SLAVES TO SIN OR SLAVES TO GOD - ROMANS 6

 Grace Is Not An Excuse To Sin

6:1-2

Having established that we are justified by grace, and that grace abounded when sin increased under the law, Paul anticipated the next question: If that is true, should believers continue to sin so that grace can abound even more? To continue in sin is to live a life of habitual sin. 

This, by the way, was the theology of the Russian monk Rasputin (pictured above). 

Paul answered that question with a forceful “no”. The reason is those who died to sin cannot live in it. Justified people have died to sin. We used to be dead in sin, but now we are dead to sin. 

To explain, Paul used the image of baptism.

Baptized Into Christ

6:3-14

When believers come to Christ in faith, they become “in Christ”. Paul says we are “baptized” into Christ. (3) We are immersed into Christ. 

As a result, we are baptized into his death. They are immersed in and identified with his death. 

Baptism is a portrayal of this, a symbol showing the believer buried with Christ, then raised as Christ was. Our symbolic death shows we have died to sin and our symbolic raising shows we are raised to walk in newness of life. We even say this as we baptize believers. 

Even though we say it, though, some people ignore it. They think salvation is just a get out of hell card. They receive their card by saying some words and filling out a card. Then they have done the deal and they are done with it. Nothing further is involved.

Paul, however, speaks of a change in the believer. He or she walks in “newness of life”. They live in a new way. Paul speaks elsewhere of the believer becoming a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17) And if the believer becomes something new, it means something old has been put away. Paul said it “passed away”. 

That putting away is a sort of resurrection. We are united with Christ, not only in death, but also in a resurrection like his. (5) Our old self, the lost and sinful self, was crucified with Christ. (6) This brings the old body of sin to nothing. We are no long enslaved by sin. We are set free from sin. (7)

Christ’s resurrection showed death did not have dominion over him. (9) He lives and he lives to God. Those who are in union with Christ should also consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God. (11) 

That being the case, we do not present our bodies and minds to unrighteousness behavior. Instead we present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. (13) Receiving grace did not present the opportunity to live in sin. Rather, grace freed us from sin so that we can live to bring glory to God through our righteous behavior. 

You can present yourself to sin in many ways.  It can be by watching or reading pornography, by hanging out with people who live to sin, or dwelling on things other people have and coveting them. 

Or, you can present yourself to God in righteousness by committing yourself to live for Christ, then by reading your Bible or works by spiritual writers, by associating with those who seek to live holy lives, and by serving others. 

The Analogy of Slavery

6:15-22

In this passage, Paul returns to the question should we sin because we are under grace and not law. The answer is still no. But, this time, Paul uses the analogy to slavery. A slave is one who obeys his or her master. You are a slave of the one you obey. (16)

There are only two alternatives. You can obey sin. That is one alternative. You give in to all temptations. I once heard a radio show where the host conversed with a young woman who took drugs regularly even though they were causing her harm. When the host spoke of this concept of freedom from the slavery of sin, she was incredulous and asked “you mean I don’t have to do what I want to do?”. 

Paul said sin leads to death. (16) He was speaking of the failure to obtain eternal life in Christ. But in so many people, we see the results of their sin killing them. Their physical health declines. Their mental health is affected. And their spiritual health is destroyed.

The second alternative is that you can submit yourself to obedience to God which leads to righteousness. (16) Righteousness then leads to sanctification. (19) 

Thankfully, God transforms the believer from slave to sin to one who becomes obedient from the heart to God’s word as they hear it taught. God’s word, including the law, tells us what God’s standards are. 

Believers begin to obey that teaching. That fulfills a promise of God, who said: 

“I will put my law within them and I will write it upon their hearts. (Jeremiah 31:33) 

And who also said: 

“I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.” (Ezekiel 36:27) 

As we progress in sanctification, we become slaves to righteousness in that we seek to obey God’s commands. He has empowered us to do this. As we obey, we progress in sanctification which ends in eternal life. (22)

Verse 23 is well known and often memorized. It summarizes the thought of chapter 6. The wages of sin, what you earn, is death. It has lead to physical death and will lead to spiritual death. 

In contrast to what we earn, what we receive as a gift of God for believing in his Son is eternal life in the Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. 

 “Justification changes weeping into dancing. You’ve been released from your cage, so fly on!”— Gerard Hemmings

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,… and we exult in the hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:1-2).

 "The Old English Puritan was such an one that honored God above all and, under God, age every one his due. His first care was to serve God and therein he did not what was good in his own, but in God's sight, making the word of God the rule of his worship." The Character of an Old English Puritan or Non-Conformist, John Geree.

"For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Corinthians 15:21-22.

DEATH IN ADAM\LIFE IN CHRIST (REVISED) - ROMANS 5:12-21

 

Death In Adam v. Life in Christ

5:12-17

In this passage, Paul develops a parallel between Adam (the first man) and Christ. Paul’s basing his theological point on Adam shows he believes in the historicity of the Genesis account. He does not treat it as a metaphor. 

The parallel is this: Adam is considered the head of the human race. Jesus is considered the head of a new humanity. (2 Corinthians 5:17) 

The parallel is full of contrasts, though. The end result for Adam’s race is different from the end result of Christ’s.

The connection between the two parallels is the way in which God governs humanity. God deals one way with all humanity with regard to sin and its consequences, death and judgment. (Hebrews 9:27) Likewise, he deals in one way, with grace, toward all of those who are in Christ, the new humanity. 

The beginning of the passage in verse 12 can be difficult to understand because Paul begins a comparison between Adam and Christ, but does not finish it in this passage. This is probably because he believed the beginning thought needed further explanation.

First we see that sin came into the world through one man. (12) That man is Adam. That event is told to us in Genesis 3. God told Adam he could not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Adam disobeyed God and ate. He sinned and sin became part of human existence.

The phrase “came into the world” means the beginning of sin in the human race. [or “entered into” per the New International Version]

Death came into the world through this sin. God had told Adam that he would die if he ate of the forbidden fruit. He did. Death then spread to all men and women, the whole human race. It is the separation of the body from the spirit along with the decay and destruction of the body. (Ecclesiastes 12:7) 

Death entered through the sin of one man. It permeated the human race because all sinned in Adam. (12b) He was our representative. His sin was imputed to all of his descendants and brought us under condemnation. It made us all sinners and we all sin and need justification. (John 3:18) The fact that we all sin is proof that we inherited a corrupt nature from Adam. 

In response, the Jew might say: I understand that would be true after the law was given through Moses, but what about those who lived before the law? How could they be called sinners?” 

Paul explained that sin was in the world before the law was given, since it came from Adam, so all those from Adam to Moses were under the curse of death, even if they did not sin the way Adam did, violating a specific commandment. (14) Because of Adam’s trespass, death came to all men. (17)

In this way, Adam is a type of the one who was to come, Jesus. (14) In typology, you have a type and an anti-type. Typology is a kind of symbolism. A symbol is something that represents something else. 

A type represents something in the future. For example, the Old Testatment sacrifices were types of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The shedding of blood was required to bring atonement for sin. It was animals in the Old Testament. It was Christ in the New Testament. 

In our context, a type is a person or thing in the Old Testament that foreshadows a person or thing in the New Testament. It does not mean that the type and anti-type are the same in all respects. They may only share one trait. 

Adam is a type of Jesus in this way: he is the head of a people (the human race) and Jesus is the head of a people (all believers). 

All who are in Adam inherit death. 

All who are in Jesus inherit eternal life. 

Verse 15 tells us that. Death came to humanity through the trespass (sin) of one man (Adam). Salvation by grace came by the one man Jesus Christ. 

That salvation is an abundance of grace, a free gift, that allows us to reign in life through the one man, Jesus. (17)

A Summary Of Comparisons

5:18-21

In these verses, Paul summarized the comparisons between Adam, the type, and Jesus, the anti-type.

First, one trespass (sin) by Adam led to condemnation, one act of righteousness (dying for us) by Jesus leads to justification and life. (18)

Second, one man’s disobedience made many sinners, one man’s obedience made many righteous. (19) The law increased trespass by enumerating the requirements of God, in effect, drawing attention to sin, pointing it out to us. 

But, grace abounded even more. Grace is greater than sin.

Finally, sin reigns in death, but grace reigns through righteousness that leads to eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. (21) The reign of grace moves forward toward the life to come. That life culminates it the bodily resurrection of believers, God’s people, to live in a new heaven and new earth which has been delivered from the corruption of sin which has plagued it since Adam. 

 “Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake, you who sleep, rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again: for your sake, God became man.” 

- Augustine

THE DOCTRINE OF ORIGINAL SIN - ROMANS 5:12-21

Death In Adam v. Life in Christ

5:12-17

In this passage, Paul develops a parallel between Adam (the first man) and Christ. Paul’s basing his theological point on Adam shows he believes in the historicity of the Genesis account. He does not treat it as a metaphor. 

The parallel is this: Adam is considered the head of the human race. Jesus is considered the head of a new humanity. The parallel is full of contrasts, though. The end result for Adam’s race is different from the end result of Christ’s.

The connection between the two parallels is the way in which God governs humanity. God deals one way with all humanity with regard to sin and its consequences. Likewise, he deals in one way, with grace, toward all of those who are in Christ, the new humanity. 

The beginning of the passage in verse 12 can be difficult to understand because Paul begins a comparison between Adam and Christ, but does not finish it. This is probably because he thought the beginning thought needed further explanation.

First we see that sin came into the world through one man. (12) That man is Adam. That event is told to us in Genesis 3. God told Adam he could not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Adam disobeyed God and ate. He sinned and sin became part of human existence.

The phrase “entered the world” means the beginning of sin in the human race. 

Death entered the world through this sin. God had told Adam that he would die if he ate of the forbidden fruit. He did. Death then spread to all men and women, the whole human race. It is the separation of the body from the spirit along with the decay and destruction of the body. (Ecclesiastes 12:7) 

Death entered through the sin of one man. It permeated the human race because all sinned in Adam. (12b) He was our representative. His sin was imputed to all of his descendants and brought us under condemnation. It made us all sinners and we all sin and need justification. The fact that we all sin is proof that we inherited a corrupt nature from Adam. 

In response, the Jew might say: I understand that would be true after the law was given through Moses, but what about those who lived before the law? How could they be called sinners?” 

Paul explained that sin was in the world before the law was given, since it came from Adam, so all those from Adam to Moses were under the curse of death, even if they did not sin the way Adam did. (14) Because of Adam’s trespass, death came to all men. (17)

In this way, Adam is a type of the one who was to come, Jesus. (14) In typology, you have a type and an anti-type. Typology is a kind of symbolism. A symbol is something that represents something else. 

A type represents something in the future. For example, the Old Testament sacrifices were types of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The shedding of blood was required to bring atonement for sin. It was animals in the Old Testament. It was Christ in the New Testament. 

In our context, a type is a person or thing in the Old Testament that foreshadows a person or thing in the New Testament. It does not mean that the type and anti-type are the same in all respects. They may only share one trait. 

Adam is a type of Jesus in this way: they are the head of a people; all who are in Adam inherit death; all who are in Jesus inherit eternal life. Verse 15 tells us that. Death came to humanity through the trespass (sin) of one man (Adam). Salvation by grace came by the one man Jesus Christ. 

That salvation is an abundance of grace, a free gift, that allow us to reign in life through the one man, Jesus. (17)

A Summary Of Comparisons

5:18-21

 In these verses, Paul summarized the comparisons between Adam, the type, and Jesus, the anti-type.

First, one trespass (sin) by Adam led to condemnation, one act of righteousness by Jesus leads to justification and life. (18)

Second, one man’s disobedience made many sinners, one man’s obedience made many righteous. (19) Although the law increases trespass by enumerating the requirements of God, grace abounded even more. Grace is greater than sin.

Finally, sin reigns in death, but grace reigns through righteousness that leads to eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. (21)