REIGNING IN LIFE THROUGH CHRIST BY DYING WITH CHRIST, AND RISING WITH HIM (6:1-14). The question is asked in Romans 6:1, ‘What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?'. This brings home the fact that what is now to follow does not just deal with the question of how men an... [ Continue Reading ]
CHRISTIANS HAVE BEEN FREED FROM THE TYRANNY OF SIN BY DYING WITH CHRIST AND RISING WITH HIM AND ARE THEREFORE TO TRIUMPHANTLY SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY OF BEING SO FREED FROM SIN (6:1-23). Having ended the previous chapter with the thought of sin ‘reigning in death', this whole chapter now deals with th... [ Continue Reading ]
‘What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?' The question is put in Paul's terms but probably had in mind charges that had been made against his teachings, or arguments that had actually been put forward by people who made it an excuse for sin. Either way it is a disto... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Certainly not. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live in it?' His reply is firm and strong. ‘Certainly not!' Literally, ‘let it not be'. Nothing was further from his thoughts. His teaching was rather that we have died to sin. That being so how can we possibly continue to live in it? And t... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Or are you ignorant that all we who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?' For the truth is that when as believing Christians we are baptised, we are baptised into Christ's death. Baptism is intended to be not only a symbol of dying with Christ, but also a deliberate commitm... [ Continue Reading ]
‘We were buried therefore with him through baptism into 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.' Thus Spiritually as those who are ‘in Christ' they were ‘buried with Him through baptism unto death', dying and bei... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For if we have been conjoined with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also (in the likeness) of his resurrection,' In Romans 6:4 our entering into Christ's death resulted in the fact that ‘like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in n... [ Continue Reading ]
‘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,' He now reverts back to stress that we are no longer under bondage to sin. And this is because we know that our ‘old man' was crucified with Him. Our ‘ol... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For he who has died is justified from sin.' And this is because, having positionally died with Christ (read in on the basis of the previous verses), we are ‘accounted as righteous' from sin. Sin has lost its power over us. Its penalty has been fully paid by Christ. As those who have died with Chri... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,' For as we have already seen (Romans 6:3) Christ did not just die. He rose again from the dead. And therefore if we have died with Christ, we know and believe that we will also ‘live with Him', we will share in His resurrectio... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more, death no more has dominion over him.' And what is more, we can live in this way knowing that death has been defeated. Knowing that Christ has been raised from the dead, we know that He will die no more. Death has been vanquished. We recog... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For the death that he died, he died to sin once, but the life that he lives, he lives unto God.' For Christ's death was once for all. It was a once for all event in order that, being made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) He might die to sin on our behalf. ‘He died' on our behalf once for all. In co... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Even so reckon you also yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.' In the same way we as Christians are to reckon ourselves as dead to sin, but alive to God, ‘in Christ Jesus'. This is what our response to what has been described must be. It must be a recognition of the fact... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Do not therefore let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its strong desires,' In consequence of the fact that we are dead to sin through our association with Christ's death we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, in other words in ourselves. Sin has been ejected from its... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Nor go on presenting 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 unto God.' So we are no longer to ‘go on presenting' our ‘members' (the parts of our body) to sin as instruments of unr... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.' And all this because we have now come under a new regime. We have been transferred out from under the tyranny of darkness so that we may come under the Kingship of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). Sin therefore... [ Continue Reading ]
‘What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!' Once again Paul poses a question. He had once been under the Law and he had discovered that it was a parlous situation to be in. The Law had in practise been his be all and end all. But as he had struggled to o... [ Continue Reading ]
WE ARE THEREFORE NO LONGER TO BE SERVANTS OF SIN, BUT SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND OF GOD, NO LONGER EARNING DEATH AS OUR WAGES, BUT RECEIVING THE FREE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD (6:15-23). The question now is, ‘If we are not under the Law but under grace, does that mean that we... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?' For the test of whom we are under is the test of whom we obey. All of us present ourselves to obey either sin or obedie... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were servants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered, and being made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness.' But Paul now thanks God that while his hearers had been the servants of sin, th... [ Continue Reading ]
‘I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.' Paul then points out that they must not take his i... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. What fruit had you then at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.' They had once been servants of sin. And in those days they had had little regard to the claims of rig... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.' But now that they had been made free from sin and had become servants of God, their lives were producing a different kind of fruit, fruit that resulted in their being se... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.' For the only wages that sin paid was death, and what lay beyond. That was the consequence of serving sin. But in contrast God's free gift to His own was eternal life, a life which was found in Chris... [ Continue Reading ]