1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 What G5101 shall we say G2046 then? G3767 Shall we continue G1961 in sin, G266 that G2443 grace G5485 may abound? G4121
2 God forbid. G3361 G1096 How G4459 shall we, that G3748 are dead G599 to sin, G266 live G2198 any longer G2089 therein? G1722 G846
3 G2228 Know ye not, G50 that so G3754 many of us G3745 as were baptized G907 into G1519 Jesus G2424 Christ G5547 were baptized G907 into G1519 his G846 death? G2288
4 Therefore G3767 we are buried with G4916 him G846 by G1223 baptism G908 into G1519 death: G2288 that G2443 like as G5618 Christ G5547 was raised up G1453 from G1537 the dead G3498 by G1223 the glory G1391 of the Father, G3962 even so G3779 we G2249 also G2532 should walk G4043 in G1722 newness G2538 of life. G2222
5 For G1063 if G1487 we have been G1096 planted together G4854 in the likeness G3667 of his G846 death, G2288 we shall be G2071 also G235 G2532 in the likeness of his resurrection: G386
6 Knowing G1097 this, G5124 that G3754 our G2257 old G3820 man G444 is crucified with G4957 him, that G2443 the body G4983 of sin G266 might be destroyed, G2673 that henceforth G3371 we G2248 should G1398 not G3371 serve G1398 sin. G266
7 For G1063 he that is dead G599 is freed G1344 from G575 sin. G266
8 Now G1161 if G1487 we be dead G599 with G4862 Christ, G5547 we believe G4100 that G3754 we shall G4800 also G2532 live G4800 with him: G846
9 Knowing G1492 that G3754 Christ G5547 being raised G1453 from G1537 the dead G3498 dieth G599 no more; G3765 death G2288 hath G2961 no more G3765 dominion over G2961 him. G846
10 For G3739 G1063 in that he died, G599 he died G599 unto sin G266 once: G2178 but G1161 in that G3739 he liveth, G2198 he liveth G2198 unto God. G2316
11 Likewise G3779 reckon G3049 ye G5210 also G2532 yourselves G1438 to be G1511 dead G3498 indeed G3303 unto sin, G266 but G1161 alive G2198 unto God G2316 through G1722 Jesus G2424 Christ G5547 our G2257 Lord. G2962
12 Let G936 not G3361 sin G266 therefore G3767 reign G936 in G1722 your G5216 mortal G2349 body, G4983 that G1519 ye should obey G5219 it G846 in G1722 the lusts G1939 thereof. G846
13 Neither G3366 yield ye G3936 your G5216 members G3196 as instruments G3696 of unrighteousness G93 unto sin: G266 but G235 yield G3936 yourselves G1438 unto God, G2316 as G5613 those that are alive G2198 from G1537 the dead, G3498 and G2532 your G5216 members G3196 as instruments G3696 of righteousness G1343 unto God. G2316
14 For G1063 sin G266 shall G2961 not G3756 have dominion over G2961 you: G5216 for G1063 ye are G2075 not G3756 under G5259 the law, G3551 but G235 under G5259 grace. G5485
15 What G5101 then? G3767 shall we sin, G264 because G3754 we are G2070 not G3756 under G5259 the law, G3551 but G235 under G5259 grace? G5485 God forbid. G3361 G1096
16 Know ye G1492 not, G3756 that G3754 to whom G3739 ye yield G3936 yourselves G1438 servants G1401 to G1519 obey, G5218 his servants G1401 ye are G2075 to whom G3739 ye obey; G5219 whether G2273 of sin G266 unto G1519 death, G2288 or G2228 of obedience G5218 unto G1519 righteousness? G1343
17 But G1161 God G2316 be thanked, G5485 that G3754 ye were G2258 the servants G1401 of sin, G266 but G1161 ye have obeyed G5219 from G1537 the heart G2588 that form G5179 of doctrine G1322 which G1519 G3739 was delivered you. G3860
18 Being G1659 then G1161 made free G1659 from G575 sin, G266 ye became the servants G1402 of righteousness. G1343
19 I speak G3004 after the manner of men G442 because G1223 of the infirmity G769 of your G5216 flesh: G4561 for G1063 as G5618 ye have yielded G3936 your G5216 members G3196 servants G1401 to uncleanness G167 and G2532 to iniquity G458 unto G1519 iniquity; G458 even so G3779 now G3568 yield G3936 your G5216 members G3196 servants G1401 to righteousness G1343 unto G1519 holiness. G38
20 For G1063 when G3753 ye were G2258 the servants G1401 of sin, G266 ye were G2258 free G1658 from righteousness. G1343
21 What G5101 G3767 fruit G2590 had ye G2192 then G5119 in G1909 those things whereof G3739 ye are G1870 now G3568 ashamed? G1870 for G1063 the end G5056 of those things G1565 is death. G2288
22 But G1161 now G3570 being made free G1659 from G575 sin, G266 and G1161 become servants G1402 to God, G2316 ye have G2192 your G5216 fruit G2590 unto G1519 holiness, G38 and G1161 the end G5056 everlasting G166 life. G2222
23 For G1063 the wages G3800 of sin G266 is death; G2288 but G1161 the gift G5486 of God G2316 is eternal G166 life G2222 through G1722 Jesus G2424 Christ G5547 our G2257 Lord. G2962
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?
3 Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with `him' in the likeness of his death, we shall be also `in the likeness' of his resurrection;
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with `him', that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;
7 for he that hath died is justified from sin.
8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him;
9 knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him.
10 For the death that he died, he died unto sin once: but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof:
13 neither present your members unto sin `as' instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members `as' instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves `as' servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered;
18 and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members `as' servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members `as' servants to righteousness unto sanctification.
20 For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness.
21 What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 What, then, shall we say? shall we continue in the sin that the grace may abound?
2 let it not be! we who died to the sin -- how shall we still live in it?
3 are ye ignorant that we, as many as were baptized to Christ Jesus, to his death were baptized?
4 we were buried together, then, with him through the baptism to the death, that even as Christ was raised up out of the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we in newness of life might walk.
5 For, if we have become planted together to the likeness of his death, `so' also we shall be of the rising again;
6 this knowing, that our old man was crucified with `him', that the body of the sin may be made useless, for our no longer serving the sin;
7 for he who hath died hath been set free from the sin.
8 And if we died with Christ, we believe that we also shall live with him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised up out of the dead, doth no more die, death over him hath no more lordship;
10 for in that he died, to the sin he died once, and in that he liveth, he liveth to God;
11 so also ye, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to the sin, and living to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not then the sin reign in your mortal body, to obey it in its desires;
13 neither present ye your members instruments of unrighteousness to the sin, but present yourselves to God as living out of the dead, and your members instruments of righteousness to God;
14 for sin over you shall not have lordship, for ye are not under law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? let it not be!
16 have ye not known that to whom ye present yourselves servants for obedience, servants ye are to him to whom ye obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
17 and thanks to God, that ye were servants of the sin, and -- were obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which ye were delivered up;
18 and having been freed from the sin, ye became servants to the righteousness.
19 In the manner of men I speak, because of the weakness of your flesh, for even as ye did present your members servants to the uncleanness and to the lawlessness -- to the lawlessness, so now present your members servants to the righteousness -- to sanctification,
20 for when ye were servants of the sin, ye were free from the righteousness,
21 what fruit, therefore, were ye having then, in the things of which ye are now ashamed? for the end of those `is' death.
22 And now, having been freed from the sin, and having become servants to God, ye have your fruit -- to sanctification, and the end life age-during;
23 for the wages of the sin `is' death, and the gift of God `is' life age-during in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 What then shall we say? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Far be the thought. We who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it?
3 Are you ignorant that we, as many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death?
4 We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among [the] dead by the glory of the Father, so *we* also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we are become identified with [him] in the likeness of his death, so also we shall be of [his] resurrection;
6 knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin.
7 For he that has died is justified from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,
9 knowing that Christ having been raised up from among [the] dead dies no more: death has dominion over him no more.
10 For in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God.
11 So also *ye*, reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts.
13 Neither yield your members instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God as alive from among [the] dead, and your members instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over *you*, for ye are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Far be the thought.
16 Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves bondmen for obedience, ye are bondmen to him whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But thanks [be] to God, that ye were bondmen of sin, but have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which ye were instructed.
18 Now, having got your freedom from sin, ye have become bondmen to righteousness.
19 I speak humanly on account of the weakness of your flesh. For even as ye have yielded your members in bondage to uncleanness and to lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now yield your members in bondage to righteousness unto holiness.
20 For when ye were bondmen of sin ye were free from righteousness.
21 What fruit therefore had ye *then* in the things of which ye are *now* ashamed? for the end of *them* [is] death.
22 But *now*, having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the act of favour of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
3 Or don't you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like 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 him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;
9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!
10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
11 Thus also consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!
16 Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered.
18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.
20 For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 What may we say, then? are we to go on in sin so that there may be more grace?
2 In no way. How may we, who are dead to sin, be living in it any longer?
3 Or are you without the knowledge that all we who had baptism into Christ Jesus, had baptism into his death?
4 We have been placed with him among the dead through baptism into death: so that as Christ came again from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, in the same way, might be living in new life.
5 For, if we have been made like him in his death, we will, in the same way, be like him in his coming to life again;
6 Being conscious that our old man was put to death on the cross with him, so that the body of sin might be put away, and we might no longer be servants to sin.
7 Because he who is dead is free from sin.
8 But if we are dead with Christ, we have faith that we will be living with him;
9 Having knowledge that because Christ has come back from the dead, he will never again go down to the dead; death has no more power over him.
10 For his death was a death to sin, but his life now is a life which he is living to God.
11 Even so see yourselves as dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus.
12 For this cause do not let sin be ruling in your body which is under the power of death, so that you give way to its desires;
13 And do not give your bodies to sin as the instruments of wrongdoing, but give yourselves to God, as those who are living from the dead, and your bodies as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin may not have rule over you: because you are not under law, but under grace.
15 What then? are we to go on in sin because we are not under law but under grace? Let it not be so.
16 Are you not conscious that you are the servants of him to whom you give yourselves to do his desire? if to sin, the end being death, or if to do the desire of God, the end being righteousness.
17 But praise be to God that though you were the servants of sin, you have now given yourselves freely to that form of teaching under which you were placed;
18 And being made free from sin you have been made the servants of righteousness.
19 I am using words in the way of men, because your flesh is feeble: as you gave your bodies as servants to what is unclean, and to evil to do evil, so now give them as servants to righteousness to do what is holy.
20 When you were servants of sin you were free from righteousness.
21 What fruit had you at that time in the things which are now a shame to you? for the end of such things is death.
22 But now, being free from sin, and having been made servants to God, you have your fruit in that which is holy, and the end is eternal life.
23 For the reward of sin is death; but what God freely gives is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Romans 6
Commentary on Romans 6 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 6
Ro 6:1-11. The Bearing of Justification by Grace upon a Holy Life.
1. What, &c.—The subject of this third division of our Epistle announces itself at once in the opening question, "Shall we (or, as the true reading is, "May we," "Are we to") continue in sin, that grace may abound?" Had the apostle's doctrine been that salvation depends in any degree upon our good works, no such objection to it could have been made. Against the doctrine of a purely gratuitous justification, the objection is plausible; nor has there ever been an age in which it has not been urged. That it was brought against the apostles, we know from Ro 3:8; and we gather from Ga 5:13; 1Pe 2:16; Jude 4, that some did give occasion to the charge; but that it was a total perversion of the doctrine of Grace the apostle here proceeds to show.
2. God forbid—"That be far from us"; the instincts of the new creature revolting at the thought.
How shall we, that are dead, &c.—literally, and more forcibly, "We who died to sin (as presently to be explained), how shall we live any longer therein?"
3. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ—compare 1Co 10:2.
were baptized into his death?—sealed with the seal of heaven, and as it were formally entered and articled, to all the benefits and all the obligations of Christian discipleship in general, and of His death in particular. And since He was "made sin" and "a curse for us" (2Co 5:21; Ga 5:13), "bearing our sins in His own body on the tree," and "rising again for our justification" (Ro 4:25; 1Pe 2:24), our whole sinful case and condition, thus taken up into His Person, has been brought to an end in His death. Whoso, then, has been baptized into Christ's death has formally surrendered the whole state and life of sin, as in Christ a dead thing. He has sealed himself to be not only "the righteousness of God in Him," but "a new creature"; and as he cannot be in Christ to the one effect and not to the other, for they are one thing, he has bidden farewell, by baptism into Christ's death, to his entire connection with sin. "How," then, "can he live any longer therein?" The two things are as contradictory in the fact as they are in the terms.
4. Therefore we are—rather, "were" (it being a past act, completed at once).
buried with him, by baptism into death—(The comma we have placed after "him" will show what the sense is. It is not, "By baptism we are buried with Him into death," which makes no sense at all; but, "By baptism with Him into death we are buried with Him"; in other words, "By the same baptism which publicly enters us into His death, we are made partakers of His burial also"). To leave a dead body unburied is represented, alike in heathen authors as in Scripture, as the greatest indignity (Re 11:8, 9). It was fitting, therefore, that Christ, after "dying for our sins according to the Scriptures," should "descend into the lower parts of the earth" (Eph 4:9). As this was the last and lowest step of His humiliation, so it was the honorable dissolution of His last link of connection with that life which He laid down for us; and we, in being "buried with Him by our baptism into His death," have by this public act severed our last link of connection with that whole sinful condition and life which Christ brought to an end in His death.
that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father—that is, by such a forth-putting of the Father's power as was the effulgence of His whole glory.
even so we also—as risen to a new life with Him.
should walk in newness of life—But what is that "newness?" Surely if our old life, now dead and buried with Christ, was wholly sinful, the new, to which we rise with the risen Saviour, must be altogether a holy life; so that every time we go back to "those things whereof we are now ashamed" (Ro 6:21), we belie our resurrection with Christ to newness of life, and "forget that we have been purged from our old sins" (2Pe 1:9). (Whether the mode of baptism by immersion be alluded to in this verse, as a kind of symbolical burial and resurrection, does not seem to us of much consequence. Many interpreters think it is, and it may be so. But as it is not clear that baptism in apostolic times was exclusively by immersion [see on Ac 2:41], so sprinkling and washing are indifferently used in the New Testament to express the cleansing efficacy of the blood of Jesus. And just as the woman with the issue of blood got virtue out of Christ by simply touching Him, so the essence of baptism seems to lie in the simple contact of the element with the body, symbolizing living contact with Christ crucified; the mode and extent of suffusion being indifferent and variable with climate and circumstances).
5. For if we have been planted together—literally, "have become formed together." (The word is used here only).
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection—that is, "Since Christ's death and resurrection are inseparable in their efficacy, union with Him in the one carries with it participation in the other, for privilege and for duty alike." The future tense is used of participation in His resurrection, because this is but partially realized in the present state. (See on Ro 5:19).
6, 7. Knowing this, &c.—The apostle now grows more definite and vivid in expressing the sin-destroying efficacy of our union with the crucified Saviour.
that our old man—"our old selves"; that is, "all that we were in our old unregenerate condition, before union with Christ" (compare Col 3:9, 10; Eph 4:22-24; Ga 2:20; 5:24; 6:14).
is—rather, "was."
crucified with him—in order.
that the body of sin—not a figure for "the mass of sin"; nor the "material body," considered as the seat of sin, which it is not; but (as we judge) for "sin as it dwells in us in our present embodied state, under the law of the fall."
might be destroyed—(in Christ's death)—to the end.
that henceforth we should not serve sin—"be in bondage to sin."
7. For he that is dead—rather, "hath died."
is freed—"hath been set free."
from sin—literally, "justified," "acquitted," "got his discharge from sin." As death dissolves all claims, so the whole claim of sin, not only to "reign unto death," but to keep its victims in sinful bondage, has been discharged once for all, by the believer's penal death in the death of Christ; so that he is no longer a "debtor to the flesh to live after the flesh" (Ro 8:12).
8. Now if we be dead—"if we died."
with Christ, &c.—See on Ro 6:5.
9-11. Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him—Though Christ's death was in the most absolute sense a voluntary act (Joh 10:17, 18; Ac 2:24), that voluntary surrender gave death such rightful "dominion over Him" as dissolved its dominion over us. But this once past, "death hath," even in that sense, "dominion over Him no more."
10. For in that he died, he died unto—that is, in obedience to the claims of
sin once—for all.
but in that he liveth, he liveth unto—in obedience to the claims of God.
God—There never, indeed, was a time when Christ did not "live unto God." But in the days of His flesh He did so under the continual burden of sin "laid on Him" (Isa 53:6; 2Co 5:21); whereas, now that He has "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," He "liveth unto God," the acquitted and accepted Surety, unchallenged and unclouded by the claims of sin.
11. Likewise—even as your Lord Himself.
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed—"dead on the one hand"
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord—(The words, "our Lord," at the close of this verse, are wanting in the best manuscripts.)
Note, (1) "Antinomianism is not only an error; it is a falsehood and a slander" [Hodge]. That "we should continue in sin that grace may abound," not only is never the deliberate sentiment of any real believer in the doctrine of Grace, but is abhorrent to every Christian mind, as a monstrous abuse of the most glorious of all truths (Ro 6:1). (2) As the death of Christ is not only the expiation of guilt, but the death of sin itself in all who are vitally united to Him; so the resurrection of Christ is the resurrection of believers, not only to acceptance with God, but to newness of life (Ro 6:2-11). (3) In the light of these two truths, let all who name the name of Christ "examine themselves whether they be in the faith."
Ro 6:12-23. What Practical Use Believers Should Make of Their Death to Sin and Life to God through Union to the Crucified Saviour.
Not content with showing that his doctrine has no tendency to relax the obligations to a holy life, the apostle here proceeds to enforce these obligations.
12. Let not sin therefore—as a Master
reign—(The reader will observe that wherever in this section the words "Sin," "Obedience," "Righteousness," "Uncleanness," "Iniquity," are figuratively used, to represent a Master, they are here printed in capitals, to make this manifest to the eye, and so save explanation).
in your mortal body, that ye should obey it—sin.
in the lusts thereof—"the lusts of the body," as the Greek makes evident. (The other reading, perhaps the true one, "that ye should obey the lusts thereof," comes to the same thing). The "body" is here viewed as the instrument by which all the sins of the heart become facts of the outward life, and as itself the seat of the lower appetites; and it is called "our mortal body," probably to remind us how unsuitable is this reign of sin in those who are "alive from the dead." But the reign here meant is the unchecked dominion of sin within us. Its outward acts are next referred to.
13. Neither yield ye your members instruments of unrighteousness unto Sin, but yield yourselves—this is the great surrender.
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and—as the fruit of this.
your members—till now prostituted to sin.
instruments of righteousness unto God—But what if indwelling sin should prove too strong for us? The reply is: But it will not.
14. For Sin shall not have dominion over you—as the slaves of a tyrant lord.
for ye are not under the law, but under grace—The force of this glorious assurance can only be felt by observing the grounds on which it rests. To be "under the law" is, first, to be under its claim to entire obedience; and so, next under its curse for the breach of these. And as all power to obey can reach the sinner only through Grace, of which the law knows nothing, it follows that to be "under the law" is, finally, to be shut up under an inability to keep it, and consequently to be the helpless slave of sin. On the other hand, to be "under grace," is to be under the glorious canopy and saving effects of that "grace which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (see on Ro 5:20, 21). The curse of the law has been completely lifted from off them; they are made "the righteousness of God in Him"; and they are "alive unto God through Jesus Christ." So that, as when they were "under the law," Sin could not but have dominion over them, so now that they are "under grace," Sin cannot but be subdued under them. If before, Sin resistlessly triumphed, Grace will now be more than conqueror.
15, 16. What then? … Know ye not—it is a dictate of common sense.
16. that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey—with the view of obeying him.
his servants ye are to whom ye obey—to whom ye yield that obedience.
whether of Sin unto death—that is, "issuing in death," in the awful sense of Ro 8:6, as the sinner's final condition.
or of Obedience unto righteousness—that is, obedience resulting in a righteous character, as the enduring condition of the servant of new Obedience (1Jo 2:17; Joh 8:34; 2Pe 2:19; Mt 6:24).
17. But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of Sin—that is, that this is a state of things now past and gone.
but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you—rather, "whereunto ye were delivered" (Margin), or cast, as in a mould. The idea is, that the teaching to which they had heartily yielded themselves had stamped its own impress upon them.
18. Being then—"And being"; it is the continuation and conclusion of the preceding sentence; not a new one.
made free from Sin, ye became the servants of—"servants to"
Righteousness—The case is one of emancipation from entire servitude to one Master to entire servitude to another, whose property we are (see on Ro 1:1). There is no middle state of personal independence; for which we were never made, and to which we have no claim. When we would not that God should reign over us, we were in righteous judgment "sold under Sin"; now being through grace "made free from Sin," it is only to become "servants to Righteousness," which is our true freedom.
19. I speak after the manner of men—descending, for illustration, to the level of common affairs.
because of the infirmity of your flesh—the weakness of your spiritual apprehension.
for as ye have yielded—"as ye yielded," the thing being viewed as now past.
your members servants to Uncleanness and to Iniquity unto—the practice of
iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to Righteousness unto holiness—rather, "unto (the attainment of) sanctification," as the same word is rendered in 2Th 2:13; 1Co 1:30; 1Pe 1:2:—that is, "Looking back upon the heartiness with which ye served Sin, and the lengths ye went to be stimulated now to like zeal and like exuberance in the service of a better Master."
20. For when ye were the servants—"were servants"
of Sin, ye were free from—rather, "in respect of"
Righteousness—Difficulties have been made about this clause where none exist. The import of it seems clearly to be this:—"Since no servant can serve two masters, much less where their interests come into deadly collision, and each demands the whole man, so, while ye were in the service of Sin ye were in no proper sense the servants of Righteousness, and never did it one act of real service: whatever might be your conviction of the claims of Righteousness, your real services were all and always given to Sin: Thus had ye full proof of the nature and advantages of Sin's service." The searching question with which this is followed up, shows that this is the meaning.
21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death—What permanent advantage, and what abiding satisfaction, have those things yielded? The apostle answers his own question:—"Abiding satisfaction, did I ask? They have left only a sense of 'shame.' Permanent advantage? 'The end of them is death.'" By saying they were "now ashamed," he makes it plain that he is not referring to that disgust at themselves, and remorse of conscience by which those who are the most helplessly "sold under sin" are often stung to the quick; but that ingenuous feeling of self-reproach, which pierces and weighs down the children of God, as they think of the dishonor which their past life did to His name, the ingratitude it displayed, the violence it did to their own conscience, its deadening and degrading effects, and the death—"the second death"—to which it was dragging them down, when mere Grace arrested them. (On the sense of "death" here, see on Ro 5:12-21, Note 3, and Ro 6:16: see also Re 21:8—The change proposed in the pointing of this verse: "What fruit had ye then? things whereof ye are now ashamed" [Luther, Tholuck, De Wette, Philippi, Alford, &c.], seems unnatural and uncalled for. The ordinary pointing has at least powerful support [Chrysostom, Calvin, Beza, Grotius, Bengel, Stuart, Fritzsche]).
22. But now—as if to get away from such a subject were unspeakable relief.
being made free from Sin, and become servants to God—in the absolute sense intended throughout all this passage.
ye have—not "ought to have," but "do have," in point of fact.
your fruit unto holiness—"sanctification," as in Ro 6:19; meaning that permanently holy state and character which is built up out of the whole "fruits of righteousness," which believers successively bring forth. They "have their fruit" unto this, that is, all going towards this blessed result.
and the end everlasting life—as the final state of the justified believer; the beatific experience not only of complete exemption from the fall with all its effects, but of the perfect life of acceptance with God, and conformity to His likeness, of unveiled access to Him, and ineffable fellowship with Him through all duration.
23. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through—"in"
Jesus Christ our Lord—This concluding verse—as pointed as it is brief—contains the marrow, the most fine gold, of the Gospel. As the laborer is worthy of his hire, and feels it to be his due—his own of right—so is death the due of sin, the wages the sinner has well wrought for, his own. But "eternal life" is in no sense or degree the wages of our righteousness; we do nothing whatever to earn or become entitled to it, and never can: it is therefore, in the most absolute sense, "THE GIFT OF God." Grace reigns in the bestowal of it in every case, and that "in Jesus Christ our Lord," as the righteous Channel of it. In view of this, who that hath tasted that the Lord is gracious can refrain from saying, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen!" (Re 1:5, 6).
Note, (1) As the most effectual refutation of the oft-repeated calumny, that the doctrine of Salvation by grace encourages to continue in sin, is the holy life of those who profess it, let such ever feel that the highest service they can render to that Grace which is all their hope, is to "yield themselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and their members instruments of righteousness unto God" (Ro 6:12, 13). By so doing they will "put to silence the ignorance of foolish men," secure their own peace, carry out the end of their calling, and give substantial glory to Him that loved them. (2) The fundamental principle of Gospel obedience is as original as it is divinely rational; that "we are set free from the law in order to keep it, and are brought graciously under servitude to the law in order to be free" (Ro 6:14, 15, 18). So long as we know no principle of obedience but the terrors of the law, which condemns all the breakers of it, and knows nothing whatever of grace, either to pardon the guilty or to purify the stained, we are shut up under a moral impossibility of genuine and acceptable obedience: whereas when Grace lifts us out of this state, and through union to a righteous Surety, brings us into a state of conscious reconciliation, and loving surrender of heart to a God of salvation, we immediately feel the glorious liberty to be holy, and the assurance that "Sin shall not have dominion over us" is as sweet to our renewed tastes and aspirations as the ground of it is felt to be firm, "because we are not under the Law, but under Grace." (3) As this most momentous of all transitions in the history of a man is wholly of God's free grace, the change should never be thought, spoken, or written of but with lively thanksgiving to Him who so loved us (Ro 6:17). (4) Christians, in the service of God, should emulate their former selves in the zeal and steadiness with which they served sin, and the length to which they went in it (Ro 6:19). (5) To stimulate this holy rivalry, let us often "look back to the rock whence we were hewn, the hole of the pit whence we were digged," in search of the enduring advantages and permanent satisfactions which the service of Sin yielded; and when we find to our "shame" only gall and wormwood, let us follow a godless life to its proper "end," until, finding ourselves in the territories of "death," we are fain to hasten back to survey the service of Righteousness, that new Master of all believers, and find Him leading us sweetly into abiding "holiness," and landing us at length in "everlasting life" (Ro 6:20-22). (6) Death and life are before all men who hear the Gospel: the one, the natural issue and proper reward of sin; the other, the absolutely free "GIFT OF God" to sinners, "in Jesus Christ our Lord." And as the one is the conscious sense of the hopeless loss of all blissful existence, so the other is the conscious possession and enjoyment of all that constitutes a rational creature's highest "life" for evermore (Ro 6:23). Ye that read or hear these words, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live!" (De 30:19).