Important Answers-Romans 6:8-14

Our world is full of questions and the longer that I live the more questions I have myself. I’m sure that I share this attitude with a lot of you. In fact, people today are questioning things that many took for granted not too long ago–should I stand during the national anthem? How many genders are there? Etc. In my line of work I am inundated with questions every day. Just the other afternoon I received within the span of one hour questions about parenting, what I believed about the age of accountability, how to write a devotional, and what time I was going to be home. As your pastor I must admit to you that I don’t have all the answers to every question posed to me and some questions are easier to answer than others. However, I will also submit to you that the Bible does provide explicit answers to the most fundamental questions of life—questions that are more important than any of the inquiries I’ve raised thus far. Today we are going to answer two of these from Romans 6:8-14. As Paul continues his exposition on salvation, he provides some important doctrinal comments on the nature of salvation and its implications for the lives of believers. Therefore, without further ado, let’s ask and answer away!

 “How do people know they are really alive?”-6:8-11

The reader will notice that Paul often repeats himself when he believes something is worth reiterating. Like many compelling teachers today, Paul understood that repetition leads to retention; repetition leads to retention; repetition leads to intention. In 6:1-7, Paul taught that the believer is freed from sin via Christ’s death and resurrection. In verse 8 he restates the same general proposition when he says, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,…” (6:8). While many were tempted to interpret this truth to mean that salvation behaves like insurance in a bad/disastrous situation or provides a license to do just about anything, Paul has made it clear that this promise of renewed life is not merely futuristic, but immediate. “This is not a promise of life after death with Christ in heaven, but of a life to be lived out here and now” (Mounce, 152). This life, ironically enough, is made possible via one’s death in Christ. In one of the most acute paradoxes in all of history, death, far from being simply a negative concept, is in fact the gateway to life. To the question, “How do I know if I am truly alive?” Paul says “by recognizing whether or not you have died and been raised with Christ.”

Galatians 2:20-“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ live in me; and the life which I not live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.”

To place it in the simplest terms, to live one must die. The foundation of the gospel itself is fixed to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

However, not only is salvation founded on Christ’s work on the cross and in the empty tomb, it is rendered complete by the same redemptive activities—“Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him,…” (6:9). Having been raised from the dead, Christ cannot die again. This separates Jesus’ experience from his friend Lazarus. Ultimately, Lazarus was not resurrected in the proper sense of the word. He was merely made alive again only to die sometime later. Jesus, on the other hand was resurrected to glorious perfection for all eternity. Christ’s resurrection broke forever the tyranny of death. That cruel master can no longer exercise any power over him or those who follow Him. “The cross was sin’s final move; the resurrection was God’s checkmate. The game is over. Sin is forever in defeat. Christ, the victor died to sin ‘once for all’ and lives now in unbroken fellowship with God” (Mounce, 152).

The efficiency of Christ’s completed work on the cross and in the tomb is further described in verse 10—“for the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God” (6:10). Two grammatical phenomena help highlight the efficacy and completeness of Christ’s work. First, the verb “died” is aorist (past tense) meaning that this action is final and complete.  Second, “once for all” (efapax) describes an “altogether decisive unrepeatable event.”

Hebrews 7:27-“Who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself,”

Hebrews 9:12-“And not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”

Hebrews 10:10-“By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

In all of these contexts, the same verb is used to stress the once-for-all nature of the sacrifice of Christ—once for all sin, once for all time, and, at least potentially, once for all mankind (respectively).

By reminding his audience that salvation involves unity with Christ’s death and life, describing for his listeners that Christ’s works is complete, and commenting on the efficacy of Jesus’ sacrifice, Paul argues that salvation is an enduring phenomenon. This is important, for, if salvation in Christ is an complete, it cannot be lost once it is bestowed. After all, as Paul reminds in verse 8, “we died with Christ.” This means that all of the persevering and amazing qualities of salvation that Christ enjoyed are made real for his followers who never need to look for another sacrifice somewhere else down the road.  Interestingly, this bears out even on a grammatical level. Because of Christ’s death (past, final, complete), believers can enjoy the “life that he lives” (present, ongoing, progressive).

Such a life is to be lived, as Christ demonstrates “to God.” This means that God and his glory is the aim of a salvation and this leads to the second truth proclaimed in this passage. This leads to another important inquiry that Paul answers for us in 6:12-14.

 “How do we know to Whom or What people are Beholden?”-6:12-14

If all that Paul has shared about salvation is true (namely that we have died with Christ and been raised to new life, that Christ’s work is complete, and that salvation is efficient for all), then, he continues, “…, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its lusts” (6:12). In this verse we move from Paul’s teaching on salvation to its appropriate application (from the indicative to the imperative). Before, Paul was sharing information about what salvation really is. Now, Paul is issuing a command that naturally follows.

As stated earlier (see verse 8ff), in Christ believers have died to sin and are alive to God. Therefore, these must base their daily lives on that truth and live out this perspective. It follows then that believers are no longer to allow sin to reign in their mortal bodies. Here, “sin is personified as a…ruler (‘do not let sin reign…’) who would make us obey the cravings of our bodies that are destined for death. But in Christ we have died to sin. Sin no longer has the authority to enforce its demands. [Christ’s] death has severed the relationship” (Mounce, 153).

But what does this look like? How does one transfer his/her allegiance from sin to God following the application of Christ’s death and resurrection? Paul provides us with the steps believers should take so that they live out what they are in verse 13—“do not go on presenting the members of our body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness” (6:13a). The verb used is a present progressive and literally means “do not be continuously presenting the members,…”.

The human person is a marvel to behold. When God created people, he endowed them with remarkable gifts (instruments) that are capable of great things. Recently, I have been watching a documentary series on architecture that celebrates some of mankind’s creative capacity. Amazing structures along with advances in science, cures for diseases, beautiful music, humanitarian effort, etc. all demonstrate how mankind’s creativity, reasoning, intelligence, and concern can be used for good. That said, the misuse of these gifts has also been the impetus behind great atrocities. An artist’s creativity is capable of showcasing the obscene. Hitler’s genocidal program during the holocaust was based on a mis-appropriation of reasoning and misapplication of what he believed about evolutionary science. Today’s university, although originally intended to be places that fostered critical thinking and real debate, have become experimental safe-spaces in which feeling good has replaced learning truth. The creativity that once birthed operas and symphonies is now used to demean women and advocate for debauchery in much of the music we hear on the radio today. Human concern and passion is often directed toward the self instead of others. In all of these cases, the instruments God has provided are misused and unrighteousness results.

Some commentators believe that Paul was employing a military analogy here with “instruments.” If this is true, Paul is saying “Do not let sin take command of any part of your body and use it as a weapon for evil purposes.” Believers, in an effort to live in accordance with their salvation are not to hand their talents over to be used in these ways.

Instead, Paul says “present (lit. ‘be presenting’) yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (6:13b). Alive with Christ, believers are to put themselves at God’s disposal. Their bodies are to be devoted to Him as instruments of righteousness. Barclay writes “we are faced with the tremendous alternative of making ourselves weapons in the hand of God or weapons in the hand of sin.”

In a summative statement, Paul concludes “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the law but under grace” (6:14). As Paul made clear earlier, the law is only capable of identifying when people fail—it cannot make anyone righteous. Now, because of Christ, believers have grace—the unmerited favor of God that allows them new life in Him. Because of this, sin is no longer the believer’s master—Jesus is!

Under the regime of sin, the forces of evil exploit people’s God-given instruments for nefarious purposes that lead to death. Because of the believer’s salvation in Jesus Christ, the forces of grace use our God-given instruments for righteousness, resulting in the Glory of God! How do we know to what or to whom we are beholden? Paul says, look at how you and your “instruments” are being used.

So What?

I wonder if you are able to correctly answer these questions today. Do you know whether or not you are truly alive today? Do you know to what or to whom you are ultimately beholden? Paul has argued in this passage that only those who have died in Christ know life both now and forever. He also concludes that one’s allegiances are betrayed in the way one’s life is being used. I’m sure many of you came here today with all kinds of questions—questions about what is going on in the world around you, questions about the church and if it really even matters to my life, questions about the future, etc. While I may or may not be able to provide a compelling answer to all of these inquiries, I can at least tell you that Jesus is the only way to know life and allegiance to Him affords the greatest blessings of all. In a world of questions, here are at least two answers that we can all walk away with today.