching, and he has expressed it with great force and moral intensity. To this the brief extracts given will do but imperfect justice, and the sermon is well worth reading in its entirety.
The death and rising again of the Christ, as [St. Paul] conceived them, were not separate and independent events. They were two sides of the same act-an act which relatively to sin, to the flesh, to the old man, to all which separates from God, is death; but which, just for that reason, is the birth of a new life relatively to God, God was in [Christ], so that what He did, God did. A death unto life, a life out of death, must then be in some way the essence of the divine nature-must be an act which, though exhibited once for all in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, was yet eternal- the act of God Himself. For that very reason, however, it was one perpetually re-enacted, and to be re-enacted, by man. If Christ died for all, all died in Him: all were buried in His grave to be all made alive in His resurrection In other words, He constitutes in us a new intellectual consciousness, which transforms the will and is the source of a new moral life. There is special value in the way in which the difference is brought out between the state of things to which the individual can attain by his own effort and one in which the change is wrought from without. The first would be a self-renunciation which would be really the acme of self-seeking. On the other hand, presented as the continuous act of God Himself, as the eternal self-surrender of the Divine Son to the Father, it is for us and may be in us, but is not of us. Nay, it is just because not of us, that it may be in us. Because it is the mind of Christ, and Christ is Gods, in the contemplation of it we are taken out of ourselves, we slip the natural man and appropriate that mind which we behold. Constrained by Gods manifested love, we cease to be our own that Christ may become ours (The Witness of God, pp. 7-10).
We may quote lastly an estimate of the Pauline conception in the history of Religion. It is in Christendom that, according to the providence of God, this power has been exhibited; not indeed either adequately or exclusively, but most fully. In the religions of the East, the idea of a death to the fleshly self as the end of the merely human, and the beginning of a divine life, has not been wanting; nor, as a mere idea, has it been very different from that which is the ground of Christianity. But there it has never been realized in action, either intellectually or morally. The idea of the withdrawal from sense has remained abstract. It has not issued in such a struggle with the superficial view of things, as has gradually constituted the science of Christendom. In like manner that of self-renunciation has never emerged from the esoteric state. It has had no outlet into the life of charity, but a back-way always open into the life of sensual licence, and has been finally mechanized in the artificial vacancy of the dervish or fakir (ibid. p. 21).
One of the services which Mr. Greens lay sermon may do us is in helping us to understand-not the whole but part of the remarkable conception of The Way in Dr. Horts posthumous The Way, the Truth, and the Life (Cambridge and London, 1893). When it is contended, first that the whole seeming maze of history in nature and man, the tumultuous movement of the world in progress, has running through it one supreme dominating Way; and second, that He who on earth was called Jesus the Nazarene is that Way (The Way, &c. p. 20 f.), we can hardly be wrong, though the point might have been brought out more clearly, in seeking a scriptural illustration in St. Pauls teaching as to the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ. These to him are not merely isolated historical events which took place once for all in the past. They did so take place, and their historical reality, as well as their direct significance in the Redemption wrought out by Christ, must be insisted upon. But they are more than this: they constitute a law, a predisposed pattern or plan, which other human lives have to follow. Death unto life, life growing out of death, is the inner principle or secret, applied in an indefinite variety of ways, but running through the history of most, perhaps all, religious aspiration and attainment. Everywhere there must be the death of an old self and the birth of a new. It must be admitted that the group of conceptions united by St. Paul, and, as it would seem, yet more widely extended by St. John, is difficult to grasp intellectually, and has doubtless been acted upon in many a simple unspeculative life in which there was never any attempt to formulate it exactly in words. But the conception belongs to the length and depth and height of the Gospel: here, as we see it in St. Paul, it bears all the impress of his intense and prophet-like penetration: and there can be little doubt that it is capable of exercising a stronger and more dominating influence on the Christian consciousness than it has done. This must be our excuse for expanding the doctrine at rather considerable length, and for invoking the assistance of those who, just by their detachment from ordinary and traditional Christianity, have brought to bear a freshness of insight in certain directions which has led them, if not exactly to discoveries, yet to new and vivid realization of truths which to indolent minds are obscured by their very familiarity.
THE TRANSITION FROM LAW TO GRACE. ANALOGY OF SLAVERY
6:15-23. Take an illustration from common life-the condition of slavery. The Christian was a slave of sin; his business was uncleanness; his wages, death. But he has been emancipated from this service, only to enter upon another-that of Righteousness.
15Am I told that we should take advantage of our liberty as subjects of Grace and not of Law, to sin? Impossible! 16Are you not aware that to render service and obedience to any one is to be the slave of that person or power to which obedience is rendered? And so it is here. You are either slaves of Sin, and the end before you death; or you are true to your rightful Master, and the end before you righteousness. 17But, thank God, the time is past when you were slaves of Sin; and at your baptism you gave cordial assent to that standard of life and conduct in which you were first instructed and to the guidance of which you were then handed over by your teachers. 18Thus you were emancipated from the service of Sin, and were transferred to the service of Righteousness.
19I am using a figure of speech taken from every-day human relations. If servitude seems a poor and harsh metaphor, it is one which the remains of the natural man that still cling about you will at least permit you to understand. Yours must be an undivided service. Devote the members of your body as unreservedly to the service of righteousness for progressive consecration to God, as you once devoted them to Pagan uncleanness and daily increasing licence. 20I exhort you to this. Why? Because while you were slaves to Sin, you were freemen in regard to Righteousness. 21What good then did you get from conduct which you now blush to think of? Much indeed! For the goal to which it leads is death. 22But now that, as Christians, you are emancipated from Sin and enslaved to God, you have something to show for your service-closer and fuller consecration, and your goal, eternal Life! 23For the wages which Sin pays its votaries is Death; while you receive-no wages, but the bountiful gift of God, the eternal Life, which is ours through our union with Jesus Messiah, our Lord.
15-23. The next two sections (6:15-23; 7:1-6) might be described summarily as a description of the Christians release, what it is and what it is not. The receiving of Christian Baptism was a great dividing-line across a mans career. In it he entered into a wholly new relation of self-identification with Christ which was fraught with momentous consequences looking both backwards and forwards. From his sin-stained past he was cut off as it were by death: towards the future he turned radiant with the quickening influence of a new life. St. Paul now more fully expounds the nature of the change. He does so by the help of two illustrations, one from the state of slavery, the other from the state of wedlock. Each state implied certain ties, like those by which the convert to Christianity was bound before his conversion. But the cessation of these ties does not carry with it the cessation of all ties; it only means the substitution of new ties for the old. So is it with the slave, who is emancipated from one service only to enter upon another. So is it with the wife who, when released by the death of one husband, is free to marry again. In the remaining verses of this chapter St. Paul deals with the case of Slavery. Emancipation from Sin is but the prelude to a new service of Righteousness.
15. The Apostle once more reverts to the point raised at the beginning of the chapter, but with the variation that the incentive to sin is no longer the seeming good which Sin works by calling down grace, but the freedom of the state of grace as opposed to the strictness of the Law. St. Pauls reply in effect is that Christian freedom consists not in freedom to sin but in freedom from sin.
: from a late aor. , found in LXX (Veitch, Irreg. Verbs, p. 49). Chrys. codd. Theodrt. and others, with minuscules, read .
16. A general proposition to which our Lord Himself had appealed in No man can serve two masters (Mat 6:24). There are still nearer parallels in Joh 8:34; 2Pe 2:19: passages however which do not so much prove direct dependence on St. Paul as that the thought was in the air and might occur to more writers than one.
: these disjunctives state a dilemma in a lively and emphatic way, implying that one limb or the other must be chosen (Bumlein, Partikellehre, p. 244; Khner, Gram. 540. 5).
17. : stands for [] . We expect rather : it seems more natural to say that the teaching is handed over to the persons taught than that the persons taught are handed over to the teaching. The form of phrase which St. Paul uses however expresses well the experience of Christian converts. Before baptism they underwent a course of simple instruction, like that in the Two Ways or first part of the Didach (see the reff. in Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, p. 314). With baptism this course of instruction ceased, and they were left with its results impressed upon their minds. This was to be henceforth their standard of living.
. For see the note on ch. 5:14. The third of the senses there given (pattern, exemplar, standard) is by far the most usual with St. Paul, and there can be little doubt that that is the meaning here. So among the ancients Chrys. ( ; ) Euthym.-Zig. ( , ), and among moderns all the English commentators with Oltr. and Lips. To suppose, as some leading Continental scholars (De W. Mey.-W. Go.) have done, that some special type of doctrine, whether Jewish-Christian or Pauline, is meant, is to look with the eyes of the nineteenth century and not with those of the first (cf. Hort, Rom. and Eph. p. 32 Nothing like this notion of a plurality of Christian occurs anywhere else in the N. T., and it is quite out of harmony with all the context).
19. . St. Paul uses this form of phrase (cf. Gal 3:15 ) where he wishes to apologize for having recourse to some common (or as he would have called it carnal) illustration to express spiritual truths. So Chrys. (first explanation) , , .
. Two explanations are possible: (1) because of the moral hindrances which prevent the practice of Christianity (Chrys. Theodrt. Weiss and others); (2) because of the difficulties of apprehension, from defective spiritual experience, which prevent the understanding of its deeper truths (most moderns). Clearly this is more in keeping with the context. In any case the clause refers to what has gone before, not (as Orig. Chrys., &c.) to what follows.
= human nature in its weakness, primarily physical and moral, but secondarily intellectual. It is intellectual weakness in so far as this is determined by moral, by the limitations of character: cf. , Rom 8:5 f.; 1Co 1:26. The idea of this passage is similar to that of 1Co 3:2 , .
. and fitly describe the characteristic features of Pagan life (cf. 1:24 ff.). As throughout the context these forms of sin are personified; they obtain a mastery over the man; and describes the effect of that mastery-to the practice of iniquity. With these verses (19-21) compare especially 1Pe 4:1-5.
. Mey. (but not Weiss) Lips. Oltr. Go. would make here practically = , i. e. not so much the process of consecration as the result of the process. There is certainly this tendency in language; and in some of the places in which the word is used it seems to have the sense of the resulting state (e. g. 1Th 4:4, where it is joined with ; 1Ti 2:15, where it is joined with and ). But in the present passage the word may well retain its proper meaning: the members are to be handed over to Righteousness to be (gradually) made fit for Gods service, not to become fit all at once. So Weiss Gif. Va. Mou. (course of purification). For the radical meaning see the note on ch. 1:7, and Dr. A. B. Davidson, Hebrews, p. 206: = the process of fitting for acceptable worship, a sense which comes out clearly in Heb 12:14 . The word occurs some ten times (two vv. ll.) in LXX and in Ps. Sol. 17:33, but is not classical.
21. ; Where does the question end and the answer begin? (1) Most English commentators and critics (Treg. WH. RV. as well as Gif. Va.) carry on the question to . In that case must be supplied before , and its omission might be due to the reflex effect of in the sentence following (comp. 7:6 below). There would then be a common enough ellipse before , What fruit had ye ? [None:] for the end, &c. (2) On the other hand several leading Germans (Tisch. Weiss Lips., though not Mey.) put the question at , and make part of the answer. What fruit had ye then? Things [pleasures, gratifications of sense] of which you are now ashamed: for their end is death. So, too, Theod.-Mops. (in Cramer) expressly: , . Both interpretations are possible, but the former, as it would seem, is more simple and natural (Gif.). When two phrases link together so easily as . with what precedes, it is a mistake to separate them except for strong reasons; nor does there appear to be sufficient ground for distinguishing between near consequences and remote.
: c B D* E F G. There is the usual ambiguity of readings in which B alone joins the Western authorities. The probability is that the reading belongs to the Western element in B, and that was introduced through erroneous antithesis to .
23. . From a root – we get , , cooked meat, fish, &c. as contrasted with bread. Hence the compound (, to buy) = (1) provision-money, ration-money, or the rations in kind given to troops; (2) in a more general sense, wages. The word is said to have come in with Menander: it is proscribed by the Atticists, but found freely in Polybius, 1 Macc. &c. (Sturz, Dial. Maced. p. 187).
. Tertullian, with his usual picturesque boldness, translates this by donativum (De Res. Carn. c. 47 Stipendia enim delinquentiae mors, donativum autem dei vita aeterna). It is not probable that St. Paul had this particular antithesis in his mind, though no doubt he intends to contrast and .
Cod. Sinaiticus
B Cod. Vaticanus
C Cod. Ephraemi Rescriptus
Cyr.-Alex. Cyril of Alexandria.
A Cod. Alexandrinus
D Cod. Claromontanus
E Cod. Sangermanensis
F Cod. Augiensis
G Cod. Boernerianus
Tert. Tertullian.
Pesh. Peshitto.
Boh. Bohairic.
Arm. Armenian.
Aeth. Ethiopic.
&c. always qualify the word which precedes, not that which follows:
Mey.-W. Meyer-Weisa.
Gif. Gifford.
Lips. Lipsius.
Oltr. Oltramare.
Go. Godet.
Va. Vaughan.
Euthym.-Zig. Euthymius Zigabenus.
Grm.-Thay. Grimm-Thayers Lexicon.
Win. Winers Grammar.
Beng. Bengel.
* It is rather strange that this question does not appear to be touched either by Bp. Lightfoot or by Gebhardt and Harnack. There is more to the point in the excellent monograph on Ignatius by Von der Goltz in Texte u. Unters. xii. 3, but the particular group of phrases is not directly treated.
Ign. Ignatius.
Clem.-Rom. Clement of Rome.
Chrys. Chrysostom.
codd. codices.
Theodrt. Theodoret.
De W. De Wette.
Orig. Origen.
Mey. Meyer.
Treg. Tregelles.
WH. Westcott and Hort.
RV. Revised Version.
Tisch. Tischendorf.
Theod.-Mops. Theodore of Mopsuessia.
Cod. Sinaiticus, corrector c
Dead unto Sin, but Alive unto God
Rom 6:1-11
It is not sufficient merely to apprehend, however clearly, our standing in Christ; we must see to it that the doctrine issues in a holy life. Nothing is more hurtful than to hold a truth intellectually, without giving it expression in character. Many who fight for the minute points of doctrinal accuracy are careless of the great demands of Christ for a life of godlike love. Therefore, after the Apostles massive statements of doctrine, he now turns to discuss the way of a holy life. The work of Christ for us must lead to His work in us and deliverance from the power of sin.
All who believe in Christ are reckoned as having been included in His death. They did not make atonement for sin; but they died to the life of self-will, of self-pleasing, of subjection to the world-spirit, of citizenship in the earth-sphere, and passed with Him into the life of resurrection glory. This is the significance of the rite of baptism. Mark that seal! cries the Apostle. You belong to the resurrection side of death. Live in union with the risen Redeemer.
In the light of all this, is it any wonder that the apostle, recognizing the innate tendency of the human heart to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, puts into the mouth of the reader the question, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Chapter 6 answers this cavil (for it is really that) in a masterly way.
Far be the thought! he exclaims indignantly. How shall we who have died to sin live any longer therein? In what sense did we die to sin? If actually dead to it we would not be concerned about either the question or its answer. That which perplexes us is the fact that while we hate sin we find within ourselves a tendency to yield to it. But we are said to have died to it. How and where? The next verses give the answer.
The very fact that our link with Adam as federal head was broken by our association with Christ in His death tells us that we have the right to consider ourselves as having died, in that death of His, to the authority of sin as a master. Israel were redeemed from judgment by the blood of the Lamb. This answers to the first aspect of salvation. By the passage through the Red Sea they died to Pharaoh and his taskmasters. This illustrates the aspect we are now considering. Sin is no longer to hold sway over us, we served it in the past. But death has changed all that. Our condition of servitude is over. We are now linked with Christ risen and thus have been brought to God.
Of this the initiatory ordinance of Christianity speaks. Know ye not that so many of us have been baptized into (or unto) Christ were baptized into (or unto) His death? Israel were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They passed through death in figure, and Moses was their new leader. Pharaohs dominion was ended so far as they were concerned (1Corinthians Chapter 10). So we who are saved are now baptized unto, or into, the death of Christ. We have accepted His death as ours, knowing that He died in our place. We are baptized unto Him as the new Leader.
Is this the Spirits baptism? I think not. The Spirit does not baptize unto death, but into the one new Body. It is establishment into the mystical Christ. Our baptism with water is a baptism unto Christs death.
The apostle goes further, Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism unto death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (vs. Rom 6:4). In my baptism I confess that I have died to the old life as a man in Adam under the dominion of sin. I am through with all that. Now let me prove the reality of this by living the life of a resurrected man-a man linked up with Christ on the other side of death-as I walk in newness of life. Thus all thought of living in sin is rejected, all antinomianism refuted. My new life is to answer to the confession made in my baptism.
1 am to realize practically my identification with Christ. I have been planted together with Him in the similitude of His death-that is, in baptism-I shall be (one with Him) also in the similitude of His resurrection. I do not live under sins domination. I live unto God as He does who is my new Head.
Logically he continues, Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed (or, rendered powerless) that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed (or, justified) from sin (vers. Rom 6:6-7).
My old man is not merely my old nature. It is rather all that I was as a man in the flesh, the man of old, the unsaved man with all his habits and desires. That man was crucified with Christ. When Jesus died I (as a man after the flesh) died too. I was seen by God on that cross with His blessed Son.
How many people were crucified on Calvary? There were the thieves, there was Christ Himself-three! But are these all? Paul says in Gal 2:20, I am crucified with Christ. He was there too; so that makes four. And each believer can say, Our old man is crucified with Him. So untold millions were seen by God as hanging there upon that cross with Christ. And this was not merely that our sins were being dealt with, but that we ourselves as sinners, as children of Adams fallen race, might be removed from under the eye of God and our old standing come to an end forever.
But we who were crucified with Him now live with Him. So the apostle continues in Gal 2:20 – Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh (that is, in this body) I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. And so here. The body of sin is thus annulled, as the body of Pharaoh, all the power of Egypt, was annulled so far as Israel was concerned. Sin is not my master now. In Christ I live unto God. I am no longer to be a slave unto sin. I am righteously free (justified) from sins authority.
Now he shows the practical effect of all this precious truth. We have died with Christ. We have faith that we shall also live with Him. Then -in heaven-sin will have no authority over us. Nor should we own its authority here by yielding ourselves to it. We know that the risen Christ will never die again. Deaths authority (and sin bringeth forth death) is forever abolished. In that He died He died unto sin once for all, unto sin as our old master (not His-upon Him never came the yoke, He was ever free from sin), and now in resurrection He lives only unto God. And we are one with Him, therefore we too are henceforth to live unto God alone. This involves practical deliverance from the power or authority of sin.
It certainly never was the mind of God that His blood-redeemed people should be left under the power of the carnal nature, unable to walk in the liberty of free men in Christ. But practical deliverance is not found by fighting with the old master, SIN in the flesh, but by the daily recognition of the truth we have just been considering.
And so we are told to count as true what God considers to be true that we died with Christ to all the claims of Pharaoh-Sin, and we are now free to walk in newness of life as one with Christ risen. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (vs. Rom 6:11). This word Reckon is one of the key-words of the chapter. It means, literally, count as true. God says I died with Christ. I am to count it true. God says I live unto Him. I count it true. As faith reckons on all this I find the claims of sin are annulled. There is no other method of deliverance than that which begins with this reckoning. Reason may argue, But you do not feel dead! What have feelings to do with it? It is a judicial fact. Christs death is my death. Therefore I reckon myself to have died unto sins dominion.
The next verse follows in logical sequence. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. I feel an impulse rising within demanding that I yield to a certain sinful desire. But if on the alert I say at once, No, I have died to that. It is no longer to dominate my will. I belong to Christ. I am to live unto Him. As faith lays hold of this the power of lust is broken.
It involves watchfulness and constant recognition of my union with Christ. As in times past I was in the habit of yielding the physical members as instruments of unrighteousness, controlled by sin, now I am to definitely and unreservedly yield myself unto God as one alive from that death into which I went with Christ, and as a natural result all my physical members are His to be used as instruments to work out righteousness for the glory of God whose grace has saved me. The word translated instruments is really weapons, or armor, as in Chap. Rom 13:2; 2Co 6:7; 2Co 10:4. My talents, my physical members, all my powers are now to be used in the conflict as weapons for God. I am His soldier to be unreservedly at His disposal.
Because I am not saved by any legal principle but by free grace alone sin is no longer to hold sway over my life. Christ risen is the Captain of my salvation whose behests are to control me in all things.
Nature might reason in a contrary way and tell me that inasmuch as I am under grace not law it matters little how I behave, and I am therefore free to sin since my works have nothing to do with my salvation. But as a regenerated man I do not want liberty to sin. I want power for holiness. If I habitually yield myself unto sin to obey its behests voluntarily, I show that I am still sins servant, and the end of that service is death. But as a renewed man I desire to obey the One whose I now am and whom I serve. So he says, God be thanked, that ye were the slaves of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Being then made free from sin (that is, by Gods judicial act on the cross) ye became the servants of righteousness (vers. Rom 6:17-18).
He speaks in a figure, illustrating his theme by personifying SIN and RIGHTEOUSNESS that our weak human minds may understand, and he repeats his exhortation, or rather what had been stated doctrinally he now repeats as a command: For as ye have yielded your members slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity (in the old life before our identification with Christ) even so now yield your members servants (bondmen) to righteousness unto holiness (vs. Rom 6:19). When slaves of sin, righteousness was not our recognized master, and we can only hang our heads in shame as we think of the fruit of that evil relationship, the end of which would have been death, both physical and eternal.
Therefore now that we are judicially delivered from sins dominion and have become bondmen to God, our lives should be abounding in fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. We have everlasting life now as a present possession, but here it is the end that is in view when we are at home in that scene where Christ who is our life has gone.
He concludes this section with the solemn yet precious statement: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin is in one respect a faithful master. His pay day is sure. His wages are death. Note it is not divine judgment that is in view for the moment, but sins wages. Death is the wages of sin, but after this the judgment. Penalty has yet to be faced at the judgment-bar of God. Through error to see this many have taken up with the error that physical death involves cessation of being and is both wages and penalty. Scripture clearly tells of divine judgment after sins wages have been paid.
On the other hand eternal life is a free gift, the gift of God. None can earn it. It is given to all who trust in Christ as the Saviour of sinners. It is ours now, who believe the gospel. We shall enjoy it in all its fulness at the end.
Rom 6:1-5
Free Grace and Sin.
In this passage, under cover of a reply to a plausible objection to the doctrine of justification, we really enter upon the discussion of the bearing of gospel faith on moral character.
I. To the objection, the plausible but hateful objection, “What then? Are we to persist in our sin just in order that (as you say) the grace of God may abound in its forgiveness?” St. Paul’s reply is a very blunt and staggering one. It amounts to this: such an abuse of free grace is in the nature of things impossible. It is practically unthinkable and out of the question. “For,” says he, “persons who like us died to sin-how shall we any longer live in it?” Christians, then, are people who in the mere fact of becoming Christians died to sin; severed their old connection with it, that is, or passed through an experience which put a virtual end to their sinful life. This is what faith in Christ has done for everybody who has ever really believed in Him. After an experience like that it is, by the laws of human nature, impossible-if it were possible, it would be morally shameful-for the man any longer to live wilfully in his old sins.
II. One thing is sufficiently manifest. Christian faith is very far from a superficial or inoperative or merely intellectual act, such as a man can do without his moral character being affected by it. It is very much the opposite of that. It is connected with the deep roots of our moral and religious nature. It launches us on a totally fresh stream of vital influences. It is like a death and a birth in one; like a burial and a resurrection. Those who have been baptized into Christ and say they trust in His death as the ground of their peace with God are bound to satisfy themselves that their faith is of a sort to kill sin.
J. Oswald Dykes, The Gospel according to St. Paul, p. 143.
References: Rom 6:2.-J. Natt, Posthumous Sermons, p. 90. Rom 6:2-8.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 253. Rom 6:3.-Homilist, 3rd series, vol. ii., p. 55. Rom 6:3, Rom 6:4.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1627; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 15. Rom 6:3-5.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 247. Rom 6:3-8.-Bishop Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 129.
Rom 6:4
Easter Even.
I. We know what an impression is made by the sight of a dead body, especially if it is that of one who has been near and dear to us. And every one who has felt this lesson has been for a time, for the moment it may be, or hour, or day, if not longer, a different man. The world has lost its power either to distress or please him, and appears in its true colours; and he sees what sin is before God. Yes; the one great truth of all truths is to know what sin is before God. Now this is the wisdom of the grave, yet of itself it is but a cold and lifeless wisdom; but combined with the death and burial of Christ, and the contemplation of it, this wisdom is quickened by love: love is able to overcome the power of death, not by avoiding it, but by wrestling with it.
II. There was an old heathen philosophy that taught deadness to the world: the thorough laying aside it required of all human feeling and passions; but what it inculcated partook of that awful and dead calm which nature itself derives from the grave of man; it had nothing of that peace which the Christian learns by the tomb of Christ, wherein there is release from sin by dying with His death, and in those fruits of righteousness wherein God still works, while He gives rest. Thus Christ, being dead, yet speaketh, while by His Spirit He quickeneth our mortal bodies. The world invites us to live to it; philosophy bids us to be dead to the world; but Christianity adds, in order that we may live to God, we are not only to be dead with Christ, but to learn of Him and live with Him, if we would find His rest for the soul.
III. Though the Christian be dead to the world, and so really unharmed by it, yet the world will not be dead towards him. Though unwilling, it bears testimony; and from a kind of uneasiness and fear which lies deep within it is urged to deeds of ill-will and enmity, and this is a trial to the love and faith of good but over-conscious disciples, because it seems to dishonour their Lord. But our blessed Saviour seems from the sepulchre to say: “Stand still, and see the salvation of God.”
Isaac Williams, The Epistles and Gospels, vol. i., p. 386.
Rom 6:4
There are three characteristics of the risen life of our Lord which especially challenge attention.
I. Of these the first is its reality. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a real resurrection of a dead body. Men have thought to effect a compromise between their own unbelief or half belief and the language of the apostles, by saying that Christ rose in the hearts of His disciples-that their idea of the spirit and character and work of their Master was too bright, too glorious a thing to be buried in His grave, and that when the first agony of grief was passed the Crucified One presented Himself again vividly to their loving imaginations in even more than His ancient beauty. But, supposing a process of imagination such as this to have taken place in the case of one or two or three minds, is it reasonable to suppose that it can have taken place simultaneously in a great many minds? The nearer men came to the risen Jesus the more satisfied they were that He had risen indeed. The first lesson which the risen Christ teaches the Christian is reality, genuineness.
II. A second characteristic of Christ’s risen life-it lasts. Jesus did not rise that, like Lazarus, He might die again. So, too, should it be with the Christian. His, too, should be a resurrection once for all.
III. A last note of Christ’s risen life. Much of it, most of it, was hidden from the eyes of men. They saw quite enough to be satisfied of its reality, but of the eleven recorded appearances five took place on a single day, and there is, accordingly, no record of any appearance on thirty-three days out of the forty which preceded the Ascension. And who can fail to see here a lesson and a law for the true Christian life? Of every such life much, and the most important side, must be hidden from the eyes of men. Alas for those who know so little of the true source of our moral force as to see in secret communion with God only the indulgence of unpractical sentiment, as to fail to connect these precious hours of silence with the beauty and strength of many of the noblest and most productive lives that have been seen in Christendom.
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 429.
Rom 6:4
I. The death and burial of our Lord were but the fulfilment of His purpose when He took our flesh in the womb of the Virgin. He was in that grave before He appeared in the world. He appeared in this world that He might descend into the grave again. Every hour that He dwelt here He was giving up His body and soul, confessing that there was no life of their own in them. The glory of the Father had gone with Him through every hour of His earthly pilgrimage, raising up His body and soul, and enabling them to fulfil the work which had been given Him to do. The glory of the Father went with Him into the grave, and it brought Him back in that human soul and body, unhurt by death, unweakened by His conflict with the powers of darkness, to show forth the might of His heavenly life and to be the means through which it should be bestowed upon those for whom He died.
II. Christ’s baptism was a burial: it was giving up His soul and body to death and the grave; it was “declaring life is not in them, but in Thee.” Our baptism is a burial; it is a giving up of our body and soul, and declaring life is not in them, but in Him. As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we have His glory with us to raise us from our grave, to enable us to think what of ourselves we cannot think, to do what of ourselves we cannot do. This life is given to us. It is not dependent upon the weakness of our bodies or of our souls. It is assured to us by a promise which cannot be broken. It is stored up for us in One who cannot die.
F. D. Maurice, Christmas Day and Other Sermons, p. 236.
Rom 6:4
Consider the New Life of the Believer.
I. First, in this present life, our souls begin to be drawn up to ascending desires-to nearer communion, to loftier enjoyments, to a more heavenly-mindedness. Afterwards at the resurrection, by the same process, our bodies will be raised up. When He appears in the heavens, by a necessary, irresistible, attractive force, our bodies will be raised from the grave, and we shall be “for ever with the Lord.” So that the Divine life in a man’s soul does not take place till there is first a death and a burial and a resurrection within him; and all that is the result of a certain union with the Lord Jesus Christ; so that Christ’s death and Christ’s burial and Christ’s resurrection are, to that man, not only facts done for him, but things done in him, and things actually taking place at this moment, real, felt, producing direct visible results. And when we trace the secret inworkings, in a Christian’s soul, of such strange, unprecedented things as these, surely to such deep and wondrous mysteries we can only justly apply the Apostle’s words, and say, “It is newness of life.”
II. But as the formation of it is new, so it is in its own constitution. God’s way of making a new thing is not man’s way. God uses up the old materials, but by His using and moulding them makes them new. What is the new element thrown in to make a new man? Love-simply love. The man receives what he feels to be an inestimable gift, and his heart goes forth after the Giver-that Giver who bought that gift for him by the purchase of His own blood.
III. Once more, the Christian life is new by reason of that ceaseless variety and never-ending progression, that constant newness which it has in it. He who has set himself to be a Christian has to do with the infinities of God. He has a field in which he can expatiate for ever, and yet never retreat one pace. He is always enlarging his sphere, and with augmented capabilities taking in extended services; he experiences the charm of a sanctified novelty; and every hour he finds a literalness in the expression in this world, as he will find it for ever and ever, “newness of life.”
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1865, No. 491.
Rom 6:4
Freshness of Being.
In everything which is really of God there is a singular freshness; it is always like that tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; there is a continual novelty. And yet some people speak of the sameness of a religious life!
I. What is newness? It is not the creation of new matter. Creations in that sense are things of the far past. It is better than creation. The old goes to make the new. The old passions, the old bias, the old elements of the natural man, go to make the strength, the elevation, of the new creation,-the same, yet not the same. Take an instance. Self is the ruling principle of every man whom the grace of God has not changed. Self is his god. Now, how is it in the Christian? He has union with Christ; therefore in him self and Christ are one. By a blessed reaction his God is now himself-his new self, his real self; his life is the life of God in his soul; his happiness is God’s glory; therefore still he studies self, but self is Christ.
II. Let us trace where the newness lies. First, there is set in the believer a new motive, a new spring welling up. “I am forgiven-God loves me. How shall I repay Him?” A new current flows in the man’s life-blood, he feels the springs of his immortality, he carries in him his own eternity. And he goes forth, that man, into the old world; its scenes are just the same, but a new sunshine lies upon everything-it is the medium of his new-born peace, it is a smile of God. Christ reveals Himself to him with ever-increasing clearness. And all the while he carries a happy conviction that it is inexhaustible, that his progress is to be perpetuated for ever and ever; and by faith he shall be learning more, feeling more, enjoying more, doing more, glorifying more-that for ever and ever he shall walk in newness of life.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 141.
References: Rom 6:4.-E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. ii., p. 253; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 1; Sermons on the Catechism, p. 219; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 7th series, p. 9; H. P. Liddon, Easter Sermons, vol. ii., p. 19.
Rom 6:4-8
Christ’s Resurrection an Image of our New Life.
Our new life is like that of our risen Saviour-
I. In the manner of His resurrection. In order to appear to His disciples in that glorified form, which already bore in it the indications of the eternal and immortal glory, it was necessary that the Saviour should pass through the pains of death. It was not an easy transformation; it was necessary for Him, though not to see corruption, yet to have the shadow of death pass over Him; and friends and enemies vied with each other in trying to retain Him in the power of the grave: the friends rolling a stone before it, to keep the beloved corpse in safety, the enemies setting a watch lest it should be taken away. But when the hour came which the Father had reserved in His own power, the angel of the Lord appeared and rolled away the stone from the tomb and the watch fled, and at the summons of omnipotence life came back to the dead form. Thus we know what is the new life that is to be like the resurrection life of the Lord. A previous life must die; the Apostle calls it the body of sin, the law of sin in our members, and this needs no lengthened discussion. We all know and feel that this life, which Scripture calls a being dead in sins, pleasant and splendid as may be the form it often assumes, is yet nothing but what the mortal body of the Saviour also was, an expression and evidence of the power of death, because even the fairest and strongest presentation of this kind lacks the element of being imperishable. Thus with the mortal body of the Saviour, and thus also with the natural life of man, which is as yet not a life from God.
II. And, secondly, this new life resembles its type and ideal, the resurrection life of Christ, not only in being risen from death, but also in its whole nature, way, and manner. (1) In this respect, that although a new life, it is nevertheless the life of the same man, and in the closest connection with his former life. (2) And as the Saviour was the same person in the days of His resurrection, so His life was also again of course a vigorous and active life; indeed we might almost say it bore the traces of humanity, without which it could be no image of our new life, even in this, that it gradually grew stronger and acquired new powers. (3) But along with all this activity and strength, the life of the risen Saviour was yet, in another sense, a secluded and hidden life. And so it is with the new life in which we walk, even if it is as it ought to be strong and vigorous, and ever at work for the kingdom of God; yet it is at the same time an unknown and hidden life, unrecognised by and hidden from the world, whose eyes are holden.
III. We cannot feel all these comforting and glorious things in which our new life resembles the resurrection life of our Lord, without being at the same time, on another side, moved to sorrow by this resemblance. For if we put together all that the evangelists and the apostles of the Lord have preserved for us about His resurrection life, we still cannot out of it all form an entirely consecutive history. Not that in Himself there was anything of a broken or uncertain life, but as to our view of it it is and cannot but be so. Well, and is it not, to our sorrow, the same with the new life that is like Christ’s resurrection life? We are by no means conscious of this new life as an entirely continuous state; on the contrary, each of us loses sight of it only too often, not only among friends, among disturbances and cares, but amidst the commendable occupations of this world. Therefore we must go back to Him who is the only fountain of this spiritual life and find it in Him.
F. Schleiermacher, Selected Sermons, p. 266.
Rom 6:5-6
Assimilation through Faith.
I. Among the elements of human character we have really no deeper or more powerful agent for working a great change than faith, if we understand it fairly. The word covers the most entire devotion of heart and will which a man can repose in any person whom he justly regards as wiser, nobler, stronger, and more trustworthy than himself. It means, if you will, what among men is called hero-worship; and there is no force known to the student of human nature or of history which has proved itself capable of altering the lives of men so profoundly as this. It combines the strongest motives and the most sustaining elements in character, such as confidence, loyalty, affection, reverence, authority, and moral attractiveness. Take a single element, not at all the noblest, in this complex relationship which we term “faith.” Take the mere persuasion of one man that another is able and willing to aid him in his enterprises. What is there such a dependant will not do at the instance of his patron? What change will he not make in his plans rather than forfeit substantial assistance from that quarter on which all his hopes are built? This is faith of a sort, surely, which works powerfully. Add to such a selfish expectation of help the far deeper bond of personal reverence or of proud, admiring love. The Christian owes to Jesus obedience for the service He has rendered, and for the right He possesses to command. Does it seem any longer a thing futile or unreasonable to say, that through such faith as that a man may come to grow together into one with the Divine object of his devotion, until the man’s life is penetrated with Christ’s Spirit and conformed in everything to His matchless likeness?
II. Such a change as this, being not a change merely in a man’s conduct, or in the mode in which his character manifests itself, but one deep enough to reverse the springs of character and form anew the spiritual attachments of the person himself, is reasonably enough ascribed to a special Divine agency. Such faith and such attachment come of the operation of God. When the old man dies and a new man lives in a human being there is an evident re-birth; and for that we must postulate an immediate operation of the Divine Giver of Life.
J. Oswald Dykes, The Gospel according to St. Paul, p. 155.
References: Rom 6:5, Rom 6:6.-Homilist, vol. vi., p. 124. Rom 6:5-7.-Ibid., new series, vol. iv. p. 208. Rom 6:6.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 882; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 151.
Rom 6:7
I. “For he that hath died,” as it should be rendered, “is justified from sin.” The moment the Spirit of God works within the human soul a conviction of sin, there springs up an intense longing to obtain rest. With a burning desire no language can portray, far less exaggerate, the soul cries out for peace. Conviction of sin burns within the breast like live coals. There is no peace, no happiness, no comfort in this life to the convinced sinner. He must have peace, or he feels that reason itself can hardly bear the dire strain. Only an intelligent view of how God saves a sinner can ever give a man a truly solid peace. Where many err, and therefore do not enter into real solid peace, is that they do not know the difference between forgiveness and justification. And yet there is a very great difference between the two. If the punishment due from the law to any sin be endured, the offender that moment becomes as if he had never committed the sin. As Paul says, “He that is dead”-that is, he that has had the penalty for sin and endured it-“i justified from sin.” Every one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ has the benefit of His death, and therefore it is just as if he had received his punishment. God cannot wink at sin. He never did and never will. But though He cannot excuse one sin, He can justly forgive a million.
II. The death of Christ settles the whole account. He has paid the last penny-cleared the score right off-and there is nothing left for you or me to pay. We can say of Christ, He is our Resurrection and our Life; in Him we died, and in His resurrection we rose again and rose to an immortal life, for we shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck us out of His hand.
A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit, No. 1053.
Reference: Rom 6:7.-J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 7th series, p. 303.
Rom 6:7-10
Christ’s Death to Sin.
When we ask what is meant by affirming of Christ, “The death that He died, He died unto sin,” two questions emerge.
(1) What connection had Jesus with sin before His death?
(2) How came His dying to sever that connection?
I. As to the former. The connection of the Lord Jesus with sin so long as He lived an earthly life was the most complete which it is possible for a sinless person to have. Who will venture to say that St. Paul’s terrible phrase “made a curse” is too strong to express the hold which sin’s penalty laid upon our victim, or that the whole of our Lord’s stainless humanity was not wrapt around and penetrated through and through by the tremendous retributive force of sin? Connection with sin! He was all sin’s own; its prey, surrendered for some Divine necessity to the devourer; the choicest portion ever seized upon to be borne down to the keeping of sin’s child, death, within sin’s home, the grave.
II. The whole of this connection with sin is said to have terminated at death. It has not been so with any other man. Other men spend their earthly existence under the same penal conditions as I have described in His case; but what room have we to suppose that the act of dying has proved to be in any other case the end of sin, unless it were through their connection with Him? The death of Jesus closed His connection with sin, for the simple reason that in His case alone that connection had been outward, not inward; a guiltless submission to sin’s penalty, not a guilty surrender to sin’s power. From first to last the sin which is in our race remained to Him a foreign foe, that could gain no entrance into the citadel of His will to corrupt or master His spiritual nature; and the connection which He sustained with it was merely that of a sufferer who owes a death to justice for imputed sins of other men. Once that death was paid, and all the suffering endured which filled up the cup put into His hand to be drunk, His connection with imputed sin was of necessity dissolved. “The death which He died was a death unto sin-once for all.”
J. Oswald Dykes, The Gospel according to St. Paul, p. 164.
Rom 6:8
I. As a tree cannot live and grow, cannot bear flowers and fruit, and expand itself towards heaven, unless it be first rooted and buried in the ground, so neither can the love of God in the soul, unless that which is earthly be dead and buried with Christ in His death. It is therefore at baptism that this love is by the Holy Spirit planted within us; it is then that we are buried with Christ, in order that we may live with Him that life which is in God, in holy affections now and in fulness of joy hereafter. Such, therefore, is the subject of the Epistle for today (Sixth Sunday after Trinity). The Christian dwells in continual contemplation on the Cross and death of Christ; it is there his heart and affections are fixed; it is there he finds a remedy against sin and strength against temptation. And as we naturally become like that which we contemplate, it is to him an inexpressible satisfaction to reflect that by his very baptism and new birth he is himself there, dead with Christ and buried, in order that he might find in Him a better life; that the very strength and life of his baptism consists in his being thus made conformable to Christ’s death. “Out of the strong comes forth sweetness,” out of death life; and to resign earthly hopes, pleasures, and advantages does require that the heart hath found something better, the treasure of new affections which it values more.
II. Dead we are with Christ by baptism, by His power and grace, and dead we must also be in the habits of our new life, in order that such Divine life may be continued in Him; and all this from the most intimate reference to Him. The frequent mention of Christ in the inculcating of Christian precept and doctrine implies in our lives also, and in the fulfilling of all Christian precept and doctrine, the frequent recurrence to Him as that source of life. Love is ever thinking of the object beloved; delights in acting with a view to it; to be likened to it; to cling to it; to become more and more one with it. But this love, as being contrary to our corrupted nature, must be forcibly sustained by doing violence to ourselves, and by all outward means; by frequent communion with Him in prayer and meditation, by giving of alms and active charities, and more especially by a frequent participation of His body and blood.
J. Williams, The Epistles and Gospels, vol. ii., p. 82.
Love of Religion-a New Nature.
I. To be dead with Christ is to hate and turn from sin, and to live with Him is to have our hearts and minds turned towards God and heaven. To be dead to sin is to feel a disgust at it. We know what is meant by disgust. Take, for instance, the case of a sick man, when food of a certain kind is presented to him, and there is no doubt what is meant by disgust. On the other hand, consider how pleasant a meal is to the hungry, or some enlivening odour to the faint; how refreshing the air is to the languid, or the brook to the weary and thirsty; and you will understand the sort of feeling which is implied in being alive with Christ, alive to religion, alive to the thought of heaven. Our animal powers cannot exist in all atmospheres; certain airs are poisonous, others life-giving. So is it with spirits and souls: an unrenewed spirit could not live in heaven, he would die; an angel could not live in hell. To be dead to sin is to be so minded that the atmosphere of sin oppresses, distresses, and stifles us,-that it is painful and unnatural for us to remain in it. To be alive with Christ is to be so minded that the atmosphere of heaven refreshes, enlivens, stimulates, invigorates us. To be alive is not merely to bear the thought of religion, to assent to the truth of religion, to wish to be religious, but to be drawn towards it, to love it, to delight in it, to obey it. Now, I suppose most persons called Christians do not go further than this-to wish to be religious, and to think it right to be religious, and to feel a respect for religious men; they do not get so far as to have any sort of love for religion.
II. A holy man is by nature subject to sin equally with others; but he is holy because he subdues, tramples on, chains up, imprisons, puts out of the way this law of sin, and is ruled by religious and spiritual motives. Even those who in the end turn out to be saints and attain to life eternal, yet are not born saints, but have, with God’s regenerating and renewing grace, to make themselves saints. It is nothing but the Cross of Christ without us and within us, which changes any one of us from being (as I may say) a devil, into an angel. Even to the end the holiest men have remains and stains of sin which they would fain get rid of if they could, and which keep this life from being to them, in all God’s grace, a heaven upon earth. No, the Christian life is but a shadow of heaven. Its festal and holy days are but shadows of eternity. But hereafter it will be otherwise. In heaven sin will be utterly destroyed in every elect soul. We shall have no earthly wishes, no tendencies to disobedience or irreligion, no love of the world or the flesh, to draw us off from supreme devotion to God. We shall have our Saviour’s holiness fulfilled in us, and be able to love God without drawback or infirmity.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vii., p. 179.
Reference: Rom 6:8.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 87.
Rom 6:8-11
I. The basis of the Apostle’s sentiment here is the death of Christ. The death of Christ is the fact. Christ died for our sins. Calvary, its associations, its wonderful mystery and blessedness, were present to the Apostle’s mind; and, however progressive spiritually his view might be, he never lost sight of what took place in Jerusalem-never lost sight of the Lord in His crucifixion and resurrection. In Christ’s death he might be said to die to sin as well as for it, for he had done with sin.
II. In the second place, with this basis of history, we find that there is also a basis of prophecy,-it is implied here, at least respecting Christ and His people. Paul saw a grand future for Christ and the Church. “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.” In the eighth chapter of this Epistle we have the outburst of the music, but in the sixth chapter we have the undertone in the same strain; for he says, “If we be dead in Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,” and the eighth chapter is but the expansion and development of that sublime idea. There is therefore a basis of prophecy as well as of history.
III. Note the use which the Apostle makes of the past and the future in reference to his spiritual life. He fixes upon the historical fact that Christ died, and died for our sins, and he will not let that for an instant go. But he spiritualises it, and shows its relation to his daily experience. He teaches that between us and Christ there comes an identification and sympathy, through which we feel like Him, and act like Him, and become one with Him, imitating His example, and becoming conformed to His image and His type of life, from a moral power which flows from His death into our life. There is a dying unto sin in the case of all true believers, through their union by faith with Christ, who died so many years ago. So, too, St. Paul makes the resurrection of Christ a moral power in us, so that we rise from the death of sin to the life of righteousness.
J. Stoughton, Penny Pulpit, No. 637, new series.
References: Rom 6:8-11.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 503; G. Calthrop, Words Spoken to My Friends, p. 120; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 83.
Rom 6:9
Christ Risen, Dieth no More.
I. The resurrection brings joy to the human soul because it asserts that which is by no means written legibly for all men on the face of nature and of life-the truth that the spiritual is higher than the material; the truth that, in this universe, spirit counts for something more than matter. There are, no doubt, abstract arguments which might go to show that this is the case; but the resurrection is a palpable fact which means this, if it means anything at all,-that the ordinary laws of animal existence are visibly, upon sufficient occasion, set aside in obedience to a higher spiritual force. It was, we all of us know, no natural force, like that of growth, which raised Jesus Christ our Lord from His grave. “Christ being raised from the dead.” The resurrection is not merely an article of the Creed; it is a fact in the history of mankind. That our Lord Jesus Christ was “begotten of the Father before all worlds” is also an article of the Christian faith; but then it has nothing to do with human history, and so it cannot be shown to have taken place, like any event, say, in the life of Julius Csar, by the reported testimony of eye-witnesses. It belongs to another sphere. It is believed simply on account of the proved trustworthiness of Him who has taught us this truth on His own authority about His eternal person. But that Christ rose from the dead is a fact which depends on the same sort of testimony as any event in the life of Csar, with this difference, that no one ever thought it worth his while, so far as I know, to risk his life in order to maintain that Csar defeated Vercingetorix or Pompey. The resurrection of Christ breaks the iron wall of uniformity which goes so far to shut out God. It tells us that matter is not the governing principle of the universe. It assures us that matter is controlled by mind, that there is a Being, that there is a will, to which matter can offer no effective resistance, that He is not bound by the laws of the universe, that He in fact controls them.
II. Christ’s risen life is to us a fact of undying significance. The resurrection was not an isolated miracle, done and then over, leaving things much as they had been before. The risen Christ is not, like Lazarus, marked off from every other man as one who had visited the realms of death, but knowing that he must ere many years pass be a tenant of the grave. “Christ, being risen from the dead, dieth no more.” His risen body is made up of flesh, bone, and all things pertaining to the perfection of man’s nature; but then it has superadded qualities. It is so spiritual that it can pass through closed doors without collision or disturbance. It is beyond the reach of those causes which, slowly or swiftly, bring down our bodies to the dust. Throned in the heavens, now, as during the forty days on earth, it is endowed with the beauty, with the glory, of an eternal youth. Being raised from the dead, it dies no more. The perpetuity of the life of the risen Jesus is the guarantee of the perpetuity of His Church. Alone, among all forms of society which bind men together, the Church of Christ is insured against complete dissolution. When our Lord was born the civilised world was almost entirely comprised within the Roman empire, a vast social power which may well have appeared, as it did appear to the men of that age, destined to last for ever. Since then the Roman empire has as completely disappeared from the earth as if it had never been. And other kingdoms and dynasties have risen up and have in turn gone their way. Nor is there any warrant or probability that any one of the states or forms of civil government which exist at the present time will always last. And there are men who tell us that the kingdom of Christ is or will be no exception to the rule-that it too has seen its best days and is passing. We Christians know that they are wrong, that whatever else may happen one thing is impossible-the complete effacement of the Church of Jesus Christ. And what is our reason for this confidence? It is because we know that Christ’s Church, although having likeness to other societies of men in her outward form and mien, is unlike them inwardly and really. She strikes her roots far and deep into the invisible; she draws strength from sources which cannot be tested by our political or social experience. Like her Master, she has meat to eat that men know not of. “God is in the midst of her, and therefore shall she not be removed; God shall help her, and that right early.”
III. Christ, risen from death, dying no more, is the model of our new life in grace. I do not mean that absolute sinlessness is attainable by any Christian here. But at least faithfulness in our intentions, avoidance of known sources of danger, escape from presumptuous sins, innocence, as the Psalmist puts it, of the great offence-these things are possible, and indeed are necessary. Those lives which are made up of alternating recovery and relapse-recovery, perhaps, during Lent, followed by relapse after Easter, and even lives lived, as it were, with one foot in the grave, without anything like a strong vitality, with their feeble prayers, with their half-indulged inclinations, with their weaknesses which may be physical, but which a really regenerate will should at once away with-men risen from the dead, yet without any seeming promise of endurance in life-what would St. Paul say to these? “Christ,” he would say, “being risen from the dead, dieth no more.” Just as He left His tomb once for all, so should the soul, once risen, be dead indeed unto sin. There must be no hovering about the sepulchre, no treasuring the grave-clothes, no secret hankering after the scent and atmosphere of the guilty past. Cling to the risen Saviour. Cling to Him by entreaties which twine themselves round His sacred person. Cling to Him by sacraments, the revealed points of contact with His strengthening manhood. Cling to Him by obedience and by works of mercy, through which, He tells us Himself, we abide in His love. And then, not in your own strength but in His, “likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
H. P. Liddon, Easter Sermons, vol. i., p. 208.
Reference: Rom 6:9.-C. W. Furse, Sermons at Richmond, p. 42.
Rom 6:9-11
I. The death to sin must be a death to its service as well as to its penalty, if the soul has come under that wretched bondage. There is hardly anything more emphatically and clearly laid down throughout St. Paul’s epistles than this of the new life which is expected of Christian men, nor any doctrine with which the saintly life is more closely connected and on which it is as it were based, than the death and burial and resurrection of our Saviour Christ. And we must not put it away from us. Better a thousand times to be truthful witnesses and to abhor ourselves. Better a thousand times to hate the memory of that formal service which rests its confidence in continual acts of repentance for continual acts of wilful sin. The life of sin the Apostle supposes dead.
II. How marvellously persistent is the Apostle, is the Holy Spirit, in finding a plain living duty in the sublimest doctrines of religion; in drawing a precept which shall supply occupation for the whole human life, and exercise every faculty of the human heart, from events the most mysterious and Divine.
III. We must be ashamed when we examine ourselves to see how miserably short we fall of the Divine standard and requirements. Let us review our miserably imperfect practice, and seek to begin a higher, a purer, a better life.
J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 41.
References: Rom 6:9-11.-E. H. Gifford, The Glory of God in Man, p. 1. Rom 6:10, Rom 6:11.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. vii., p. 20; Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. vii., p. 111. Rom 6:11.-H. J. Wilmot Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. ii., p. 53; Homilist, new series, vol. iii., p. 314; W. Cunningham, Sermons, p. 251; G. Bainton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 169; C. G. Finney, Gospel Themes, p. 380; Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 1st series, p. 306.
Rom 6:11-14
On Realising the Ideal.
I. What is the theory of the Christian’s condition? As just explained by the Apostle, it is this: The Christian is a man who, like his Master, is already dead to all sin and alive only towards God. He has ceased, in other words, to have anything further to do with sin. With God he has everything further to do. This has resulted, as a matter of course, from the close union, or, as it were, incorporation, which his faith has effected betwixt him and Jesus Christ. In theory, the believer has just as little to do with sin as Jesus has in heaven; which lets us see a little how St. Paul can elsewhere employ such amazing language about mortal man as this-“Risen with Christ,” “Sitting with Christ in heaven,” their life hid with Him in God. Such is Christian life in its conception. Such it must aim at becoming in fact.
II. It is obviously with a practical design that the writer bids the Christian cherish such a conception of his proper character. All life strives to fulfil itself. It makes for that which it was made to be. In the moral training of character, there is no better way of attaining an ideal than to be persuaded that it is the true ideal for us. Put the matter in this form: You are a man supposed to be in idea dead to all sin. Yet in a given instance an evil desire has mastered you. Is there not betwixt these two facts an incongruity, not simply painful, but intolerable? They cannot possibly hang together. A contradiction in fact between your theoretical position and your actual conduct is not a state of matters in which you can rest. Either your ideal must be abandoned, or an effort must be made to shape your behaviour in compliance with it. But your ideal is what you dare not abandon, for that would be to abandon Christ. The conclusion becomes irresistible: let not this wrong desire lord it any longer in this fashion over you-a man dead to all sin. Let the believer then think what he is, that he may become what he ought to be. Broken off from sin, let there be no feeble or furtive concession to it at any point. Live solely for the work of God. Let us spend ourselves wholly in His pure and beneficent service.
J. Oswald Dykes, The Gospel according to St. Paul, p. 172.
Rom 6:12
The Dual Life of Man.
I. There are in every one of us opposing elements, there live within us an Adam and a Christ; the angel has us by the hand or the serpent by the heart. Plato describes human nature as consisting of a threefold being bound into one, a many-headed monster, a lion, and a man. The monster represents all the lowest and the basest and most animal impulses of our nature; the lion represents the passionate irascible side of our nature, in itself noble, but liable to be dangerously uncontrolled; the man represents the reason and the conscience, the ruling power within us. Plato says we can never attain the true nature of our being except when the man and the lion are at one, the man having supreme power, and both together holding the monster of the baser passions under absolute control.
II. Three warnings arise out of this subject. (1) We are accountable to God for ourselves-for our whole selves. We cannot disintegrate our individuality, we cannot claim to be good while yet we habitually do evil, we cannot be in a state of sin and yet claim to be in a state of grace. Yet this is the self-deception into which men constantly fall. When they go out, like Judas, to sell their Lord, it is not in the daytime; it is in the night of their own self-deception. We have all need of the daily prayer, “God harden me against myself.” (2) We cannot be too careful what we make ourselves. Even the feelings which might be honourable and harmless may be betrayed by excess or by neglect. Our passions are like the waves of the sea, and without the aid of Him who made the human breast we cannot say to its tide, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.” (3) As we feel our evil passions and their mastery over us, so by the grace of God can we get rid of our worse selves altogether. It is not possible by our own unaided strength, but Christ died that it might be more than possible to all that trust in Him. They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts; they are renewed in the image of God. In them the old self is conquered indeed, the body of sin is destroyed, so that they are no longer the slaves of sin; they walk in newness of life.
F. W. Farrar, Family Churchman, March 31st, 1886.
References: Rom 6:13.-Good Words, vol. iii., pp. 762, 763; R. Tuck, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 251. Rom 6:14.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 901; vol. xxiv., No. 1410; T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. i., p. 103. Rom 6:14, Rom 6:15.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1735.
Rom 6:15-23
Bondmen of Righteousness.
I. St. Paul’s manner of thinking is frequently hard to follow. One peculiarity which contributes to make it a difficult exercise to track his reasoning is this: on the threshold of a fresh train of ideas, when the subject which fills his mind has been no more than started, it is not uncommon to find him suddenly break off in order to interject some side thought which has just occurred to him. Of this habit we have an instance before us. The objection springs up suddenly. If a Christian is no longer under the law of Moses, but under the free, that is, the unmerited, favour of God as the source of His salvation, is not this a distinct licence to him to sin? To that recurring difficulty there never has been, nor ever can be, any valid reply save one: this, namely, that the very change which is involved in a man’s becoming a believer in God’s free grace through Christ renders his continuance in sin a practical impossibility. Christians were slaves to sin once, no doubt; but conversion has broken that service in order that they should enter another. They are now “servants unto righteousness.”
II. The expression “enslaved to righteousness” is indeed an unusually strong one, even for St. Paul; so strong that he deems it well to apologise for it (ver. 19). For while the practice of sin is really a moral slavery, as our Lord Himself taught, seeing that it involves the subjugation of what is noblest in a man beneath some base or petty desire of which in his heart he feels ashamed, there is no true bondage in obeying God. On the contrary, the law of righteousness is the law of man’s original, proper nature,-his native law, so to speak. To follow it is to act freely. Accordingly, when the Apostle spoke about being a slave of righteousness, he employed language which he felt to be harsh, because, in any strict sense of it, both inaccurate and unworthy. Nevertheless, St. Paul endeavours to say what he means in more precise and less metaphorical language. What it amounts to is this. That as a man previous to his conversion to Christ yielded up his faculties to execute lawless desires, and thus did the work of lawlessness as a slave serves his master, so, after conversion has put an end to that, he must, in a similar way, give himself up to perform the lawful or righteous will of God.
J. Oswald Dykes, The Gospel according to St. Paul, p. 182.
References: Rom 6:15-23.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1482; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 18; H. J. Wilmot Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. ii., p. 61; Homilist, new series, vol. iv., p. 653; Church of England Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 125; R. Molyneux, Ibid., vol. v., p. 189. Rom 6:16-19.-E. de Pressens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 93. Rom 6:17.-Bishop Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 17.
Rom 6:18
The Strictness of the Law of Christ.
I. Religion is a necessary service; of course it is a privilege too, but it becomes more and more of a privilege the more we exercise ourselves in it. The perfect Christian state is that in which our duty and our pleasure are the same, when what is right and true is natural to us, and in which God’s service is perfect freedom. And this is the state towards which all true Christians are tending: it is the state in which the angels stand; entire subjection to God in thought and deed is their happiness; an utter and absolute captivity of their will to His will is their fulness of joy and everlasting life. But it is not so with the best of us, except in part. We have a work, a conflict all through life.
II. I may seem to have been saying what every one will at once confess. And yet, after all, nothing perhaps is so rare among those who profess to be Christians, as an assent in practice to the doctrine that they are under a law: nothing so rare as strict obedience, unreserved submission to God’s will, uniform conscientiousness in doing their duty. Most Christians will allow in general terms that they are under a law, but then they admit it with a reserve; they claim for themselves some dispensing power in their observance of the law. Whether men view the law of conscience as high or low, as broad or narrow, few indeed there are who make it a rule to themselves.
III. Let us not deceive ourselves: what God demands of us is to fulfil His law, or at least to aim at fulfilling it; to be content with nothing short of perfect obedience,-to attempt everything,-to avail ourselves of the aids given us, and throw ourselves, not first but afterwards, on God’s aid for our shortcomings. We Christians are indeed under the law as other men, but it is the new law, the law of the Spirit of Christ. We are under grace. That law which to nature is a grievous bondage, is to those who live under the power of God’s presence, what it was meant to be, a rejoicing. Let us go to Him for grace. Let us seek His face. “They that wait upon the Lord,” says the Prophet, “shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iv., p. 1.
References: Rom 6:18.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1482. Rom 6:19.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 18. Rom 6:20.-H. J. Wilmot Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. ii., p. 61. Rom 6:21.-Prothero, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 161. Rom 6:22.-Homilist, new series, vol. iv., p. 653; 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 39; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 21; Church of England Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 125; R. Molyneux, Ibid., vol. v., p. 189.
Rom 6:23
The Choice of Life.
I. St. Paul is setting before us in a figure the choice of two lives-the life of a Christian, life in Christ, and the life of one who is not a Christian, who has not the Christian’s aim nor the Christian’s hope. He is setting this before us in a figure; and it is, on the whole, the figure which is so familiar to us in our own baptismal service and catechism. Both, he tells us, involve service. In some of the expressions he is thinking of the service of a servant, in others (as in this word wages- the soldier’s allowance) of military service. We can choose our master, our leader; but serve some one, do some one’s work, fight in some one’s cause, we must. We may serve God or we may serve sin. He has been striving in the last verses to bring out the contrasts of the two services. They differ in their objects, their aim, their methods, their issue. The text is the last word in the comparison. It contrasts their rewards. But in doing so St. Paul breaks away, as it were, from the similitude; says, as he so often does, “Remember that it is a figure, not the whole truth; no figure can comprehend that.” Life is a service; all fight in some ranks. The figure holds in many points, but not in all, not absolutely in one particular point. Service supposes wages, some return for the service, earned and to be paid. And the service of sin has its wages, something that answers to that figure in at least one regard. They are wages earned, the pay of a soldier’s toilsome and dangerous service,-though they are not the wages looked for, nor such as make up the campaign. “The wages of sin, the hard-earned wages, is death.” It would have followed, it might seem, to say, “The wages, the earned reward, of righteousness is life”; but St. Paul does not say so. There the figure fails. The true soldier and servant of goodness and God knows only too well that he earns no reward; the enemy whom he is to fight is not without him only, but within, in his own half-traitorous heart. No; it is not the wages of goodness, but “the gift of God” given to the unworthy through Jesus Christ our Lord.
II. The wages of sin is death. That will be the end of living for pleasure, living for self, living only for this world. The end of living for pleasure is death. You must sacrifice to it things infinitely more precious, and then the pleasures die. They last but a moment; and presently the faculty of pleasure dies. At first we fail to see that this is happening, because there is a change and succession of pleasures. Life has some small variety of pleasures, and they are so disposed that to our inexperienced eye they look endless; but we soon exhaust them. They become but repetitions, and then they cease to please. And so is all self-seeking. We cannot live for self without starving the more generous instincts and forfeiting the higher blessings of life. And self cannot satisfy. All purely selfish success turns to vanity and vexation of spirit. And this world itself passes. The things that are seen are temporal. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”-life ever deepening, widening; self-conquest, freedom, the conscience growing more sensitive and more completely mistress of the life, all instincts and perceptions of moral beauty growing keener, all lofty and generous emotions strengthening the sense of God’s nearness, the trust in His goodness, the sympathy with His purposes, for ever increasing, brightening to the perfect day.
E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 125.
References: Rom 6:23.-E. Cooper, Practical Sermons, vol. i., p. 15; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1459; C. G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes, p. 37; J. Vaughan, Sermons, 6th series, p. 29; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1868; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 186; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 84; Ibid., vol. vii., p. 22; Church of England Pulpit, vol. v., p. 125; J. Burbidge, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 33; J. Vaughan, Sermons, 6th series, p. 29; C. G. Finney, Gospel Themes, p. 37. Rom 6:23.-E. Cooper, Practical Sermons, vol. i., p. 15.
CHAPTER 6
1. Dead with Christ to Sin. (Rom 6:1-7.)
2. Risen with Christ and Alive to God. (Rom 6:8-11.)
3. Sin shall Not Have Dominion. (Rom 6:12-14.)
4. Servants to Righteousness. (Rom 6:15-23.)
Rom 6:1-7
We have learned from the previous chapter that the justified believer is in Christ and fully identified with Him. God sees the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, no longer in Adam, but in Christ, the head of a new creation. So if any one be in Christ, it is a new creation the old things have passed away, behold all things have become new (2Co 5:17). Judicially the believer therefore is dead to sin, the old man was crucified, put completely to death in the death Of Christ, and the believer is alive to God in Him. But this wonderful part of the Gospel must become a reality in the life and experience of the believer. God beholds us as dead to sin in Christ and alive in Himself, this must be lived out. This is the solemn responsibility of the justified believer. And we are not to do this in our own strength, but in the power of the indwelling Spirit, who is also given to the believer. All this is unfolded in this chapter.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Inasmuch as we have died to sin in the death of Christ, the practical deliverance of sin and its dominion must be manifested in our lives. As we find later the old nature, the flesh is still in the justified believer, but he has also another nature, another life and he is therefore enabled in the power of that new life and his identification with Christ, to continue no longer in sin. It is a most positive fact dead to sin and this is true of all believers positionally in Christ, and therefore the Holy Spirit tells us that we should no longer live therein. And this truth is illustrated in Christian baptism; it is into Christs death and illustrates the truth of death and burial in Christ. Baptism therefore does not save. It has no power to put a sinner in Christ, nor can it convey forgiveness of sins and impart the new life. Faith alone is needed for that, and when the sinner believes, the grace of God saves and accomplishes identification with Christ. And furthermore we are more than dead and buried with Christ as Christ was raised up by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. We share in His resurrection. What the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ did to Him, raising Him from the dead, He does to all who believe on Him. He hath raised us up together (Eph 2:6). We possess His life, the risen life and therefore we should also walk in the power of this life. Our old man (what we are in Adam), was crucified with Christ. When He died we also died. Our old man was crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be annulled, so that we should be slaves to sin no longer. Many have been misled by the mistranslation which states that the body of sin might be destroyed and teach that the old nature is completely eradicated. But it does not say destroyed, but annulled, or cancelled. The body of sin is our mortal body with the law of sin in its members. And as long as we have this mortal body, the law of sin is in its members. But the operation of that law is annulled for the believer, who in faith, as we shall see later, reckons himself to be dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. And therefore the believer is enabled to be no longer a slave to sin, as the natural man is. A dead man is justified or discharged from sin; the tyrants power is at an end when the subject over which he domineers is dead. And so we being crucified with Christ escape the tyrants power, and ultimately when the Lord comes this mortal body will be changed and sin itself will be forever gone.
Rom 6:8-11
Inasmuch as we have died with Christ we shall also live with Him. Death hath no more dominion over Him; He liveth unto God. And all this is true of the believer. Then comes the most important answer to the question raised, in the beginning of the chapter. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? In the same manner reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. This is an exhortation to take hold of this great and deep truth, the identification of the believer with Christ in death and resurrection. Reckon is an act of faith. It means to believe all this and to appropriate in faith what God has put on our side in Christ Jesus. We must reckon that we are dead and in possession of the life which empowers us to live unto God. We reckon this is so, not feel it to be so. It is an entire mistake, and fraught with important consequences, to imagine this being dead to sin to be a feeling or an experience. We cannot feel Christs death on the cross, and it was there He died to sin, and we because He died. If it were experience, it would be an absolute perfect one, no evil thought, feeling, or desire, ever in the heart; and this not true of some of the more advanced, but of all Christians and that always. But this is contrary to the experience of all. The attempt to produce such a condition in ourself ends either in the misery of utter failure, or, still worse, in self-satisfaction, indeed, the well-nigh incredible delusion for a Christian, that he is as impassive to sin as Christ Himself! The words do not express such an experience. (As claimed by Perfectionists and Holiness sects.) In every way, it is plain that it is not an experience of which the apostle is speaking here. We could not be told to reckon what we experience. What we reckon is a fact for faith, the fruit of the work done for us, not of that done in us. Because Christ died unto sin once for all, and in that He liveth, liveth unto God, thus also do we reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. (Numerical Bible.)
Rom 6:12-14
The exhortation which follows in Rom 6:12, addressed not to the world but to justified believers, proves that sin is still in the mortal body of the believer. It is not destroyed. But while sin is in our mortal body, it has no more right to reign there. However it will reign, if we yield to the desires of the old nature. If a believer obeys the old nature in its lusts, he walks not in the Spirit but in the flesh. Whenever temptation comes, the believer must take refuge in prayer, in self-judgment and self-surrender and yield (or present) his members afresh as instruments of righteousness unto God. As long as the believer is in the mortal body there is the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit (Gal 5:17). And if we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh; this necessitates that we make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof (Rom 13:14). Furthermore, the promise is given to the believer in Christ that sin shall not have dominion over him because he is not under the law, but under grace. The grace which has saved the believing sinner and made Him nigh unto God, teaches also to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age (Tit 2:12). And more than that; grace supplies the power to live godly. Therefore sin shall not have dominion over a believer because he is under grace. But this promise must be appropriated in faith.
Rom 6:15-23
Another question is asked. What then, shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? Another, God forbid–perish the very thought of it–is the answer. Whoever yields to sin falls under the mastery of sin. Then follows a word of praise. He thanks God that the believers to whom he writes, once servants of sin, but having obeyed from the heart (and true faith is obedience), they were made free from sin and became servants of righteousness. Free from sin does not mean, as often taught, free from the old nature, but free from the domineering power of indwelling sin. Then there is the contrast between the former state in sin and the place of deliverance into which grace has brought the believer. In the former life as unsaved, slaves of sin, there was an awful fruit and the end of it is death. But now as servants of God, freed from sins awful slavery, there is another fruit, the fruit of holiness and the end eternal life. How this fruit of the justified believer is to be produced we shall learn in the next chapter. Sins wages is death; that is what man receives in payment for sin. Eternal life, the great and inestimable gift of God is bestowed through Jesus Christ our Lord.
sin Sin. (See Scofield “Rom 3:23”).
grace Grace (imparted). Rom 5:1; Rom 5:14; Rom 5:15; Rom 12:3; Rom 12:6; Rom 6:1-15. (See Scofield “2Pe 3:18”).
What: Rom 3:5
Shall: Rom 6:15, Rom 2:4, Rom 3:5-8, Rom 3:31, Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21, Gal 5:13, 1Pe 2:16, 2Pe 2:18, 2Pe 2:19, Jud 1:4
Reciprocal: 1Ch 11:19 – My God Ezr 9:14 – we again Mat 5:19 – shall teach Rom 3:8 – Let us Rom 4:1 – what 2Co 7:1 – therefore Gal 2:17 – are found Eph 4:20 – General Heb 11:32 – what shall 2Pe 1:9 – that he 1Jo 2:1 – that
THAT WHICH WE have thus far learned of the Gospel from this epistle has been a question of what God has declared Himself to be on our behalf, that which He has wrought for us by the death and resurrection of Christ, and which we receive in simple faith. In it all God has been having, if we may so say, His say toward us in blessing. Chapter 6 opens with the pertinent question, What shall we say then?
This signalizes the fact that another line of thought is now about to open before us. Nothing can exceed the wonder of what God has wrought on our behalf, but what are we in consequence thereof going to be for Him? What is to be the believers response to the amazing grace that has been shown? Is there through the Gospel the bringing in of a power which will enable the believers response to be one worthy of God? As we open chapter 6 we begin to investigate these questions and to discover the way in which the Gospel sets us free to spend lives of practical righteousness and holiness.
If men attain a merely head knowledge of the grace of God, their hearts remaining unaffected, they may easily turn grace into licence and say, Well, if Gods grace can abound over our sin, let us go on sinning that grace may go on abounding. Does the Gospel in any way countenance such sentiments? Not for one moment. The very reverse. It tells us plainly that we are dead to sin. How then can we still live in it? Once we were terribly alive to sin. Everything that had to do with our own lawless wills-with pleasing ourselves, in other words-we were keenly set on, whilst remaining absolutely dead to God and His things. Now an absolute reversal has taken place and we are dead to the sin to which formerly we were alive, and alive to the things to which formerly we were dead.
Have we been ignorant as to this, or only dimly conscious of it? It should not have been so, for the fact is plainly set forth in Christian baptism, a rite which lies at the threshold of things. Do we know, or do we not know, what our baptism means?
There is perhaps a previous question which ought to be raised. It is this, Have you been baptised? We ask it because there seems to be in some quarters distinct carelessness as to this matter, engendered we suspect by the over-emphasis placed on it in former days. If we neglect it we do so to our very distinct loss. In baptism we are buried with Christ, as verse Rom 6:4 states, and not to have been buried with Him is a calamity. Moreover, if not amongst so many of us as were baptised the Apostles argument in verses Rom 6:4-5 loses its force as far as we are concerned.
What then is the significance of baptism? It means identification with Christ in His death. It means that we are buried with Him, and that the obligation is placed upon us to walk in newness of life, even as He was raised up into a new order of things. This is its meaning and this the obligation it imposes, and our loss is great if we know it not. We greatly fear that the tremendous controversies which have raged over the manner and the mode and the subjects of baptism have led many to overlook entirely its meaning. Argumentations about baptism have been carried on in a very unbaptised way, so that no one would have thought the contestants dead to sin.
Baptism is however a rite, an outward sign. It accomplishes nothing vital, and alas, millions of baptised persons will find themselves in a lost eternity. It points however to that which is vital in the fullest sense, even the Cross, as we shall see.
Let us notice the closing words of verse Rom 6:4, newness of life, for they give a concise answer to the question with which the chapter opened. Instead of continuing in sin, which is in effect continuing to live the old life, we are to walk in a life which is new. As we go through the chapter we discover what the character of that new life is.
Our baptism was our burial with Christ-in figure. It was the likeness of His death, and in it we were identified with Him, for that is what the rather obscure expression, planted together means. We submitted to it in the confidence that we are to be identified with Him in His risen life. The newness of life in which we are to walk is in fact connected with the life of resurrection in which Christ is today.
In verse Rom 6:3 we were to know the meaning of our baptism; now in verse Rom 6:6 we are called upon to know the meaning of the cross in relation to our old man, and the body of sin. The cross is that which lies behind baptism, and without which baptism would lose its meaning.
We have already had before us the death of Christ in its bearing upon our sins and their forgiveness. Here we have its bearing upon our sinful nature, whence have sprung all the sins that ever we committed.
It is not perhaps easy to seize the thought conveyed by our old man. We may explain it by saying that the Apostle is here personifying all that we are as the natural children of Adam. If you could imagine a person whose character embraced all the ugly features that have ever been displayed in all the members of Adams race, that person might be described as, our old man.
All that we were as children of fallen Adam has been crucified with Christ, and we are to know this. It is not a mere notion but an actual fact. It was an act of God, accomplished in the cross of Christ: as much an act of God, and as real, as the putting away of our sins, accomplished at the same time. We are to know it by faith, just as we know that our sins are forgiven. When we do know it by faith certain other results follow. But we begin by knowing it in simple faith.
What God had in view in the crucifixion of our old man was that the body of sin might be destroyed, or rather, annulled, so that henceforth we might not serve sin. This again is a statement not easy to understand. We must recall that sin formerly dominated us in our bodies, which in consequence were in a very terrible sense bodies of sin. Now it is not that our literal bodies have been annulled, but that sin, which in its fulness dominated our bodies, has been, and thus we are freed from its power. It has been annulled by the crucifixion of our old man, the result of our identification with Christ in His death, so that His death was ours also.
Take note of the closing words of verse Rom 6:6. They give us quite clearly the light in which sin is viewed in this chapter. Sin is a master, a slave-owner and we had fallen under its power. The point discussed in the chapter is not the presence of sin in us but the power of sin over us. We have got our discharge from sin. We are justified from it, as verse Rom 6:7 states.
Our discharge has been effected by the death of Christ. But it is very important to maintain the connection between His death and His resurrection. We saw this when considering the last verse of chapter 4, and we see it again here. Our death with Christ is in view of our living with Him in the life of the resurrection world.
We get the word know for the third time in verse Rom 6:9. We should know the meaning of baptism. We should know the bearing of the death of Christ as relating to our old man. Thirdly we should know the bearing of the resurrection of Christ. His resurrection was not a mere resuscitation. It was not like the raising of Lazarus-a coming back to life in this world for a certain number of years, after which death again supervenes. When He arose He left death behind Him for ever, entering another order of things, which for convenience sake we call the resurrection world. For a brief moment death had dominion over Him, and that only by His own act in subjecting Himself to it. Now He is beyond it for ever.
His death was a death unto sin once and for ever. It is sin here, you notice, and not sins; the root principle which had permeated our nature and assumed the mastery of us, and not the actual offences which were its product. Moreover, it is not death for sins but unto sin. Sin never had to say to Him in His nature as it had with us. But He had to say to it, when in His sacrifice He took up the whole question of sin as it affected the glory of God in His ruined creation, and as it affected us, standing as a mighty barrier against our blessing. Having had to say to it, bearing its judgment, He has died to it, and now He lives to God.
Let us pause and test ourselves as to these things. Do we really know this? Do we really understand the death and resurrection of Christ in this light? Do we realize how completely our Lord has died out of that old order of things dominated by sin, into which once He came in grace to accomplish redemption; and how fully He lives to God in that new world into which He has entered? It is important that we should realize all this, because verse Rom 6:11 proceeds to instruct us that we should reckon according to what we know.
If we do not know rightly, we cannot reckon correctly. No tradesman will rightly reckon up his books if he does not know the multiplication tables. No skipper can rightly reckon the position of his vessel if he does not know the principles of navigation. Just so no believer is going to rightly reckon out his position and attitude either in regard to sin or to God, if he does not know the bearing of the death and resurrection of Christ upon his case.
When once we do know, the reckoning enjoined in verse Rom 6:11 becomes perfectly plain to us. Our case is governed by Christs, for we are identified with Him. Did He die to sin? Then we are dead to sin, and so we reckon it. Does He now live to God? Then we now live to God, and so we reckon it. Our reckoning is not mere make-believe. It is not that we try to reckon ourselves to be what in point of fact we are not. The very reverse. We are dead to sin and alive to God by His own acts, accomplished in the death and resurrection of Christ (to be made effectual in us by His Spirit, as we shall see later on) and that being so, we are to accept it and adjust our thoughts to it. As things are, so we are to reckon.
Before we were converted we were dead to God and alive to sin. We had no interest in anything that had to do with God. We did not understand His things; they left us cold and dead. When however it was a question of anything that appealed to our natural desires, of anything that fed our vanity and self-love, then we were all alive with interest. Now by the grace of God the situation is exactly reversed as the fruit of our being in Christ Jesus.
Having adjusted our reckoning, in accordance with the facts concerning the death and resurrection of Christ which we know, there yet remains a further step. We are to yield ourselves to God in order that His will may be practically worked out in detail in our lives. The word yield, occurs, you will notice, five times in the latter part of the chapter.
Being dead to sin it is quite obvious that the obligation rests upon us to refuse sin any rights over us. Formerly it did reign in our mortal bodies and we were continually obeying it in its various lusts. This is to be so no longer, as verse Rom 6:12 tells us. We have died to sin, the old master, and its claim upon us has ceased. Being alive from the dead, we belong to God, and we gladly acknowledge His claims over us. We yield ourselves to Him.
This yielding is a very practical thing, as verse Rom 6:13 makes plain. It affects all the members of our bodies. Formerly every member was in some way enlisted in the service of sin and so became an instrument of unrighteousness. Is it not a wonderful thing that every member may now be enlisted in the service of God? Our feet may run His errands. Our hands may do His work. Our tongues may speak forth His praise. In order that this may be so we are to yield ourselves unto God.
The word, yield, occurs twice in this verse, but the verb is in two different tenses. A Greek scholar has commented upon them to this effect:-that in the first case the verb is in the present in its continuous sense. Neither yield your members. It is at no time to be done. In the second case the tense is different. Yield yourselves to God. Let it have been done, as a once accomplished act.
Let us each solemnly ask ourselves if indeed we have done it as a once accomplished act. Have we thus definitely yielded ourselves and our members to God, for His will? If so, let us see to it that at no time do we forget our allegiance and fall into the snare of yielding our members even for a moment to unrighteousness, for the outcome of that is sin.
Sin, then, is not to have dominion over us, for the very reason that we are not under the law but under grace. Here is the divine answer to those who tell us that if we tell people that they are no longer under the regime of law, they are sure to plunge into sin. The fact is that nothing so subdues the heart and promotes holiness as the grace of God.
Verse Rom 6:15 bears witness to the fact that there have always been people who think that the only way to promote holiness is to keep us under the tight bondage of law. There were such in Pauls day. He anticipates their objection by repeating in substance the question with which he opened the chapter. In reply to it he restates the position in a more extended way. Verses Rom 6:16-23 are an extension and amplification of what he had just stated in verses Rom 6:12-14.
He appeals to that practical knowledge which is common to us all. We all know that if we yield obedience to anyone, though not nominally their servant we are their servant practically. That is the case also in spiritual things, whether it be serving sin or God. Judged by this standard, we were without a question once the slaves of sin. But when the Gospel form of doctrine reached us we obeyed it, thanks be to God! As a result we have been emancipated from the thraldom of sin, and have become servants of God and righteousness. Well then, being now servants of righteousness, we are to yield our members in detail so that God may have His way with us.
This yielding then is a tremendously important business. It is that to which our knowledge and our reckoning lead up. If we stop short of it our knowledge and our reckoning become of no effect. Here doubtless we have the reason of so much that is feeble and ineffectual with Christians who are well instructed in the theory of the thing. They stop short at yielding themselves and their members to God. Oh, let us see to it that if as yet we have never had it done, as a once accomplished act, we have it done at once! Having it done we shall need and find grace for the continuous yielding of our members in the service of God.
All this supposes that the old master, sin, is still within us, only waiting for opportunities to assert itself. This makes the triumph of grace all the greater. It also increases to us the value of the lessons we learn. We learn how to yield our members servants to righteousness unto holiness, even while sin is lurking within, eager to reassert itself. In serving righteousness we serve God, for to do the will of God is the first element of righteousness. And righteousness in all our dealings leads to holiness of life and character.
Instead, then, of continuing in sin, as those enslaved by its power, we are set free from it by being brought under the sway of God. Twice do we get the words, made free from sin (verses Rom 6:18; Rom 6:22). Formerly we were free from righteousness. We have escaped the old power and come under the new. This is the way of holiness and life.
Everlasting life is here viewed as the end of the wonderful story. In the writings of the Apostle John we find it presented as a present possession of the believer. There is no conflict between these two views of it. That which is ours now in its essence, will be ours in its full expanse when eternity is reached.
The last verse of our chapter, so well known, gives us a concise summary of the matter. We cannot serve sin without receiving its wages, which is death. Death is a word of large meaning. In one sense death came in upon man when by sin he was utterly separated from God. The death of the body occurs when it is separated from the spiritual part of man. The second death is when lost men are finally separated from God. The full wages of sin includes death in all three senses.
In connection with God no wages are spoken of. All is gift. The very life in which we can serve Him is His own gift through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus at the end of the chapter we come back to the thought with which the previous chapter closed. We may well make our boast in the eternal life which is ours by Gods free gift, and heartily embrace all the consequences to which it leads.
Shall We Continue in Sin?
Rom 6:1-23
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
Grace never gives a margin to sin. There are some who go so far as to use “salvation by Grace” as an excuse for laxity in their morals; they vainly imagine that the saved may live as they list.
The great question that confronts us today is asked in the opening verse of our Scripture lesson (Rom 6:1): “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that Grace may abound?”
Rom 5:1-21 has demonstrated the power of superabounding Grace. The early chapters of Romans proved all under sin; the 5th chapter proved that Grace abounded over sin; and that justification, through faith, came upon all who believe.
The Holy Spirit goes on to discuss a most vital matter. If one is saved by the Grace of God, made possible by the Blood of Christ; then, may the saved continue to sin with impunity, still expecting the same grace to operate? Should a believer run to excess in sin, in order to make “grace” the more glorious?
That God has provided in Christ for the possible sins of believers, we do not doubt; that God has promised forgiveness, through Christ’s cleansing Blood we surely know: however, such facts do not and cannot lend license to Christians to sin.
The doctrine of security in Christ, likewise, affords no license to sin. The fact that the saved are safe in Christ, and that Jesus promised security to His followers should not encourage God’s people to be careless and indifferent.
Shall we continue in sin, because grace has abounded?
Shall we continue in sin, because we are secure in Christ Jesus?
We are going to deal with these most vital queries. Step by step we will develop the Holy Spirit’s answer.
Before we begin we wish to say that God has called us unto holiness and not unto nnholiness. Christians may sin, but they should not, and they need not sin. A believer who is overtaken in a fault, may be restored, and “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”; but when Christians continue in sin in any ruthless and willful sense, they will find that “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”
It never pays to sin-every act of sin on the part of Christians will bring its full weight of sorrow and chastening.
I. THE MATTER STATED (Rom 6:1-2)
The question of the first verse, is the subject of this study: “Shall we continue in sin, that Grace may abound?” The reply to the query is stated in two short, but meaningful words: “GOD FORBID!”
The words “God forbid,” almost suggest the thrill of horror that such a question brings to the heart.
The words also suggest that God’s reply is a prompt, unequivocal, and unargueable response-impossible.
The words likewise suggest the inexpressible shame that surrounds even the asking of so horrible a question-God seems to say, “For very shame that such a thought could ever have found place in a believer’s mind.”
In all the Word of God there is no leeway given to sinning.
In all the Grace of God toward sinners, there is no condoning of sin, either in the believer or the unbeliever.
In all the purposes of God, there is no permit to continue in sin.
The fuller answer of the Spirit to the question, “Shall we continue in sin?” is given in Rom 6:2, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
If one asks, “Shall we continue in sin, that Grace may abound?” he possesses no proper appreciation of our union with Christ in His death.
We are dead to sin because when Christ died, we died: our sins were carried away by Him.
The Cross of Christ stands for our death to our old life. Paul wrote, “I am crucified with Christ.” He also wrote: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
When we see ourselves dead with Christ on the Cross, we will be ready to concede that we dare not live any longer in sin.
Howard A. Banks says, “The Christian in putrid Colosse or in putrid America but joined to the omnipotent, risen Christ can give to absolute death the tyrant of his once conquering sensual lusts. But he is to carry his victory also into the details of life, and put to death temper, malice, and every other sin. “The Christian character is an unsinnmg character,” says the great Anglican churchman, Bishop Motile. “This is by no means to say that the man who is a Christian is an unsinning person (1Jn 1:8). But when he sins he should remember he is out of character as a Christian.”
II. THE DOCTRINE SYMBOLIZED (Rom 6:3-5)
Baptism not only symbolizes the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it symbolizes our death, to sin; and our resurrection to walk in newness of life.
How can we who have been buried and raised with Christ in baptism live any longer in sin?
We have plainly professed that our old life is gone-we once walked as the Gentiles walked in all uncleanness, but now we are risen with Christ to walk in newness of life: now we seek the things which are above, and not the things which are upon the earth.
Christians should put off their old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts; and put on the new man, which, after God, is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him.
It may be all right, humanly speaking, for unregenerate men and women to fulfill the lusts of their flesh, and of their mind; but it is all wrong for those who have put on Christ in baptism. God has called us unto holiness, and we need to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. If we have been quickened together with Christ, and raised up together, and made to sit together in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus, we dare not longer walk as the Gentiles walked.
When we came from the baptismal waters we came on the Canaan side of life. Egypt and its flesh pots were left far behind us. The will of God is our sanctification, and that we should abstain from fornication, and know how to possess our vessel in sanctification and honor.
We dare not drag the “signet” of our confession down into the mud and the mire of the swineherd. Remember the words: “Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin; * * Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God, through Christ Jesus.”
III. THE DOCTRINE SUSTAINED (Rom 6:10-13)
Because Christ died unto sin once, and because He liveth unto God, we are told to “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,” and “alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
We are taught, that sin should not reign in our mortal body. We are not to obey sin in the lusts thereof. We are not to yield our members as “instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,” for God has said, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.”
God expects each believer to walk in victory over all sin. We are to reckon ourselves dead unto sin; that is, we are to live without so much as recognizing our old man. We are to act as though he was dead, even though he be alive. We are to give one great big “No” to our old man.
The Lord would not tell us that sin should not reign in our mortal bodies, if it were impossible for us to be victors over sin. God is abundantly able to give us dominion over sin’s sway.
We need not yield our members as “instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.” God has given us an impregnable armor, and no dart of the wicked one can touch the one fully clad.
This idea that Christians must, of necessity, be “up” sometimes, and “down” sometimes is all wrong. Our constant place should be that of an “overcomer.”
IV. THE FAILURE OF THE FLESH (Rom 7:14-21)
As one reads of the conflicts in this Scripture, and of the seeming defeat, he begins to feel that the message of Rom 6:1-23, is impossible. How many are unhappily swayed by sin’s seductive power!
Truly the flesh can, in itself, never reach the place of dominion over sin.
No matter how sincere the desire, or how ardent the longings to live “dead unto sin,” it cannot be done in the strength of the natural self-life. Self spells failure. Self speaks on this wise: “What I would do, I do not”; and, “What I would not, that I do.”
One man vainly said, “When I put my foot down, it stays put.” He meant when he made up his mind to live right, he did so. Alas, alas, how miserably he failed.
Another man said, “Unless any one can conquer himself, he is not a real man.” Yet, how, signally he, himself, failed.
He that trusts in his own flesh to overcome sins of the flesh, will meet ignominious failure.
The world is too alluring; the devil is too subtle and strong; and the flesh is too corrupt to be overcome by human nature.
We ask, Is failure necessary? Is defeat the norm of the Christian? We quote some striking sentences:
“It is reasonable to expect victory over every sin, because in this way only is a Christian life of true strength and greatness and joy possible. A Christian man is in absolute need of victory. Without it there can be no peace. This is true of nations as it is true in our conflict with evil, for compromise never gives peace. ‘If we are to wage a triumphant warfare, we must have no untaken forts in the rear.’ A life of defeat means the stunting of spiritual growth, ineffectiveness of intercession, fruitlessness in service, deadness in the study of the Scriptures, and joylessness in our daily Christian experience. With unconquered sin in the heart, there must result a numbing of the spiritual faculties, an increasing inability to hear the will of God accurately, and the weight of a spirit of sadness and fear constantly oppressing the soul in its aspirations. Can anything be imagined more awful than for one to catch glimpses of moral or spiritual greatness and power, to see visions of possible purity, and yet to remain in the valley of despondency below, seemingly unable to ascend?
The Word of God cannot fail to give the vision. We never open it but the glory of life in Christ comes overwhelmingly before us. It needs no argument, every Christian will agree, that for peace and power and joy the life of victory is a necessity. Let us quickly recognize the complementary truth, then, that what God has made necessary in the life of His redeemed children He has also abundantly provided. If victory is necessary (and this whole problem will never be satisfactorily settled until it becomes just that for each of us), then victory is possible. My God shall supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Php 4:19). God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every good work (2Co 9:8). For every need, for every day, against every evil power, His ‘grace is sufficient’ (2Co 12:9). His purpose for us which makes victory necessary is not less than His power to make it possible.”
V. THE SEQUENCE OF SELF-FAILURE (Rom 7:24-25)
How weird is this cry of one who has tried and failed! Could words be more pathetic: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” The believer overcome by sin, feels that he is waging a losing battle; feels that he is dragging around a dead body; a body tied to him, and from which he cannot be loosed. No wonder he is wretched!
Have you ever said that you would not become angry? You broke your promise. You tried, but you were overcome.
Have you ever purposed, in all earnestness, that you would be happy, and cheerful and throw your gloom and spells of despondency to the winds? You thought you would succeed; yet, you found, to your sorrow, that you were defeated.
Have you ever made up your mind to be loving, and gentle, and good, and patient? Yet, although you tried, and tried hard, you were overwhelmed with defeat.
You discovered that when you would do good, evil was present with you. You knew that God had said, “Sin shall not have dominion over you,” and yet sin did have dominion. You meant to please God; you intended to follow after righteousness and holiness; but you found another law ruling in your members, and bringing you into captivity to the law of sin, which was in your members. Then, you too, cried, “O wretched man that I am!”
Did you also cry, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Did you see your own failure and despair? Or, did you seek for victory in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Wilber M. Smith has well said:
“In the hours of defeat, of repeated and tragic failure, in the agony of shameful subjection to some sin, there must come to the mind of every child of God the great question: After all, is this matter of victory a dream of men, a fine but unattainable ideal, or is it the undoubted teaching of the Word of God? Is a daily life of glorious victory possible for me? I long for it, but can I really have it?”
VI. THE SECRET OF SURE VICTORY (Rom 7:25; Rom 8:1)
After the wail of woe, described in Rom 7:24, “O wretched man that I am”; we find the inquiry,-“Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Then, there follows these words; “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Thus we turn from defeat to victory-all because we have found the Victor, even the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Gabriel made his announcement to Joseph, he said, “Thou shalt call His Name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” He saves not in, but from their sins: not from the penalty of sin alone, but from sin’s power in the daily life.
Concerning the raised Lazarus, Christ said, “Loose him and let him go”; can we feel other than that he wants us to be loosed from our sins?
Christ is the One stronger than Satan, who came to open the prison to them who were bound. He came to set the captive free; He came to deliver us from evil; He came to lead us in the train of His triumph, and to make us more than conquerors through Him.
Christ prayed to the Father saying, “Keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me.” He also prayed, “Keep them from the evil,” or “from the evil one” (A. S. V.).
We now approach Rom 8:2 of Rom 8:1-39 : “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Christ not only can set us free, but He has “delivered us out of the power of darkness” (A. S. V.).
Jesus Christ met Satan and vanquished Him; He is now set down at the Father’s right hand, far above all principality and powers; and we, thank God, are set down with Him. His victory is ours.
VII. THE SPIRIT THE SECRET OF THE OVERCOMING LIFE (Rom 8:3-4)
It will do us good to mark the words-“What the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh.” We have already seen that defeat comes to those who walk after the flesh.
It will thrill us to note what God wrought by sending Jesus Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. First, He condemned sin in the flesh, because Christ died for sinners; and then, He died that sin should not have dominion over us.
It will lead us on to full victory if we observe what God says about the way that righteousness may be obtained in our walk. Here is His statement: “That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
What is it to walk after the Spirit?
There is a verse where Ruth said to Naomi, “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”
Are we willing to say to the Spirit what Ruth said to Naomi? Will we follow after the Spirit, as the hart follows after the water-brook? When we walk in the Spirit, we do not fill up the lusts of the flesh.
It is through walking in the Spirit that we will be able to mortify the deeds of the flesh.
How happy we should be, and how secure we are against Satan’s attempts! We are made victors, not by any power that we ourselves possess. First, Christ dwelleth in us; secondly, the Father has come and taken up His abode in us; and, thirdly, the Holy Spirit dwells in us-therefore, we are thrice fortified, and no power can be our undoing. Are we not strengthened with His all-power? Hear God speak, “Ye * * have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
AN ILLUSTRATION
“THAT IS WHAT I WANT”
The pastor of a certain church in Manchester, England, was fairly besieged by a certain woman with requests to pray for her husband. They would nearly succeed in winning the husband, when this woman would fly into a violent temper and upset everything, Her husband would say, “Well, Mary, if that is religion, I don’t want it.” Finally the pastor told her that the fault was hers; that she must overcome her temper, and the Lord would give her grace to do it. In her shame and despair she took the matter to the Lord, and He gave her the victory. The time for spring cleaning came. She had just gotten a new lamp hung in the hall and a new carpet laid when John came home, carrying something on his shoulder, not knowing about the new lamp, and there was a clattering and a breaking up of things. He expected a row, but instead a quiet woman looked over the stairs and said, “Never mind, husband; it’s all right; we can get a new lamp.” And he said, “Mary, what’s the matter?” “Oh, my dear,” she said, “I have trusted the Lord Jesus to cure me of my temper.” He said, “Well, if He has cured you, come right down and pray for me, for that is what I want” And the pastor says he was converted that day.-From the King’s Business.
6:1
Rom 6:1. Paul was a master in logic, and he refuted beforehand an erroneous conclusion that some would draw from what he had said. They would argue that if there was more grace where more sin abounded, then it would be well to sin so as to bring that grace.
Rom 6:1. What shall we say then? Then, in view of chap. Rom 5:20-21. Comp. the similar phrase in chap. Rom 4:1.
Shall we continue in sin? The form of the question in the original indicates that this is the statement of a point to be discussed, or rather of a wrong inference that might be drawn from the abounding of grace. This wrong inference is a standing objection to the gospel, urged by those who have not felt its power.
Subdivision 2. (Rom 6:1-23.)
Dead with Christ to sin, no more to be in bondage to it.
We come now at once to that deliverance, which is detailed for us in two parts, which are taken up in perfect order, -first from sin, and then from law; the first positional, the second, practical deliverance. Necessarily deliverance from sin comes first, in order that deliverance from law may not mean lawlessness, but freedom to serve in newness of spirit. And yet deliverance from law must be, in order that there may be practical deliverance from sin. The positional is judicial clearing, as the use of the word “justified” (ver. 7) -“he that hath died is justified from sin” -sufficiently shows. This is not the same as from “sins,” let us note, but goes beyond it. We are in Christ, who has died once and for all to that which He took upon Him, so that no question as to it can be ever raised again. We too, therefore, as in Him are once for all cleared, because He, our Representative, is. We have a place in absolute perfection before God unchangingly. And this by and by we shall find to be the “law of the Spirit,” even that “life in Christ Jesus,” by which we are practically “delivered from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2). It is the delivering principle which the Spirit uses; but the question of law must be settled also, that it may practically avail us.
Questions at once assail us here, and these the apostle deals with, as we shall see, continuously. To be freed at once from all possible charge of sin, and with this from law also, would seem in the eyes of more than natural men unholy from first to last, while sin is nevertheless admittedly within us still, and the devil and the world are both around to incite and allure us. But grace really reigns; and “sin,” says the apostle, “shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace” (ver. 14). It is strange, yet true, that even the Christian is slow to recognize in all the length and breadth of it, the truth of such an assertion; yet it is the thesis which Paul sets himself to maintain all through, and against all who may gainsay it. Let us watch his argument as having that personal interest in it which indeed we have.
1. He starts at once with the argument of an objector, of course, founded on his previous declaration that “where sin abounded grace did overabound.” “What then?” he asks; “shall we continue in sin, then, that grace may abound?” Spite of the answer given to it here, that question is substantially raised today, as if there had been none; as if in fact, it were really unanswerable. But it is true that the apostle’s answer is very little understood; and even by those who are quite satisfied with it. Rejecting utterly the thought, he puts it away with another question. “We who have died to sin,” he asks, “how shall we still live in it?” The putting that as a question shows how unanswerable he deems it; and unanswerable it clearly is, if only the premise is rightly taken. If we are dead to sin, then it is an undeniable consequence that we cannot live in it.
But the difficulty is with the assertion itself, that we are dead to sin. Most Christians are content to say, that they ought to be dead to sin, but wince as they look into the book of their experience, and are ready to declare that there never was more than One on earth, who could truly affirm this of himself.
Yet it is as plain as possible that, whether from his experience or in some other way, this is just what the apostle does affirm; and that not only of himself, or of some people of special attainment, but of Christians as a class -of all Christians. It is true as to all Christians that where sin abounded grace did much more abound, and that is the ground of the objection taken, and of course, of Paul’s answer too.
This at once settles it against the so-called perfectionists, that he is not affirming as to any one’s experience, that he is dead to sin: for Paul is certainly speaking of all Christians, and it is not the universal experience, and is not claimed that I am aware, that it is that, that all are in this sense “dead.” And we shall see in a little while that this is not given as an experience of any, but as a faith. His words later on are, “Reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin;” and the reckoning is from this that “Christ died unto sin once.” This therefore is a reckoning of faith, as is clear, and not an experience. It is plain, without need of looking further, that in this being dead to sin, however little as yet we may grasp the full meaning of it, we have another example of our identification with our Representative Head. It is necessarily true therefore of every one of us, however great the need also of having it believingly realized, as the apostle urges.
He goes on to press the truth as conveyed in baptism, which as that which brings into the ranks of Christian discipleship, has been given as a picture-lesson of what discipleship implies. “Or know ye not,” he asks, “that so many of us as were baptized unto Christ, were baptized unto His death? We were buried therefore with Him through baptism unto death, that as Christ was raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life.”
We need to go slowly here, so many things being in question. It is a sad sign of the confusion of the day that thus in the very rite of initiation into what is our common profession, we should yet be so little able to agree as to what is meant by it. Happily, neither mode nor subjects are before us here, though doubtless we may find what will have its implication in both these directions. But we are in company with one of those who could say, “He that is of God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth us not;” and we must surrender ourselves to his guidance absolutely.
“Baptized unto Christ Jesus” is certainly correct, instead of “into,” though the Greek words, as words merely, might mean either. But the parallel “baptized unto Moses” is absolutely decisive. The Israelites were set apart to Moses in the cloud and in the sea, -to be Moses, disciples; where we plainly could not say, “into.” The phrase is thus freed from all suspicion of such a ritualistic force as in very opposite interests it has been made to bear, -as if the wondrous place in Christ were conferred in baptism. “So many of us” again does not imply a smaller out of a larger number, but is on the contrary an emphatic way of saying “every one;” or as if one said, “If we were baptized to Christ at all, we were baptized to His death.”
To see the force of it clearly, we have but to go back in our minds to John’s preparatory baptism in Jordan, the river of death, in which men took their place as confessing their sins, and owning their rightful condemnation. Thus he baptized unto death; but it was not Christian baptism -it was not “to Christ’s death,” which is the distinctive feature of the present time, but simply to the acknowledgment of its being worthily their own.
Nevertheless it was for remission -“the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins”: not present yet, so that it could be a testimony of sins actually remitted, but in view of the One coming whose forerunner John was. Nor did John close without the fuller witness that, in fact, He had come. Come! and to the very place of that which these penitents acknowledged as their due! The Lord’s baptism in Jordan was for Him no baptism of repentance, but the solemn pledge to what He afterwards called “the baptism that He was to be baptized with” (Luk 12:50). Thus alone could deliverance be achieved for men who were under death, and the virtue of that death abides; so that now convicted sinners such as these in John’s day, brought to own their place in death before God, find all changed for them; they learn that He has been in death for them, and find a new life for them where death was. Thus Christian baptism is still to death but to His death, a death which is life to all that come to Him; and here we have the key to that which baptism expresses.
Baptism has in itself no reference to life: it is burial, and burial has to do with death, not life, -it is the dead who must be buried. Now comes the necessary question: in what sense are we dead, to be so buried? Notice that in the idea which baptism presents, we are baptized to Christ, not with Him. We are not baptized because we have touched Him, but, so to speak, we touch Him in it -as to what is intended. In other words, baptism is a gospel picture acted out. As we have seen in the words of Ananias to Saul (Act 22:16) it is itself in some sense, the washing away of sins: we are not baptized because they have been washed away, but we wash them away in it. And this agrees perfectly with Peter’s words in his first epistle (1Pe 3:21) that in a figure baptism saves; not marks out the saved, as so many put it, but saves. And this again agrees with what John’s baptism speaks of, and which the thought of baptism as burial confirms. It is as sinners we come to it, not saints; and in it we find remission of sins and salvation. These are things, as we know, upon which ritualism builds; and they are facts, but of no use to ritualism. Its followers might as well try to support life upon a picture of food, or to take names for things and prove to us there is no difference between them.
There is an illustration from the Old Testament which may more vividly present to us the truth that we have here: “Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet” (2Ki 13:20-21).
Elisha, in the miracles done by him, answered to his name, which means “My God is salvation.” We have in this one a beautiful illustration of baptism, just because it is a vivid and beautiful picture of salvation through the gospel. The man is dead, and so they bury him: burying is but putting the dead into the place of death. He is let down into the grave of one who had died before: he is buried with Elisha. So buried, he touches the one who had preceded him in death, and is quickened out of it: he stands upon his feet a living man.
Here we have two deaths brought together, and the one the cure of the other. The man that you bury must be dead; and this, of course, must apply to baptism; but in what sense then dead? dead with Christ, since it is burial with Christ? That is the contention of some, and is plausible at first sight, but only at first sight; for, as we have seen, it is only the one already alive in Christ that can be dead with Christ, and the man buried in baptism is buried to touch the dead Christ and to live. Dead with Christ means dead to sin, as we have heard already, and as is to be more fully shown us; but none can be dead to sin who is not spiritually alive, -who has not already touched Christ so as to live. Buried with Christ does not then imply dead with Christ, as might be thought.
Buried because dead in sins, then? That is nearer to, but is not yet the truth. The death that we see pictured in John’s baptism is the death which is the due of sin, and not the inward condition, which is but the inveteracy of the sinful state itself. The death here is that into which Christ came; but He did not come into any sinful condition, but under its penalty. Hence burial with Christ is the owning of the penalty, which the conscience anticipates before it comes, Christ having also anticipated that place for us, that we may live. Baptism, as before said, is but a typical or acted out gospel; with a significant protest against ritualism also: for the baptism is, as the word itself shows, and the argument also but immersion -burial, Christ alone as the quickening Spirit giving the life. It does not go on, as Colossians in our common version teaches, to resurrection.* It is the confession of death, for which we are put into Christ’s sepulchre, that we may live. What is contemplated here is power for the new walk; it cannot itself give this: it is a baptism to death, and not to life.
{*Col 2:12 should be read, “buried with Him in baptism, in whom also ye were raised together.”}
This corresponds exactly also with the true rendering of 1Pe 3:21, which really speaks of baptism, not as the answer of a good conscience, which from all that we have seen it could not be, but rather “the demand* of a good conscience,” not the declaration that we have found it. The baptism, not as an ordinance, but in the idea that it conveys, ends with effecting this. It is but the introduction of the soul to Christ, with whom all satisfaction of the conscience lies. The doctrine of Scripture is as to this consistent throughout, as it must always be.
{*The R.V. has “interrogation,” or “inquiry.”}
Christ, then, was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. That for which He had come into the world demanded for Him deliverance from death, into which He came for this. But such acceptance of His work for sinners means necessarily their deliverance from the power as well as penalty of sin. Thus the practical effect for those who are His is a “walk in newness of life.” The old man, as we shall presently see, is not to revive out of this burial. The “newness” as the word implies, is a newness of kind (kainotees), another sort of life. The river of death has swept over the old one.
2. The apostle goes on to show how the cross of Christ as the crucifixion of the old man becomes in the wisdom of God a means to the sin still in us being overcome. But we have to ask ourselves the question in the first place, what the expression “our old man” means. The common thought is, perhaps, that it is the sin in us personified; thus what is called afterwards the flesh: a term which we may note has not yet been used in Romans, in this sense, and the proper place to examine which will be in the next chapter. But there is one thing which is important to take into account, as to the old man, the significance of which, if not the fact, is largely overlooked, that it is never spoken of as existing in the Christian, but always as crucified or put off. It is so even in Eph 4:22, where the common version is at least ambiguous, but where instead of “that ye put off” should be read “that ye did put off.” Thus it refers to what for us is past, not present, and this is so far against the thought of its being the sin in us, while the fact of there being as to the Christian a “new man,” which he has put on, replacing the old one, really demonstrates this from the other side. Always the putting off is connected with the putting on, and the two men are not co-existent but exclusive of one another.
{Rom 6:5. “Grown together”: “planted together” is not correct, and “identified,” which some give, seems too free; while it indicates the effect rather than the production of this. See notes. There being no “him,” some would say “united with the likeness of His death,” but this creates needless difficulty. That it is with Christ is shown clearly by the context.}
The necessary conclusion is that the new man is characteristic of the Christian; and conversely the old man is the man before his Christian course began. There is no personification in either case: it is the person that was and the person that is, each characterized morally; while, of course, the same individual persists all through. But in this way “our old man” is surely as easily read as it is significant. It is the person that was, with evident allusion to the first fallen man, the repetition of whom in all his natural descendants may account for the plural with the singular (“our old man”), the self-same man with each and all of us! For this “the one” and “the many” of the last chapter has prepared us; it is evident that the transmitted image of the first man in the many must for those to whom Christ is Head and Saviour be met and cancelled; while the new man is just the man in Christ, a new creation.
Let us now go back to the beginning of what is here. “For if,” says the apostle, continuing his reference to the truth in baptism, “we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in that of His resurrection.” The likeness of His death is, of course, baptism itself, and the being united* to Him in His death, is that which we have seen baptism to represent. If therefore that which baptism represents is fulfilled in us, then on the other hand, we shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. This may, no doubt, go on to complete realization in physical resurrection, yet surely is intended to have a present practical application, according to the whole tenor of the thought here. “We shall be” is only necessarily future from the standpoint of union with Him in His death, and its argumentative force for the present is blunted by an exclusive physical reference. The contrast between “become” and “be” favors also the present application: “if we have become united, then we shall as the result be (now) in this likeness.” For as Christ was not left in the grave, so for us also the power of His resurrection must approve itself. It is contended indeed that resurrection with Christ is not found in Romans in this way. It is true that it is not dwelt upon, as in Ephesians and Colossians; yet there are references to it which can hardly be mistaken: what, for instance, does “yield yourselves unto God, as those alive from among the dead” mean? And how could the thought be absent from the “newness of life” in which we are to walk? Does not the being by the Spirit united to Christ, as in the next chapter, necessitate it? or may we have the full thought of alive in Christ, and even as a means of deliverance from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2) apart from this? The truth will be developed more and more as we go on with it; nevertheless the germ of all that relates to our position individually is already here.
{*We must distinguish between being united to Him in His death, and union by the Spirit with Him as risen from the dead, to which we come only in the next chapter.}
And in connection with this it is that the crucifixion of the old man, of which the apostle goes on to speak, comes to be delivered from all ascetic mournfulness, and attains its proper character as that which annuls (or brings practically to nothing) the body of sin. It is sin as dwelling in us, acting through the body in the lusts and passions which reflect themselves in it, which in its entirety needs to be annulled. Similarly, in the next chapter, the man who has come to despair of self-mastery groans aloud for deliverance from the “body of this death;” while in Col 2:11 we have the parallel term, the “body of the flesh.” By and by we shall be warned that the “body is dead because of sin” (Rom 8:10), and that we are to “mortify the deeds of the body” (ver. 13). All this it is not yet the place to enter into, yet it enables us to realize sufficiently what is meant here.
The crucifixion of the old man is the inflicting penal sentence upon it; and in this we must remember that it is not man’s part in the Cross that is before us, but that the lifting up from the earth was that which in the law of Moses indicates the awful sentence of God upon sin: “he that hangeth upon a tree is accursed of God” (Deu 21:23). Thus the cross was God’s judgment upon fallen man, with whom each one of us had his place naturally. The sentence is here, not merely upon our sins but upon ourselves, and here is a meaning of the Cross most important for us to realize and take to heart. The thoughts of man’s heart, his wisdom and his will, received in it their condemnation; thank God, they were put away from before Him by our glorious Substitute; so that we have our deliverance judicially and practically at the same time. How immense a gain to have learned God’s estimate of ourselves in nature, so as to have learned the renunciation of our wisdom and our wills; while finding the complete ruling aside of all from before God as in a dead man they are necessarily set aside: for you can charge nothing against a dead man; whatever he may have been, as now dead, “he that hath died is justified from sin.” It is plain in the way the apostle is speaking, crucifixion in this case does not come short of death, as many would argue: it gives character to it as divine condemnation, and this is for the breaking of our thraldom to sin and the annulling it in its totality. Divine righteousness has branded it, -divine love has removed its burden from me, so that I should be its slave no more.
3. But if we do not stand any more as identified with what we were in nature, or under the doom of sin, -if it is with Christ that we have died, this means for faith that we shall also live with Him. Touching Him in faith, we are henceforth identified with Him. As we have seen, He is the living Head and Representative of His people, and in Him our life is. Thus we have the assurance which He has given to His own, “Because I live, ye shall live also” (Joh 14:19). The future tense in both passages simply affirms, of course, the perpetuity of what has already begun, and that is founded on what is a matter of Christian consciousness, that “Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once for all; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.” Thus that which was the burden upon Him has been for ever rolled away, and that, burden was our burden. It is not partly removed, but wholly; there is no such thing as partial removal for any of His own. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin as He is; and alive to God for ever in Him who is eternally alive to God, His glorious work achieved.
We reckon this so, not feel it to be so. It is an entire mistake, and fraught with important consequences, to imagine this being dead to sin to be feeling or experience. We cannot feel Christ’s death on the cross, and it was there He died to sin, and we because He died. If it were experience, it would be an absolutely perfect one, no evil thought, feeling, or desire, ever in the heart; and this not true of some of the more advanced, but of all Christians always; but this is contrary to the experience of all. The attempt to produce such a condition in oneself ends in the misery of utter failure, or, still worse, in self-satisfaction, indeed, the well-nigh incredible delusion for a Christian man, that he is as impassive to sin as Christ Himself! The words do not, as already said, express such an experience; as indeed, in any such sense as this, Christ never died to sin: what for us might be the expression of perfection would be the denial of such perfection as was His. In every way, then, in which we look at it, it is plain that it is not an experience of which the apostle is speaking here. We could not be told to reckon that we experience: what we reckon is a fact for faith, the fruit of the work done for us, not of that done in us: because Christ died unto sin once for all, and in that He liveth, liveth unto God, thus also do we reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
These last words carry us back, as there can be no right question, to those which we have heard front the Lord’s own lips in the Gospel of John. Thus, looking forward to the present time, the time of His absence from His own, as gone back to Him from whom He had come, He says, “In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you” (Joh 14:20). He has prefaced this with the assurance, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” His parable of the Vine and its branches, which shortly follows, gives us the fundamental thought in these expressions so often repeated, “we in Him and He in us,” and we see it to be life in Him that is all through at the root of them. The epistle of John afterwards gives it more precise doctrinal statement, that “God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1Jn 5:11). It is a life which, all through the Gospel, we are shown that He communicates to us, and which we have abiding in us. Thus we are “in the Son;” and because the life is divine life, we can be said, not only to be in the Son, but in the Father also (Joh 17:21; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; 1Jn 2:24). But this at once distinguishes the doctrine of Romans here from that of John. John speaks of life and nature only -what we have as children of God and born of Him; it is condition and not position, as is plain, for the thought of “in the Father,” and “in the Son” alike exclude position. But Paul, as we have seen, while his doctrine is based upon a life which we have received, a life eternal, in no wise different in this way from what is revealed to us in John, yet develops in another manner this truth, and shows us other implications of it. For him the life is in Christ, the new Adam of a new creation, which rises out of the fallen one, to stand in the perfection of its Head before God, and in the value of the glorious work which has much more than redeemed us from the sin and ruin in which we were involved. and made us partakers in an infinite wealth of blessing. Thus it is “in Christ” that we live, -in Him who is before God, not simply in the right, which was always His, of the Only begotten of the Father, but as Christ, in the place He had taken for men, and as having accomplished the work by which they are brought to God; and the pentecostal anointing of the gathered disciples was but the overflow of that upon the priestly Head, which was thus flowing down to the skirts of His garments (Psa 133:2). So was He now in the fullest sense the Christ -the Anointed. Life was now in One who was the Representative Head of His people, and “alive unto God in Christ Jesus” puts together condition and position. If “in Christ” brings in the thought of new creation, as the apostle declares (2Co 5:17), the new creation stands in the New Man to whom it has been committed -the Antitypical Adam of the race to whom He has become a “quickening Spirit.” All this must faith reckon in, to have the fulness of the blessing here.
4. Now then the apostle can exhort to a walk suited to such a place. We see at once that he has no thought of sin having been done with in such sort that there shall be no danger from it any more. The believer is, indeed, set free from subjection to it, but therefore in a place in which the full responsibility is his of manifesting that freedom. He is not beyond the need of the warning, “Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, to obey its lusts.” These bodies, though with the sign of the fall still upon them in their evident mortality, can yet be yielded* up now to God by those who are now alive from the dead, and their members as instruments of righteousness to God. And it is to this that grace enables and constrains. No need of weakening the sense of it, then, or qualifying it with some other and therefore opposite principle! Nay, “sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under law, but under grace.” Shall the delivered soul call in again its jailer to make good its deliverance. Nay, it is grace alone in which there is any help whatever, or ray of hope. And, thank God, it is all-sufficient also. Sin shall not have dominion over the subjects of divine grace, is the apostle’s assurance: grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life.
{*The reader will observe, as has often been noticed, that in speaking of yielding to sin and to God the apostle uses different tenses of the verb, which while difficult to render in English give distinct shades of meaning in Greek. He uses the present tense of the imperative in speaking of yielding to sin. It is never, at any time or during any period to be obeyed. In speaking of obedience to God, it is the Aorist imperative that is used. It is a definite act, once for all, as marking the beginning of the walk in newness of life. -S.R.}
5. Everything here will be questioned, however, by the soul ignorant of itself and of God; and such questions, because of their importance, must have careful answer. Again therefore we have the objection of the mere moralist taken up to be indignantly set aside: “What then? Are we to sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? Far be the thought.” Yet the heart of man is in fact capable of such abuse of divine goodness; yes, but what would such an argument mean? A soul set free willingly yielding itself to that from which God has delivered it? Is this deliverance when the heart is still deliberately seeking that from which it assumes to be delivered? Well, says the apostle, if I am addressing any in such a condition, let me remind them that here the whole nature of God is in question. Does not then the way of sin deliberately pursued, end in death? Does the gospel change this relation of sin to death? does it not manifest God, and in all His attributes? His holiness being more shown indeed in the agony of the Cross, than even the uttermost punishment of the sinner could have shown it. Thus then, if one freely yields himself to obey a master, he cannot but be reckoned as belonging to the master he has chosen, whether on the one hand to sin with its terrible wages, or of obedience to God for righteousness. In all this there rules a fundamental necessity, which the gospel could not subvert and be still a gospel.
It was necessary, therefore, to give this the clearest expression; but, while the apostle does so, he has a joyful conviction with regard to those whom he is addressing, that their own experience well interprets that which he is saying. With them he is assured, their bondage to sin is indeed past, and with heartfelt appreciation of the glorious change, they have entered upon the new service to righteousness. Melted and subdued by the power of the Word, they have been as ductile metal run into the mould, and taking form in the pattern of their present life by the doctrine to which they are surrendered, so as, being set free from sin, to become bondservants to righteousness. Strange phrases these might seem still to use in connection with the redeemed and enfranchised children of God. The apostle in some sort apologizes for them; yet that divine love has had to conquer us for itself, we surely know; and having conquered, that it has made us bondservants to it for ever, -bound by the grace that has enfranchised us more fully and securely than any slave as such could be. Yet, alas, of this bond we need to be reminded, strangely as we are often in contradiction to ourselves: we are not beyond the exhortation to yield our members bondservants to righteousness for sanctification, -righteousness which has in it the apprehension of God’s peculiar and double rights in us, -redemption more than doubling His creative claim. From the opposite side, as bondservants to sin, we were indeed free in regard to righteousness. Can we not vividly remember those shameful, barren days as to good? and the end of those things is death! How great the contrast now! “But now being freed from sin, and being made bondservants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This is the summing up in contrast of the two sides already set before us. The end on the one side is what man has earned; the end on the other is the full realization -the entering into -of that which is, not simply at the end, but now also, God’s gracious gift to us. This has been shown us abundantly; but notice how again here “our Lord” -“in Christ Jesus our Lord” -closes this subject with the glad witness of what brings all the life into that harmonious order which is the result of the deliverance from sin. The Christ whom we have known in His lowliness as Jesus, now in the place of exaltation which has given us a “gospel of glory,” has bowed our hearts in obedient homage to Himself. As the unwilling prophet testified of a people of other days, “the shout of a King is among” us, the pledge of victory over every foe, -“higher than Agag” with all his rebellious rout. There can be no deliverance where Christ is not enthroned; there can be nothing else, where He has His due place and acknowledgment. Put Him only in His place, and He cannot but manifest His power; and that will be more and more simple as we proceed with what is before us now.
The apostle begins this chapter with an objection, which some licentious person might be ready to make against what he had delivered in the close of the foregoing chapter; namely, that where sin abounded, pardoning grace and mercy did much more abound. If, say they, the riches of grace be thus manifested in the pardon of sin, let us then take the more liberty to sin, because grace so exceedingly abounds in the pardon of it. The apostle rejects such an inference with the greatest detestation and abhorrence, saying, God forbid, &c.. As if he had said, “Oh vile abuse of the most excellent thing in the world! What! did Christ shed his blood to expiate our guilt? and shall we make that a plea to extenuate our guilt? God forbid! surely there is forgiveness with God, that he may be feared, not that he may be the more abused.”
In the words, observe, 1. An objection supposed, as if the doctrine of the gospel did countenance licentiousness, and encourage any sin, or to continue in sin.
2. Observe with what abhorrency and indignation such a doctrine and proposition is rejected by our apostle.
What! shall we continue in sin, because pardoning mercy doth abound?
God forbid, that such a direct blasphemy against the holy doctrine of our Saviour should be maintined by any professor.
Observe, 3. The confutation which he gives of this bold and impudent assertion; How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Dead to sin, that is, by our baptismal engagement, vow, and obligation; every Christian, at his first entrance upon the profession of Christianity doth take upon himself a vow of solemn obligation to die to sin, and to live no longer therein.
From the whole, learn, That to take any encouragement to live in sin from the consideration of God’s rich mercy and free grace towards sinners, is an absurd, abominable, and blasphemous impiety, contrary to all ingenuity, gratitude, and love, both to God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ his Son.
Rom 6:1-2. What shall we say then What shall we think of this doctrine? namely, taught in the latter part of the preceding chapter, that where sin abounded grace did much more abound? Does it not follow from thence that we may continue in sin, that grace may abound still more, and may appear more glorious in pardoning and saving us? The apostle here sets himself more fully to vindicate his doctrine from this consequence, suggested Rom 3:7-8. He had then only, in strong terms, denied and renounced it. Here he removes the very foundation thereof; proceeding to speak of some further benefits (besides those mentioned Rom 5:1, &c.) of justification by faith in Christ, namely, the promoting of holiness, and not of sin, as some might imagine: to which subject his transition is at once easy and elegant. God forbid That such an unworthy thought as that of continuing in sin should ever arise in our hearts! We have disclaimed such a consequence above, and we most solemnly disclaim it again, and caution all that hear us, against imagining that our doctrine allows any such cursed inferences. For though it is true, that where sin abounds grace does frequently still more abound, yet this is not owing to sin in any degree; which of itself brings death, Rom 6:23; Jas 1:15; and the more sin, the more punishment; but wholly to the superabounding mercy and love of God in Christ. For how shall we that are dead to sin By profession, obligation, and communion with Christ our head in his death; or who are freed both from the guilt and the power of it; live any longer therein In the love and practice of it? Surely it would be the grossest contradiction to our profession, and the obligations we are under to do so: on the contrary, it is apparent that nothing has so great a tendency to animate us to avoid sin, as this doctrine of gospel grace.
Thirteenth Passage (6:1-14). Sanctification in Christ dead and risen.
The apostle introduces this subject by an objection which he makes to his own teaching, Rom 6:1; he gives it a summary answer, Rom 6:2, and justifies this answer by appealing to a known and tangible fact, namely baptism, Rom 6:3-4. Then he gives a complete and didactic exposition of the contents of his answer, Rom 6:5-11. Finally he applies it to the practical life of his readers, Rom 6:12-14.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Romans Chapter 6
The character of this new life, into which the resurrection of Christ has brought us, is presented here in a striking way. Christ had perfectly glorified God in dying; also even in dying was He the Son of the living God. It is not all, therefore, that He could not be holden of it, true as that is because of His Person; His resurrection was also a necessity of the glory of God the Father. All that was in God was compelled to do it by His glory itself (even as Christ had glorified all), His justice. His love, His truth, His power; His glory, in that He could not low death to have the victory over the One who was faithful; His relationship as Father, who ought not, could not, leave His Son in bondage to the fruit of sin and to the power of the enemy. It was due to Christ on the part of God, due to His own glory as God and Father, necessary also, in order to shew the reflex of His own glory, to manifest it according to His counsels, and that in man. Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. All that the Father is came into it, engaged to give Jesus the triumph of resurrection, of victory over death, and to give resurrection the brightness of His own glory. Having entered, as the fruit of the operation of His glory, into this new position, this is the model-the character-of that life in which we live before God. [28] Without this manifestation in Christ, God, although acting and giving testimonies of His power and of His goodness, remained veiled and hidden. In Christ glorified, the centre of all the counsels of God, we see the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, and every mouth confesses Him Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Our life ought to be the practical reflection of this glory of the Lord in heaven. The power that brings us into association with Him in this place, and still works in us, is shewn at the end of the first chapter of the Ephesians[29]. But there it is to introduce our resurrection with Christ. Here it is Christs own resurrection, the doctrine, or the thing in itself, and its consequences and moral import with regard to the individual living here below, in view of his relationship with God as a responsible man. It is an altogether new life. We are alive unto God through Him.
Identified thus with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall also enter into that of His resurrection. We see here that resurrection is a consequence which he deduces as a fact, not a mystical participation in the thing; knowing this first (as the great foundation of everything), that our old man-that in us which pleads for sin as the fruit of the perfect grace of God-is crucified with Christ, in order that the whole body of sin should be destroyed so that we should no more serve sin. He takes the totality and the system of sin in a man, as a body which is nullified by death; its will is judged and no longer masters us. For he who is dead is justified [30] from sin. Sin can no longer be laid to his charge as a thing that exists in a living and responsible man. Therefore, being thus dead with Christ-professedly by baptism, really by having Him for our life who died-we believe that we shall live with Him; we belong to that other world where He lives in resurrection. The energy of the life in which He lives is our portion: we believe this, knowing that Christ, being raised from among the dead, dieth no more. His victory over death is complete and final; death has no more dominion over Him. Therefore it is that we are sure of resurrection, namely, on account of this complete victory over death, into which He entered for us in grace. By faith we have entered into it with Him, having our part in it according to His therein. It is the power of the life of love that brought Him there. Dying, He died unto sin. He went down even to death rather than fail in maintaining the glory of God. Until death, and even in death, He had to do with sin, though there were none in Him, and with temptation; but there He has done with all for ever. We die unto sin by participating in His death. The consequence-by the glory of the Father-is resurrection. Now, therefore, in that he died, he died unto sin once for all; in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Thus He has nothing more to do with sin. He lives, only perfectly, without reference in His life to anything else, unto God. In that He lives, His life is in relationship to God only. [31] We also then ought to reckon-for it is by faith-that we are dead to sin and alive to God, having no other object of life than God, in Christ Jesus. I ought to consider myself dead, I have a right to do so, because Christ has died for me; and being alive now for ever unto God, I ought to consider myself as come out, by the life which I live through Him, from the sin to which I died. For this is the Christ I know; not a Christ living on the earth in connection with me according to the nature in which I live here below. In that nature I am proved to be a sinner, and incapable of true relationship with Him. He has died for me as living of that life, and entered, through resurrection, into a new state of life outside the former. It is there that as a believer I know Him. I have part in death, and in life through Him who is risen. I have righteousness by faith, but righteousness as having part with Christ dead and raised again, as being therefore by faith dead unto sin.
And this is the essential difference of this part of the epistle. It is not that Christ has shed His blood for our sins, but that we have died with Him. There is an end for faith to our state and standing in flesh. The Christ who is become our life did die, and, as alive through Him, what He has done is mine; and I have to say I died. I reckon myself dead. [32] The apostle deduces the evident consequence: Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body. Do not yield your members as instruments to the sin to which you are dead by Christ; but as alive, as awakened up from amongst the dead, yield your members as instruments of righteousness to God unto whom you live. The body is now the mere instrument of divine life; and we are free to use it for God as such. For in fact sin shall not have dominion over us, because we are not under the law but under grace. Here it is not the principle but the power that is spoken of. In principle we are dead to sin, according to faith; in practice it has no power over us. Observe that the source of practical power to conquer sin is not in the law, but in grace.
Now it is true that, not being under the law, the rule under which we are placed is not that of imputation but of non-imputation. Is this a reason why we should sin? No! there is a reality in these things. We are slaves to that which we obey. Sin leads to death; obedience to practical righteousness. We are upon the wider principle of a new nature and grace; not the application of an external rule to a nature which was not, and could not be subject to it. And, in truth, having been in the former case, the disciples in Rome had given proof of the justice of the apostles argument by walking in the truth. Set free from the slavery of sin, they had become (to use human language) the slaves of righteousness, and this did not end in itself; practical righteousness developed itself by the setting apart of the whole being for God with ever-growing intelligence. They were obedient in such-and-such things; but the fruit was sanctification, a spiritual capacity, in that they were separated from evil, unto a deeper knowledge of God. [33] Sin produced no fruit, it ended in death; but set free from sin and become servants to God-the true righteousness of obedience, like that of Christ Himself-they had their fruit already in holiness, and the end should be eternal life. For the wages of sin was death, the gift of God was eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now this life was living unto God, and this is not sin; nevertheless it is grace. Here the apostle, whose subject is judicial righteousness before God, approximates to John, and connects his doctrine with that of the First Epistle of John, who there, on the other hand, enters upon the doctrine of propitiation and acceptance when speaking of the impartation of life. The appeal is very beautiful to a man in true liberty-the liberty of grace, being dead to sin. He is set wholly free by death. To whom is he now going to yield himself? For now he is free; is he going to give himself up to sin? It is a noble appeal.[34]
Footnotes for Romans Chapter 6
28: Indeed Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were all engaged in the resurrection of Christ. He raised the temple of His body in three days, was quickened by the Spirit, and raised by the glory of the Father.
29: To which we may add in full effect the end of the third. Details are found elsewhere.
30: The word is justified. And here we see distinctly the important difference between sin and sins: you cannot charge a dead man with sin. He has no perverse will, no evil lusts. He may have committed many sins while alive, he may or may not be justified from them. But you cannot accuse him of sin. And, as we have seen, from chapter 5: 12, we are treating of sin-of mans state-not of sins.
31: This is a wonderful expression. As to faithfulness His life was spent for God, He lived to God. But now His life knows nothing but God.
32: Note here, the Epistle to the Romans does not go on to say we are risen with Christ. That leads on necessarily to union, and is Ephesian ground. Only we must remark that death and resurrection never go on to the heavenly state; they are the subjective experimental state. In Ephesians, when dead in sins, we are taken, quickened, and put into Christ, as Christ was raised and put into glory above the heavens: simply Gods work. Here it is individual: we are alive in Him. We shall have part in His resurrection, walking in newness of life. It is personal and practical: man, as we have seen, alive on earth.
33: Compare Exo 33:13.
34: It is not, note, an appeal to sinners as sometimes used, but to those already set free.
1. Then what shall we say? Must we abide in sin in order that grace may abound? Here Paul takes by the throat this hell-hatched, hackneyed argument of the carnal preachers, i. e., that God is glorified by inbred sin abiding in us to keep us humble and magnify the grace of God by forgiving us when we are overcome by the tempter and yield and sin. He literally eradicates and annihilates this silly Satanic argument, setting out with a flat denial.
Rom 6:1. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? The apostle having said, that as sin had abounded by the entrance of the law, so grace had much more abounded by the proclamation of the gospel, proceeds now to rebut the malicious slander of the jews, who had said, as in chap. Rom 3:8, that the christian doctrine encouraged men to do evil that good might come, presuming that God conferred righteousness without renovation of heart. He refutes this calumny, by pressing on believers the most luminous doctrines of purity and holiness, and describes the reign of grace in the full triumph of argument.
Rom 6:4. We are buried with him by baptism into death. The allusion here is to the ancient mode of baptism in warm climates, by dipping the body under water. See Mat 3:17. We are also said to be risen with Christ to newness of life, by the same glory which raised him from the dead. The principle then of regeneration in our hearts is no other than the divine nature, producing a death to sin, and a life to righteousness. The grand object and design of baptism is to engage us to a life of unspotted purity.
Rom 6:6. Our old man, coval with the fall, is crucified. See on Col 3:9, where the subject is more fully stated.
Rom 6:7. He that is dead is freed from sin. From all its obligations, and from its condemning power. He in whose heart Christ lives, and grace reigns, is dead to his old habits of sin, as a dead man is to the duties of life. Though this may not be the case with weak believers; yet St. Paul gives the perfect enjoyment of one, who like himself, could say, I live not, but Christ liveth in me.
Rom 6:12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, for grace has abounded more than sin. The old man is put off with his deeds, the divinity dwells in your hearts, and keeps you in all the grace in which you stand. Therefore while you retain this inward glory of sanctification, you cannot yield your members to be instruments of unrighteousness. The Comforter will abide in your heart, and you will be kept unspotted from the world.
Rom 6:17. God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin. , that you are no longer, or that you who were the servants of sin, have obeyed from the heart that form, that , type, mould, or form of doctrine which was delivered to you. The mould into which a goldsmith pours his liquid metal, is a beautiful figure to designate the change produced on the heart by the word of truth. Bishop Lowth reads, that whereas ye were the servants of sin, ye have now obeyed.
Rom 6:20. When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. The sense is, ye were aliens to righteousness: by consequence, you are now as free from unrighteousness, as you then were from righteousness.
Rom 6:22. But now being made free from sin. While in the flesh we are said to be the servants of sin, and under the law of sin; but now, by a regenerate state, we are made the servants of righteousness. We are married to another, we are quickened with Christ, and alive to God. through him. By consequence, we are no longer debtors to the flesh, to live according to its dictates. There is no occasion to yield to any solicitations of evil concupiscence. This state is called the glorious liberty of the children of God, Rom 8:21, in which the Spirit that dwells in us is the life of the soul, as the soul is the life of the body. The old man is put off with his deeds, and the new man put on; the old man is crucified with his affections and lusts, and the inward man is renewed day by day, with growth and strength, till the believer be altogether like the Saviour. The stony heart is then removed, the law of love is written in the inward parts, and the whole deity dwells in the living temple which his hands have reared. But let all men who have attained to this state of pure and perfect love, watch against a rentrance of all their former evils.
Rom 6:23. The wages of sin is death. Some crimes only are capital by the civil law; but all sin, in reference to the divine lawgiver, is death, not only as alienating the soul from the life of God, but in reference also to its infinite demerit. Sin is a hard servitude, the wages more so.
REFLECTIONS.
The holy apostle having guarded the doctrine of justification against pharisaical objections, now presses the church to confirm the refutation by the purity of their lives. The whole chapter is a defence of the life, the holiness, and glory of the christian, both in doctrine and practice, against the accusations of the jews. The christian cannot continue in sin, because he is openly buried with Christ by baptism into death. His body being washed with pure water, how shall he pollute it again with drunkenness, and the lusts of the flesh?
The christian cannot continue in sin, because his old man is crucified with Christ; and the old man, the flesh, the carnal mind, the law in the members, and the body of sin and death, signify the entire depravity of human nature by the fall, and generated from Adam to his children. Hence original sin is our birth fault, whereby man is of himself inclined to evil. The gospel says to all that hear it, mortify therefore your members which are on the earth. The believer treats every rising of pride, self-love, and unbelief, as the jews treated the Saviour when they nailed him to the tree. May the Lord help us all so to do.
The christian cannot continue in sin, because he is risen with Christ, or renovated in mind, into all the likeness of his resurrection. He is alive unto God, and sin has no longer the dominion over him. The infirmities of his mortal body, where known, and where wilful sin is not allowed, do not deprive him of enjoying a life hid with Christ in God. The mediator being changed, there is of necessity a change also in the law. The law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus, has made us free from the law of sin and death, while we walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
The christian cannot continue in sin, because on obeying the gospel he becomes a servant of righteousness, and a servant of God, having his fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life. The tree being made good, and planted in the earth, like the body of Christ, it yields the fruits of righteousness, which are quietness and assurance for ever. The sanctity of his creed is avowed; he that committeth sin is the servant of sin; and we are his servants to whom we obey. Thanks be to Him then who hath washed us, and made us free from our past sins, that henceforth we might serve him in newness of life.
Rom 6:1-11. Union with the Dying, Risen Christ.
Rom 6:1. The reference of Rom 5:20 to the law gives the legalist critic his opportunity to challenge Pauls whole doctrine on its practical outcome; in his view, it is rank Antinomiansm: Are we to persist in sin, that grace may abound? If to multiply sin multiplies gracethen sin away!
Rom 6:2-4. The suggestion revolts the Christian consciousness; the mocking query is countered: We who died to sin, how any longer shall we live in it? or (if you entertain such a thought) know you not? Pauls answer runs in terms of baptism, which is faith symbolised in its prescribed and familiar expression (Act 2:41; Act 8:12, etc.). This is no substituted or additional condition of salvation: to say We so many as were baptized, etc., is to say in pictorial fashion, We so many as believed in Christ; note the equivalence in Gal 3:26 f. The sinking, disappearance, and emergence of the believer from the baptismal wave, belonging to baptism in its full, dramatic form, image his identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of his Lord. The sacrament unfolds the implications of faith, and interprets it: faith means more than reliance on Christ (see Rom 3:22; Rom 3:25), on God who raised Him from the dead (Rom 4:24); it is the planting of the man in Christ. He dies Christs death, and rises into Christs life! Burial, emphasizing the rupture with old conditions, is death made definitive, unmistakable.
Rom 6:5-6 a. If we have become coalescent (of one growth) with Him by the likeness of His deathby the faith-baptism experience which copies Christs deathwe shall be equally so in respect of His resurrection, as we come to know (what our faith imports) that our old nature was crucified with Him, etc.
Rom 6:6 b is the positive counterpart of Rom 6:4 : the body, as a body of sin, done away with (cf. Col 3:5) . . . we no longer bondmen to sin = walking in a new state, a state of life.
Rom 6:7 f. For he that died has become, by way of justification, quit of sin: death pays all debts! The pregnant phrase justified from sin implies separation attending justification. In other words, justification entails sanctification, as Christs rising followed His dying. Christ carries the sinner, whose faith embraces Him on the Cross, through His grave into His resurrection-life (Rom 6:8), clean away from his sin.We shall also live with Him (Rom 6:8 b), looks on to eternal life (Rom 5:10; Rom 5:21).
Rom 6:9-11. Death no longer lords it over Christ: once raised from the dead, He escaped finally from the realm of sin (cf. 2Co 5:21), so that His present life is absolutely a life unto God: so with yourselvesdead men sin-wards, living men Godwards; reckon (account) it so, and it will be so! Paul has said, God counts your faith for righteousness; now, You must count it for holiness.
A Change of Masters
With the headship of Christ established for the believer – a headship which has to do with new life in contrast to the old life inherited from Adam, and grace reigning where sin had reigned, grace abundantly above the enormity of the sin – there is a question that some would be much inclined to raise. The apostle anticipates and answers this in lovely, incontestable style. “What shall we say then?” What conclusion can be deduced from the plain truth of grace abounding over the mighty tide of sin? “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Who indeed who has known the blessed reality of the grace of God could tolerate the unholy assumption? “Far be the thought.” It is of course a suggestion plainly of the devil, yet God would face it immediately.
The thought is contrary to Christian character and nature. “How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?” This chapter deals pointedly and plainly with the truth of our death to sin by virtue of association with the death of Christ, who “died unto sin once.” Rom 7:1-25 rather speaks of our death to the law as a means of producing fruit for God.
As to sin, God has judicially and fully ended its power by the death of His Son. Every believer, being identified with Him, has therefore necessarily died to sin. The judgment of God has been executed: death has taken place, separating us from the very realm in which we once walked. And when God has, by death, separated us from sin, how shall we dare to connect ourselves with it again? Indeed, how can I take pleasure in that which gave the Lord Jesus His unutterable agony on the cross of Calvary? O, let our souls fully renounce and abhor the unholy thought! Yet, the true basis of this abhorrence of sin is in the absolute, established, unchangeable fact of truth, that “we are dead to sin.” Moreover, submission to the truth and righteousness of this judgment of death, is the only basis of a life henceforth pleasing to God.
Now the initial ordinance of baptism unto Jesus Christ is intended to teach the signal lesson of our identification with death: we “were baptized unto His death.” Water baptism is of course spoken of, and the teaching is not, therefore, concerning eternal life. But by baptism we are associated with the death of Christ. “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism unto death.” The act of baptism is burial in identification with the Lord. Thus I signify having done with flesh – baptism being, not the expression or result of death, but the figure of death, which I acknowledge, publicly associating with Him who has been crucified, as taking the same sentence upon myself. The figure is of course based on the fact of the death of the Lord Jesus. But following this as an essential, logical consequence, our practical responsibility is based upon the fact of Christ being raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. If Christ has been raised from the dead in a perfectly new condition of life, it is in this sphere of life that I am to live – certainly not in the old ungodly sphere of corrupted life which has already come under sentence of death.
It will be noticed that here we do not find dwelt upon our position as being raised with Christ, although this doctrine is necessarily connected with the ministry here – but rather our death as identified with His death, and our responsibility of walking in newness of life because He has been raised up from the dead. Our connection with Him in resurrection is looked at as a future, yet settled, prospect. Note verses 5 and 8. In Colossians our position of being at present “risen with Christ” is very distinctly entered into in accordance with the character of the book. But in Romans our future living together with Christ is presented as a powerful incentive of present subjection to Him.
For, since we have been identified with Him in the likeness of His death, it is but a matter of time until our public identification with Him in His resurrection – a settled thing, yet looked at as a prospect in Romans. “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin” (JND). Here we have final, absolute death – “the old man” having been once and for all crucified with Christ. It is no matter of experience, but of fact as regards the state in which we were born as children of Adam. God’s judgment has been passed: sentence has been executed; the body of sin has received its absolute annulment. Nothing of its claims or character can ever again by recognized or considered before God’s judgment throne: God has fully considered, met, and judged it in the cross of Christ.
By the cross “the body of sin” is “annulled” (the proper word); and the devil himself is annulled – his power broken entirely as regards the dominance he once held before the cross over those even who were God’s saints, but “through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb 2:14-15). His mastery has received its death-blow, and so has sin’s mastery, by means of the blessed cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It necessarily follows therefore, “that henceforth we should not serve sin.” If he (for sin is here personified) had had his mastery annulled, why give him the satisfaction of acting as his servants?
Moreover, his mastery, as to us, is annulled because we have died with Christ, and death delivers us from that former bondage: our liberty has been gained – and gained righteously: it is no mere matter of getting free, but of securing an honorable discharge from a cruel master. “He that has died is justified from sin” (JND). “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.”
Having “died with Christ” refers only to actual believers – not to those who have merely been baptized unto His death and thus simply outwardly identified with Him. It is the reality of identification with Christ in His death, as also in verse 5. The argument proceeds from the form to the reality of identification with His death, and from thence to identification with Him in His abiding life in resurrection. If there is reality in our identification with His death – that is, if we have indeed died with Him – we have assurance of faith that we shall live with Him. It is faith as to the future, assuredly, but a principle of faith to be applied in practice now.
For death, having dominion in the world when Christ came, because of Christ’s identification with sinners, wielded dominion over Him by putting Him to death. But He is risen now, in a different sphere, where life and glory dwell, and death has no dominion, nor can ever enter – for sin has no place there.
“For in that He died, He died unto sin once.” Death was the complete separation of Christ from the realm of sin into which He had entered at birth; and His death has set aside that realm once and for all.
“But in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.” In the old realm, sin having abounded, it could not be ignored; it must be considered. In the new realm of life in which Christ is raised, sin is no longer even a consideration: “all things are become new, and all things are of God”: God is the one absorbing consideration for the soul. Blessed emancipation indeed! Unspeakable sweet and holy liberty!
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Here is the application of the truth to ourselves in practical manner. Verse 2 insists that we “have died to sin”: it is an established fact, judicially. Verse 11 exhorts us to “reckon” ourselves as such – and “alive unto God.” Is this the daily reckoning of our souls? Do we faithfully remind ourselves that we “have died, and our life is hid with Christ in God”? (Col 3:3) – and specially so when the world’s unnumbered allurements rise up to press themselves upon our attention? Is there then the simplicity of faith that says calmly and firmly, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”? This is laying hold upon “what is really life” (1Ti 6:19, JND).
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” If I have died to sin, it is no longer my master: it has reigned over me before, but now grace reigns through righteousness. Hence I am now to refuse sin any authority whatever. I have another Master: why should I be obedient to sin? Its claim and title have been broken: shall I then allow it any prerogatives over me? God forbid. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof” (Rom 13:14).
“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”
It is the wisdom of any creature to candidly recognize that he is under authority. Even the most rebellious, degraded wretch in the world is so: even the most proud, respectable, reputable peer of society – independent and self-sufficient as he may consider himself. Divergent as their natural characters may be, yet being without Christ, they have both yielded themselves to the authority of sin. Man may intensely dislike the very word, “yield,” but it is in his very nature to yield: to do otherwise is an impossibility for any creature. If he does not yield to God, he is plainly yielding to sin.
Well may the souls of Christians be stirred at the solemn thought! Our preservation from the power of sin lies only in subjection to God. Constantly, though oftentimes unconsciously, we are yielding our members, whether to God or to sin. Every word, every little action manifests it. Stubbornness, pride, independency of God are merely the results of yielding to a sinful will. “Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control” are on the other hand the fruit of yielding to God – and of refusing my sinful will any title of authority. It is only our intelligent service, “as those that are alive from the dead.”
The connection between Rom 12:1 and these verses is evident. The members of our bodies are instruments which as long as we live are in use, bringing forth details of conduct that give evidence of subjection to some master. But let us remark that in yielding to God, it is not merely the details of conduct mentioned; not merely our members, it is rather first, “yield yourselves unto God,” and afterwards “your members.” Blessed, profitable instruction here! Let it not escape our wholehearted obedience and meditation. For it is one thing to seek to make my conduct conformable to God’s desires: it is another to yield myself to Him. Yet then indeed, after once having fully, unreservedly yielded myself, let my members become consistently “instruments of righteousness unto God.”
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Most admirable, simple conclusion! If we are delivered from the bondage of law (which though it condemned sin, could never deliver from sin), and brought under the blessed reign of grace, where indeed is there any place left for sin? Grace has saved us from our sins, and from the dominion which sin once wielded. Unspeakably blessed emancipation! Let us value grace at its proper price, and hold fast the sacredness and purity of its character. “Under law” means simply in a position where law holds authority, such as was Israel from Mount Sinai until the cross of Christ. “Under grace” has reference to a position in which grace holds sway – a contrast absolutely and distinctly drawn. The two things cannot be mixed. “Under grace” is our position resulting from the blessed cross of Christ: “under law” was a position that supposed no cross, no salvation from bondage.
“What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid.” This question, and that in the first verse of our chapter, are the natural skeptical queries of unbelief. But they are both candidly and fully faced. It is made plain that there is no mere fact of our being blessed by the benefits of grace, nor is there any thought of grace being toleration of, or license for sin; but that we are delivered from a position of bondage into a position of grace and liberty where righteousness has its perfect abiding place. Shall we dare then to suggest that sin be allowed free reign? This would be thorough despising of grace rather than understanding and appreciation of it.
“Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves bondmen for obedience, ye are bondmen to him whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” It is a simple principle: if I yield myself to sin, I am the servant of sin – with death as my wages: If I yield to the obedience of Christ, such is my servitude, and righteousness the result. This draws distinct lines: we can serve only one master. But Paul would not unsettle the Romans by questioning the abiding character of deliverance from the bondage of sin. Rather he insists upon it, thanking God for it. They had obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine which they had been instructed, and in actual, unquestionable fact had been “made free from sin,” becoming “the servants of righteousness.” He will not by any means accuse them of returning in fact to the former condition of bondage of sin. Such a thing could not be, except the profession of Christianity had not been the result of genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of this latter question the epistle to the Hebrews treats; but in Romans it is not the consideration. But practical deliverance can come only from the proper knowledge of actual deliverance by means of the crucifixion of Christ.
The two principles, sin and righteousness, are personified as opposing masters. Paul speaks thus after the manner of men, considering the infirmity of our flesh. For it is not that we are mere slaves to righteousness: our actual Master is Christ. But dealing with the desire for a righteous walk on the part of a believer, he puts it in this way to give distinctness to his argument.
Verse 18 deals with actual fact: verse 19 with practical character. This is easily discerned, specially in the New Translation, where verse 18 is given more forcibly – “Now, having got your freedom from sin, ye have become bondmen to righteousness.” Verse 19, on the other hand, exhorts us to “now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.”
“For when ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness.” We recognized no claims of righteousness over us while in sin’s bondage. Now, as servants of righteousness, sin’s claims are to be as thoroughly repudiated.
“What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.” In my former bondage my practice was coincidingly shameful. And then I had no thought of “fruit” for God, let alone bringing it forth. Now my former conduct can only make me ashamed. Let all who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ learn more fully to be ashamed of “the past time of their lives” in which they “walked according to this world,” with little sense of God’s claims upon them. “The end of those things is death”: the only direction they lead is toward death.
But the Romans had obtained their freedom from sin and had become servants to God. The result is “fruit unto holiness.” Blessed emancipation that works with such effect! “And the end eternal life.” These things are conformable to eternal life rather than to death, the end of my former conversation. There is lasting fruit rather than perishing works. It is no question of my person, but of service.
Service under sin can but receive its just wages – death: such is the deserved result. But for the believer such bondage has been broken by the free gift of God – “eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” – not deserved, but freely given. How could we not rejoice in such a change of masters?
Verse 1
Shall we continue in sin, &c., that is, will this doctrine of the free pardon of the sinner, lead men to continue unconcerned in sin, relying for impunity on the abundance of divine grace? The substance of the answer contained in the Ro+6:2-14″>subsequent verses is, that it will not, since, by the connection of the believer with Christ, a moral change takes place, which in a great measure destroys his love for sin.
DIVISION III.
THE NEW LIFE IN CHRIST
CHS. 6-8
SECTION 17 IN THE DEATH OF CHRIST WE DIED TO SIN
CH. 6:1-10
What then shall we say? Let us continue in sin, in order that grace may multiply? Be it not so. We who died to sin, how shall we still live in it? Or, are ye ignorant that so many of us as were baptized for Christ were baptized for His death? We were buried therefore with Him through this baptism for death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have become united in growth in the likeness of His death, we shall on the other hand be so in that of His resurrection also knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin may be made of no effect, that we may no longer be servants to sin. For he that has died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with Him; knowing that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more: of Him, death is no longer lord. For the death He died, He died to sin, once: but the life He lives, He lives for God.
On entering Romans 6, we are at once conscious of a complete change of tone and feeling, a change more remarkable than that in Rom 3:21, because not accounted for by the altered position and prospects of the persons referred to. Justification, the great feature of DIV. II., meets us no more: other ideas take its place. We have entered another court of this wing of the temple of truth. DIV. I. revealed to us the anger of God against all sin: DIV. II. has now revealed deliverance from this anger, and restoration to His favour. DIV. III. will reveal deliverance from the power of sin, and a new life free from sin. The one teaches what we receive through Christ; the other what we are in Christ. The order is significant: first reconciliation to God, then rescue from the power of sin. In Romans 6, we have the new life in its relation to sin and to God; in Romans 7, in its relation to the Law; in Romans 8, in its relation to the Holy Spirit. DIV. II. was a logical development of the two great doctrines stated in Rom 3:21-26; in DIV. III., we shall find other fundamental doctrines, from which will be derived results of an altogether different kind.
Rom 6:1. What then shall we say? as in Rom 3:5; Rom 4:1. Shall we infer from Rom 5:20-21 that we may accomplish Gods purposes by adding to the number of our sins in order that they may show forth the superabundant favour of God? The connection of thought is kept up by the words grace and multiply. What Paul here suggests was the actual result of his own early hostility to the Gospel: 1Ti 1:14.
Rom 6:2. An emphatic denial, supported by two questions introducing a new and important topic. Thus the questions in Rom 6:1 are stepping-stones to the new teaching in DIV. III., and show that it guards from immoral perversion the teaching of DIV. II. We must not continue in sin, because (Rom 6:1-10) Gods purpose is that we be dead to sin and living for God, and because (Rom 6:15-23) sin is obedience to a master whose purpose is death.
Died to sin: separated from it, as a dead man is completely separated from the environment in which he lived: same phrase in Rom 6:10-11; Gal 2:19; Gal 6:14; cp. Col 2:20, died with Christ from the rudiments of the world. Paul assumes that we are in some sense dead to sin. If he can prove this, he will compel us, by the very meaning of his words, to admit that in the same sense we can no longer live in it.
Rom 6:3. Another question introducing, as something which the readers ought to know, a proof that we are dead to sin.
Baptized: the formal and visible gate into the Christian life. Since Paul has not yet spoken of salvation except through faith, we must understand him to refer here to the baptism of believers: so Gal 3:27; Col 2:12. It was a conspicuous mode of confession, which, together with faith, is a condition of salvation: cp. Rom 10:9.
For: see under Rom 1:1.
Baptized for: as in Gal 3:27; Mat 28:19; Act 8:16; Act 19:5; 1Co 10:2; 1Co 1:13; 1Co 1:15; Mat 3:11; Mar 1:4. It means that baptism is designed to place the baptized in a new relation to the object named; but does not say exactly what the relation is. We shall learn in Rom 6:5 that this new relation is an inward and spiritual contact with Christ which makes the baptized sharers of His life and moral nature: cp. 1Co 6:17; Gal 3:27.
That God designs the justified to be thus united to Christ, Paul further expounds in Rom 6:4-10, by calling attention to those elements in Him which we are to share.
For His death: more exact statement of the new relation to Christ to which baptism has special reference. This recalls Doctrine 2, stated in Rom 3:25; Rom 4:25; Rom 5:9-10. Paul thus approaches his proof that his readers have died to sin.
Rom 6:4. Inference from Rom 6:3.
Buried-with Him: so Col 2:11.
If baptism was a baptism for death, i.e. if it symbolized a union with Christ in His death, it was the funeral service of the old life; a formal announcement that the baptized were dead, and a visible removal of them from the world, Jewish or heathen, in which they formerly lived.
From the earliest sub-apostolic writings, we learn that immersion was the usual form of baptism. So Epistle of Barnabas Romans 11 : We go down into the water full of sins and defilement; and we go up bearing fruit in the heart. To this, probably, Paul here refers. Even the form of their admission to the Church sets forth a spiritual burial and resurrection. But this is a mere allusion: and the argument is complete without it. The hour of his readers baptism, in which they ranged themselves formally in the ranks of the persecuted followers of Christ, was no doubt indelibly printed in their memory. Paul here teaches them the significance and purpose of that rite, and the nature of the new life they then formally entered.
That immersion was not the only valid mode of baptism, we learn from The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles Romans 7, where, in reference to baptism, the writer bids, if water be not abundant, to pour water three times on the head, in the name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit.
In order that etc.: further purpose to be accomplished by our union with Christ.
Christ not only died but was raised from the dead, among whom He lay.
Through the glory of the Father: amid an outshining of the splendour of God manifested in Christs rescue from the grave.
Just as Christ etc.: in harmony with the historic fact that Christs death was followed by a glorious resurrection, Gods purpose is that we also as well as Christ henceforth live a resurrection life. Of this life, newness (see Rom 7:6) is a conspicuous feature. For the change is so complete that in Christ the old things have passed away or rather are become new: 2Co 5:17. And, since life is movement, in this newness of life God designs us to walk. This last is a favourite metaphor of Paul: Rom 8:4; Rom 13:13; Rom 14:15; Eph 2:2; Eph 2:10, etc.; also Joh 8:12; Joh 12:35; 1Jn 2:6.
Rom 6:5. Proof that our burial with Christ was designed to lead to a life altogether new.
If: argumentative, as in Rom 6:8; Rom 5:10, etc.
United-in-growth: literally growing-together, so that our development corresponds with, and is an organic outflow of, His.
Likeness: as Rom 1:23; Rom 5:14. By union with Him, we undergo a death like His.
On the other hand: : a strong adversative particle indicating that the second cause utterly overpowers the first, Same word in Rom 3:31; Rom 5:14; Rom 8:37. It is true that we suffer a death like His: but this we need not regret; for from it we infer that we shall share a resurrection like His.
We shall be: probably a rhetorical or logical future. For believers are already living a resurrection life. Same use of the future in Rom 6:8, where the argument of this verse is repeated, after an exposition of the former part of it: cp. Rom 4:24; Rom 5:14; Rom 5:19.
Rom 6:6. Collateral explanation of our union with Christ in His death, followed by a statement of its purpose.
Our old man: so Eph 4:22; Col 3:9 : our old self. So complete is the change that Paul says that the man himself is dead.
Crucified-together-with: so Gal 2:20; Mat 27:44; Mar 15:32; Joh 19:32 : shared with Christ His death on the cross. In what aspect of His death we are to be sharers with Him, we shall learn in Rom 6:10 : how we are to become such, we shall learn in Rom 6:11. Paul here asserts that on the cross of Christ not only His life on earth but our own former selves came to an end.
In order that etc.: purpose of this union with Christ in His death.
The body of Sin: the sinners own body in which (see Rom 6:12-13) sin has set up its royal throne, whose desires he obeys, and whose members he presents to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. See also Rom 7:5; Rom 7:23. The importance of the body in Pauls theology and the subsequent argument here permit no other interpretation.
Made-of-no-effect: as in Rom 3:3; Rom 4:14. In former times the indolence, appetites, necessities, and dangers of the body ruled us with an influence we could not resist; and led us into sin. It thus became a body of sin. But, now that our old self has been nailed to the cross of Christ, our body has lost its adverse power.
No longer servants (or slaves: see Rom 1:1) to sin: purpose of this destruction of the power of the body, and ultimate aim of our crucifixion with Christ. In explanation of the words grown-together with the likeness of His death in Rom 6:5, Paul says that we have shared the death of Christ on the cross, in order that our bodies, hitherto organs of sin, may lose their control over us, and in order that thus we may escape from our former bondage to sin.
Rom 6:7. Explains the foregoing ultimate purpose of our crucifixion with Christ.
He that has died, or, as we should say, is dead: the believer, whom Paul looks upon as not merely dying but dead on the cross. His former life has actually come to an end.
Justified: proclaimed by law free from sin, this being looked at as an adversary at law claiming rights over us. The word thus returns to its simplest meaning, in O.T. and N.T., of judgment in a mans favour. Cp. Sirach xxvi. 29: With difficulty will a merchant be saved from wrong-doing: and a huckster will not be justified from sin. Over a criminal who has been put to death, the law has no further claim. And Paul here argues that in Christs death we are dead, and therefore legally free from the master to whose power, for our sins, we were justly surrendered.
Rom 6:8-10. Proof of the latter part, as Rom 6:6-7 proved the former part, of Rom 6:5.
Died with Christ: crucified with Him, in Rom 6:6.
We believe: an assured conviction. It is also faith in God: for our hope of life rests, like Abrahams faith, on His promise and character.
Shall live with Him: logical future as in Rom 6:5 : very appropriate here because this life will continue to endless ages.
Knowing that etc.: ground of the assurance just expressed, viz. the deathless life of Christ, raised from the dead.
He dies no more: an unchanging truth, suitably put in the present tense.
Of Him, death is no longer lord: recalling the royalty usurped in Rom 5:14; Rom 5:17, to which even Christ submitted.
Of Rom 6:9;-Rom 6:10 is proof Christs death on the cross was a death to sin: these last words emphatic. Since death is the end of life, and removes a man absolutely from the environment in which he lived, this phrase can only mean that in some real sense, by His death on the cross, Christ escaped absolutely from all contact with sin; just as by death the martyr escapes from his persecutors and his prison. And this we can understand. In Gethsemane, He groaned under the burden of our sins; after His arrest, He was exposed to the insult and fury of bad men; and during many hours He hung in agony on the cross. All this was painful and shameful, though not defiling, contact with sin. And we know not how much it was aggravated by inward conflict with sin. But at sunset the Sufferer was free: by death He had for ever escaped from all contact with the powers of darkness. In this very real sense, the death which He died, He died to sin. For His death on the cross put an end to the mysterious relation to sin into which for our sakes He entered.
Once, or once for all: cp. Heb 7:27; Heb 9:12; Heb 9:26; Heb 9:28; Heb 10:10. The separation from sin was final. Moreover, though dead, Christ still lives. This is implied in Rom 6:8, we shall live with Him.
And the life which He lives, He lives for-God. This last word is the dative of advantage, as in 2Co 5:15, and five times in 1Co 6:13. It asserts that, of the life of our Risen Lord, God is the one aim, that His every purpose and effort aims only to accomplish the purposes of God. Such was also His life on earth: Joh 4:34; Joh 6:38; Joh 17:4. And such doubtless was the life of the pre-incarnate Son of God. Notice here a complete picture of Christ raised from the dead. By His death on the cross He escaped once and for ever from all contact with sin, and He now lives a life of which God is the one and only aim. This is the new life which they who share His escape from sin by His death on the cross expect (Rom 6:8) also to share.
The different renderings of the dative, dead to sin living for God, are unavoidable. Literally, Pauls words mean, dead in relation to sin living in relation to God. But the whole context shows that the relation to sin is separation from it, and the relation to God is devotion to Him. The R.V. rendering dead unto sin but alive unto God is unmeaning. Uniformity is dearly purchased at such a price.
We will now endeavour to rebuild the argument of Rom 6:1-10. Christ lived once under the curse of sin, and in a body subject to death. But He died; and rose from the dead. By dying, He escaped for ever from all painful contact with sin and sinners, and from death, the result of sin: and He now lives a life of unreserved devotion to God. In former days, we were slaves to sin, and were thus exposed to the righteous anger of God.
To make our justification consistent with His own justice, God gave Christ to die; and raised Him from the dead in order that He may be the personal Object of justifying faith. Gods purpose is so to unite us to Christ that we may share all that He has and is: and for this end we were united to Him in baptism. We were thus formally joined to One who was by death set free from sin and death, and who was raised by God to a deathless life. Therefore, so far as the purpose of God is accomplished in us, we are dead with Christ. And, if so, all law proclaims us free. We therefore infer that Gods purpose is to set us free from all bondage to our own bodies and to sin. We also infer that God designs us to share the resurrection life of Christ. For we see Him, not only rescued from His enemies by His own death, but living in heaven a life of which God is the only aim. This assures us that God designs us to be united to Christ both in His separation from sin and in His active devotion to God. Therefore, so far as Gods purpose is accomplished in us, we are (Rom 6:2) dead to sin. Consequently, to continue (Rom 6:1) to live in sin, is to resist Gods purpose and to renounce the new life to which baptism was designed to be the visible portal.
In the above argument, we find, stated and assumed without proof but with perfect confidence, and made a basis of important moral teaching, a THIRD FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE, viz. that God designs the justified to share, so far as creatures can share, by vital union with Christ, all that He has and is, to be like Him by inward contact with Him. This doctrine will meet us again in Rom 6:11; Rom 7:4; Rom 8:1; Rom 8:17; also in 1Co 6:17; 2Co 5:15; 2Co 5:17; Gal 2:20; Eph 1:19-20; Eph 2:5-6, etc. Similar teaching in Joh 15:1-8; Joh 17:21; Joh 17:26; 1Jn 2:6; 1Jn 2:24; 1Jn 2:28; 1Jn 3:6; 1Jn 3:24; 1Jn 4:17. That this remarkable doctrine is assumed with complete confidence but without proof by the two greatest apostles, men altogether different in temperament and modes of thought and almost unknown to each other, and that by one of them it is expressly attributed to Christ, can be accounted for only on the supposition that, like Justification through Faith and through the Death of Christ, it was in some equivalent form actually taught by Christ. This proof is independent of the apostolic authority of Paul.
Notice that the above argument assumes Pauls Second Fundamental Doctrine, viz. Justification through the Death of Christ, taught in Rom 3:24-26; Rom 4:25; Rom 5:9-10. For the only sense in which we can be crucified, dead, and buried with Christ, and thus dead to sin, is that through His death we are saved from sin. Moreover, the conspicuous place of the resurrection of Christ in Rom 6:4-5; Rom 6:9 reveals its importance as a link in the chain of salvation, and Pauls firm confidence that He had actually risen: cp. Rom 1:4. This importance is explained in Rom 4:24-25, where we read that the faith which justifies is a reliance on Him who raised Jesus from the dead, and that He was raised for our justification. Thus the argument now before us assumes Pauls First great Doctrine of Justification through Faith. As we proceed, we shall find that these earlier doctrines imply, as a necessary moral sequence, the new doctrine now before us. Thus each of these three great doctrines implies and confirms and supplements the others.
6:1 What {1} shall we say then? Shall we continue in {a} sin, that grace may abound?
(1) He passes now to another benefit of Christ, which is called sanctification or regeneration.
(a) In that corruption, for though the guiltiness of sin, is not imputed to us, yet the corruption still remains in us: and this is killed little by little by the sanctification that follows justification.
1. Freedom from sin 6:1-14
Paul began his explanation of the believer’s relationship to sin by explaining the implications of our union with Christ (Rom 6:1-14). He had already spoken of this in Rom 5:12-21 regarding justification, but now he showed how that union affects our progressive sanctification.
"The focus of his discussion, particularly in chapter 6, is not on how to obey God and avoid sinning, but on why we should obey God." [Note: Robert A. Pyne, "Dependence and Duty: The Spiritual Life in Galatians 5 and Romans 6," in Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands, p. 149.]
The apostle referred to Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection in this section. Seen from the viewpoint of His substitute sacrifice these events did not involve the believer’s participation. Jesus Christ alone endured the cross, experienced burial, and rose from the grave. Nevertheless His work of redemption was not only substitutionary but also representative. It is in this respect that Paul described believers as identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection in the following verses. Paul previously introduced the idea of Christ as our representative in Rom 5:12-21 (cf. 2Co 5:14). Sin has no further claim on Christ because He paid the penalty for sin. Sin no longer has a claim on us because He died as our representative. We are free from sin’s domination because of our union with Him. This was Paul’s line of thought, and it obviously develops further what Paul wrote in Rom 5:12-21.
"In ch. 6 there are four key words which indicate the believer’s personal responsibility in relation to God’s sanctifying work" (1) to ’know’ the facts of our union and identification with Christ in His death and resurrection (Rom 6:3; Rom 6:6; Rom 6:9); to ’reckon’ or count these facts to be true concerning ourselves (Rom 6:11); to ’yield,’ or present ourselves once for all as alive from the dead for God’s possession and use (Rom 6:13; Rom 6:16; Rom 6:19); and (4) to ’obey’ in the realization that sanctification can proceed only as we are obedient to the will of God as revealed in His Word (Rom 6:16-17)." [Note: The New Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1217.]
One writer counted 74 rhetorical questions in Roman. [Note: B. Kaye, The Argument of Romans with Special Reference to Chapter 6, p. 14.] This chapter begins with one of them. Paul had just said that grace super-abounded where sin increased (Rom 5:20). Perhaps then believers should not worry about practicing sin since it results in the manifestation of more of God’s grace and His greater glory. One expression of this view is Voltaire’s famous statement, "God will forgive; that is his ’business.’" [Note: Cited by Moo, p. 356.] W. H. Auden voiced similar sentiments.
"I like committing crimes. God likes forgiving them. Really the world is admirably arranged." [Note: W. H. Auden, For the Time Being, p. 116.]
Paul probably posed the question to draw out the implications of God’s grace.
". . . justification by faith is not simply a legal matter between me and God; it is a living relationship." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:531.]
Chapter 14
JUSTIFICATION AND HOLINESS
Rom 6:1-13
IN a certain sense, St. Paul has done now with the exposition of Justification. He has brought us on, from his denunciation of human sin, and his detection of the futility of mere privilege, to propitiation, to faith, to acceptance, to love, to joy, and hope, and finally to our mysterious but real connection in all this blessing with Him who won our peace. From this point onwards we shall find many mentions of our acceptance, and of its Cause; we shall come to some memorable mentions very soon. But we shall not hear the holy subject itself any more treated and expounded. It will underlie the following discussions everywhere; it will as it were surround them, as with a sanctuary wall. But we shall now think less directly of the foundations than of the superstructure, for which the foundation was laid. We shall be less occupied with the fortifications of our holy city than with the resources they contain, and with the life which is to be lived, on those resources, within the walls.
Everything will cohere. But the transition will be marked, and will call for our deepest, and let us add, our most reverent and supplicating thought.
“We need not, then, be holy, if such is your programme of acceptance.” Such was the objection, bewildered or deliberate, which St. Paul heard in his soul at this pause in his dictation; he had doubtless often heard it with his ears. Here was a wonderful provision for the free and full acceptance of “the ungodly” by the eternal Judge. It was explained and stated so as to leave no room for human virtue as a commendatory merit. Faith itself was no commendatory virtue. It was not “a work,” but the antithesis to “works.” Its power was not in itself but in its Object. It was itself only the void which received “the obedience of the One” as the sole meriting cause of peace with God. Then-may we not live on in sin, and yet be in His favour now, and in His heaven hereafter?
Let us recollect, as we pass on, one important lesson of these recorded objections to the great first message of St. Paul. They tell us incidentally how explicit and unreserved his delivery of the message had been, and how Justification by Faith, by faith only, meant what was said, when it was said by him. Christian thinkers, of more schools than one, and at many periods, have hesitated not a little over that point. The mediaeval theologian mingled his thoughts of Justification with those of Regeneration, and taught our acceptance accordingly on lines impossible to lay true along those of St. Paul. In later days, the meaning of faith has been sometimes beclouded, till it has seemed through the haze, to be only an indistinct summary word for Christian consistency, for exemplary conduct, for good works. Now supposing either of these lines of teaching, or anything like them, to be the message of St. Paul, “his Gospel,” as he preached it; one result may be reasonably inferred-that we should not have had Rom 6:1 worded as it is. Whatever objections were encountered by a Gospel of acceptance expounded on such lines, (and no doubt it would have encountered many, if it called sinful men to holiness,) it would not have encountered this objection, that it seemed to allow men to be unholy. What such a Gospel would seem to do would be to accentuate in all its parts the urgency of obedience in order to acceptance; the vital importance on the one hand of an internal change in our nature (through sacramental operation, according to many); and then on the other hand the practice of Christian virtues, with the hope, in consequence, of acceptance, more or less complete, in heaven. Whether the objector, the enquirer, was dull, or whether he was subtle, it could not have occurred to him to say, “You are preaching a Gospel of license; I may, if you are right, live as I please, only drawing a little deeper on the fund of gratuitous acceptance as I go on.” But just this was the animus, and such were very nearly the words, of those who either hated St. Pauls message as unorthodox, or wanted an excuse for the sin they loved, and found it in quotations from St. Paul. Then St. Paul must have meant by faith what faith ought to mean, simple trust. And he must have meant by justification without works, what those words ought to mean, acceptance irrespective of our recommendatory conduct. Such a Gospel was no doubt liable to be mistaken and misrepresented, and in just the way we are now observing. But it was also, and it is so still, the only Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation-to the fully awakened conscience, to the soul that sees itself, and asks for God indeed.
This undesigned witness to the meaning of the Pauline doctrine of Justification by Faith only will appear still more strongly when we come to the Apostles answer to his questioners, He meets them not at all by modifications of his assertions. He has not a word to say about additional and corrective conditions precedent to our peace with God. He makes no impossible hint that Justification means the making of us good, or that Faith is a “short title” for Christian practice. No; there is no reason for such assertions either in the nature of words, or in the whole cast of the argument through which he has led us. What does he do? He takes this great truth of our acceptance in Christ our Merit, and puts it unreserved, unrelieved, unspoiled, in contact with other truth, of coordinate, nay, of superior greatness, for it is the truth to which Justification leads us, as way to end. He places our acceptance through Christ Atoning in organic connection with our life in Christ Risen. He indicates, as a truth evident to the conscience, that as the thought of our share in the Lords Merit is inseparable from union with the meriting Person, so the thought of this union is inseparable from that of a spiritual harmony, a common life, in which the accepted sinner finds both a direction and a power in his Head. Justification has indeed set him free from the condemning chain of sin, from guilt. He is as if he had died the Death of sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction; as if he had passed through the Lama Sabachthani, and had “poured out his soul” for sin. So he is “dead to sin,” in the sense in which his Lord and Representative “died to” it; the atoning death has killed sins claim on him for judgment. As having so died, in Christ, he is “justified from sin.” But then, because he thus died “in Christ,” he is “in Christ” still, in respect also of resurrection. He is justified, not that he may go away, but that in His Justifier he may live, with the powers of that holy and eternal life with which the Justifier rose again.
The two truths are concentrated as it were into one, by their equal relation to the same Person, the Lord. The previous argument has made us intensely conscious that Justification, while a definite transaction in law, is not a mere transaction; it lives and glows with the truth of connection with a Person. That Person is the Bearer for us of all Merit. But He is also, and equally, the Bearer for us of new Life; in which the sharers of His Merit share, for they are in Him. So that, while the Way of Justification can be isolated for study, as it has been in this Epistle, the justified man cannot be isolated from Christ, who is his life. And thus he can never ultimately be considered apart from his possession in Christ, of a new possibility, a new power, a new and glorious call to living holiness.
In the simplest and most practical terms the Apostle sets it before us that our justification is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. We are accepted that we may be possessed, and possessed after the manner not of a mechanical “article,” but of an organic limb. We have “received the reconciliation” that we may now walk, not away from God, as if released from a prison, but with God, as His children in His Son. Because we are justified, we are to be holy, separated from sin, separated to God; not as a mere indication that our faith is real, and that therefore we are legally safe, but because we were justified for this very purpose, that we might be holy.
To return to a simile we have employed already, the grapes upon a vine are not merely a living token that the tree is a vine, and is alive; they are the product for which the vine exists. It is a thing not to be thought of that the sinner should accept justification-and live to himself. It is a moral contradiction of the very deepest kind, and cannot be entertained without betraying an initial error in the mans whole spiritual creed.
And further, there is not only this profound connection of purpose between acceptance and holiness. There is a connection of endowment and capacity. Justification has done for the justified a twofold work, both limbs of which are all important for the man who asks, How can I walk and please God? First, it has, decisively broken the claim of sin upon him as guilt. He stands clear of that exhausting and enfeebling load. The pilgrims burthen has fallen from his back, at the foot of the Lords Cross, into the Lords Grave. He has peace with God, not in emotion, but in covenant, through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has an unreserved “introduction” into a Fathers loving and welcoming presence, every day and hour, in the Merit of his Head. But then also Justification has been to him as it were the signal of his union with Christ in new life; this we have noted already. Not only therefore does it give him, as indeed it does, an eternal occasion for a gratitude which, as he feels it, “makes duty joy, and labour rest.” It gives him “a new power” with which to live the grateful life; a power residing not in Justification itself, but in what it opens up. It is the gate through which he passes to the fountain, the roof which shields him as he drinks. The fountain is his justifying Lords exalted Life, His risen Life, poured into the mans being by the Spirit who makes Head and member one. And it is as justified that he has access to the fountain, and drinks as deep as he will of its life, its power, its purity. In the contemporary passage, 1Co 6:17, St. Paul had already written (in a connection unspeakably practical), “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” It is a sentence which might stand as a heading to the passage we now come to render.
What shall we say then? Shall we cling to the sin that the grace may multiply, the grace of the acceptance of the guilty? Away with the thought! We, the very men who died to that sin, -when our Representative, in whom we have believed, died for us to it, died to meet and break its claim-how shall we any longer live, have congenial being and action, in it, a sin an air we like to breathe? It is a moral impossibility that the man so freed from this things tyrannic claim to slay him should wish for anything else than severance from it in all respects. Or do you not know that we all, when baptised into Jesus Christ, when the sacred water sealed to us our faith received contact with Him and interest in Him, were baptised into His Death, baptised as coming into union with Him as, above all, the Crucified, the Atoning? Do you forget that your covenant-Head, of whose covenant of peace your baptism was the divine physical token, is nothing to you if not your Saviour “who died,” and who died because of this very sin with which your thought now parleys; died because only so could He break its legal bond upon you, in order to break its moral bond? We were entombed therefore with Him by means of our baptism, as it symbolised and sealed the work of faith, into His Death; it certified our interest in that vicarious death, even to its climax in the grave which, as it were, swallowed up the Victim; that just as Christ rose from the dead by means of the glory of the Father, as that death issued for Him in a new and endless life, not by accident, but because the Character of God, the splendour of His love, truth, and power, secured the issue, so we too should begin to Walk () in newness of life, should step forth in a power altogether new, in our union still with Him. All possible emphasis lies upon those words, “newness of life.” They bring out what has been indicated already (Rom 6:17-18), the truth that the Lord has won us not only remission of a death penalty, not only even an extension of existence under happier circumstances, and in a more grateful and hopeful spirit-but a new and wonderful life power. The sinner has fled to the Crucified, that he may not die. He is now not only amnestied but accepted. He is not only accepted but incorporated into his Lord, as one with Him in interest. He is not only incorporated as to interest, but, because his Lord, being Crucified, is also Risen, he is incorporated into Him as Life. The Last Adam, like the First, transmits not only legal but vital effects to His member. In Christ the man has, in a sense as perfectly practical as it is inscrutable, new life, new power, as the Holy Ghost applies to his inmost being the presence and virtues of his Head. “In Him he lives, by Him he moves.”
To men innumerable the discovery of this ancient truth, or the fuller apprehension of it, has been indeed like a beginning of new life. They have been long and painfully aware, perhaps, that their strife with evil was a serious failure on the whole, and their deliverance from its power lamentably partial. And they could not always command as they would the emotional energies of gratitude, the warm consciousness of affection. Then it was seen, or seen more fully, that the Scriptures set forth this great mystery, this powerful fact; our union with our Head, by the Spirit, for life, for victory and deliverance, for dominion over sin, for willing service. And the hands are lifted up, and the knees confirmed, as the man uses the now open secret-Christ in him, and he in Christ-for the real walk of life. But let us listen to St. Paul again.
For if we became vitally connected, He with us and we with Him, by the likeness of His Death, by the baptismal plunge, symbol and seal of our faith union with the Buried Sacrifice, why, we shall be vitally connected with Him by the likeness also of His Resurrection, by the baptismal emergence, symbol and seal of our faith union with the Risen Lord, and so with His risen power. This knowing, that our old man, our old state, as out of Christ and under Adams headship, under guilt and in moral bondage, was crucified with Christ, was as it were nailed to His atoning Cross, where He represented us. In other words, He on the Cross, our Head and Sacrifice, so dealt with our fallen state for us, that the body of sin, this our body viewed as sins stronghold, medium, vehicle, might be cancelled, might be in abeyance, put down, deposed, so as to be no more the fatal door to admit temptation to a powerless soul within.
“Cancelled” is a strong word. Let us lay hold upon its strength, and remember that it gives us not a dream, but a fact, to be found true in Christ. Let us not turn its fact into fallacy, by forgetting that, whatever “cancel” means, it does not mean that grace lifts us out of the body; that we are no longer to “keep under the body, and bring it into subjection,” in the name of Jesus. Alas for us, if any promise, any truth, is allowed to “cancel” the call to watch and pray, and to think that in no sense is there still a foe within. But all the rather let us grasp, and use, the glorious positive in its place and time, which is everywhere and every day. Let us recollect, let us confess our faith, that thus it is with us, through Him who loved us. He died for us for this very end, that our “body of sin” might be wonderfully “in abeyance,” as to the power of temptation upon the soul. Yes, as St. Paul proceeds, that henceforth we should not do bond service to sin; that from now onwards, from our acceptance in Him, from our realisation of our union with Him, we should say to temptation a “no” that carries with it the power of the inward presence of the Risen Lord. Yes, for He has won that power for us in our Justification through His Death. He died for us, and we in Him, as to sins claim, as to our guilt; and He thus died, as we have seen, on purpose that we might be not only legally accepted, but vitally united to Him. Such is the connection of the following clause, strangely rendered in the English Version, and often therefore misapplied, but whose literal wording is, For he who died, he who has died, has been justified from his () sin, stands justified from it, stands free from its guilt. The thought is of the atoning Death, in which the believer is interested as if it were his own. And the implied thought is that, as that death is “fact accomplished,” as “our old man” was so effectually “crucified with Christ,” therefore we may, we must, claim the spiritual freedom and power in the Risen One which the Slain One secured for us when He bore our guilt.
This possession is also a glorious prospect, for it is permanent with the eternity of His Life. It not only is, but shall be. Now if we died with Christ, we believe, we rest upon His word and work for it, that we shall also live with Him, that we shall share not only now but for all the future the powers of His risen life. For He lives forever-and we are in Him! Knowing that Christ, risen from the dead, no longer dies, no death is in His future now; death over Him has no more dominion, its claim on Him is forever gone. For as to His dying, it was as to our sin He died; it was to deal with our sins claim; and He has dealt with it indeed, so that His death is “once,” , once forever; but as to His living, it is as to God He lives; it is in relation to His Fathers acceptance, it is as welcome to His Fathers throne for us, as the Slain One Risen. Even so must you too reckon yourselves, with the sure “calculation” that His work for you, His life for you, is infinitely valid, to be dead indeed to your sin, dead in His atoning death, dead to the guilt exhausted by that death, but living to your God, in Christ Jesus; welcomed by your eternal Father, in your union with His Son, and in that union filled with a new and blessed life from your Head, to be spent in the Fathers smile, on the Fathers service.
Let us too, like the Apostle and the Roman Christians, “reckon” this wonderful reckoning; counting upon these bright mysteries as upon imperishable facts. All is bound up not with the tides or waves of our emotions, but with the living rock of our union with our Lord. “In Christ Jesus”:-that great phrase, here first explicitly used in the connection, includes all else in its embrace. Union with the slain and risen Christ, in faith, by the Spirit-here is our inexhaustible secret, for peace with God, for life to God, now and in the eternal day.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, mortal, because not yet fully emancipated, though your Lord has “cancelled” for you its character as “the body of sin,” the seat and vehicle of conquering temptation. Do not let sin reign there, so that you should obey the lusts of it, of the body. Observe the implied instruction. The body “cancelled” as “the body of sin,” still has its “lusts,” its desires; or rather desires are still occasioned by it to the man, desires which potentially, if not actually, are desires away from God. And the man, justified through the Lords death and united to the Lords life, is not therefore to mistake a laissez-faire for faith. He is to use his divine possessions, with a real energy of will. It is “for him,” in a sense most practical, to see that his wealth is put to use, that his wonderful freedom is realised in act and habit. “Cancelled” does not mean annihilated. The body exists, and sin exists, and “desires” exist. It is for you, O man in Christ, to say to the enemy, defeated yet present, “Thou shalt not reign; I veto thee in the name of my King.”
And do not present your limbs, your bodies in the detail of their faculties, as implements of unrighteousness, to sin, to sin regarded as the holder and employer of the implements. But present yourselves, your whole being, centre and circle, to God, as men living after death, in His Sons risen life, and your limbs, hand, foot, and head, with all their faculties, as implements of righteousness for God.
“O blissful self-surrender!” The idea of it, sometimes cloudy, sometimes radiant, has floated before the human soul in every age of history. The spiritual fact that the creature, as such, can never find its true centre in itself, but only in the Creator, has expressed itself in many various forms of aspiration and endeavour, now nearly touching the glorious truth of the matter, now wandering into cravings after a blank loss of personality, or an eternal coma of absorption into an Infinite practically impersonal; or again, affecting a submission which terminates in itself, an islam, a self-surrender into whose void no blessing falls from the God who receives it. Far different is the “self-presentation” of the Gospel. It is done in the fulness of personal consciousness and choice. It is done with revealed reasons of infinite truth and beauty to warrant its rightness. And it is a placing of the surrendered self into Hands which will both foster its true development as only its Maker can, as He fills it with His presence, and will use it, in the bliss of an eternal serviceableness, for His beloved will.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: International Critical Commentary New Testament
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary