Romans6

Romans 6 emphatically refutes the idea of continuing in sin for grace to abound, stating that believers are dead to sin through their identification with Christ's death and resurrection. Through baptism, they are united with Christ to walk in newness of life, having crucified the old sinful self. Therefore, believers are exhorted to reckon themselves dead to sin but alive to God, yielding their members as instruments of righteousness rather than unrighteousness.

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

1
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? ​
2
May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? ​
3
Or don’t you know that all we who were immersed into Messiah Yeshua were immersed into his death? ​
4
We were buried therefore with him through immersion to death, that just like Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. ​
5
For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. ​
7
For he who has died has been freed from sin. ​
8
But if we died with Messiah, we believe that we will also live with him;
9
knowing that Messiah, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!
10
For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
11
Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Messiah Yeshua our Lord. ​

Yielding Our Members to God

12
Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ​
13
Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ​
14
For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. ​

Slavery to Righteousness

15
What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be! ​
16
Don’t you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? ​
17
But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.
18
Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19
I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. ​
20
For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21
What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22
But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life. ​
23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord. ​

Study Notes for Romans 6

Verse 1

Paul anticipates the logical, but erroneous, conclusion that his teaching on abundant grace (from Rom 5) leads to moral license (antinomianism). This chapter answers that charge emphatically.

Verse 2

God forbid (KJV: Mē genoito) is Paul’s strongest expression of denial, meaning “May it never be!” The believer has undergone a fundamental transformation, rendering continued life in sin impossible.

Verse 3

Baptism is here understood as the symbolic identification with Christ's death. It signifies the believer's spiritual participation in the death and burial of the 'old self,' breaking the power of sin.

Verse 4

Just as Christ’s resurrection guarantees eternal life, the believer’s death to sin signifies an immediate call to live a radically transformed life now—walking in newness of life.

Verse 6

The 'old man' refers to the unredeemed self, controlled by sin. This former self was executed legally and spiritually with Christ, so that the 'body of sin' (the power structure of sin) is rendered ineffective.

Verse 7

This is a legal concept: just as a slave is freed from his master upon death, the justified believer is legally released from the obligation and mastery of Sin.

Verse 11

Reckon (logizomai) is an accounting term, meaning 'to calculate' or 'consider as fact.' Believers are commanded to consciously accept and act upon the reality of their spiritual death to sin and life in Christ.

Verse 12

The theological reality (Vv. 1-11) requires a moral response. Since sin's power is broken, believers must actively refuse to allow sin to rule their physical bodies, which are the instruments of action.

Verse 13

The body members (hands, eyes, mind, etc.) must be intentionally presented (paristēmi) to God as tools for righteousness, rather than being surrendered as weapons for unrighteousness.

Verse 14

This promise provides assurance that the believer will not ultimately be mastered by sin, because their relationship is based on grace (God's empowering favor), not the restrictive external demands of the Law.

Verse 15

Paul addresses a second objection: Can we exploit grace as an excuse for individual acts of sin? The answer is an immediate and strong denial (God forbid).

Verse 16

Paul uses the analogy of slavery to emphasize that everyone serves a master. Obedience reveals the true master: sin, which leads to death, or righteousness, which leads to life.

Verse 19

I speak after the manner of men: Paul acknowledges that the analogy of human slavery may be crude, but he uses it because it clearly illustrates the nature of submission and servitude required in the spiritual life.

Verse 22

The fruit of servitude to God is holiness (sanctification), which leads to the final destination of everlasting life.

Verse 23

This famous summary contrasts wages (something earned, referring to death) with gift (something freely given, referring to eternal life). Death is deserved; life is a gift of God's grace through Christ.

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