Romans 6:1–2

The Apostle's statement at the end of Romans 5 — that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" — raises the subject of death to sin. That statement at once leads the mind ruled by the flesh to ask the foolish, if not wicked, question, "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" The Apostle rejects this unholy suggestion completely. He will not allow that the believer — who is true to the position in which God has set the Christian — can continue living in sin.

Shall we take advantage of the abundance of grace, and by our self-indulgence make a fresh occasion for its display? The more we sin, the more grace will bestow. Those who talk or think in this way, whether intentionally or not, are liable to turn, as we read, "the grace of our God into sensuality" (Jude 4). And history shows that many gross evils have arisen in Christendom from such abuses of God's abounding grace.

They show that they have no idea how hateful sin is. They assume that punishment is the only thing to fear. So the moment the fear of punishment is gone, all restraint is gone.

As we enter this branch of the Gospel of God, we find that sin, not sins, is the subject before us. Fruitfulness for God, not peace of conscience, is an end in view. It is the sinful nature, and not the acts — what we are, our condition, not what we have done — that has now to be considered. So attention goes to the death of Christ, not to His blood. His blood is not named once throughout this section of the letter.

In chapter 6 he goes on to notice that some will say, "Oh, if Christ has done all, it does not matter what I do. If it is righteousness without works, then we may walk as we like." The answer is not "That ought not to be," but "That cannot be." For we are speaking of death: I have part in righteousness by death. If the thing is real, I cannot live in what I am dead to, and that makes it impossible. If I live, being dead in this way, it is by being alive to God, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

The question in Romans 6 is the usual objection of the flesh, that sovereign grace seems to allow living in sin. The apostle answers this, not by asserting the law as the Christian's rule as if we were Jews. He answers by declaring that in our very baptism we died with Christ to sin. Buried with Him, we now have to walk in newness of life. He argues, not from a motive, but from the blessed fact of Christ's death and resurrection, in which the baptised profess to have a part.

Here, then, is that principle of deliverance from sin so greatly ridiculed — deliverance from sin by death. Nor shall we find any other deliverance from sin in the word of God. For centuries, many sincere people sought deliverance by fasting and by shutting themselves away in monasteries. Many sincere people now seek it by trying to reach a false perfection of the flesh. But here is the full truth of God — deliverance from sin by death.

Grace took us up at the start — grace is going to glorify us at the end; but we are not yet glorified. What are we going to do in between, since we are the recipients of such grace? Continue in sin? "By no means!"

May we continue in sin, so that His grace may be displayed more richly? Away with such a thought. Here the apostle deals with the wicked charge. He answers it not because the thought is appalling in itself, nor because it slanders the character of God, as in Romans 3:8, but because it contradicts the first principles of Christianity. He does not use a motive drawn from our sense of our Saviour's love. He is not asking here how we could so wound His heart or grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

Later in the chapter the apostle will show how the believer is dead to sin. But at the start he assumes that the only possible attitude for the believer to take towards sin is that he is "dead to sin." So he asks, "How can we who died to sin still live in it?" His question does not suggest that we ought not to live in it. It says that, having died to sin, we cannot live in it. The principle behind his words is plain: we cannot die to something and live in it at the same time.

The matter stands like this. He died FOR our sins, making atonement for them. He died TO sin. Taught by the Spirit, we recognise that we are identified with our great Representative, and faith takes His death as ours. We too, then, are "dead to sin," and cannot go on living in it without contradicting ourselves.

The desired translation is the result of misunderstanding the whole passage. It makes it a motive drawn from a previous evil result and nothing more; whereas it is perfectly certain that the passage is about our dying when we become Christians, not our dying by our sins... the doctrine of the chapter is dying out of our old man and living in newness of life — not our dying by our sin so as to be afraid of living in it now.

Scripture points to death itself as the barrier to sin's activity... Note carefully what the verse says, for people often misunderstand it. They misquote it or misread it. Paul does not say that sin itself is dead. He does not imply that the evil nature has disappeared altogether. It is we ourselves who have died to sin. How then can we go on living in sin? It is a dangerous deceit to think that believers no longer have sin within them.

This settles the matter at once against the so-called perfectionists. Paul is not saying that any believer has the experience of being dead to sin. He is certainly speaking of all Christians, and this is not the universal experience... His words later on are, "consider yourselves dead to sin" (older translations read "reckon"), and that reckoning rests on this: Christ "died to sin, once for all." So it is a reckoning of faith, not an experience.

Here, then, is that principle of deliverance from sin which is so much ridiculed — deliverance from sin by death. We shall not find any other deliverance from sin in the word of God. For centuries many sincere souls sought deliverance by fasting. Many shut themselves away in monasteries. Many sincere souls now seek it by striving after a false perfection of the flesh. But here is the full truth of God — deliverance from sin by death.

A dead man is free, or justified, from sin. I cannot charge a dead man with the evil of his past life. Death has taken him right out of it altogether... Death is the starting point for practice. We are set free as dead to sin, and so the apostle says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions."... I can say to sin now: I am no longer your slave. I belong to someone else. God has set me free from sin and given me a life to yield to Him.