Romans 6. Sin is not an option. Because of what he had written in the previous three chapters, some of Paul's readers could easily misunderstand what he has said about grace. Through careless reading, they might imagine that because of grace, Christians can keep living in sin after receiving God's initial pardon. Paul recognizes this potential. So in chapter 6, he makes it very clear that this is not the case. When we receive God's grace, we are committing ourselves to die to sin through God's help.
We die to sin at the time of our baptism to rise again to a new life of holiness. Returning to sin is nothing less than returning to our old Master Satan. It means we are rejecting our new Master Christ. This, of course, ties into Paul's sixth key point, which he introduced back in chapter 2.6. Whether we are Jews or Gentiles after our initial salvation by grace through faith, God requires us to walk faithfully with Christ, producing godly fruit for the remainder of our lives.
However, we do not do this solely on our own strength, for we have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 6 verses 1 through 7," Having died to sin, we must live in newness of life," verse 1 and 2. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid, how will we, who are dead to sin, live any longer in it?
After healing the infirm man at the pool of Bethesda, Jesus told him," Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you." Jesus thereby demonstrated that when He heals our sins, He expects us to sin no more. Ambrosiaster explains," Do we keep sinning so that grace will abound even more by forgiving us these new sins?" Certainly not. God has been merciful to us so that we will stop sinning and obtain our due reward. In this manner, we allow the grace of God to reign in us.
If we return to the old man, to our past way of life, we are taking back our lives from the rule of God's grace. And we are handing it over to sin. We received mercy for two reasons. First, that the kingdom of the devil might be overthrown. Second, that the kingdom of God might be preached to those who do not know it. Origen adds," If we continue in sin, then surely we are not dying to sin. Rather, we are living to it.
But if we are living to sin, then grace cannot abound." Origen goes on to quote Peter," For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
But it has happened to them, according to the true proverb, the dog returns to his own vomit, and the sow that is washed, to wallowing in the mire." Origen also quotes Paul's words to Timothy," wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having thrust away, made a shipwreck of their faith." Tertullian quotes the subject passage of Romans and asks," When Paul writes to the Romans, what teaching does he impress on them more often than that there must be no neglect of the Lord after
believing?" Chrysostom comments," What does it mean to become dead to sin?" It means we do not obey sin in anything again.
Baptism brought this to an end once for all, for it made us dead to sin. But after baptism, this state must continually be maintained by our own earnestness. Dying to sin or merely acknowledging you are a sinner. When Paul says a person dies to sin, he means a person is genuinely repentant for his sins and is committed to living a holy life. We read in Acts that Peter's hearers were cut to the heart.
Sadly, today in many circles, genuine heartfelt repentance has been replaced by a superficial altar call, where a person merely acknowledges that he is a sinner. This person does not necessarily have any intention of dying to sin, and thereafter living a righteous life in Christ.
Tertullian writes," In Greek, the root meaning of repentance is not confession of sin, but a change of mind." He goes on to say," Repentance is the price at which the Lord has determined to award pardon." Sellers first examine the coin with which they make their bargains to see if it is cut, scraped, or counterfeit. Likewise, we believe that the Lord first tests our repentance when he is about to grant us such costly merchandise, eternal life.
Echoing Paul's words about not living any longer to sin, Clement of Alexandria writes," Repentance then is a result of faith. For unless a man believes that the thing to which he is addicted is sin, he will not abandon it, and he must believe that punishment looms over the transgressor. He must believe that salvation belongs to the one who lives according to the commandments. Otherwise, he will not reform. Romans chapter 6:3 and 4.
Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore, by baptism, we were buried with Him into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life, buried with Him into death. Here Paul shows that baptism is no mere empty ritual or an optional practice for Christians. We should not come to baptism unless we have first made the commitment to die to sin and to our old lives.
Baptism by itself is not going to automatically change us into a different person. We need to first be radically converted. Chrysostom asks," What does it mean to be baptized into His death?" It means that we are baptized with the purpose of our dying just as He died. For baptism is the cross. Therefore, what the cross and burial were to Christ, baptism is to us. We arise from baptism to a new life where sin does not rule over us.
Origen comments, a person who has previously died to sin is then buried with Christ in baptism. But someone not already dead to sin cannot be buried with Christ. No one is ever buried alive. Yet a person is not properly baptized unless he is buried with Christ. How? Universal infant baptism altered all this. As Paul has shown, genuine baptism represents being buried with Christ and rising to a new life.
However, this meaning was eventually lost because of the introduction of universal infant baptism in the 5th century. This change came about through the influence of Augustine, who taught that unbaptized infants can never enter heaven. Yet infants can hardly be buried with Christ into death, and then arise to walk in newness of life. They know nothing about the new life. Baptized infants behave no differently than unbaptized ones. They do not walk in newness of life.
So after the introduction of universal infant baptism, Paul's words in this passage became virtually meaningless. The restoration of believers' baptism under the Anabaptists. The magisterial reformers like Luther, Zwingli and Calvin, continued the practice of universal infant baptism. However, unlike the magisterial reformers, the radical reformers or Anabaptists restored believers' baptism. They paid particular attention to Romans 6.
For example, the Schleitheim confession, one of the earliest Anabaptist statements of belief, says," Baptism shall be given to all those who have learned repentance and amendment of life and who truly believe that their sins are taken away by Christ.
And to all those who walk in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and wish to be buried with Him in death, so that they may be resurrected with Him and to all those who request it from us for this purpose." Similarly, the Dutch Anabaptist writer, Dirk Phillips, quotes the subject passage from Romans in comments," With these words, the apostle makes known what Christian baptism signifies to believers, namely, the dying of the flesh or the putting to death of the old Adam." It signifies the burial of sin, the putting
away of the body of sin, and the resurrection to a new life.
We are also established in fellowship with Christ by baptism, called into it by the grace of God. We must therefore, for His sake, die to sin, bury the same, and live in righteousness in the Spirit, that we may be His true members. Walking in the newness of life. The Anabaptists particularly emphasized the need to walk in the newness of life after baptism.
Pilgram Marpeck, another early Anabaptist leader writes," When we allow ourselves to be baptized with our whole hearts, we deny the devil, lay aside our fleshly lust, and henceforth desire to live a new life with a good conscience toward God." But only the power of faith, and not the mere act of baptism, will accomplish this rebirth. When such things happen in our baptism, we bury the old being and commit ourselves to living a new way of life.
Marpeck continues," True baptism takes place when believers are baptized and leave the realm of the will of the flesh, give themselves over totally to the will of God, and commit themselves to it." That means to be born again in Christ and to be baptized in the name of God, to bury the flesh, to be raised with Christ, to wash off sin, and to put on Christ. In this respect, the Anabaptists were echoing what the early Christians had said centuries before.
However, the Anabaptist view of baptism differed from the early Christian view in this one respect. The Anabaptists believed that most of the work of God, forgiveness of sins, justification, the new birth, adoption, et cetera, happens immediately before baptism. Baptism is then the outward sign that these things have taken place. In contrast, the early Christians believed that this work of God happens during baptism if faith and repentance precede baptism.
We can quibble over whether God gives us these gifts during baptism or immediately before baptism. However, either way, we all agree that He grants us these gifts. Under either view, it is the work of God that brings about these wonderful changes. It is not the mere water of baptism, the new life. Concerning the New Life, Origen quotes Paul's words to the Corinthians," Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day." So the new life is an ongoing process.
When writing to the saints in Ephesus, Paul admonished them put away as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lust of deceit, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth." Here Paul was writing to men and women who had already been saved. Yet he tells them to put on the new man. So putting on the new man is an ongoing process. It is not finished at our initial salvation.
That is why Paul exhorts us to walk in the newness of life. Origen notes," So long as a person continues to make progress, he can be said to be walking. Standing still is not walking." Chrysostom comments," Paul requires such a manner of living from us, not for a set number of days, but for our whole life." At the same time, we should not imagine that we do all these things primarily on our own strength.
Jesus says," Apart from Me, you can do nothing." That is why Ignatius writes," When you desire to do well, God is ready to assist you. Without God's assistance, we will not be able to walk in the newness of life." Clement of Alexandria writes," A man by himself, working and toiling at freedom from human desires, achieves nothing." But if he plainly shows himself very desirous and earnest about this, he obtains it by the addition of the power of God, for God conspires with willing souls.
Origen adds," It is up to us to use the power He has given us. We can use it either with energy or with feebleness." There is no doubt that with every temptation, we have the power of endurance if we properly use the strength that God grants us.
Romans 6:5," For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we also will be united in the likeness of His resurrection, if we have been planted together." As Origen points out, the planting of which Paul speaks is the same planting that Jesus talks about in John 15, by which we become a branch on the vine. In order to bear the fruits of righteousness and to walk in the Christ's life, we need the power of Jesus Christ flowing through us.
Chrysostom notes that planting a seed normally results in the production of fruit. When Christ's body was buried in the earth, the fruit it brought forth was the opportunity of salvation for the whole world. Chrysostom comments," Likewise, when we were buried in baptism, it brought forth the following fruit: righteousness, sanctification, adoption, and countless blessings." Not only that, but in the future, it will also bring forth the gift of the resurrection.
Theodoret notes," The very word planting clearly points to the resurrection for whatever is planted springs up again." Irenaeus notes that even our physical death is redemptive. He writes," The reason God drove Adam out of paradise and removed him far from the tree of life was not because he begrudged him the tree of life, as some might imagine. Rather, it was because God pitied man and did not want him to continue as a sinner forever. God did not want the sin that surrounded man to be never-ending.
Nor did God want evil to be perpetual and without remedy. Therefore, God set a boundary to his state of sin by interjecting death. For death causes sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh. Accordingly, one reason we inherit Adam's mortality is so our own sins will terminate at our death. We will rise again with a new, sinless body. In this manner, sin will be annihilated. At the same time, Ambrosiaster reminds us that.
Paul says," If we were planted with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall also happily rise from the dead." That is, if we have put away all our wrongdoing at baptism, if we have been transplanted to a new life, and if we sin no longer, Romans 6:6," Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, so that we might no longer be slaves to sin." Paul continues to make it clear that we must not go on sinning once we have received God's grace in our initial salvation.
Earlier Paul said we have died with Christ. Here he says that our old man was crucified with him. This crucifixion happens at the time of our conversion and baptism. Chrysostom sums it up in this manner. Here then, he says there are two deaths. Putting to death, the old man happens twice. The first time, Christ does it at our baptism. However, afterwards, it is our duty to bring about the second putting to death through our diligence. Our past sins were buried in baptism, which forgiveness came from him as a gift.
However, when it comes to remaining dead to sin after baptism, it largely must be the work of our own earnestness. Thankfully, we soon discover that God gives us great help in this matter. Although the second putting to death does not happen without our own efforts, neither does it happen apart from the empowering grace of God. Our old man was crucified with him. What exactly is the old man?
Tertullian answers," The old man that Paul declares to be crucified with Christ is not the physical body, rather it is our former moral behavior." Origen refers to it as the old life, subject to transgression and sin, and over whom death ruled through sin. Chrysostom adds," Paul calls the whole sum of our former wickedness" our old man." Theodoret writes," What Paul calls the old man?" Here is our evil inclination, and he says it has been put to death in baptism.
Clement of Alexandria comments," Truly then, we who have put aside the old man and stripped off the garment of wickedness, we are the children of God. We have put on the immortality of Christ so that we may become a new, holy people by the new birth and may keep the new man undefiled." Although the old man was put to death at the time of our initial salvation, we must maintain a constant vigil to make certain that it remains dead.
To this end, Cyprian exhorted his fellow Christians," We must avoid the way of the old man and walk steadfastly in the footsteps of the conquering Christ. In this manner, we will not again be carelessly turned back into the nets of death." Instead, by being aware of the danger, we will retain the immortality that we have received. Yet how can we retain immortality unless we keep those commands of Christ through which death is driven out and defeated?
For he himself tells us," If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments," Matthew 19:17. Again, he writes," You are my friends if you do whatever I command you," John 15:14, that the body of sin might be destroyed. The phrase" body of sin" can be understood in two different ways. First, the word" body" can mean" corpus," that is, the accumulation of writings or other things. In this case, it would be the accumulation of all our past sins.
Chrysostom writes," Paul does not give the name, body of sin, to this body of ours, but to all our sins." Ambrosiaster adds," A person who lives a pure life through Christ and by faith in Him is called a new man." Likewise, a person is called the Old Man because of unbelief and evil deeds. Paul says these deeds have been crucified. That is, they are dead. In this manner, the body of sin, which is all our sins combined, is destroyed.
Nevertheless, as Origen points out, our fallen sinful flesh can also be described as the body of sin. After all, Paul says that God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Romans chapter 6:7," For he who is dead is freed from sin.
A person who is dead no longer sins." Theodoret asks," When has anybody ever seen a dead person invading the marriage bed of another, or drenching his hands in bloodshed, or committing any other of the multitude of evils?" Chrysostom comments," If you have died in baptism, you must remain dead, for anyone who physically dies can sin no more.
But if you sin, you mar the gift God gave you in baptism." At the same time, when Paul talks about being freed from sin, he does not mean that we will eventually reach a stage of total perfection in this life, completely free from any sin. Only Jesus was totally free from sin. Concerning our imperfect nature, John states," If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us." So God does not demand sinless perfection, but He does require a faithful, obedient walk with Him.