IMPLICATIONS OF SALVATION THROUGH FAITH

ROMANS 6:1--11:32.

Paul has now finished his explanation (1:18--5:21) of the theme of this letter: salvation through faith. Starting here in chapter 6 and continuing to the end of chapter 11, verse 32, Paul deals with the implications of salvation through faith. In particular, he deals with the two major objections to salvation through faith.
In chapters 6 thru 8, he deals with the objection that salvation through faith promotes sin and
In chapters 9 thru 11, he deals with the objection that salvation through faith annuls God's promises.
This section from chapters 6 thru 11 will complete the second part (6:1--11:32) of the theological section (1:18--11:32) of this letter.

ANSWER TO FIRST OBJECTION

ROMANS 6:1--8:39.

In chapters 6 thru 8, Paul deals with the objection that salvation through faith promotes sin. This objection takes the form of a series of questions ( 6:1, 15; 7:7, 13). The first two of these questions deal with the Christian's relationship to sin and the second two of these questions deal with the Christian's relationship to the law. Paul answers these questions in the following sections of his letter and shows that the Christian is set free from sin (6:1-23) and from the law (7:1--8:39).

This part of Paul's letter (6:1--8:39) is important, not only as an answer to the questions and the objections raised, but also theologically and practically. Theologically, in this part of his letter Paul expresses his fundamental understanding of the death and resurrection of Jesus in relationship to salvation through faith. Too often this part is theologically relegated to the doctrine of sanctification and is ignored in dealing with the doctrine of the atonement and salvation through faith. Contrary to that tendency, we wish to assert that the doctrine treated in this part is absolutely fundamental to the understanding the doctrine of the atonement and salvation through faith as well as sanctification.

FREEDOM FROM SIN

ROMANS 6:1-23.

In this section (6:1-23), Paul begins to deal with the implication of salvation through faith and in particular with the objection that salvation through faith promotes sin. Paul answer this objection by showing that the believer has been set free from the slavery of sin. The grace of God instead of promoting sin has set the believer free from the slavery of sin, because the believer has died to sin with Christ.

DEAD TO SIN AND ALIVE TO GOD

ROMANS 6:1-14.

In this section (6:1-14), Paul begins to deal with the implication of salvation through faith and in particular with the objection that salvation through faith promotes sin. This objection takes the form of a series of questions ( 6:1, 15; 7:7, 13) of which the question in verse 6:1 is the first. Verses 2 thru 13 of this chapter contain Paul's answer to that question and the objection raised by that question.

ROMANS 6:1-14.
1. What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin in order that grace may abound?
2. May it not be!
How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or are you ignorant that all of us
who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
4. We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death,
in order that as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father,
so we also might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become united with the likeness of his death,
so we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection;
6. knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him,
in order that the body of sin might be rendered inoperative,
that we should no longer be enslaved to sin;
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
8. But if we died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead,
will never die again; death no more has dominion over him.
10. For the death that he died, he died unto sin once for all;
but the life that he lives he lives unto God.
11. Even so reckon yourselves to be dead to sin on the one hand,
but on the other hand alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
12. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies
that you should obey its desires,
13. neither keep on presenting your members to sin
as instruments of unrighteousness;
but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead
and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14. For sin shall not have dominion over you;
for you are not under law, but under grace.

6:1. What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin in order that grace may abound?
This verse contains two questions:
(1) "What shall we say then?" and
(2) "Are we to continue in sin in order that grace may abound?"
The first question ties the second question back to what Paul had just said in the previous section and in particular to the statement in verse 20 of chapter 5, "where sin abounded, grace did superabound." This brings up the very important point about our English Bibles that chapter and verse divisions are an artificial and human division of the text; they were not in the original letter and Paul did not put them in it. They were put in much later as a convenience for the reader, scholars, and the publishers. They should be ignored in determining the meaning of the text. These divisions are convenient but sometimes very misleading; sometimes they are in wrong place, breaking the flow of thought at the wrong place. The chapter division here has been taken by some commentators as change of subject from the doctrine of justification to the doctrine of sanctification. As we will see later, that this is not so; Paul in this chapter 6 is still dealing with salvation through faith, previously explaining it and now answering objections to it. So much about that.
The second question reasons as follows:
If it is true that where sin abounded, grace did superabound, then should we not continue to sin so that grace may abound?
This question raises the objection to Paul's teaching about salvation by grace through faith that grace promotes sin, that is, it encourages people to sin.

6:2. May it not be!
How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
"May it not be!" Paul answers the question raised in the previous verse with a vigorous no. Then he supports his answer with two questions of his own; one in the last part of this verse and one in the next verse. "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Since the question raises a practical objection to his theology, Paul answers it with a practical implication of his theology. Paul is in effect saying, "You don't understand grace. By grace you have been saved from sin, in fact, you have died to sin. How then can you still live in sin?" In the next five verses, Paul explains how we died to sin.

6:3. Or are you ignorant that all of us
who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
In this verse, Paul asks his second question, which is a continuation of the first question of the previous verse. This question begins his explanation of how we died to sin.
"Or are you ignorant that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?"
Paul here in this question is referring to water baptism, which was the common experience of every believer. They had believed in Christ Jesus and were baptized with water into Christ Jesus. Paul is asking, "Are you ignorant of what your water baptism means? Do you not know that you were baptized with respect to his death?" Paul is not saying that by baptism we died with Christ but that baptism was with reference to his death. That is, the significance and meaning of water baptism was with reference to Christ and his death. The Greek preposition eis usually translated "into, unto, to, for" here means "with regard to, with reference to." Paul is not here teaching some mystical union with Christ by baptism, but that the outward sign of water baptism refers to our participation by faith in Christ's death (see verse 8). Entering into the waters of baptism pictures and symbolizes our death with Christ when we believed. Faith unites us to Christ and to his death, not baptism by water nor the baptism by the Spirit. In I Cor. 12:13, baptism by the Spirit is baptism into the body of Christ, and the body of Christ is all believers in Christ, not the body of Christ which died on the cross. (See I Cor. 12:27, "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.")

6:4-5.
4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death,
in order that as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father,
so we also might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with the likeness of his death,
so we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection;
In these verses, Paul concludes his reference to baptism. In the previous verse Paul refers to our entering into the water of baptism and what that means. In this verse, he carries symbolism further; we were buried with Him through baptism into death. Water baptism pictures not only our death with Christ, but also our burial with Him. Our burial with Him is pictured "through (dia) baptism". Being under the water is a picture of burial with reference to (eis) death. That is, burial has to do with death; when one is dead, they are buried. Being buried in the waters of baptism pictures our burial with Christ. What is the purpose of the burial with Christ through baptism? Resurrection with Christ through baptism? No, Paul does not say that. He says "as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life." Coming up out of the water at baptism does not make one alive in Christ anymore that going down into the water made one die with Christ. Just as Christ's resurrection from the dead was by the glory of Father, so our resurrection was by the glory of Father and not by the water baptism. And the result of our resurrection with Christ is a walk in the newness of life, in the resurrection life in Christ. But water baptism pictures that resurrection with Christ by the coming up out of the water. And this is what Paul says in verse five.
"For if we have been united with the likeness of his death,
so we also will be united with the likeness of his resurrection."
Baptism is the likeness of Christ's death and it is also the likeness of His resurrection. Baptism pictures the reality of our death with Christ and also our resurrection with Christ.

6:6. knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him,
in order that the body of sin might be rendered inoperative,
that we should no longer be enslaved to sin;
In this verse, Paul discusses the effect of our death with Christ. Our death with Christ is death to sin. Paul wants them to know this.
"Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him,...".
"Our old man" refers to everything that we were before we turned to Christ.
Elsewhere Paul exhorts,
"Put off as regards the former conduct the old man,
which is corrupted according to deceitful desires"
(Eph. 4:22; see also Col. 3:9.).
The old man is not the sinful nature, but the value system which controlled our attitudes, conduct and behavior before we turned to Christ. This has been crucified with Christ. When we died with Christ, that value system died. It has been replaced with a new value system created by God, a new man (Eph. 4:23; Col. 3:10). (If the old man is the sinful nature, then this verse would be teaching that old nature had been crucified with Christ and is dead. And this would mean that the believer does not have old nature. Obviously the old man is not the sinful or old nature.) "The body of sin" is not the sinful nature, but the body under the slavery and control of sin as slave master. Paul is not here teaching that the body is sinful, but that the body can be used by sin as an instrument of sin ( v. 13). Since it is one's values that control the use of one's body, a change of one's values would change the use of the body. When the old man was crucified, the body of sin would become inoperable. The result of this death of the old man, is "that we should no longer be enslaved to sin." Throughout this letter, Paul understands sin (in the singular) to be a slave master and sins are the things that this slave master makes the slave do. Sin as the slave master was the false god we trusted in before we turned to Christ. And since this false god was our highest value and ultimate criterion of our decisions, it controlled our value system (the old man), that is, the choice of our values and the priority of those values. Since we make our choices on the basis of our value system, sin as slave master controlled all our choices; we were slaves of sin. When we turned to Christ as our God and our Lord, we turned from those false gods and were set free from the slavery of sin. The value system controlled by those false gods was crucified with Christ, so that sin as a slave master no longer controls our body and we are no longer the slaves of sin.

6:7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
In this verse, Paul explains why we are no longer slaves of sin.
"For he who has died is freed from sin."
Death frees from the slavery of sin.
The Greek word translated "freed" here is dikaioo, the verb that is usually translated "justified." In this context, it clearly does not mean "declared righteous," but to be set free or released. It also does not mean "acquitted." For one who has died is not acquitted from slavery, but delivered from slavery. The term is not a Roman legal or forensic term, but an Hebrew term for emancipation, salvation; to justify is to save (I Kings 8:32; Isa. 45:25; 50:8; 53:11). Paul's concepts are Hebrew, even if they are clothed in Greek words.

6:8. But if we died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him,
In this verse, Paul now turns to the other side of his argument. We can put the other side of Paul's argument in the form of a question. "How can we, who have not only died to sin with Him but are also alive with Him, live in sin?" But Paul does not put his argument here in the form of a question but in the form of an exhortation. In this and the next two verses, Paul lays the ground for the exhortation and in verses 11 thru 13 he gives the exhortation. In this verse 8, Paul argues that "if we died with Christ, then we believe that we shall also live with him." That is, the fact that we died with Christ, leads us to believe that we are also alive with Him, since He was raised from the dead.

6:9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead,
will never die again; death no more has dominion over him.
In this verse, Paul gives the basis for us being alive with Him: the resurrection of Christ. We can be alive in Him, because "Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more dominion over him." Christ is free from the dominion of death.

6:10. For the death that he died,
he died unto sin once for all;
but the life that he lives he lives unto God.
In this verse, Paul explains the meaning of Christ being free from the dominion of death.
"For the death that he died, he died unto sin once for all;
but the life that he lives he lives to God."
Paul has already explained in verses 6 and 7 what it means "to die to sin;" it means to die to sin as a slave master, and thus to be set free from the slavery of sin. How could Christ die to sin, since he never was under the slavery of sin? True, Christ was never Himself personally under sin as a slave master, but we and all of men are under sin ( Rom. 3:9). And Christ in His suffering and death on the cross enter into our condition of spiritual death and "was made sin for us, he who knew no sin" (II Cor. 5:21). The key to understanding the meaning of this statement is the phrase "for us." The English word "for" is a translation of the Greek preposition huper, which means "on the behalf of, for the sake of." When used in connection with Christ's death and resurrection, it refers to what He did as our representative, on our behalf, for our sake. Now Paul understands this representative action of Christ on the behalf of all men as the action of all men. "One died for all; therefore all died" (II Cor. 5:14-15). The writer to the Hebrew calls it "sharing" (metecho, Heb. 2:14). He became what we were, in order that we might become what He is. So when Christ died, we died; His death was our death to sin. Thus Christ died our death to sin. Since death was required to free us from the slavery of sin, Christ's death as our death was that death. But Christ did not remain dead; He was raised from the dead and "the life that He lives He lives to God." On the cross, Christ, entering into our spiritual death, was separated from God, His Father.
"My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46 KJV)
But being raised from the dead, Christ is no longer separated from God, His Father. He now lives to God.

6:11. Even so reckon yourselves to be dead to sin on the one hand,
but on the other hand alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
In this verse, Paul begin his exhortation. He applies his theology of the death and resurrection of Christ to the Christian's relationship to sin.
"Even so reckon yourselves to be dead to sin on the one hand,
but on the other hand alive to God in Christ Jesus."
The word "reckon" here is a translation of the of the Greek verb logizomai which means "to consider, to look upon as, to count as true."
It is the same word translated "reckoned" in the statement "faith was reckoned as righteousness" (Rom. 4:5). Paul is exhorting his readers to consider Christ's death unto sin as their death unto sin, and Christ's resurrection from the dead as their resurrection from the dead and themselves to be alive to God in Christ Jesus. As Christ is alive to God, they are to consider themselves to be alive to God in Him. And they are alive to God in Him because it is in a personal relationship to Christ that they are alive to God. This reckoning is an act of faith. It does not make that which is reckoned true but considers it to be true. It involves a choice to believe what God has said in the Gospel about the death and the resurrection of Christ for us.

6:12-13.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies
that you should obey its desires,
13 neither keep on presenting your members to sin
as instruments of unrighteousness;
but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead
and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
In verse 12 and the next, Paul exhorts his readers to action. His exhortation is both negative and positive. He bases this exhortation to action on the exhortation to believe in the previous verse. Since they are dead to sin as a slave master, they are to stop letting sin reign in the mortal bodies. That is, they are to stop letting sin act as a king ( Rom. 5:21) commanding their bodies so that they obey the body's desires. Since they have died with Christ to sin, they are freed not only from sin's slavery but also from sin's dominion.
Note that Paul does not say that sin is dead; sin is very much alive and is seeking to assert its dominion over the believer, if he will allow it to do so. The believer does not have to sin, but he may if he choose to sin. As we will see in chapter seven, if the believer puts himself under the law, sin will use that as opportunity to reassert its dominion. Here the believer is under grace, God's love in action, which has provided in Christ's death and resurrection the deliverance from sin's slavery and dominion. The believer has only to reckon it to be true and act accordingly.
Note also that Paul says that the body is mortal, that is, not physically dead but spiritually dead. Paul will return to this subject in chapter 8, verses 10 and 11.
Note also that the desires mentioned in last clause of verse 12 are the desires of the body, not the desires of sin. These are such desires as hunger, pain, pleasure, sex, self-preservation, etc. These are not sinful in themselves (God created them.), but they can lead to sins if they are obeyed and followed without regard to their consequences. This leads to the second part of his prohibition in verse 13: "neither keep on presenting your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness." "Your members" are the members of your body: hands, feet, eyes, mouth, ears, etc.; that is, they are the physical parts of the body which may be used by sin as instruments to carry out its unrighteous acts.
Paul concludes his exhortation to action with a positive twofold command:
(1) "present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead," and
(2) "present your members as instruments of righteousness to God."
The answer to sin is not just negative, but it is also positive: present yourselves and your members to God. Since the believer has reckoned himself to be alive unto God in Christ Jesus, they are to present themselves to God as those alive from the dead and their members as instruments of righteousness. Having been set free from the slavery of sin, the believer is to present himself to Him who set him free as his Lord. Men can be either a slave to sin or a slave to God; there is no third alternative. The one is bondage, the other is perfect freedom.

6:14. For sin shall not have dominion over you;
for you are not under law, but under grace.
In this verse, Paul ends his exhortation with a promise and an encouragement in their war against sin. The promise is that "sin shall not have dominion over you". The Greek word here translated "dominion" is kurieuo which means "to be lord over" or "to be master of", that is, "to have lordship over". This verb is derived from the Greek noun kurios which means "lord" or "master"; it often means "slave-master" and stands in opposition to the Greek noun doulos, a slave. Paul is saying here that "sin shall not have lordship over you", that is, the believer is not a slave of sin.
And the basis for that promise is that "you are not under law, but under grace." The difference between law and grace, is not "having rules or laws" and "not having rules"; neither is it the difference between the old covenant of law and new covenant of grace. The children of Israel were not under law but in law as a covenant relationship with God ( Rom. 2:12. 3:19). The covenant of law is expressed in the form of commands that must be obeyed and whose disobedience will be punished. But being under law, the obedience is considered to earn merit and disobedience to earn demerits. And at the last judgment, the merits and demerits are considered to be weighed and the results are rewarded if the merits outweigh the demerits or punished if the demerits outweigh the merits. This legalistic interpretation of the law is nowhere found in the Old Testament Mosaic covenant. This legalism was developed by Pharisees in the period between the Old and New Testaments and came to dominate Jewish religion during the New Testament period. Paul before his conversion was a Pharisee who understood this Jewish legalism, but he did not have a word in the Greek to designate this legalism; so he used the phrase "under law" to designate this legalistic distortion of the Old Testament covenant of the law. The difference between being under law and under grace is the difference between salvation that is earned or merited by the works of the law and salvation that is a gift which is received by faith (see Rom. 4:4 and Eph. 2:8-9). Being under law is seeking to be righteous by keeping the law, whereas being under grace is receiving righteousness as a gift by faith. As Paul will explain in chapter 8, being under grace is the fulfilling of the righteous acts of law by walking according to the Spirit and not by the flesh (human effort) under law. Under law, righteousness is earned by human self-effort. But this legalism does not work; exactly the opposite occurs - sin has dominion and lordship over those under law. And that is what the statement here in this verse 14 implies: if you are under law, sin will have dominion over you. And in chapter 7 we see that this is true.
Why? Because the law cannot make alive, thus it cannot deliver from the slavery of sin and make righteous. As Paul says in Gal. 3:21b:
"... for if a law had been given which could make alive,
then righteousness would indeed by the law."
The law does exactly the opposite of making alive: it kills when one who does not obey its commands. On the other hand, the grace of God as God's love in action makes alive and sets the believer under grace free from the lordship of sin.