성경 주석서

Romans 6:1-13 Though justified by grace, we may not live in sin;

since the very figure of baptism requireth us to die

with Christ unto sin, that we may lead a new life of

holiness unto God.

Romans 6:14-20 The dispensation of grace freeth us from the dominion

of sin; but we are still the servants of sin, if we

obey it; therefore being freed from sin, we are bound

unto holiness.

Romans 6:21-23 The end and wages of sin is death; but the fruit of

holiness through God’s grace is eternal life.

Another anticipation; this Epistle abounds therewith. The apostle here prevents an objection, which might be occasioned, either by the foregoing doctrine in general, concerning justification by the free grace of God, and by a righteousness imputed to us; or by what he said more particularly in the close of the foregoing chapter, that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Some might hence infer, that there was no need then of inherent righteousness, that persons might abide and abound in sin, that so grace might be the more exalted in the forgiveness thereof. The apostle Jude speaks, Judges 1:4, of some that made this ill improvement of the grace of God. Those that draw such inferences from the premises, they put a false construction upon the apostle’s doctrine, and a paralogism or fallacy upon themselves. They make the apostle’s words more general than he meant or intended them: for the abounding of sin is not the occasion of the abounding of grace in all, but only in some, even in those who confess and forsake their sins. And they apply that to the time to come which the apostle only uttered of the time past. The abounding of sin in men before their conversion and calling, doth commend and exalt the abundant grace of God, in the forgiveness thereof; but not so if sin abound in them after they are converted and called. He propounds this objection by way of interrogation, partly to show his dislike that his doctrine should be so perverted, and partly to show the peace of his own conscience, that he was far from such a thought.

God forbid; be it not, or far be it; he rejects any such inference or consequence, as unworthy of an answer: q.d. Away with all such doctrines, as, under pretence of advancing grace, do promote sin, or obstruct a godly life. This phrase is frequent with the apostle, when he is speaking of any absurdity: see Romans 3:4,6,31.

How: by this particle he shows the impossibility, or the incongruity, of the thing: see Matthew 6:28 Galatians 4:9. The following argument is very convincing, and may be thus formed: They whose property it is to be dead to sin, cannot any longer live therein; but the justified by faith are

dead to sin. They are said to be dead to sin, who do not live under the power and dominion of it; who mortify sin, and suffer it (so far as they can) to have no life or power in it. Fall into it they may, but live and lie in it they cannot. It is not falling into the water that drowns a man, but it is his lying in it; so it is not falling into sin that damns a man, but it is his living in it.

Know ye not? q.d. This is a truth which you ought not to be ignorant of and which confirms what I say.

Baptized into Jesus Christ: to be baptized into Christ, is either to be baptized in the name of Christ; see Acts 10:48, and Acts 19:5; or else it is, incorporated, ingrafted, or planted into Christ, and so to be made members of his mystical body by baptism.

Baptized into his death: to be baptized into the death of Christ, is to have fellowship with him in his death, or to have the efficacy of his death sealed up to us; and that is the blessed privilege of as many as are baptized or planted into Christ; they are not only partakers of the merit of his death for justification, but of the efficacy of his death for mortification. See a parallel place, Galatians 3:27.

Therefore: q.d. Because we are thus dead with Christ, therefore, & c.

We are buried with him; i.e. we have communion with him in his burial also, which represents a farther degree of the destruction of sin, by putting it, as it were, out of our sight, Genesis 23:4, and having no more to do with it.

By baptism into death: he seems here to allude to the manner of baptizing in those warm Eastern countries, which was to dip or plunge the party baptized, and as it were to bury him for a while under water. See the like phrase, Colossians 2:12. Baptism doth not only represent our mortification and death to sin, but our progress and perseverance therein. Burial implies a continuing under death; so is mortification a continual dying unto sin.

That like as Christ was raised up from the dead; look as, after the death and burial of Christ, there followed his resurrection, so it must be with us; we must have communion with, and conformity to, the Lord Jesus Christ in his resurrection as well as in his death; both these are represented and sealed to us by the sacrament of baptism.

By the glory of the Father; i.e. by the power of the Father, which is called, Colossians 1:11, his glorious power. God is said elsewhere to have raised him by his power, 1 Corinthians 6:14; and in 2 Corinthians 13:4, he is said to live by the power of God. Some read it thus, he was raised from the dead, to the glory of the Father.

The preposition dia is sometimes rendered to: see 1 Peter 1:3.

Walk in newness of life; i.e. live a new life, being actuated by new principles, aiming at new ends, and bringing forth new fruits of holiness: see Romans 7:6.

He prosecutes what he had before propounded, and illustrates it by an apt similitude, which is taken from grafting or planting. He takes it for granted, that believers are

planted together in the likeness of Christ’s

death, i.e. are made conformable to him in his death: see Philippians 3:10. Christ died, and believers die; the one a natural, the other a spiritual death: the one by way of expiation, suffering, and satisfying for the sins of others; the other by way of mortification, killing and crucifying their own sins.

We shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: in the original the sentence is elliptical and imperfect, the words running thus, we shall be of his resurrection; our translation therefore fills up the sense with a word borrowed from the preceding clause. See the like, John 5:36, I have a greater witness than of John, i.e. than that witness of John. The sense of the whole is this, That believers are not only dead, but risen with Christ, Colossians 3:1. They partake of such a resurection as resembles his; as Christ arose from the dead to a new life, so we rise from dead works to walk in newness of life, Romans 6:4. Moreover, they are raised and quickened by a power and virtue that flows from Christ and his resurrection: this is that virtue which the apostle Paul so earnestly desired to be made a partaker of, Philippians 3:10. The graft revives with the stock in the spring, and that by a virtue which it receives from the stock; so as a believer is raised to newness of life, by virtue flowing from Christ, into whom he is ingrafted.

Question. Why doth he say believers

shall be planted, &c.? Are they not so already, upon their believing in Christ?

Answer. The apostle rather chooseth to speak in the future, than in the present tense; rather we shall be, than we are, or have been; because the work is only begun; it daily increaseth more and more, until it comes to a full perfection in heaven.

By the old man is meant, that corrupt and polluted nature which we derive from Adam, the first man: see Ephesians 4:22 Colossians 3:9,10. The old and new man are opposites; as then the new man is the image of God repaired in us; so the old man is a depravation of that image of God, and a universal pollution of the whole man.

Is crucified with him; by virtue of our union with him, and by means of his death and crucifixion: see Galatians 2:20.

The body of sin is the very same that he called before the old man. The corrupt nature is sometimes called the body, Romans 8:13, sometimes a body of death, Romans 7:24, and here the body of sin. It is indeed a mere mass and lump of sin; it is not one sin, but all sin seminally. It is with respect to this body of sin, that particular lusts and corruptions are called members, Colossians 3:5.

Might be destroyed; weakened more and more, till at last it be destroyed.

That henceforth we should not serve sin; as we did before regeneration, and as they still do who voluntarily commit it, John 8:34. They do not only act sin, but are acted by it, having as many lords as lusts, Titus 3:3. See more of this, Romans 6:16.

He that is dead, i.e. to sin, is freed from it; not only in respect of the guilt thereof, which sense the marginal reading of the word seems to respect, but also in regard of the service of it. This agrees best with the context; look, as he that is dead is freed and discharged from the authority of, those who had dominion over him in his lifetime, so it is with those that are dead to sin. There is a parallel place, 1 Peter 4:1.

i.e. If we have fellowship with Christ in his death, we have reason to believe we shall have fellowship with him also in his resurrection and life: see Romans 6:5. Though everlasting be not excluded, yet a spiritual life is principally intended; we shall so live with Christ, as no more to return to dead works. The next words show this to be the sense.