Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[1] that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
-
V1-2 – We died to sin. Paul’s focus in all of chapter 6 is to overcome the
objection that would be common after what he said in chapter 5, v20, that immoral
living is fine according to Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith. Some of his
audience, now called Antinomians, thought that it really should be okay to
continue living in sin, since God justifies, or declares righteous, people based
on nothing in them or nothing they do, but based on the work of Christ. And Paul
said that just because justification is by faith alone, and not by works, does not
mean that justification is by a faith that is alone. Paul goes to great lengths to
fight off this view of justification. Antinomianism suggests that a genuine
one-time profession / confession of faith in Christ is enough to save, regardless
of how a person lives their life afterward. And Paul disagrees. Paul says that
those of us in Christ have died to sin. So how can we live in it any longer?
Secondly, this objection that Paul spends so much effort refuting is proof enough
that his doctrine of justification really is by faith alone. Here Paul also fights
of the Legalists. It’s not by faith plus works. If it was, then Paul wouldn’t have
received this objection. So the Catholic Church and all other denominations or
preachers teaching a faith-plus-works justification are clearly misunderstanding
Paul’s teaching. If Paul was teaching that justification was by faith plus works,
nobody could have said to him, “Well, shouldn’t we continue to sin so that grace
might increase?” It is precisely because he is not teaching justification by faith
plus works that he gets this objection. Do you understand that? It’s important,
because many of the arguments that Paul refutes are keys to understand his actual
teachings. We’ll see that especially in chapter 9.
The point here in v1-2 is that we cannot continue in sin, not because our works
have something to do with our justification—they don’t—but because we are united
to Christ, and we carry His name in the world. To continue living in sin would be
a contradiction because of who we are. Christians have died to both the penalty
and power of sin, and having been reborn, they live a new life free from bondage
to sin. All of us are sinners and guilty because we are united to the first Adam.
We will be saved or not based on whether we are united to Jesus Christ, the second
Adam, by faith. And there is a kind of life that comes from being united to Christ.
That’s what Romans 6 is about. And so Paul’s rhetorical questions at the beginning
of chapter 6 are to make a statement. “Shall we go on sinning?” No. “How can we
live in sin any longer?” We can’t. Why not? Because we died to sin, and dead people
don’t live, much less live in sin.
-
V3-4 – Baptism. Paul suggests another reason not to continue living in sin: the
meaning of our baptism. Paul has a confused audience wondering when they died to
sin. They don’t remember dying to sin. And this angers Paul. He thinks these
people should already know this! Surely they knew the meaning of baptism. Paul
had never been to Rome, but he knows that all Christians have been baptized by
the Holy Spirit. And he knew that water baptism was a symbol of the union with
Christ. And so Paul asks his audience to reflect on their baptism, which was a
symbol of their union with Christ, and not only with Christ personally, but also
to His death. We died to sin, not when we were water-baptized, but when we were
united to Christ and His work and His death by faith, which came when we were
baptized, or regenerated, by the Holy Spirit. And even more, we were united also
to His life! And this newness of life, this break with sin is not something
temporary, but it’s permanent because Christ was raised never to die again, and
so we who are united to Christ are dead to sin and alive to God (Galatians 2:20).
Note the historical event of Christ’s death at Calvary as the time when God saw
us in Christ, so that His death was our death. This was the accomplishment of our
death with Christ. Note that we were united to Him by faith in our lifetime
experience, so that our death with Him became personal to us. This was the
application to us through faith of what God accomplished for us at Calvary.
We were baptized in Christ’s name. This was the signification of our death with
Christ. So there was the historical accomplishment of our death with Christ at
Calvary, then the experiential application of our death with Christ by faith,
then the symbolic signification of our death with Christ by baptism:
Accomplishment in history, application by faith, signification through baptism.
Some folks, like Jack Cottrell, a teacher at Cincinnati Bible College, where Bob
Russell and Dave Stone were educated, might say here that baptism does not merely
signify our death in Christ; rather, baptism effects or causes or brings about
our death in Christ. He has said, “Baptism is not the symbol of our death with
Christ, but the instrument of our death with Christ. We have been buried with Him
through baptism into death. Baptism is when and how we died with Christ, and
before baptism, we were not united with Christ and not justified and not saved.
Those who say that our union with Christ in His death, and thus our own death to
sin, occurred before baptism are simply not taking the text at its word. Every
Christian has come within the scope of this sin-destroying force of the death of
Christ; we have tapped into its lethal power. When did we do this? In our baptism.
There is absolutely no indication that this union with Christ in His death
happened as soon as we believed or repented. We did not believe into His death;
we did not repent into His death.” I am not sure whether or not this is the view
of Southeast.
Nevertheless, I do not agree with Cottrell. Here’s an analogy to explain: All of
us who have put on the ring of marriage have, by putting on this ring, forsaken
all others to cleave only to our wives. Therefore by this ring I am united to my
wife alone and dead to all others. Now you could press the language and say, “Aha,
it was the actual putting on the ring that caused your forsaking all others and
cleaving to your wife alone. You said it explicitly: ‘By this ring, I am united
to my wife alone.’ What could be plainer? The ring does it all.” But that is not
what I would mean by these words. I would mean that putting on the ring is a sign
of my forsaking all others and cleaving only to her. The decisive leaving and
cleaving is in the promise, the covenant, the vows. “I promise you my
faithfulness.” Then comes the ring, the symbol. In that analogy, the vows stand
for faith in Christ, and the ring stands for baptism. And the point is that we
often talk this way. We often speak of the symbol as though it brings about what
it only signifies.
-
V5,8 – United to Christ in death and life. Paul says ultimately that we should
not continue to live in sin because Christ has risen. Christ’s death and
resurrection are the grounds for both our justification and our sanctification.
We who are united to Christ have died to sin as He died, and we have risen to new
life as He has risen. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. And
Paul says that it is certain for those who have been united to Christ by faith
that they will be raised to new life. And it begins immediately. Sanctification
is certain, because Christ has risen. See, believers experience the first
resurrection before they experience the first death. We are granted a foretaste
of resurrection, glory and power to come in our present experience, so that we
are no longer under the domination of sin. This is the first resurrection. And
Paul is saying, “When you believe on Jesus Christ, God grants you new life that
flows from the resurrection of Christ. It’s yours because you’re united to Him.”
Does it mean you never sin? No. Does it mean you never have a desire to sin? No.
We’ll see how this works when we study Romans 7. Does it mean that you are no
longer under the dominion of sin? Yes. New life is immediate in Jesus Christ.
The Christian life is an “already” and a “not-yet” experience of this sinless
position and identity in union with Christ. What happened to Christ Jesus
historically and finally and unchangeably—and to us in Him—is applied to us not
all at once in its fullness, but some now completely, and some now progressively,
and all fully in the age to come. We are already fully forgiven and acquitted and
declared righteous and justified in our union with Christ by faith alone. And we
are already delivered from the slavery to sin, from the power of sin as the
defining direction of our lives. And we are already able by faith to grow more
and more triumphant over sin in our daily life. But we are not yet perfected in
our daily, earthly experience. We must fight the fight of faith and become in
experience, by faith, what we are perfectly in our union with Christ. Paul put
it like this in Philippians 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or
have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which
Christ Jesus took hold of me.” You see the “already” and “not yet.” Christ has
laid hold of Paul for perfection and everlasting blessing. That secures Paul.
Now Paul confirms that great work of God in Christ by laying hold of that for
which he was laid hold of by Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 “In Christ” = new
creation; united to Him, in union with Him. Ephesians 2:10 Created in Christ
for good works = Justified for sanctification.
The union between Christ and Christians, so that what happened to Christ is
counted by God as happening to us, is established by God. 1 Corinthians 1:30
“It is because of [God] that you are in Christ Jesus.” God establishes a union
between believers and Christ in a way that makes it fitting for Him to count
Christ’s death to be our death. It is applied to us now through our faith, but
since Christ died only once, and we were united to that, our death happened,
in God’s way of seeing things, on the day Christ died. Just as God established
a union between Adam and his people, through which condemnation came, and a
corresponding union between Christ and His people, through which justification
came (as we saw in Romans 5:12-21), so now in Romans 6:5, Paul makes that union
explicit and relates it to sanctification as well as justification. Even though
we have died to sin, and therefore cannot “live in” or “continue in” sin, we can
sin, and we do sin, and we must lay hold on the reality of what has happened to
us in our union with Christ and confirm it in our daily lives.
Finally, notice the word “believe” in v8. “If we have died with Christ, we believe
that we will also live with Him.” That is what we believe. That is our confidence,
that our future is secure and firm and unshakable and happy in Christ. Faith is
how we consciously experience the transforming benefits of union with Christ.
-
V6-7 – No longer slaves to sin = Freedom. True freedom is simply not being bound
to sin. In eternity, we will have true freedom, because there will be no
possibility of sinning. God is truly free because He cannot sin. Here we are
finally back around to whole slavery / freedom thing again. Apart from union
with Christ, we are under the dominion of sin. Now we believe that we are
perfectly free to do as we please. And we are. But Paul is making it clear in this
passage that if we are apart from Christ, we are under sin and even willing slaves
to it; we are dominated by it. And we can’t just look deep within, and find
something to pull ourselves out of it. We need new life from the outside implanted
inside, and Paul in v5-7 says, “That new life comes from the resurrection of Jesus
Christ.” God does not save and forgive us in order to get us back to a neutral
position and then let us kind of take it from there. He saves and forgives us,
and He grants us new life so that we will walk in that new life. And we will!
God made the Son of His love to be the object of His wrath in order that we who
were the objects of His wrath, might be made the Sons of His love, but also that
we would be made like the Son of His love. God makes us to be like Christ. He
conforms us to His image, not physically, but morally. We have moral freedom.
-
V9-11 – Dead to sin; Alive to God. In the Christian life, the indicative precedes
the imperative. We do not obey in order to be redeemed, but rather we are redeemed
enabling us to obey. In other words, our identity as Christians is established
prior to our ability to obey God. And this is emphasized not only by Paul, but we
find it in the Old Testament as well. Remember Exodus 20:2-3, which I brought up
when we were finishing up chapter 3. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and
then gave them the law.
Not once in Romans has Paul commanded his audience to do anything, until v11. Paul
believed that it was more important for his audience to first understand who they
were, then what God did for them, then what God did in them, and finally who God
made them to be. Only then are they ready to hear and respond to His commands. And
so Paul has to finish explaining justification, before he can set forth a command.
In the Christian life, regardless of your soteriological theology (C/A), grace must
be operative before obedience is a possibility. Christians agree on this, and Paul
certainly teaches it. Paul knows that gospel obedience flows from the realization
of God’s work of grace on our behalf. Paul says that in the Christian life,
justification and sanctification are a package deal. As God grants forgiveness
in salvation, so He breaks our bondage to sin. God’s plan of salvation is to
deliver us from both sin’s penalty and its power. In justification, He forgives
our sins and accepts us as righteous. And in sanctification He imparts new life
to us through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ and enables us to become
morally like Christ. As God calls us righteous though we are not, a one-time
permanent judicial declaration known as justification, so He breaks our bondage to
sin and makes us righteous, a process known as sanctification. He’s not only
imputed righteousness to us, He is imparting righteousness to us by His sanctifying
grace.
So now, the command is to know who you are as a Christian. “Count yourselves dead
to sin but alive to God in Christ.” That’s Paul’s first imperative in all of
Romans. And Paul is not saying, “Try real hard to be dead to sin.” He’s saying,
“You are dead to sin. It’s done. And now you’re alive to God in Christ.” It’s like
a young man who has been single for a long time, and he’s finally married a
wonderful bride, but he’s having a hard time remembering that he’s not single any
more. And he’s doing things like making major purchases and social plans without
consulting his wife. An older, godly man pulls him aside and says, “Son, you need
to consider that you are married.” He is already married; he just needs to live
like he is.
Finally, note simply that the assurance of our future resurrection is in the
invincibility of Christ to death. Justification is the foundation of
sanctification, which is the certification that we are on our way to a
resurrection with Christ in union with Him. Union with Christ secures our eternal
resurrection life of joy.
-
V12 – Obedience and desires. The problem with the above is that many Christians
want forgiveness, but they don’t want holiness. Picture a man praying, “Lord,
make me a better man. But it’s all right if You don’t, because I really like the
way I am.” It may sound funny, but that is precisely the feeling of many
Christians. They are perfectly happy being forgiven but not holy. They are
perfectly happy being accepted, but not righteous, forgiven but not sanctified.
And the apostle Paul does not consider that to even be a possibility in the
Christian life. God doesn’t just save us by forgiveness; He delivers us from sin’s
bondage.
And so Paul commands a second thing: be who you are. “Do not let the sin nature
reign in your bodies, because that would cause you to obey the evil desires of
the flesh.” There are two things to note in v12. First, it really is true that
sin does not reign over us as believers. Second, believers still really do
struggle with sin. Paul wouldn’t have to be saying not to let sin reign if his
audience wasn’t struggling with it. Think about that. If Christians were sinless,
would Paul have had to tell them “Do not let sin reign in your body”? No. So the
very fact that he says that lets us know that believers struggle with sin. Since
we are no longer controlled by the desires of sin, we have new desires for
righteousness. And there is conflict.
Being a Christian is not making a new start in life; it’s receiving a new life to
start with. One of the first ways that we know that God is doing a work of grace
in our lives is that we no longer desire to live a life of sin. We desire to live
a life of godliness. We desire to be like the Lord. We desire to see those things
that are good and pure and beautiful. We desire after godliness. We can say with
the psalmist, “How I love Your law, O Lord.” Paul is saying that one of the
evidences of sin’s reign is that your desires are totally captive to sin. But
when grace comes, you are liberated from that captivity to sin. New life brings
a decisive break with the desires of sin, and it brings an advent of new desires
for righteousness. Now we don’t always follow the new desires consistently. But
thank God we don’t always follow the old desires consistently either. And that’s
the evidence of God’s grace. Sin is not king any more, Paul says. Grace is.
A person will always do that which is in accordance with his greatest desire.
And our desires are determined by our natures. Prior to being reborn and indwelled
by the Holy Spirit, we were captive to the sin nature, and thus our desires and,
therefore, our deeds were sinful. Remember, everything done without faith is sin.
But now, there is a battle, and we’ll see more of it in chapter 7. The battle is
between the still-present sin nature and the newly present Spirit-filled nature.
Thus we have conflicting desires. But notice that we have been freed from the
bondage to the sin nature. Therefore, both natures inside us have laid claim to
the thrones of our hearts. And we give-in to each at times. But Paul urges us to
strive, by grace, to avoid yielding the thrones of our hearts to the evil desires.
They cannot reign; they have been defeated by Christ. So do not obey them;
instead, obey the Spirit-filled desires, which lead to righteousness.
GALATIANS 5:17
Desires which were given by God to serve us—like desire for food, drink, sex,
rest, friends, and approval—are attacked by sin and captured and corrupted and
turned into betrayers—Judas-desires, Delilah-desires. Then these desires—now in
the service of sin instead of God—lure us to obey them. When that happens we hand
over our members—eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, sexual organs, voices—to serve
these desires and their master, sin, and our members become weapons of
unrighteousness. 1 Peter 2:11 says, “Abstain from fleshly desires which wage war
against the soul.” Notice that sin is attacking through desires. We are called to
keep them from being our greatest desires. “Don’t let sin reign.” We are ruled by
our greatest desires. Don’t present your eyes and tongue to fulfill sinful desires.
Don’t choose sin. But what is this choosing? It is preferring. To choose is
essentially to prefer one thing over another thing. If God is to get glory in our
choosing against sin, it must be because we regard God and what He promises as
preferable. So you can describe the battle at this point in negative terms: You
are dead to sin and its desires; they are no longer always preferable. Or you
can describe the battle positively: You are alive to God and His ways; they are
now prefer-able, having ended sin’s reign.
-
V13-14 – You have been brought from death to life. Sin is not your master,
because of grace. Paul finishes off his list of commands in v13. First, he
says, “Don’t offer you bodies to sin as tools of wickedness.” Second, he says,
“Offer yourselves to God as tools of righteousness.” The body itself can become
a conduit for sin to arouse evil desires. The cravings of sin, like lust, often
utilize parts of the body, like the eyes, in order to entice.
Paul knows that people will use that phrase, “You’re not under law; you’re under
grace,” as an excuse not to follow after the way of righteousness. And so he puts
it the other way around. He says, “We present the whole of ourselves to God as
tools righteousness, because we’re not under law but under grace.” He means that
the law doesn’t have the power to enable us to do what we should do, but grace
does. Grace gives us the power to do what the law tells us to do. And we’re not
under the law or its condemnation or its opposition or its conviction, because
we’re under grace. We’ve been redeemed, forgiven, and empowered. So do what the
law tells you to do, because you’re not under the law, but under grace. In light
of who you are, give yourself to God. Live life in the conscious gaze of God. He
is witnessing everything that we do. We live “coram deo,” before the face of God,
and thus we should be encouraged daily to shine for His glory.
Slaves to Righteousness
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[2] Christ Jesus our Lord.
-
V15-16 – You are slaves to the one you obey. If you look back at Romans 6:1, you
will see that it begins with a question: “Shall we continue to sin?” Now, the
passage today begins with basically the same question. In v15, the question is,
“Shall we sin?” Paul is coming back to this question, because he’s discussing the
relationship between the free forgiveness and justification that we have in Jesus
Christ and how that relates to God’s transforming work in us by the power of the
Holy Spirit. So he’s asking the question, once grace reigns, do we continue to live
a life under the dominion and the mastery of sin? Or should we sin in order to
show all the more the reign of grace? Of course not! But answering this question
is Paul’s purpose for chapter 6. He’s made it clear in v1-14 that when God comes
to us in His grace, He breaks not only the penalty of sin, but He breaks the power
of sin. He’s going to assert that again here.
With the question Paul raises in v15, he wants you to think of what God’s grace
was designed to accomplish in you? What did God intend to do in you by His grace?
And this question should raise another question. What exactly does it mean to be
not under law, but under grace? People give many different answers to that.
(1) People might say that it means there are no more rules. This is the Outback
Steakhouse theology: No rules, just right. But even at Outback, there are rules.
It’s not like you don’t have to pay for your meal or wait for a table. Paul is
not saying that the rules no longer exist.
(2) Some might say, “It’s not that there are no rules, but in the Old Testament you
had to obey the rules, and in the New Testament you don’t have to. However, you
try to obey anyway because you want to.” Christians who believe that might say,
“I don’t have to obey the Ten Commandments. I still try to obey, because I want to,
but I don’t have to.” That’s not what Paul is saying here either. If God’s
commands are to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to
love your neighbor as yourself, then they are not optional. The point of freedom
for the Christian is not that godliness is optional, and we do it when we feel
like it. That’s not the freedom that Paul is talking about.
(3) Others might say that our freedom from the law means we’re not under the Old
Testament moral law; rather, we’re under New Testament moral principles. That’s
not what Paul is saying either. God’s moral law is written on our hearts, and that
law is a reflection of the very nature of God Himself. It’s what He’s like, and He
wants us to be morally like Him. Now the ceremonial law has been cancelled,
because it has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and the civil law of Israel it is
no longer binding, though it offers principles to learn. However, the moral law
is a reflection of God’s character. And the freedom that we have as Christians is
not liberation from God’s character.
(4) Finally, people might say that it means we’re not under the condemnation of
the law. And that’s true, but that’s not what Paul is talking about here. He has
talked about that, and he will talk about it again, but right now, he is not
talking about our forgiveness, acceptance, and freedom from condemnation; rather
he is talking about the fact that we are no longer pawns of sin anymore. We are
no longer dominated by the tyrannical master of sin. We are not under the law,
but under grace in this sense. 1 Corinthians 15:56 “The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law.” God has liberated believers from the dominion
and power of sin. In that sense we are not under law. We live under the reign of
the grace of the Holy Spirit. The law is no longer your enemy; although it’s the
source of your condemnation, it is totally unable to transform you. You live under
the reign of grace where the Holy Spirit dynamically enables you to say, “How I
love Your law, O Lord. I mediate on it day and night, and I long to walk in it;
it’s a lamp unto my feet, and it’s a light to my path.” I’ve not only been
forgiven; I’ve been transformed. I’ve not only been justified; I’m being
sanctified. I have a new master. There’s a new power at work in me, not sin by
the law, but grace by the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:16-18 “So I say, live by the
Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful
nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to
the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do
what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.”
Thinking you are under law means that you believe law keeping is the way to have a
righteousness that lets you stand before God. If we treat the law in such a way
that keeping it provides the righteousness that justifies us, then we are under
law. And this is true whether you trust yourself or God to enable you to keep the
law. Christ will be all your righteousness or none of it. If you try to provide
some of your righteousness alongside Christ’s righteousness as the ground of your
justification, you nullify grace. Galatians 2:21 “I do not set aside the grace of
God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for
nothing!” Being “under grace” means that our justification is a gift of grace on
the basis of Christ’s righteousness, Christ’s law keeping, Christ’s perfect
obedience of faith, and nothing in us.
New Testament ethics are structured strangely to natural man. “Don’t let sin
master you, because sin is not going to master you.” We come to the Bible with
our man-centered bias toward self-determination. In other words, we come with
the bias that if the Bible tells us to make a choice (like “don’t offer your
body parts to sin”), then in the moment of that choice we, not God, have the
final say. And if you come with that bias—that genuine, responsible choice means
ultimate self-determination—the connection between v13, don’t yield to sin, and
v14, because sin will not be master over you, will probably make no sense. But
if you learn from Scripture to see the sovereignty of God and the real
responsibility of man in such a way that God is ultimate and decisive, then you
will learn to talk about the life choices as the apostle Paul would: I choose
not to let sin reign in my body, because God is at work in me and will not let
sin reign in my body. Philippians 2:12-13 “Continue to work out your salvation
with fear and trembling, for it is God Who works in you to will and to act
according to His good purpose.” Philippians 3:12 “Not that I have already obtained
all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that
for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” 1 Corinthians 5:7 “Get rid of the old
yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ,
our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Does this make sense?
Now Paul asks another question in v16, suggesting that his audience should have
already known that you’re either a slave to sin, leading to death, or to
obedience, leading to righteousness, depending on which you obey. Again, we
revisit the freedom/slavery issue. We live in a culture that is obsessed with
freedom. Freedom is a concept that we value highly and rightly so. We should
never take the freedoms that we have, which have been transferred to us and
protected, for granted. But we tend to be slightly freedom obsessed. We live
in a day and time where freedom means freedom from obligations. Freedom means,
“Hey, I will do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it wherever I want
to do it however I want to do it.” And Paul is saying, “That view of freedom is
a myth. It does not exist. There is no such thing as non-obligation in life.
Paul says, “We are slaves; obligation to someone or something is not an option.
Yet we are free; the issue is to what or to whom we are obligated.” We are slaves
to our desires, and our desires are slaves to our natures, and our natures are
slaves to sin from conception. Yet we are always free to choose according to our
desires. We are never bound from that. And so we must be freed from the bondage
of the sin nature. Freedom from sin in this sense frees our natures, which frees
our desires, which frees us. So this is freedom: being no longer bound by the
sin nature. In other words, you are always free to pursue your desires, yet you
are always obligated to the desires you are pursuing, whether it be sin or
righteousness, Satan’s agenda or self’s-agenda or God’s agenda. You may think
you’re free, but you’re bound. Paul says you are slaves of the one whom you obey.
And this doesn’t sound good in our cultured ears. But keep in mind that grace
binds us to Christ. Being a slave of Christ is a good thing. We will not be
mistreated by Him; rather we will be cherished as co-heirs of all creation!
Paul reminds us that sin often presents itself as, “You do exactly what you want
to do, just because you want to.” It seems to be ultimate freedom; it’s very
enticing, seductive, and tyrannical. It may look like freedom; it may look like
you’re calling the shots, but you’re not. You’re never calling the shots. Paul’s
point here is that nobody is their own boss. You either serve a beneficent,
generous, loving master whose commands are always for your own good, or you
serve a tyrannical master, self, and Satan and sin. Everybody serves someone
or something. Do you get it?
-
V17-18 – Thanks to God that you obeyed. You have been set free from and have
become slaves to righteousness. Notice first that Paul is thanking God for the
conversion of these Christians. If people determine their destiny, or save
themselves, either by their faith or works, why is Paul thanking God for their
obedience? But if it is God’s grace that saves, if it is God Who grants the
faith, the willingness and the ability to believe in Christ, then that’s a really
good reason for Paul to thank God. Even in this first phrase in v17, Paul is
proving that salvation is by grace alone. Do you thank God for giving you faith?
When you hear that God is sovereign and that He has guaranteed that those under
grace will not be defeated by sin, do not jump to the conclusion that the battle
is a charade, and nothing hangs on your choices. Don’t come to the Bible assuming
that if it does not depend on what you choose ultimately, it does not depend on
what you choose at all. That is man-centered, unbiblical thinking. Rather say,
“Since it depends on God ultimately, there is hope that I, a dead and hardened
sinner, may choose what is good and live a life pleasing to God.” Let the
sovereignty of God make you hopeful that change is possible, not passive as if
no change were necessary. Realize that Paul is teaching us in this chapter how
to live for the glory of God, not the glory of ourselves. That is why God’s
action is ultimate and ours is dependent on His. That is why God doesn’t say,
“Just do it.” He says, “Because you are under grace, do it. Because you have
died with Christ, don’t do it. Because you are enslaved to righteousness, do it.”
“Just do it” is man-centered. Do it because “God is at work in you to do it” is
God-centered. Putting it this way keeps the work of God front and center. And He
gets all the glory. 1 Peter 4:11 “If anyone serves, he should do it with the
strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised.”
God’s grace is the thing which liberates, and true liberation is found in
obedience to godly desires, not in obedience to sinful desires. Paul is saying
here that God’s grace brings power for obedience to God. And notice that this
obedience is whole-hearted. God’s commands are good, and it’s only sin that makes
us think that they are binding and cramping our style. God’s sovereignty over us
as His servants is always for His glory, and not only that, but also in our best
interests. By His grace, we are made able and willing to give whole-hearted
obedience!
We once defined freedom not as “from obedience or obligation,” but “to obedience
and for obligation.” Paul reminds us here that freedom means having the ability
and willingness to obey. And if the Son sets you free (in this sense), you are
free indeed. To be a child of God is to obey. If you want to be like God’s Son,
which you will if the Spirit lives in you, and which is what you are as a believer,
an adopted son of God, then obey. Paul is saying the freedom of grace is for
obedience, and that’s what it means not be to under law, but under grace.
-
V19 – Human terms: be slaves to righteousness, not sin. Paul here offers an
argument to support his position, but he knows that doubts and questions will
be raised in the minds of his audience when he gives it. Paul effectively says
that “true freedom is slavery,” not slavery to sin, but slavery to righteousness
leading to holiness. And he knows how shocking this sounds. In fact, he apologizes
by saying, “I’m speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh,”
because you are weak in your natural selves. Paul is telling his audience, “You
were slaves of lawlessness and impurity. That’s how you were apart from Christ.
Now having known the bondage of wickedness, pursue the slavery of righteousness
in order to know the freedom of holiness.” Paul knows that there are limitations
to this 3-part illustration, and that’s why he says that he’s speaking in human
terms. Notice first the 3 parts: slavery to impurity and ever-increasing
wickedness, slavery to righteousness, freedom of holiness. The text doesn’t say,
“Freedom of holiness,” but that is implied. Slavery to sin is no freedom; but
slavery to Christ is the freest of freedoms.
The problem with Paul’s “human argument” is that slavery is not an institution
that we would naturally desire to be under. If you were to ask 2nd or 3rd graders,
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I doubt you’ll hear, “I want to be a
slave.” Slavery is not something that one generally longs for. But Paul chooses
this illustration in order to shock us out of the illusion that people are free
apart from Christ, that true freedom is doing what ever you want to do. Paul
wants his audience to understand that this illusion of freedom is not freedom at
all: it’s bondage of the worst and most dire kind. Why? Because it’s our desires
that control us; and it’s our natures that control our desires. So, when the Holy
Spirit changes our natures, and when Christ changes our desires, only then we are
free. And notice we still do what we want to do. Yet now this is freedom; before
it was not. Paul says, “You were giving your lives and using your bodies as slaves
to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness. You were slaves to your own wicked
desires.” That’s not a very pretty picture. “But now, pursue slavery, desire
bondage to righteousness, and gain freedom!”
-
V20 – Slaves to sin = Free from the control of righteousness. Jesus said in John
8:34, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” Simply put,
true freedom is not sinning. True slavery is freedom from the control of
righteousness. And the text says that if we are slaves to sin (which those of us
who sin apart from Christ are), then we are free from the control of righteousness
(and therefore not free for righteousness). Apart from Christ we’re bound to sin.
When He sets us free by justification through faith, our bondage to sin is ended.
But the battle inside us between the sinful desires and the Spirit-led desires
begins and continues as sanctification progresses. We have freedom from sin now,
but it won’t be completely and perfectly realized until eternity. In eternity,
we will have true complete and perfect freedom, because there will be no
possibility of sinning. Note that God is truly free because He cannot sin.
Slavery in Romans 6 does not imply being forced against our will. It implies that
our wills are enslaved. They are bound to do sin or bound to do righteousness
because by nature we either see the rewards of sin or the beauty of righteousness
as more attractive. So in both cases we do what we want most to do.
-
V21-22 – Set free from sin = slave to God. What are the benefits? Paul first asks
what benefits were reaped at the time when you were a slave to sin, when you were
doing the things that you are now ashamed of. Are there any? Instant, fading
pleasures? Any examples? Then Paul says that those things result in death! Paul
moves on and says that being a slave of God has a great benefit. That benefit
is holiness of character, resulting in eternal life. Holiness is blessedness
and freedom. Holiness is life. Sin leads to misery and eventually death; grace
leads to holiness and eternal life.
Becoming a Christian is not like standing neutral between two possible slave
masters and having the power of ultimate self-determination, and then deciding,
from outside any slavery, which we will serve. There are no neutral people.
There are only slaves of sin and slaves of God. Becoming a Christian is to have
the sovereign captain of the battleship of righteousness commandeer the slave ship
of unrighteousness; put the ship-captain, sin, in irons; break the chains of the
slaves; and give them such a spiritual sight of grace and glory that they freely
serve the new sovereign forever as the irresistible joy and treasure of their
lives. That’s how salvation works. God freed us from one master and enslaved us
to Himself by the compelling power of the Holy Spirit in a superior promise. So
embrace this work of God.
As the chapter comes toward a close, three things should become increasingly
clear. (1) Our condition as humans is not just that we are guilty for sinning and
need forgiveness and the righteousness of Christ to commend us to God, but also
that we are in slavery to sin and need to be freed from its power as well as its
punishment. (2) This deliverance (sanctification) is decisively the work of God,
and then, dependently, our work. We must do it. But we cannot and will not do it
unless God enables us to do it. Once He enables us and makes us willing, we will
do it. (3) Our eternal life depends not only justification, but also on
sanctification. We cannot be saved and still be slaves to sin.
-
V23 – The Gospel message: short and sweet. Paul shares the good and bad right
here. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ.
Notice the contrast in how you receive these options. The wages of sin is death.
You want what you deserve, what you’ve earned? Here it is: Death. The free gift
of God is eternal life. This is not an earned-by-you benefit. It’s a granted
benefit given by God in His grace, earned by Jesus Christ for all those who trust
in Him. The free gift of God is eternal life. Grace not only leads to forgiveness,
but grace leads to holiness and eternal life. And so when the world looks at the
Christian and says, “Look what you could be doing with your money instead of
giving all that stuff to tithes and missions and charity! You could be having
fun for yourself.” Remember, it is the man who gives who is blessed. Do you give
to be blessed? Or are you blessed to give?
It is the man who is a slave to righteousness that knows true blessedness, and the
false freedom of the world is not freedom at all. Remember what Jesus says in Mark
10:44-45? “Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of
Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom
for many.” It is the man who dies who lives. It is the man who is a slave who
is free. “If you want to become free,” Paul says, “become a slave to holiness and
righteousness and Christ.” If you want to live, die to your sinful desires. Why
would you want that?
V23 does not stand alone. It comes right from v22. Eternal life is the outcome of
being freed from sin and enslaved to God and bearing fruit in sanctification,
“for” or because “eternal life is a free gift.” Your choosing is the gift of God.
Your preferring God over sin is the gift of God. What if someone says, “Since
sanctification is the gift of God, I don’t need to do anything”? Well, that would
be like saying, “Since my doing something is the gift of God, I don’t need to do
that something.” God’s gift of sanctification is not instead of your doing and
choosing and preferring Him. God’s gift is your doing and choosing and preferring
Him. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you,
that our God may count you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may
fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray
this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him,
according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Footnotes
- 6:6 Or be rendered powerless
- 6:23 Or through
Bible text from
Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society.