Bible Commentaries

Ch. Romans 6:1-14. Justification organically connected with sanctification: grace the supreme motive to obedience

1. What shall we say then?] Here begins the direct treatment of a great topic already suggested, (Romans 3:5-8,) the relation of gratuitous Pardon to Sanctity. This discussion occupies ch. 6 and Romans 7:1-6; and is closely connected with the rest of ch. 7.

Let us distinctly note that up to this point it has not been explicitly in the argument at all. The strongest statements of the evil and the doom of sin were made e. g. in cch. 1 and 2; but the argument thus far has been wholly occupied with acceptance; with Justification. No part of the passage from Romans 3:9 to this point, has purification of heart for its proper subject.

continue, &c.] Lit. remain upon sin. The phrase is frequent in other connexions, and tends to mean not mere continuance, but perseverance in will and act. See e.g. 1 Timothy 4:16.—The objection anticipated in this verse is abundantly illustrated in Church history. It may be prompted either by the craving for sinful licence, or by a prejudice against the doctrine of purely gratuitous pardon under the belief that it does logically favour security in sin. It is all the more noteworthy that St Paul meets it not by modifying in the least the gratuitous aspect of pardon; not by presenting any merit of the pardoned person as even the minutest element in the cause of pardon. He takes sanctity as entirely the effect of Justification, not at all its cause.

2. we, that are dead, &c.] More lit. and fully, we, as those who died to sin. The reference is again to a single past act; the death of the Second Adam, at which His brethren too, regarded as “in Him,” “died to sin.” See last note on ch. Romans 5:12.

dead to sin] See below, Romans 6:10 : “He died to sin, once and for ever.” It appears then that our “death to sin” (in Christ) must be explained by what His death to it was. And His was a death such as to free Him not from its impulses (for He was essentially free from them) but from its claim, its penalty, endured for us by Him. His death once over, the claim of sin was cancelled[36]. Therefore, for those who “died in Him,” it was cancelled likewise. The phrase thus has, in the strict sense of it, not a moral but a legal reference. But the transition to a moral reference is inevitable when the Redeemer’s Death is seen to be the act which exhausted the claim: in that death we see not only the strength of the claim, but the malignity of the claimant.

[36] Sin here, obviously, is used as a practical synonym for the broken Law; but so that its proper meaning is ready at once to reappear. Properly, sin’s only “claim” is to be itself put down; but by a natural modification it appears as that which exacts the punishment of the sinner.

live any longer therein] “Live” is emphatic, in contrast to “dead.” St Paul puts it as inconceivable that the soul which is so freed from such claim can endure, after its death in Christ to sin, (or, in other words, after His death to sin for it,) to yield its faculties as before to sin’s influence.—Strictly, death and life are used here in different respects; death in a legal respect, life in a moral; but see last note for the reconcilement of the seeming inconsistency.—“Therein:”—surrounded by it, as the body by the air it breathes; in vital connexion.

3. so many of us, &c.] Not implying that some were, and some were not. This is plain from the Gr. All Christian believers are contemplated; for each his baptism was all this, if a true baptism.—This and Romans 6:4 contain the only mentions of Baptism in the Epistle. He refers the converts to their baptism as to the great crisis of their lives, when, having already, by Divine grace, “turned from idols to serve the living God,” they made (so to speak) their formal self-surrender to their Redeemer, and received His formal acceptance of them as His own.

into Jesus Christ] i.e. so as to belong to Him, to obey Him, and to learn of Him. Cp. the parallel phrase “baptized into Moses,” 1 Corinthians 10:2.

into his death] i.e. so as to come into special relations with it. We may paraphrase, “into Him as the Slain One.” His atoning death was the primary point of apostolic teaching. See 1 Corinthians 15:3.

4. we are buried with him] Better, we were buried, &c.; the reference being to the past fact of baptism. Burial is the final token of death, and so the strongest expression of death as a fact. Perhaps there is an allusion to the immersion of baptism, as a quasi-burial. (The only parallel passage is Colossians 2:12.) But the significance of the rite would not depend on such a form of it: the essential is that every true baptism is the ratification of covenant connexion with Christ and His Death. It thus lays the baptized Christian, as it were, with the Lord in that grave where He lay as the slain Propitiation; i.e. it ratifies our share in the Justification of the Cross.

by baptism] by means of baptism, i.e., of course, not by the mere act, but by all that is involved in a true baptism. Baptism is not an isolated thing, but a summary and seal.

into death] Better, into the death, the Lord’s Death. Connect these words with “we were buried.” The whole idea is a union with Christ as the Slain One, so real that it is expressed by the figure of a share in His grave.

that, &c.] The sequence indicated is as follows:—Our new position and conduct as Christians was both to be, and to seem, radically new; as new as resurrection-life after death. Therefore our admission to the covenant was by a rite essentially connected with the Lord’s Death, and thus intended both to remind us of the price of justification, and of the totally new position, principles, and conduct, of the justified.

by the glory of the Father] By the majestic harmony of His Power, Holiness, and Love; all consenting in the great miracle. Perhaps the thought is suggested here that the same “glory” shall be exercised in the “new life” of the justified.

walk in newness of life] i.e. move and act with the new principles and powers of those who, as the justified, are “born again to a living hope.”—“Newness:”—the Gr. word expresses not so much youth as novelty; a condition without precedent in our experience.—“Life:”—in the sense not of a course of life, but of the principle of life. Through the Death of Christ, the justified “live;” in the “newness” of that condition they are to “walk.”—Here again (as in Romans 6:2) note the transition of ideas; from a “death to sin” (with Christ) in respect of penalty, to a “life” (with Christ) in respect not merely of remission but of new principles and acts; i.e. from Justification simply to Justification as resulting in Sanctification. The “life” is not merely the extension of existence to a pardoned man, but the condition and use of that existence where the pardoned are also, as such, accepted among the “brethren” of Christ.

5. if] i.e. “as;” an assumed fact

planted together] Better (with regard to the form of the Gr. word), vitally connected. Not implanting but coalescence is the idea. (The word occurs nowhere else in N. T.)

in the likeness] Not His Death, but its Likeness; i.e. our “death unto sin” in Him. (See on Romans 6:2.) As believers, we have become vitally, inseparably, connected with that “death;” in other words, freedom from the claim of doom is an essential of our condition “in Him.” (Romans 8:1.)

we shall be] i.e., practically, “we are and shall be.” This is to be the sequel of justification, now and ever.

his resurrection] Which was not merely the reversal of His Death, but His entrance on the “power of an endless life.” So the justified live, not merely “not unto sin,” but “unto God.”

6. knowing this] Not precisely = “for we know this;” but more fully, “as those who know this.” This knowledge is to be a working motive in the new life.

our old man] Cp., for illustrative passages, Romans 7:22; 2 Corinthians 4:16; Ephesians 3:16; Ephesians 4:22; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:9; 1 Peter 3:4. In view of these, the word “self” in its popular use (“a man’s true self,” &c.) appears to be a fair equivalent for “man” here. Meyer here gives “unser altes Ich,” (“our old Ego”). Here the Apostle views the Christian before his union to Christ as (figuratively, of course,) another person; so profoundly different was his position before God, as a person unconnected with Christ.

is crucified with him] Better, was crucified. Here again the idea is the Representative Death of the Substitute, appropriated and made efficacious for justification, by faith. Not merely Death, but the Cross, is here named; the ideas of shame and pain being specially fit here, to emphasize both the requirements of the law and the claims of grace.

the body of sin] i.e. the body regarded as the special seat and stronghold of sin. Cp. 1 Corinthians 9:27; and below, Romans 6:12-13. The body is “the external basis of human nature;” “the medium for the reception … of life;” and thus “the sinfulness of human nature is … manifested by means of it.” (Cremer.) In connexions like the present it nearly = “the flesh.”

destroyed] Better, cancelled, as to its fatal power on the spirit. Same word as Romans 3:3; Romans 3:31; where see notes. Cp. especially 2 Timothy 1:10; where E. V. “abolished.” For a comment on the meaning here see Romans 8:3, and 1 Corinthians 9:27.

serve] Lit., be slaves to; and so in the whole context. This clause explains the last: “The body of sin” is so “cancelled” as to its power that the “inner man” no longer is the slave, or obedient victim, of sin, but combats it, with final victory. Before our “death with Christ,” the will, although it was swayed by conscience away from single acts or courses of sin, had never decisively revolted from sin as such, under the one effective motive—supreme love to the Holy God as the God of Peace. Hence, little as he might know it, the man’s will was, in the main respect of all, in harmony with sin, and the tool of sin; for sin in its essence is the not-loving the true God. And the impending doom of sin, (in other words, sin as unforgiven sin,) was the strength and secret of this bondage; for till the removal of the doom the man could not love God; God could not be to him the God of Peace. Hence St Paul speaks now immediately of deliverance from the doom of sin as implying deliverance from its bondage.

7. For he that is dead, &c.] Better, with a slight paraphrase, for he who has once died to sin now stands free from its claim. The legal claim of sin is meant here, not its moral dominion, for the Gr. word rendered “freed” in E. V., is lit. (see margin of E. V.) justified. The argument is that, since death is the penalty of sin, then if death has been suffered and passed, the penalty is exhausted and the claim cancelled: now such is the position of the justified in Christ; His death was endured, and is now past, for them and as theirs; therefore they live as those who have exhausted penalty and are free from its claim—in fact, “justified from sin.”

8. Now, &c.] This ver. and Romans 6:9-11 carry on, in a brief paragraph, the truth just stated, with special reference to the permanence and power of the Lord’s resurrection-life, which is the pledge of the Christian’s “new life.” Here too the view of His resurrection-life as a life “unto God” is distinctly stated; (see below on Romans 6:12;) the point which specially affects the argument then following.

if we be dead with Christ] Better, as we died with Christ; (see on Romans 6:2).—Here observe that it is in different senses respectively that man “dies in Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:22), and “dies with Christ.” “In Adam,” he incurs death in his own person, as penalty for inherited guilt (see on ch. Romans 5:12). “With Christ” he, not in his own person, but in that of Christ, his Representative, suffers death as expiation; is viewed as having thereby exhausted the claim of the law against him; and thus arrives in the happy state of justification, with its attendant results of sanctifying change in affections and will.

we believe] On the firm ground of our “death with Him.”

we shall also live] The future points not so much to bodily resurrection and life in glory, as to the immediate prospect, on justification, of “newness of life.” Q. d., “We live, and shall continue to do so, in our near and distant future.” The future “glory” is not yet the direct subject, as it is in parts of ch. 8: the future of the life of grace is in view here.

with him] i.e., by connexion with Him as the Second Adam.