Romans 6:1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
This seems to be a very plausible temptation, it is one which frequently came in the apostle's way, and therefore he very often had to denounce it. It is one of the vilest suggestions of Satan that could possibly come to men.
Romans 6:2. God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
The whole spirit of the gospel is opposed to the idea of sinning because God is gracious. It is a horrible Satanic suggestion, «As pardon can be so easily obtained from God, let us sin the more against him.» The bare suggestion is utterly degrading and diabolical. It is to be scouted at once.
Romans 6:3. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Was not that the real meaning of our baptism? Had it any meaning whatever unless we were really dead with Christ and therefore were buried with him?
Romans 6:4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even as we also should walk in newness of life.
There is a parallel between Christ and the true Christian. There is a likeness between the Head of the Church and the members of his mystical body. Christ died, and was buried, and his people are reckoned as dead and buried in him.
Romans 6:5-7. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.
That is, he that died to sin when Christ died is free from sin's condemning power.
Romans 6:8-10. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
In the next verse, the parallel between Christ and Christians comes up again. As Christ died, and was buried, and rose from the dead and now lives to die no more, so is it with us who believe in him, and are in him by a vital union. In him we died, and in him we rose, and in him we now live in newness of life.
Romans 6:11-13. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
«Your members» that is, the various parts of your body and the faculties of your mind are to be yielded up to God «as instruments of righteousness.»
Romans 6:14. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
While you were under the law, and simply heard it command you to do your duty, the command seemed to awaken all the hostility of your nature so that you remained under the dominion of sin, but now no longer does the law speak to you as it did aforetime. You are not now under the law, but another principle governs you. The grace, the favor, the love which God has shown to you in Christ Jesus, appeals to your heart, and you cheerfully yield to it the obedience which, when the law demanded it, your unregenerate spirit refused to render.
Romans 6:15. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Again the apostle is shocked at such a suggestion. There are some who have denied that the law was binding upon them in any sense, and who have therefore claimed liberty to sin, but they can find no footing anywhere within the saved enclosure of God's Word.
Romans 6:16. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
If, then, a man lives a life of sin, he proves that he is the servant of sin, for he has obeyed its commands, and let that man know assuredly that he has nothing to do with Christ while he is living in sin. But if a man lives in obedience to Christ and seeks after righteousness, and true holiness, that man is evidently the servant of righteousness, and so the servant of God.
Romans 6:17. But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Or, as the marginal reading renders it, in harmony with the original, «whereto ye were delivered,» for the doctrine was the mould, and ye were the metal, reduced to a molten condition, and then poured into the mould to take the shape of gospel truth. God be thanked for this, that, though ye did formerly serve sin, ye now serve it no longer.
Romans 6:18-19. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
How powerfully this plea ought to tell with any whose former life was full of positive, plain uncleanness in the sight of God! And how earnestly should the redeemed spirit cry to God to preserve the body pure and chaste before him!
Romans 6:20. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
You did not then trouble yourselves about that matter at all; you left the things of God and piety alone.
Romans 6:21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
You had such pleasure as sin could give you, but was it worth having? You derived some profit, perhaps, from evil pursuits; but did the profit ever make up for the loss which you thereby sustained? O ye who have had experience of sin to the full, has it, after all, turned out to be the fair and lovely thing that it once seemed to be? No, the serpent had azure scales, but its fangs have poured poison into your blood. It came to you with all manner of deceivableness of unrighteousness, like Jezebel with her painted face, but it has wrought for you nothing but sorrow and suffering, and it will work your eternal ruin unless God, in his great mercy, shall prevent it.
Romans 6:22. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Oh, what wondrous changes the grace of God works! «But now.» Paul must have rejoiced to write those two words. He had dwelt upon what men were before the Lord began to deal with them in mercy, «but now» he could say, «being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.»
Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.