As we near the 500th anniversary of the
Reformation, it is interestingly that we find ourselves back in the book of
Romans. Romans proved to be the inspiration behind Martin Luther’s conversion
and, in many ways was also the impetus behind his 95 thesis. Some of the truths
that Romans espouses concerning the nature of salvation were celebrated
throughout the Reformation period by means of slogans like–sola gratia, and sola fide
(grace alone, faith alone). These slogans illustrate that against many heresies
and tendencies that were present within the Catholic Church, the Bible teaches
that people are saved by grace through faith. This is a helpful reminder as we reenter
the book of Romans where we left off a couple of months ago—Romans 6:1-7.
However, in order for us to appreciate where we are in this book, we have to
remind ourselves of where we’ve been and what Paul has taught up to this point.
Paul spent the better part of four chapters (1-4) explaining how all are lost—the
irreligious, the religious, even the devout Jew—and in need of a salvation.
Real salvation comes, according to chapters 4-5 by God’s grace through faith in
Jesus Christ (not works, not ethnicity, not religion) and this provides peace
with God (5:1) where division and wrath once reigned. However this grace-heavy
teaching raised several questions that Paul decides to address in Romans 6.
Today we are going to tackle the first of these questions and its answer as
found in Romans 6:1-7.
a. The Inquiry: Are
we Free to Sin?-6:1
Paul opens chapter 6 with a provocative question, “What
shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin...” Though the inquiry posed in
verse 1 of chapter six seems strange, it is not without precedent. In fact, the
question, although rarely articulated today, is in many ways how people who
profess to be believers live. This was true of Paul’s day as well, especially
within the church of Rome. With their salvation fixed, at least in their own
minds, many believed that they had the spiritual insurance necessary to live as
they please. As far as they understood things, no matter what they did, in the
end, they would be fine. Salvation became, for these, insurance.
However, not only does Paul address this question because of
how many people chose to live (and continue to live today); he provides an
answer because of something that he said earlier. In 5:20 Paul states, “The Law
came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased,
grace abounded all the more,…”. Paul seemed to claim that where there is an
increase in sin there is an even greater increase in grace. This helps explain
the rationale behind the question in verse 1 of chapter 6, “what shall we say
then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”. The fact that
Paul addresses this question suggests that some were prone to twist Paul’s
teaching on grace and salvation through faith so that they might justify all
kinds of behaviors in the name of allowing grace to shine all the brighter.
Heaven forbid anyone stand in the way of grace,…right?
But there may be another reason Paul addresses this here.
This question may have stemmed from conscientious Jews who felt that Paul’s
doctrine of salvation by faith alone would encourage moral irresponsibility. These
believed that if salvation was by grace and faith alone (sola gratia, sola fide), people might believe that they had a
license to do whatever they wanted.
We give out licenses to people of all kinds: license to
marry people, sell insurance, practice law/medicine, fly, drive, etc. In every
case, these licenses provide certain freedoms to those who have them. Some
religious Jews believed Paul was giving people a license to do whatever they
wanted when he taught that grace through faith saves.
The people to whom Paul was writing were either using grace
as insurance or believed that grace provided people with a license to do just
about anything. Both are unfortunate understandings of salvation which is why
Paul believed it necessary to answer this question and, in so doing,
demonstrate what Christian freedom in Jesus is really all about.
b. The Answer: We are
Free from Sin!-6:2-7
To the question “shall we continue in sin so that grace may
increase?” Paul answers, “May it never be!” (6:2a). This is one of the
strongest ways to answer negatively in the Greek language—“By no means!” “Never
under any circumstance!” To the person who believes salvation offers a license
to do whatever he/she wants and to the person who believes that salvation is
merely insurance to use in the end Paul says “you are sorely mistaken.”
To make matters even more poignant, Paul answers this
inquiry with an inquiry of his own—“How shall we who died to sin still live in
it?” (6:2b). For Paul to describe the relationship between believers and sin
with death is to say something about the separation involved. Death is the
great separator. In fact, death separates in ways that are more profound than
age, geography, or status. When the Bible describes the believer as “dead to
sin” it means that believers are far removed from its control. This is taught
throughout Paul’s writings (and the writings of others) elsewhere.
Colossians 3:5-“Therefore consider the members of
your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and
greed, which amounts to idolatry”
1 Peter 2:24-“And He Himself bore our sins in His
body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for
by His wounds you were healed.”
These verses mean that believers now have an option where
they once did not. Before salvation, people could not help but fall into sin.
Now they do not have to. Origen writes on the “death to sin” concept in the
following: “To obey the cravings of sin is to be alive to sin; but not to obey
the cravings of sin or succumb to its will, this is to die to sin.”
To drive this point home, Paul makes use of a concrete
analogy that is present to this day—Baptism. He says in verse 3—“Or do you not
know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized
into His death?...” (6:3).
For us to appreciate the symbol Paul is using here we have
to identify what Baptism means in this context. Baptism has a long history in
the Bible. The first ever baptism was witnessed when a group of Hebrew slaves
entered the Red Sea on dry ground fleeing the oppression of Egypt. Upon coming
up out of the water on the other side, these were freed people heading to the
Promised Land.
Thereafter, baptism was utilized by the Jews as a purification
ritual in which defiled Jews would bathe in what was called a mikvah (a
primitive baptismal pool) in order to be ceremonially cleansed. They went in a
defiled sinners and out cleansed and ready for worship. Sometime later John the
Baptist entered the scene and really stirred things up. He was baptizing people
for repentance and preparation for the Lamb of God who would take away the sins
of the world. People went in confessing sinners and came out expecting the
Messiah! Finally, following Pentecost, Baptism was employed as an identifier of
Christianity. Converts in the first century were baptized shortly after
repenting of sin and placing faith in Christ as a testimony of their
conversion. Those who took this step were following the example of Jesus and
others before them. In spite of all of their differences, one thing is
consistent about all of these different baptismal programs—identity change.
Hebrews marked a change from slavery to freedom, Jews marked a change from
defiled to purified, John’s disciples marked a change from sinners to expectant
repenters, and believer’s baptism marks a change from death in sin to life in
Christ! This final iteration of Baptism is what Paul is referring to here.
The act of believer’s baptism is a symbol of what Christ
accomplished on the cross—burying sin and raising new life. When believers
follow the Lord’s example in baptism they illustrate death to sin via Christ’s
cross. When he died, so too did the old sinful self that ran the show prior to salvation.
Sin now “lies on the other side of the grave for those who have in Christ died
to it. Here, Paul asks, ‘How can we who have died to sin ‘breathe its air
again?’” (Mounce, 149).
Continuing on with the image of Baptism Paul says “Therefore
we have been buried with Him through baptism into death,…” (6:4). Burial
certifies the reality of death (inasmuch as we only try to bury those who have
passed away). Baptism symbolizes this when the new convert is submerged into
the water. However, death and burial are not the end of the story. Following
death and burial to sin is resurrection to new life—“so that as Christ was raised
from the dead through the glory of the Father, so to might we walk in newness
of life” (6:4b). Just as Christ was raised from the dead in glory, so to are
believers raised to an entirely new way of living that is drastically different
from their old way of life. This is symbolized via baptism as the convert is
taken up out of the water. Jesus
promised this new life for believers in John 10:10 when He said “I have come
that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
On this new life one commentator has written the following: “Although
contemporary use has tended to trivialize the expression ‘born again,’ the
vibrant reality of new life in Christ is still portrayed most graphically by
the metaphor of spiritual rebirth. The lives of believers are to be as
different from their preconversion days as life is from death” (Mounce, 150).
As nice as the symbol of Baptism is, what is represents is
all the more profound. Believers were actually “united with Him in the likeness
of His death”—that is Jesus’ death on the cross. When He died, so too did our
old sinful selves. This is good news, for, as Paul says in verse 5, “For if we
have become united with Him in the likeness of HIs death, certainly we shall
also be in the likeness of His resurrection” (6:5). As He proved the victor
over sin and death by overcoming the tomb, so also are believers set free from
the bondage of sin.
Why is this so important to understand? The answer is
provided for the reader in verse 6, “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified
with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we
would no longer be slaves to sin” (6:6). “We were crucified in order that our sinful
nature might be stripped of its power.” The phrase “might be done away with”
more literally translated means to “reduce to a condition of absolute impotence
and inaction, as if it were dead” (Sanday & Headlam, 158). The believer’s
death with a crucified Christ has divorced us from the power of sin and death!
The believer’s life with a resurrected Christ has made new life possible free
from sin.
This is Paul’s point when he says, “For he who has died is
freed from sin” (6:7). Because the old self has been rendered powerless by
means of Christ’s crucifixion, it is no longer necessary for a person to be
enslaved to its power.
Later, Paul will teach that sin always leads to death—“For
the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). However, Christ’s death on the
believer’s behalf satisfies this program. Sin led to his death and believers
died to sin via His sacrifice on Calvary. However, new life overwhelmed death in
the resurrection of Jesus, allowing believers to enjoy freedom from sin and its
implications—“but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans
6:23b). “In Christ we are set free. Since sin exhausted itself in bringing
about death, from that point forward it is powerless to overcome new life” (Mounce,
151).
So What?
Those
who ask the question that Paul poses in this passage—“Are believers free to
sin?”—reduce salvation to either insurance to use in case of emergency or a license
to do whatever they want. To this question Paul says “May it never be!” Why
should believers grieve the loss of sin’s power and visit its tomb by endorsing
its many manifestations? Sin has been exhausted in the death of Christ and overwhelmed
in His resurrection. This has freed believers from sin’s bondage and given them
new life. We are not free to sin, we are free FROM sin! Praise the Lord!
Is your view of
salvation incomplete today? Have you, up to this point, incorrectly assumed
that salvation is merely insurance to have on hand if things go south? Have you
cheapened the grace of God by using it as a license to do whatever you want?
God didn’t send His Son to die on a cross and conquer a grave so that we could
go on living the same way that we once did. He did all this so that we might
have a new life and exchange the chains of sin for the freedom that is inherent
in Jesus. Does this exchange still need to be made in your life today?
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