Romans 6:1
Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; ἐπιμένωμεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ἵνα ἡ χάρις πλεονάσῃ;
What therefore, shall we say? Shall we continue in sin in order that grace might abound?
Paraphrase: Now I know what some of you are thinking. You will say that if the law entered in order that trespass might increase (Romans 5:20) and if the grace of God abounded all the more for our salvation, then why should I have any concern for my sin? After all, where sin has abounded, there grace has super-abounded! The more guilt I have run up in God’s courtroom, the more powerful God’s grace is seen to be in the forgiving all these violations of His law. If my personal righteousness is not what brings me justification before God (Romans 5:19), then why should I care about it? I should cast all caution to the wind and plunge myself into all manner of unrestrained pleasure-seeking knowing that my salvation rests entirely on Christ’s righteousness and my own righteousness has no bearing on the matter.
Comments:
cf. principle 27.
Romans 6:2
μὴ γένοιτο· οἵτινες ἀπεθάνομεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, πῶς ἔτι ζήσομεν ἐν αὐτῇ;
May it never be. Seeing we have died to sin, how shall we still live in it?
Paraphrase: Brothers and sisters, do not think this way. This is such wrong thinking and so dreadfully offensive to the holy God we serve. Don’t we as Christians confess that we are dead to sin? Now if we are dead to sin, what possible sense does it make to go on committing sin as we please? When people say that they are dead to any person, they mean that they have nothing to do with him, they never want to speak to them or see them again. Now what would we think of a person who said, “I am dead to this man” but then continues to speak with him, to have lunch with him, and to invite him over for a barbeque? We would see that this as an obvious contradiction. So in this case; we can’t profess, on the one hand, to be dead to sin and then go on to live in the practice of it.
Comments:
οἵτινες ἀπεθάνομεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ is giving the reason for the following clause πῶς ἔτι ζήσομεν ἐν αὐτῇ. In this case, it is translated “seeing that he (or they)”. See the entry for ὅστις at the very top of this page.
Sanday & Headlam (p157): Our baptism was a sort of funeral; a solemn act of consigning us to that death of Christ in which we are made one with Him.
Romans 6:3
ἢ ἀγνοεῖτε ὅτι ὅσοι ἐβαπτίσθημεν εἰς Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν εἰς τὸν θάνατον αὐτοῦ ἐβαπτίσθημεν;
or are you ignorant that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Paraphrase: Perhaps you don’t understand that when you were baptized by the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 12:13), you were joined to Jesus Christ in a saving union. Now if you are thus joined to Christ, then this means that when Christ died, you died. (1 Peter 2:24) Died to what? Well, you died to sin. This is why Jesus had to die, because He was bearing our curse. (Galatians 3:13) Be bearing our curse, He put an end both to the curse and punishment of sin which we deserved but also to the power of sin. By this baptism into Christ’s death, we were purified from sin, and sin lost its power over us.
Comments:
Baptism is the means διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος (v4) by which believers are brought into union or “buried” into Christ’s death, which is clearly not water-baptism but Spirit-baptism. (1 Corinthians 12:13; also Peter in 1 Peter 3:21) It is also true, however, that the picture of a full immersion into water is behind Paul’s thinking here. The Jews insisted on a full immersion for their baptisms; see chapter 8. It would have been something commonly seen in Jewish life. Ford sees (p321) three clear realities in Paul’s teaching here:
- A death and a new life, in a spiritual sense—a dying to sin, and a living anew to God; compared to…
- …a death and a new life in a literal sense—the death of Christ, and his post-resurrection life; and illustrated by…
- …a death and a new life in a symbolical sense—the submersion and emersion of the Christian in baptism.
Romans 6:4
συνετάφημεν οὖν αὐτῷ διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος εἰς τὸν θάνατον, ἵνα ὥσπερ ἠγέρθη Χριστὸς ἐκ νεκρῶν διὰ τῆς δόξης τοῦ πατρός, οὕτως καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς περιπατήσωμεν.
Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, in this manner even we in newness of life might walk.
Paraphrase: Now if by this baptism, we are made one with Jesus in His death, then surely we are also one with Him in His resurrection. It would be a terrible mistake to think that we are one with Jesus in His death but not one with Him in all His other redemptive acts. Let’s review this again. First, when Jesus died, we died. Then when He was buried, we were buried. Now we also confess that Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 3:18). Well then surely we also should have every confidence that we too are raised with Him by the power of the same Spirit! Praise God for this! Our old way of life (1 Peter 1:18), was crucified and left behind in the grave never to be heard from again. Then, the Spirit went on to raise us up, just as He raised Jesus out of His grave and restored Him to life again. This same Spirit now brings us out of the grave as new persons who are dead to sin and alive to righteous living. (Romans 6:11, 13) All of of this points to the great glory of our God and Father who causes all these things to work together for our salvation.
Comments:
Godwin argues (p152) that Paul cannot possibly be referring to the actual ritual of baptism here. He notes that “Little religious instruction and experience preceded the rite during the ministry of Christ and the apostles; and no special spiritual efficacy is ever by them attributed to it.” Surely Paul would have extolled water-baptism very highly if he thought it had some kind of spiritual efficacy. Instead, we find the opposite. “Circumcision is nothing,” he writes. “I thank God I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius” and Paul’s strongest statement of all, “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel.” (1 Corinthians 1:14, 17) Robertson has a good chapter (chp4) where he argues that Paul was no sacramentarian.
Romans 6:5
Εἰ γὰρ σύμφυτοι γεγόναμεν τῷ ὁμοιώματι τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἐσόμεθα·
For if we have been united to the likeness of His death, certainly also we shall be of resurrection.
Paraphrase: Therefore, if our union with Jesus means that we died when He died, then we can be just as sure that when He was raised from the dead, we also were raised with Him to a new life marked by holiness. Of course, I am not saying that we literally and physically died and rose with Jesus; it is the spiritual reality that I am speaking of. The reality that Jesus’ death is analogous to the death of our old man, and Jesus’ resurrection is analogous to our rising to a new life.
Comments:
Hodge notes (p307) that the “future ἐσόμεθα does not here express obligation, nor futurity. The reference is not to what is to happen hereafter, but to the certainty of sequence, or causal connection. If the one thing happens, the other shall certainly follow.”
Romans 6:6
τοῦτο γινώσκοντες ὅτι ὁ παλαιὸς ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος συνεσταυρώθη, ἵνα καταργηθῇ τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τοῦ μηκέτι δουλεύειν ἡμᾶς τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ,
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified that the body of sin might be abolished, in order that we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
Paraphrase: We are sure of this; our old man was nailed to the cross and was buried with the result that our old self has been done away with. We can be sure that we’ll never hear from him again. Sin is no longer our cruel tyrant; we’re not slaves to him any longer. (Romans 5:21)
Comments:
Romans 6:7
ὁ γὰρ ἀποθανὼν δεδικαίωται ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας.
For the one who is dead has been justified from sin.
Paraphrase: Now when a person is dead, they are no longer able to sin, and this is the status of our sin nature or our old man; he’s dead. He cannot rise up within us and lead us into sin any more.
Comments:
The δικαιόω here is not soteriological but simply indicating the obvious truth that a dead person cannot sin; see Stuart (p215).
Romans 6:8
εἰ δὲ ἀπεθάνομεν σὺν Χριστῷ, πιστεύομεν ὅτι καὶ συζήσομεν αὐτῷ·
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will even live with Him.
Paraphrase: Now if our old man, who constantly led us into sin, is dead and buried, then we may look forward to a new reality. This new reality is our new life lived in union with Christ. A life, not lived under the heel of sin but lived in the glorious liberty of the kingdom of God. (Romans 8:21) Don’t you remember going down into the water of baptism and then emerging from it again? There you have a living picture of what the Spirit of God does on our soul. He sets us free from sin and binds us tightly to our Lord Jesus; and by this union, we live unto Him day by day.
Comments:
Romans 6:9
εἰδότες ὅτι Χριστὸς ἐγερθεὶς ἐκ νεκρῶν οὐκέτι ἀποθνῄσκει, θάνατος αὐτοῦ οὐκέτι κυριεύει·
knowing that Christ being raised from the dead no longer dies; death no longer reigns over Him.
Paraphrase: What control over us can death possibly have when we’ve been joined to the resurrected Jesus? Ask yourself this; after Jesus rose from the dead, did He ever die again? Of course, not. This is because death no longer has any power over Jesus; and if you are in union with Christ, then death no longer has any power over you either.
Comments:
Roman Catholics believe in the assumption of Mary because they think she was sinless; protestants believe in the assumption of Jesus as taught in this verse.
Romans 6:10
ὃ γὰρ ἀπέθανεν, τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ἀπέθανεν ἐφάπαξ· ὃ δὲ ζῇ, ζῇ τῷ θεῷ.
For what He died, to sin He died once for all, and what He lives, He lives to God.
Paraphrase: “What kind of death did Jesus die,” you might ask. The death He died was a death to sin, and not His own sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21) No, it was a death for the guilt which was imputed to Him. (Romans 8:3; 1 Peter 2:22-24) By His death, Jesus took away this guilt; and at the same time, He broke the power and dominion of sin. He rose out of the grave and now lives a life unaffected by the curse of sin. Sin has no power over Him, and neither does death. All this He did in one fell swoop; there is no need to repeat it. It is now freely offered to all who will take hold of it in faith and be joined to Him. All who come to Jesus, whether they be Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, all will themselves experience this miracle. They too will be dead to sin but alive to God.
Comments:
Winer says (Rem. 3, p209) that when the neuter relative pronoun is prefixed to a sentence it has the meaning of “as concerns” or “as regards.”
The life of Jesus after the resurrection was not cursed by sin. Spurgeon:
This life, whenever it is imparted, is new life. In reading the four evangelists, have you never noticed the difference between Jesus after resurrection and before? A French divine has written a book entitled “The Life of Jesus Christ in Glory.” When I bought it, I hardly knew what the subject might be; but I soon perceived that it was the life of Jesus on earth after he was risen from the dead. That was, indeed, a glorious life. He feels no more suffering, weakness, weariness, reproach, or poverty: he is no more cavilled at or opposed by men. He is in the world, but he scarcely seems to touch it, and it does not at all touch him. He was of another world, and only a temporary sojourner on this globe, to which he evidently did not belong.
Ames (p1): “Divinity is the doctrine of living to God.”
Romans 6:11
οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς λογίζεσθε ἑαυτοὺς εἶναι νεκροὺς μὲν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ζῶντας δὲ τῷ θεῷ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.
Romans 6:12
Μὴ οὖν βασιλευέτω ἡ ἁμαρτία ἐν τῷ θνητῷ ὑμῶν σώματι εἰς τὸ ὑπακούειν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις αὐτοῦ,
Romans 6:13
μηδὲ παριστάνετε τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν ὅπλα ἀδικίας τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ἀλλὰ παραστήσατε ἑαυτοὺς τῷ θεῷ ὡσεὶ ἐκ νεκρῶν ζῶντας καὶ τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν ὅπλα δικαιοσύνης τῷ θεῷ.
Romans 6:14
ἁμαρτία γὰρ ὑμῶν οὐ κυριεύσει, οὐ γάρ ἐστε ὑπὸ νόμον ἀλλὰ ὑπὸ χάριν.
Paraphrase:
Comments:
Moule (p171): The whole previous argument explains this sentence. He refers to our acceptance. He goes back to the justification of the guilty, “without the deeds of law,” by the act of free grace; and briefly restates it thus, that he may take up afresh the position that this glorious liberation means not license but divine order. Sin shall be no more your tyrant-creditor, holding up the broken law in evidence that it has right to lead you off to a pestilential prison, and to death. Your dying Savior has met your creditor in full for you, and in Him you have entire discharge in that eternal court where the terrible plea once stood against you. Your dealings as debtors are now not with the enemy who cried for your death, but with the Friend who has bought you out of his power.
Romans 6:15
Τί οὖν; ἁμαρτήσωμεν ὅτι οὐκ ἐσμὲν ὑπὸ νόμον ἀλλὰ ὑπὸ χάριν; μὴ γένοιτο·
What therefore? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
Paraphrase: Now let me answer a common objection. Some will conclude that since we are under grace and not under law, we may therefore sin as much as we like without any fear of the consequences, but this is a very bad conclusion to draw from this glorious truth.
Comments:
ἁμαρτήσωμεν is a deliberative subjunctive asking a rhetorical question (GGBB 465).
under law = justification by way of a covenant of works; under grace = justification by way of the covenant of grace; cf John Brown, Stuart.
Romans 6:16
οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ᾧ παριστάνετε ἑαυτοὺς δούλους εἰς ὑπακοήν, δοῦλοί ἐστε ᾧ ὑπακούετε, ἤτοι ἁμαρτίας εἰς θάνατον ἢ ὑπακοῆς εἰς δικαιοσύνην;
do you not know that to whom you themselves slaves to obedience, slaves you are to whom you obey. Whether sins unto death or obedience unto righteousness?
Paraphrase: We all have seen slaves, and we know that whoever owns the slave is the one to whom the slave must give his unqualified obedience. Now we all give ourselves away to some master. That’s a given. Everyone gives themselves over to some master for better or worse. If we are so foolish as to yield ourselves to Master Sin, then we are on the path to death. If we yield ourselves to Master Righteousness, then we are on the path to eternal life.
Comments:
παριστάνετε = to place a person or thing at one’s disposal. source
ἤτοι = hapax legomenon
Deissmann suggests (p382) that the term Christian is synonymous with “slave of Christ.”
Romans 6:17
χάρις δὲ τῷ θεῷ ὅτι ἦτε δοῦλοι τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὑπηκούσατε δὲ ἐκ καρδίας εἰς ὃν παρεδόθητε τύπον διδαχῆς,
Romans 6:18
ἐλευθερωθέντες δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐδουλώθητε τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ·
Romans 6:19
ἀνθρώπινον λέγω διὰ τὴν ἀσθένειαν τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν· ὥσπερ γὰρ παρεστήσατε τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν δοῦλα τῇ ἀκαθαρσίᾳ καὶ τῇ ἀνομίᾳ εἰς τὴν ἀνομίαν, οὕτως νῦν παραστήσατε τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν δοῦλα τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ εἰς ἁγιασμόν.
Rom 6:20
Ὅτε γὰρ δοῦλοι ἦτε τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἐλεύθεροι ἦτε τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ.
Rom 6:21
τίνα οὖν καρπὸν εἴχετε τότε ἐφ’ οἷς νῦν ἐπαισχύνεσθε; τὸ γὰρ τέλος ἐκείνων θάνατος·
Rom 6:22
νυνὶ δέ, ἐλευθερωθέντες ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας δουλωθέντες δὲ τῷ θεῷ, ἔχετε τὸν καρπὸν ὑμῶν εἰς ἁγιασμόν, τὸ δὲ τέλος ζωὴν αἰώνιον.
Rom 6:23
τὰ γὰρ ὀψώνια τῆς ἁμαρτίας θάνατος, τὸ δὲ χάρισμα τοῦ θεοῦ ζωὴ αἰώνιος ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν.