Romans 6:1-11 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Romans 6:1-11. Let’s go!
Romans 6:1-4 (NIV)
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
On verses 1-4: Earlier in Romans 5:20-21, Paul explained that when our sin (or our awareness of our sin) increased with our understanding of God’s law, God’s grace increased all the more to cover all of our sins. So here in Romans 6:1-4 Paul addresses this question: “Shall we keep on sinning so that God can show us more of His grace?” (v1) Put another way, if God’s grace always outstretches my sin, why don’t I just keep on sinning? In response, Paul mentions one reason why it is foolish to keep on sinning even if we know God’s grace will be there to meet us in the end: it’s because our very reason for believing in Jesus and following Him is not so that we can keep on sinning but so that we can live a new life (v4).
By the way, notice that Paul assumes that all the Christians in Rome have been baptized (see verses 3-4). That’s because believing in Jesus and getting baptized go together. Baptism is not something that a Christian does many years after they have trusted in Jesus, or after they feel like they’ve gotten their act together and after they think they are really committed. Baptism is a beginner step that shows that you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. Have you been baptized?
Assuming that all the Christians in Rome have already been baptized to express their faith in Christ, Paul uses baptism as an illustration. He says that when you as a Christian are baptized in the name of Jesus, you are identifying with Jesus’ death and burial (symbolized by you going into the water) and you are also identifying with Jesus’ resurrection and new life (symbolized by you coming out of the water). Baptism is a symbolic picture of the fact that as a Christian we have a new life in Christ and weren’t made to go back to our old ways of sinning. To keep sinning on the assumption that “God in His grace will forgive me anyway” is to forget your new life in Christ and why you trusted in Jesus in the first place.
Are there other reasons why it’s foolish to sin while thinking, “God will forgive me anyways”? Yes there are. When you do, you take Jesus’ sacrifice for granted, you risk hardening your heart, you give God a bad name, and you set the wrong example for other believers. But those are topics for another time.
Romans 6:5-8 (NIV)
5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin–
7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
On verses 5-8: I find that Paul sometimes takes two or three points which are distinct but related and use them all to make a sandwich. The first point he uses as the bread for the sandwich. The second and third points he uses as the meat for the sandwich. In this case, the first point (the bread for Paul’s sandwich) is in verse 5 and verse 8: through our faith in Christ and through baptism, we are united with Christ in His death and in His resurrection. Then in between the bread that is verses 5 and 8, Paul inserts as the meat of his sandwich the following points from verses 6-7:
– since death is the final weapon that sin uses against us, when we die we are no longer slaves to sin but we are free from sin’s mastery (v7);
– our death and resulting freedom from sin’s mastery happened when we first believed in Jesus and what He did on the cross, for in that moment our old self was crucified with Jesus (v6-7)
Romans 6:9-11 (NIV)
9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
On verses 9-11: Here Paul explains that when Jesus died, he died to sin once for all (v10), such that sin has no hold over him. After Jesus died, he was raised from the dead such that he cannot die again and is no longer subject to death’s control (v9). In the same way, as believers in Jesus Christ, we can see ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God because of Jesus (v11).
Father, thank You that because of Jesus I am no longer a slave to sin. Rather, I have a new life and freedom in Christ. I count myself dead to sin and alive to You, all because of what Jesus did for me. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
