Romans 6:1-14 - Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Reigning In Life Through Christ By Dying With Christ, And Rising With Him (6:1-14).

The question is asked in Romans 6:1, ‘What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?'. This brings home the fact that what is now to follow does not just deal with the question of how men and women can be accounted righteous through Christ, but also with the question of how they can become actively righteous. It was necessary to make a reply to the calumny that Paul could be seen as teaching that being ‘accounted righteous through faith alone, freely and without cost' encouraged sin. Indeed, there were claims that he actually taught that it was good to sin because it brought out the grace of God (compare Romans 3:8). But that is not the main reason for Paul's argument. Rather his purpose is to call on Christians to realise their potential, and to reign in life through Christ (Romans 5:17). He therefore answers the calumny by pointing out that his very doctrine, of dying with Christ and rising with Him, is in fact the greatest argument against sin and in favour of living righteously, that it is possible to have. For as he says in Romans 6:2,  ‘we who died to sin, how shall we any longer live in it?'  And the remainder of the passage expands on that question.

Related Commentaries of Romans 6:1

Romans 6:1-14

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

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 so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 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.

7 For he that is dead is freeda from sin.

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13 Neither yield ye your members as instrumentsb 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.

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.