THE RIGHT RESPONSE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS Romans 6:1-23 Dead to Sin and Freed from Sin 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, who are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Don’t you know that those of us who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be 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. Alive with Christ 8 Now if we are dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death has no more dominion over him. 10 The death He died, He died unto sin once, but the life He lives, He lives unto God. 11 You, also, should reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, indeed, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body and cause you to obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Do not yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God, as persons who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 Sin will not have dominion over you because you 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 Don’t you know that you are servants of the one to whom you yield yourselves to obey, whether of sin, resulting in death, or of obedience, resulting in righteousness? 17 But thank God that you, who were servants of sin, have obeyed, from the heart, that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. 18 and, having been freed from sin, you became servants of righteousness.
- Paul ended chapter 5 with the important principle that where sin abounds (is obvious), grace abounds (is obvious) all the more (Romans 5:20). The point is that God’s grace is always much greater than all our Man’s sin.
- Paul begins chapter 6 with the question, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” If the presence of sin makes grace more obvious, then why not sin more so that grace can become even more obvious? Now that our sins have been forgiven and we are sure we shall be saved, why not continue to live as we once did? Paul has a very definite answer to this question.
- A person is justified when he/she identifies with the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is accomplished by Spirit baptism and then symbolized by water baptism. For that person to continue living in sin is to live in a way that is not consistent with Christ’s work, which we are now participating in.
- IF Christ was raised from the dead, to live a new life of righteousness, and we were joined to Him, THEN we must live new, righteous lives too.
The Right Response to God’s Righteousness 19 I speak in the manner of men because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you have yielded your members as servants to uncleanness and iniquity, leading to more iniquity, so now yield your members as servants to righteousness, leading to holiness. 20 When you were servants of sin, and free from righteousness, 21 what fruit did you have by doing those things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death, 22 but now, having been freed from sin, and having become servants to God, you have fruit unto holiness and the end is everlasting life, 23 for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Now that we are aware of our union with Jesus Christ, we should reject and renounce sin and serve God, by living righteously. Our lives should reflect a “deadness to sin” and an “aliveness to righteousness.”
- Paul exhorts us to stop presenting our bodies as instruments of sin and to present them, instead, as instruments of righteousness.
- We are the slaves of that which we serve. We become either slaves of righteousness or slaves of sin. Paul urges us to become servants of God, by becoming slaves to righteousness.