Epistle to the Romans
Chapter 06 – Release From Sin
Romans 6:1-4
The last chapter ended with the statement that the law allowed offense to abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. This chapter opens with what sounds like a facetious statement. Should we continue to sin so God’s grace will abound even more? It sounds like Paul is trying to ridicule the logic of sinners. Instead he is stating how decisive our break with a sinful past must be. Baptism and Confirmation mean a union with Christ so intimate that the great crises of his life are reproduced in our own experience. As he died for our deliverance, we die to sin; as he rose to newness of life, so do we.
His argument is designed to silence the insincere. The Gospel is misunderstood in various ways. Some miss the point because they are uninstructed. Some miss the point because they lack understanding. The most perverse are those who distort it to suit their own purposes, even when they really know better. Paul now addresses the perversion of truth that prolongs indulgence. Who has not done something knowing it is wrong but intending to correct their ways sometime in the future?
Paul insists that our world is governed by moral law. Wrongdoing inevitably brings retribution. God will finally "render to every man according to his works: . . . for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury". In that context, great moral issues are too important to be twisted for personal gain. To counter the directness of that point, we often claim extenuating circumstances. We treat the "moral law" as a general guideline and apply it to our circumstances in accordance with our desires.
Paul points out that Christ died for our redemption and we are to die to sin. How can we die to sin and still live in it? Is that not what we are doing when we apply extenuating circumstances to God’s moral law? The dichotomy of life and death was chosen to show the seriousness of the argument. Life and death are mutually exclusive. Both cannot be experienced at the same time. We choose one or the other. We walk in newness of life or we retain the sins that lead to death.
Romans 6:5-11
Paul says we have been united with Christ in heart and will because of personal attachment. That is not a union of personalities which achieves an immediate and static finality. Our loyalty grows stronger and our attachment grows deeper as we discover more fully what it means to be "in Christ." Paul expects us to grow into complete identity with Christ. There are four indications of such union. We can gratefully accept the gifts of God which come to us through Christ. We can so love Christ that our wills are dedicated to serve what we understand of his purpose. We can have such a keen awareness of the presence of the living Christ that our spirits can enter into true fellowship with him. We can have an attitude so receptive to his commands that our powers – of heart and mind and will – are constantly directed by his Spirit.
Paul talks of being enslaved to sin. We don’t think of sin in those terms. We think we independently chose to participate in a sinful activity. We think we always have the ability to "just say no." If you talk to counselors who work in drug and alcohol addition clinics, you will quickly understand that even with their help addicts seldom manage to "say no" before they have been through the program several times. When Paul talks of sin as a malign power holding us in an unrelenting grip, he is not exaggerating. For most of us, our sins are not dramatic enough to warrant outside intervention. Nonetheless, we find breaking the habits of our "little" sins very difficult.
Paul understands that our moral character is incomplete. But he is making clear how decisively we must make our stand on the things we do understand. As far as our understanding allows, we are required to make our decision whether to die in our sin or be alive to God in Christ Jesus. Where our understanding is clear, we cannot dabble in both worlds. We must remember that when we die in sin, there is no appeal.
Romans 6:12-14
If we can die to sin and live to God through Christ Jesus, what are the consequences of our new outlook? Paul never recommends divorcing theology (the truth about God) from ethics (the practical application of what we know to be true). The initial consequence is we must incorporate the moral results of being alive to God in Christ Jesus into our ordinary daily lives. The first application of that consequence is to acknowledge the reigning authority. If sin is a tyrant who has been deposed, his authority has been overthrown. Sin has no right to reign in our mortal bodies if our only allegiance is to God. Second, we must yield ourselves to God and our members as instruments of righteousness. We must not only avoid sin, we must work righteousness as much as we are able. Third, we must determine the spiritual force at work in our lives. Paul is less concerned with the current status than the direction in which we are heading. A man who sees himself emancipated from sin’s power is like to find himself immune to sin’s temptations. Finally we must not be content with the quality of life which seemed sufficient before. This change is not just a more rigorous application of certain principles. Paul is teaching that the secular or worldly outlook on life is diametrically opposed to a Christian outlook on life. It is not sufficient to apply our new standards to our homes or business or church or even country. We must apply them to every aspect of our lives. They cannot change as the secular environment changes.
Romans 6:15-23
Paul again returns to the question that opened this chapter. He has already told us that sin belongs to the old life and no longer has power over us. We cannot continue in sin because it belongs to an entirely different world. His message remains the same but now he is going to try a different tack. No man can serve two masters. Sin and Righteousness are totally different masters and totally incompatible. They are alternative forms of obedience. One must choose between them, for it is absolutely impossible to select both. Slavery is a good figure of speech to emphasize the point. The master had complete and exclusive jurisdiction over his slave. The slave is wholly at his master’s disposal. A slave cannot have two masters whose requirements are not fundamentally compatible. A master frees his slave from all other claims. When you are a slave to sin, you are free of the claims of righteousness. When you belong to righteousness, sin can make no claims on you.
The choice must be exclusive. To procrastinate is to choose our will over God’s. A life which is definitely and finally committed one way or the other has appeal. Very few people really want to drift aimlessly without consistent direction. The side we choose is still important. If we are on the wrong side, we get worse. If we are on the right side, we get better. The person who yields his members to impurity finds that it is to greater and greater iniquity. If we yield our members to righteousness, we can legitimately hope that it will be for sanctification. In Paul’s mind, this hope has already materialized in the new life in Christ.
Paul recognizes that we have accepted different service and as a result should expect different satisfactions. When sin was the master, the slave was immune to the demands of righteousness. We generally consider immunity to be a good thing. But, Paul asks, "What benefit was received by those things of which you are now ashamed?" "He who sows to his own flesh will, from the flesh, reap corruption" (Galatians 6:8). The results of sin are cumulative. A progression of that kind can have only one conclusion: The end of those things is death."
If we become slaves of God, the return we get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. The immediate consequence of our new service is a life bearing the marks of holiness; the ultimate consequence is eternal life. Eternal life is not only "life forevermore". It is life of a new quality – life touched by kinship in the life of God. Because it belongs to the realm of reality it is not at the mercy of chances and changes, and is therefore everlasting. We have two choices; the wages of sin which is death or the gift of God which is eternal life. Paul did not consider the third alternative – choosing to follow no one. Man is a created being and a created being is dependent on his creator. The most insidious temptation man could face – and his most catastrophic fall – was to believe that he could "be like God" (Genesis 3:5). Those who serve God are free from alternative obedience and his "service is perfect freedom."