Salvation-Ro6
Romans 6 – This chapter shows God’s provision for salvation includes a present “saving from the power of sin”.
Romans 6:1-5(ESV)
1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
The Antagonist:
Romans 6:1-2(ESV)
1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
The Jews thought that by conforming to the rabbinic law was the embodiment of godliness. Instead the Christians knew that it was salvation by grace through faith alone.
The Jews considered that the apostles deviled the temple by bring Gentiles into the restricted area. It was wrong not to circumcise the Gentile believers.
Romans 5:20(ESV)
20Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
…Some would take this verse to give approval to sin.
How perverse to accuse Paul of teaching that doing sin itself glorifies God by causing His grace to increase. With that theory men would be obligated to sin. A perverted interpretation taught by false religion of Paul’s day.
The answer to that was given in Romans 3:5-6:
Romans 3:5-6(ESV)
5But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6By no means! For then how could God judge the world?
Christian groups have fallen into error by insisting that conformity to countless man-made regulations and ceremony would be necessary for true godliness. i.e.: extreme ritualism with strict codes of conduct by their works or adding legalistic requirements of their own making.
The point: “A ‘Holy Life’ is lived by the power of God working in the through the new birth when the spiritual life begins.
We need to understand the inseparable connection between justification and sanctification as salvation components, between new life In Christ and the living of that life in the holiness Christ demands and provides.
Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then?”… Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
Epimenō(to continue) carries the idea of habitual persistence. –Figure 1 –
Strongs G1961ἐπιμένω[epimeno /ep·ee·men·o/] v. …1to stay at or with, to tarry still, still to abide, to continue, remain. 1aof tarrying in a place. 1bto persevere, continue. 1b1of the thing continued in. 1b2in the work of teaching. 1b3of the blessing for which one keeps himself fit. 1b4denoting the action persisted in.
LouwNida – 68.11μένωd; διαμένωb; ἐπιμένωb; προσμένωb; ἐμμένωb; παραμένωb: to continue in an activity or state—‘to continue, to remain in, to keep on.’
Christians sin, but Paul is speaking of continual, habitual type sinning.
Under the Holy Spirit the apostle avoided the extreme of legalism on the one hand and of libertinism on the other. God inextricably linked to holy living, and a holy life is lived by the power of God. True holiness is as much a gift of God as the new birth and the spiritual life it brings.
In Romans 6:2 is the answer…
Romans 6:2(ESV) – 2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
“Died to sin”To make his answer clear, Paul introduces a new concept—we died in relation to sin. Up until this point he has written about the accomplishments of Christ’s death. Here he teaches that because Christ died for our sins, those who believe in him actually died to sin. How have we died to sin?
• In the legal sense, we died in the sight of God’s judgment.
• In the conversion sense, believing in Christ is dying to sin.
• In the baptismal sense, that burial implies we have died with Christ.
• In the moral sense, sinful desires may be present, but they are mortally wounded.
• In the resurrection sense, we exchange our sinful life for Christ’s resurrection life.
The phrase “by no means” or “may it never be” is the strongest idiom of repudiation in the NT Greek as Paul uses it some 14 times in his letters alone.
ESV – “By no means” – 24 times (Figure 2)
NKJV – By no Means -31 times Certainly Not 15 (Figure 3)
NASB – 11 (By no means) 15 (may it never be) (Figure 4)
NASB – Certainly not – 3 times.
The Word “ginomai” – means to happen – to come to be – KEY is the phrase “May it never be!”
Strongs G1096γίνομαι[ginomai /ghin·om·ahee/] v. A prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb; — 1to become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being. 2to become, i.e. to come to pass, happen. 2aof events. 3to arise, appear in history, come upon the stage. 3aof men appearing in public. 4to be made, finished. 4aof miracles, to be performed, wrought. 5to become, be made.
LouwNida 13.107γίνομαιd; ἐπιγίνομαι: to happen, with the implication that what happens is different from a previous state—‘to happen, to occur, to come to be.’
Paul goes on to declare with equal unequivocation that a genuinely justified life both is and will continue to be a sanctified life. For the purposes of systematic theology and to make God’s work of redemption somewhat more comprehensible to finite human minds, we often speak of sanctification as following justification. There is, of course, a sense in which it does, in that justification involves what is often called a forensic, or legal, declaration of righteousness that is immediate, complete, and eternal. But justification and sanctification are not separate stages in salvation; rather, they are different aspects of the unbroken continuum of God’s divine work of redemption in a believer’s life by which He not only declares a person righteous but recreates him to become righteous. Holiness is as much a work of God in the believer as any other element of redemption. When a person is redeemed, God not only declares him righteous, but also begins to develop Christ’s righteousness in him. Thus salvation is not merely a legal transaction, but results inevitably in a miracle of transformation. (Quote John MacArthur Commentary)
Growing in the Christian life is always a process, not to be perfected “until the day of Christ Jesus”(Phil. 1:6). But there is no such thing as a true convert to Christ in whom justification has been accomplished but in whom sanctification, both forensic and practical, has not already begun. In other words, there is never a cleavage between justification and sanctification. There is, however, always and inevitably a total and permanent cleavage between the old self and the new self. In Christ, the old self has been made a corpse; and a corpse, by definition, has in it no remaining vestige of life. (Quote John MacArthur Commentary)
The old man, the old self, is the unregenerate person. He is not part righteous and part sinful, but totally sinful and without the slightest potential within himself for becoming righteous and pleasing to God. The new man, on the other hand, is the regenerate person. He is made pleasing to God through Jesus Christ and his new nature is entirely godly and righteous. He is not yet perfected or glorified, but he is already spiritually alive and holiness is at work in him. The new man will continue to grow in that holiness, no matter how slowly or falteringly, because, by its very nature, life grows. Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse wrote, “Holiness starts where justification finishes, and if holiness does not start, we have the right to suspect that justification never started either” (Romans, vol. 3 [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961], 2:12). (Quote John MacArthur Commentary)
Bottom line: we are separated from the controlling power of sin, the sin life that Christ died to deliver us from.
Romans 6:3-10(ESV)
3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6We know that our old self£ was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7For one who has died has been set free£ from sin.
8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
Our bodies are members of Christ. Were granted a new, righteous disposition or nature.
Identified specifically with Christ Death and Resurrection. So we might walk in newness of life.
V.6-7 – Our body of Sin has been destroyed – our old self was crucified with Him. Compare the ESV and the NASB translations for Romans 6:6-7
Romans 6:6-7(ESV)
6We know that our old self£ was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7For one who has died has been set free£ from sin.
Romans 6:6-7 NASB-
6knowing 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;
7for he who has died is freed from sin.
But katargeō (done away with) literally means “to render inoperative or invalid,” to make something ineffective by removing its power of control. (Figure 5)
Shall no longer be slaves to sin… (no longer slavery to sin)
As he plows in the new field, however, the believer is often cajoled by his former master, who seeks to entice him back into the old sinful ways. Satan often succeeds in temporarily drawing the believer’s attention away from his new Master and his new way of life. But he is powerless to draw the believer back into the old field of sin and death.
Romans 6:8-10 – NASB
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Christ died to the ‘power of sin’ forever breaking its power over those who belong to God throught their faith in His Son. A victory that will never need repeating.
Romans 6:11-14(ESV)
11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
13Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
V. 11 “SO” – one must know and fully believe what I have just said, or else what I am about to say will make no sense. To be alive in Christ is not an abstract concept. True understanding of his identity is essential.
For lack of understanding – death, Isaiah 1:2–3 (NASB95) – 2 Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the LORD speaks, “Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me. 3 “An ox knows its owner, And a donkey its master’s manger, But Israel does not know, My people do not understand.”
V11b – consider yourself to be dead to sin,…
logizomaimeans simply to count or number something… (Figure 6)
The sense of being ‘heart felt’.
Confidence that we can not sing our way out of God’s grace…
John 10:27-29(ESV)
27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
29My Father, who has given them to me,£ is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
Romans 6:12-14(ESV)
12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
13Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Key word: “Yield” or present (Figure 7)
BOTH: “Partistemi” –
G3936παριστάνω,παρίστημι[paristemi, paristano /par·is·tay·mee/] — 1ato set at hand. 1a1to present. 1a2to proffer. 1a3to provide. 1a4to place a person or thing at one’s disposal. 1a5to present a person for another to see and question. 1a6to present or show. 1a7to bring to, bring near. 1a8metaph. i.e to bring into one’s fellowship or intimacy. 1bto present (show) by argument, to prove. 2to stand beside, stand by or near, to be at hand, be present. 2ato stand by. 2a1to stand beside one, a bystander. 2bto appear. 2cto be at hand, stand ready. 2dto stand by to help, to succour. 2eto be present. 2e1to have come. 2e2of time.
LouwNida – 13.11παρίστημιbor παριστάνω: to cause something to be or to serve as—‘to cause to be, to cause to serve as, to make something be.’ παραστῆσαι ὑμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους καὶ ἀνεγκλήτους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ ‘to make you holy, pure and faultless in his presence’ Col 1:22; μηδὲ παριστάνετε τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν ὅπλα ἀδικίας ‘do not cause any part of yourselves to serve as an instrument for doing wrong’ Ro 6:13.
Because a believer is a new creature in Christ, his immortal soul is forever beyond sin’s reach. The only remaining beachhead where sin can attack a Christian is in his mortal body. One day that body will be glorified and forever be out of sin’s reach, but in the meanwhile it is still mortal, that is, subject to corruption and death.It still has sinful lusts-because the brain and the thinking processes are part of the mortal body-and Satan uses those lusts to lure God’s people back into sin in whatever ways he can. (Quote John MacArthur Commentary)
V.14 – For sin shall NOT be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Under the redeeming power of His grace.
Romans 6:15–23 (NASB95)
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Although sin promises satisfaction, it instead brings misery, frustration, and hopelessness. Job lamented that “man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). In fact, because of sin, all “creation was subjected to futility” (Rom. 8:20).
V.15 “May it never be!” the answer…
Paul’s point in the second half of Romans 6 is the same one that Jesus made in the above passage. A person cannot have two different and opposing natures at the same time, and he cannot live in two different and opposing spiritual worlds at the same time. He is either the slave of sin, which he is by natural birth, or he is the slave of righteousness, which he becomes by the new birth.
1 John 3:9-10(ESV)
9No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s£ seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
10By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Romans 6:17-18(ESV)
17But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
18and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
John 6:44(ESV)
44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6:65(ESV)
65And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Story Example:
After a businessmen’s luncheon at which I spoke, a man said to me, “I’ve been in this group for a long time, and I’ll tell you how I think you can get to God. You see, there is this long stairway, and at the top there is a door and behind it is this guy Jesus. What you really want to do is try to make it up the stairs and get through the door and then hope Jesus lets you in. As you’re on your way up the stairs, you’ve got all these preachers and movements cheering you on, but you just continue going up the stairs your own way. I call it the stairway of hope. That’s what I think the gospel is.” With a heavy heart I replied, “Sir, you cannot be a Christian. What you just said has nothing to do with the gospel, and your stairway to heaven is hopeless. You need to depend on Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. You have no idea of what it means to be saved, and you cannot be on your way to heaven.” (Quote John MacArthur Commentary)
Romans 6:19 (NASB95) – 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
The late Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “As you go on living this righteous life, and practicing it with all your might and energy, and all your time … you will find that the process that went on before, in which you went on from bad to worse and became viler and viler, is entirely reversed. You will become cleaner and cleaner, and purer and purer, and holier and holier, and more and more conformed unto the image of the Son of God” (Romans: An Exposition of Chapter Six [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972], pp. 268–69).
Romans 6:20–22 (NASB95)
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
Absolute
Romans 6:23 (NASB95)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
From: Life Application Commentary
HOW TO REVOLT AGAINST THE REIGN OF SIN IN OUR BODIES
• Identify personal weaknesses.
• Recognize temptations.
• Confront sinful desires.
• Stay away from known sources of temptation.
• Practice self-restraint.
• Consciously invest time in good habits and service.
• Depend on grace.
• Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart!
WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF OBEDIENCE?
• Willing loyalty
• Quick responsiveness
• Intuitive understanding
• Readiness to change
• Eagerness to learn
How many of these qualities are part of our relationship with God?
THE CHOICE
You are free to choose between two masters, but you are not free to adjust the consequences of your choice. Each of the two masters pays with his own kind of currency. The currency of sin is death. That is all you can expect or hope for in life without God. Christ’s currency is eternal life—new life with God that begins on earth and continues forever with God. What choice have you made? (From: Life Application Commentary)