ΡΩΜΑΙΟΥΣ

1. The Inevitable Question (6:1-2)

The opening of Romans 6 grows directly out of the closing of Romans 5. Paul has just declared that where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. Anyone honestly reading that sentence will arrive at an obvious follow-up question — and Paul knows it. He puts the question on the table himself in the very first line: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?"

It is one of seventy-some rhetorical questions Paul uses in this letter, and like the others, it needed to be raised so that it could be answered. If grace overflows past sin every time, why not give grace more opportunity to overflow? Why not sin more freely so the gospel can shine more brightly?

Paul's response is one of the strongest expressions of denial in the entire Greek New Testament. The phrase he uses is mē genoito — "by no means!" or "God forbid!" or "may it never be!" It is the rejection of an idea so wrong it must be slammed shut immediately.

The reason the idea must be slammed shut is not arbitrary. It is anatomical. The Christian has died to sin. To go on living in sin after dying to it is not just morally inconsistent — it is biologically impossible. A corpse cannot keep house with the thing that killed it. But Paul has not yet explained what he means by "died to sin." That is what the next six verses unpack.

2. Buried and Raised with Christ (6:3-7)

To explain the death of the believer to sin, Paul reaches for the most familiar symbol in the early church — baptism. Every person reading this letter had been baptized; they knew the imagery viscerally. They had been lowered into water and lifted out again. Paul says they should now understand what that symbol meant.

Baptism by immersion paints two pictures at once. The descent into the water is a burial — the believer goes down with Christ into death. The emergence from the water is a resurrection — the believer rises with Christ into new life. This is not a metaphor that happens to fit. It is the meaning the rite was given.

The point Paul presses next is that something real has happened in this identification. "Our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." The "old man" is the unconverted self — the person ruled by Adam, oriented toward sin by nature, helpless under sin's dominion. That person was nailed to the cross with Christ. The new birth replaced him with someone Christ Himself raised up to walk in newness of life.

This does not mean the believer can no longer be tempted. It does not mean sin has been removed entirely from the believer's experience. It means the dominating power sin once held over the unbeliever has been broken. The chains are off. The old master no longer owns us. We are no longer slaves of sin even when we still wrestle with its temptations.

3. Reckon Yourselves Dead to Sin, Alive to God (6:8-14)

Paul then asks the believer to do something specific: reckon yourself dead to sin. The Greek word here is the same word Paul used of Abraham in chapter 4 — logizomai, the bookkeeper's verb meaning to count something as true on the ledger. God credited righteousness to Abraham's account on the basis of faith. Now Paul tells the believer to credit a parallel reality to his own account: because of union with Christ, you are dead to sin and alive to God.

This reckoning is not pretending. It is recognizing what is already true. The believer was crucified with Christ. The believer rose with Christ. The believer's spiritual address has changed. Now the believer is asked to act in accord with the facts.

From that reckoning, Paul issues a series of commands. "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body." "Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin." "Present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead." Notice the active voice. The believer has real responsibility here. Sanctification is not a passive program God performs while the believer watches; it is a daily decision made on the basis of a settled identity. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. The chains are off. Walk free.

4. Whose Slave Are You? Two Masters (6:15-19)

Paul anticipates a second objection. If we are not under law but under grace, can we sin freely? He answers with another mē genoito — God forbid. Then he frames the question in different terms. The real question is not whether you will serve, but whom you will serve.

There is no neutral middle ground. You will be the slave either of sin or of righteousness. The myth of personal autonomy — the modern dream that nobody serves anybody — is precisely that, a myth. Every human being is enslaved to something. The only question is which master.

This is where the gospel's freedom is so radically different from the world's. The world says, "Be free; serve nothing." Paul says, "You will serve. Choose your Master. The one you choose will become the shape of who you are." Serve sin, and sin will steadily destroy you. Serve God, and God will steadily form you into the likeness of His Son.

5. The Wages and the Gift (6:20-23)

The chapter closes with one of the most concise gospel statements in the entire Bible. Paul contrasts the two outcomes of the two slaveries. The slave of sin reaps what sin pays. The slave of righteousness reaps what God gives.

Read those two halves carefully. The first half names what sin earns — wages. Sin is not stingy with its workers. It pays them exactly what they have worked for, in full, with no withholdings: death. Spiritual death now, physical death eventually, eternal death in the end.

The second half names what God gives — a gift. Eternal life is not a wage. We did not earn it. We could not earn it. It is delivered freely, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to anyone who will receive it.

This single verse has been used to bring more people to faith than perhaps any other in Romans. It draws the line clearly. Two roads. Two destinations. One earned, one given. The choice now becomes whether to keep working for the wage or to receive the gift.

6. Released from the Law Through Christ (7:1-6)

Paul moves at the start of chapter 7 to a third aspect of the believer's new freedom. Just as the believer has been freed from sin's dominion, the believer has also been freed from the law's dominion. He illustrates this with a marriage analogy, written specifically for the Jewish believers in his audience who knew Mosaic marriage law.

A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If she joins herself to another man while her husband lives, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released — and is free to marry another without sin.

The point lands in verse 4. You also became dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another — to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. The illustration is precise. The believer has died with Christ. The relationship that bound the believer to the law has been ended by that death. The believer is now free to be united with Christ — a new marriage, a new relationship, a new source of life and fruitfulness.

Notice that release from the law does not mean release from service. It means a new way of serving. The old way was the oldness of the letter — external rules trying to govern unchanged hearts. The new way is the newness of the Spirit — internal transformation producing willing obedience from a changed nature. We do not serve less under grace. We serve more, and from a different source.

Romans 6 and the opening of Romans 7 are the answer to anyone who suspects that grace might make Christians casual about sin. The opposite is true. Grace, properly understood, makes Christians far more serious about sin than the law ever did. Under the law, sin was a violation of an external code. Under grace, sin is the betrayal of the One who died to set us free from it. The believer's deepest motive for holiness is not fear of punishment. It is love for the Master who purchased the freedom.