Romans 6:1-14

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 and women can be accounted righteous through Christ, but also with the question of how they can become actively righteous. It was necessary to make a reply to the calumny that Paul could be seen as teaching that being ‘accounted righteous through faith alone, freely and without cost' encouraged sin. Indeed, there were claims that he actually taught that it was good to sin because it brought out the grace of God (compare Romans 3:8). But that is not the main reason for Paul's argument. Rather his purpose is to call on Christians to realise their potential, and to reign in life through Christ (Romans 5:17). He therefore answers the calumny by pointing out that his very doctrine, of dying with Christ and rising with Him, is in fact the greatest argument against sin and in favour of living righteously, that it is possible to have. For as he says in Romans 6:2,  ‘we who died to sin, how shall we any longer live in it?'  And the remainder of the passage expands on that question.