SECTION 17
IN THE DEATH OF CHRIST WE DIED TO SIN CHAPTER 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 Romans 3:21, because not accounted for by the altered position and prospects of the
persons referred to. Justification, the great feature of DIV. 2, meets us no more: other ideas take its place. We have entered another court of this wing of the temple of truth. DIV. 1 revealed to us the anger of God against all sin: DIV. 2 has now revealed deliverance from this anger, and restoration to His favor. DIV. 3 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 Rom 8, in its relation to the Holy Spirit. DIV. 2 was a logical development of the two great doctrines stated in Romans 3:21-26; in Div. III., we shall find other fundamental doctrines, from which will be derived results of an altogether different kind.
Ver. 1. What then shall we say? as in Romans 3:5; 4:1. Shall we infer from Romans 5:20, 21 that we may accomplish God’s purposes by adding to the number of our sins in order that they may show forth the
superabundant favor 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: 1 Timothy 1:14.
Ver. 2. An emphatic denial, supported by two questions introducing a new and important topic. Thus the questions in Romans 6:1 are stepping-stones to the new teaching in DIV. 3, and show that it guards from immoral perversion the teaching of DIV. 2 We must not ‘continue’ in
‘sin,’ because (Romans 6:1-10) God’s purpose is that we be dead to sin and living for God, and because (Romans 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 Romans 6:10, 11;
Galatians 2:19; 6:14; cp. Colossians 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.
Ver. 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 Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:12. It was a conspicuous mode of confession, which, together with faith, is a condition of salvation: cp. Romans 10:9.
For: see under Romans 1:1.
Baptized for: as in Galatians 3:27; Matthew 28:19; Acts 8:16; 19:5; 1 Corinthians 10:2; 1:13, 15; Matthew 3:11; Mark 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 Romans 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. 1 Corinthians 6:17; Galatians 3:27.
That God designs the justified to be thus united to Christ, Paul further expounds in Romans 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 Romans 3:25; 4:25; 5:9, 10. Paul thus approaches his proof that his readers have
‘died to sin.’
Ver. 4. Inference from Romans 6:3.
Buried-with Him: so Colossians 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 splendor of God manifested in Christ’s rescue from the grave.
Just as ‘Christ’, etc.: in harmony with the historic fact that Christ’s death was followed by a glorious resurrection, God’s purpose is that we also as well as Christ henceforth live a resurrection ‘life.’ Of this life, ‘newness’
(see Romans 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: 2 Corinthians 5:17. And, since life is movement,
in this newness of life God designs us to walk. This last is a favorite metaphor of Paul: Romans 8:4; 13:13; 14:15; Ephesians 2:2, 10, etc.; also John 8:12; 12:35; 1 John 2:6.
Ver. 5. Proof that our burial with Christ was designed to lead to a life altogether new.
If: argumentative, as in Romans 6:8; Romans 5:10, etc.
United-in-growth: literally ‘growing-together,’ so that our development corresponds with, and is an organic outflow of, His.
Likeness: as Romans 1:23; 5:14. By union with Him, we undergo a death
‘like’ His.
On the other hand: alla: a strong adversative particle indicating that the second cause utterly overpowers the first, Same word in Romans 3:31;
5:14; 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 Romans 6:8, where the argument of this verse is repeated, after an exposition of the former part of it: cp. Romans 4:24; 5:14, 19.
Ver. 6. Collateral explanation of our union with Christ in His death, followed by a statement of its purpose.
Our old man: so Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9: our old self. So complete is the change that Paul says that ‘the man’ himself is dead.
Crucified-together-with: so Galatians 2:20; Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32;
John 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 Romans 6:10:
how we are to become such, we shall learn in Romans 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 sinner’s own body in which (see Romans 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 Romans 7:5, 23. The importance of the body in Paul’s theology and the subsequent argument here permit no other interpretation.
Made-of-no-effect: as in Romans 3:3; 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 Romans 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 Romans 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.
Ver. 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 man’s favor. 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 Christ’s death we are dead, and therefore legally free from the master to whose power, for our sins, we were justly surrendered.
Ver. 8-10. Proof of the latter part, as Romans 6:6, 7 proved the former part, of Romans 6:5.
Died with Christ: crucified with Him, in Romans 6:6.
We believe: an assured conviction. It is also faith in God: for our hope of life rests, like Abraham’s faith, on His promise and character.
Shall live with Him: logical future as in Romans 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 Romans 5:14, 17, to which even Christ submitted.
Of Romans 6:9; -Romans 6:10 is proof Christ’s 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. Hebrews 7:27; 9:12, 26, 28; 10:10. The separation from sin was final. Moreover, though dead, Christ still ‘lives.’
This is implied in Romans 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 2 Corinthians 5:15, and five times in 1 Corinthians 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: John 4:34; 6:38; 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 (Romans 6:8) also to share.
The different renderings of the dative, ‘dead to sin... living for God,’ are unavoidable. Literally, Paul’s 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 endeavor to rebuild the argument of Romans 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. God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s purpose is accomplished in us, we are (Romans 6:2) dead to sin. Consequently, to continue (Romans 6:1) to live in sin, is to resist God’s 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 Romans 6:11; Romans 7:4; 8:1, 17; also in 1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Corinthians 5:15, 17; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 1:19, 20; 2:5, 6, etc. Similar teaching in John 15:1-8; 17:21, 26; 1 John 2:6, 24, 28; 3:6, 24; 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 Paul’s Second Fundamental Doctrine, viz. Justification through the Death of Christ, taught in Romans 3:24-26; 4:25; 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 Romans 6:4, 5, 9 reveals its importance as a link in the chain of salvation, and Paul’s firm confidence that He had actually risen: cp. Romans 1:4. This importance is explained in Romans 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 Paul’s 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. EXPOSITION OF DIV. III