Romans 6 continues laying out results of being justified by faith. This section began in Romans 5:1 as Paul laid out that we have peace with God and sure hope because we have been justified. He continued in Romans 5:12-21 by saying that we are also transferred from being in Adam (with all of the horrible realities that go along with that – death, condemnation, sin) to being in Christ (with all that brings – life, justification, righteousness) because we have been justified. Romans 6 lays out another amazing result of having been justified by faith: we are set free from the dominion of sin.
Paul fleshes out this reality by beginning with a question and using the answer to that question to lay out the glorious reality that we are free from sin’s clutches and mastery because of what Christ has done. So let us look at this text piece-by-piece.
As we saw last week, Paul closes his comparison of Adam with Christ by laying out the role of the law in salvation history. He makes clear that the law, rather than restricting the spread of sin, actually increased trespasses. But his ultimate goal is that as these trespasses increased, grace abounded all the more in overcoming them. We saw that glorious reality last week.
But, as we will see this week, it is possible to hear those things about the law and come to the conclusion logically that we as human beings should actively pursue more sin so that grace might abound even more. This is the very issue that Paul addresses in chapter 6 of Romans. He begins with this question, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (6:1). A similar question is raised in the middle of the chapter as Paul says, “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?” (6:15). Paul’s answer in both instances is the same: “By no means!” (6:2a, 6:15b). So Paul is convinced that the fact that grace is able to increase and triumph over sin regardless of the level of sin’s power is absolutely no reason for those who have that grace to sin. Paul’s goal in this chapter is to exhort his readers to a holy life. He does not want them to place their faith in Christ and be saved and then assume that grace frees them to commit whatever sins they please. In Paul’s mind, this is a logical impossibility, for two major reasons.
We do not continue in sin, because we have died to sin
After stating his question in verse 1 about whether we should continue in sin, Paul answers by saying, “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (6:2). So Paul’s first reason that believers are not to continue in sin is because they have died to sin. But how has that happened? What is Paul talking about? The answer comes in verse 3: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” In line with our text last week, Paul’s point is that we have died to sin because we have died with Christ. That is, by faith, we are joined together with Christ in such a way that his death and burial is seen as our death and burial. Paul uses the language of baptism because, in his mind, there is no category for an unbaptized believer. So, in Paul’s mind, those who have been saved have been baptized and that makes clear that they have joined Christ in his death. This thought echoes through the text as a whole. In verse 4, Paul writes, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.” In verse 5, Paul writes, “…we have been united with him in a death like his.” 1 In verse 8, he writes, “we have died with Christ.” Paul wants his readers to understand that, if they are Christians, Christ’s death was their death as well. At the moment of their salvation, they died just as Christ died on the cross.
But why is it such a big deal that Paul’s readers (and we) understand that our death is connected to Christ’s death? The first reason involves a proper understanding of the reason for Christ’s death. In verse 10, Paul writes, “For the death he [Christ] died he died to sin, once for all.” Christ’s death was a death “to sin.” What does that mean? If Christ never sinned, how could he die to sin? The answer is that Christ died because of sin. He died because the consequence of sin is death. In a very real sense, Christ died as if he were a sinner. And this is why we must understand our connection to Christ’s death. Christ did not die because he was a sinner. He died because we were sinners. And the death he died he died to sin, in our place. The reality of our situation is that we are sinners. And the just result of our sin should be physical (and spiritual) death. But the glory of the gospel is that Christ died that death “once for all” (6:10). So, when a person is saved, what happens to them (spiritually) is what happened to Christ upon the cross (literally and physically). This is Paul’s point in verses 6-7: “We 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. For one who has died has been set free from sin.” As human beings born in Adam, we are enslaved to sin. And the only way that can change is for sin to get its just payment which is death. But when people are saved they do not die, how can they be free from sin? The answer is because they have died in Christ. They are free as if they had died because Christ died for them. They are joined together with him in death.