Lonang Commentary on Romans 6

Rom. 6:1-5 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Baptism, Death and Resurrection

There are several different kinds of baptisms mentioned in scripture. Peter states that baptism corresponds to the saving of Noah and his family through the great flood. 1 Pet. 3:20-21. Paul talks about the ancient Israelites being baptized into Moses when they passed through the Red Sea. 1 Cor. 10:1-2. John the Baptist baptized people with water unto repentance. Mk. 1:4. Jesus referred to Himself as needing to undergo a baptism, meaning His death, long after He was baptized by John and having nothing to do with water. Lk. 12:50. The baptism of the Holy Spirit was introduced on the Day of Pentecost. Acts 1:5; 2:38. Here in Romans Paul talks about being baptized into Christ, specifically His death and resurrection. Rom. 6:3-5. Finally, Eph. 4:4-5 proclaims that there is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. What to make of all this?

For one thing, it seems clear that baptism, as a concept, was not invented in the New Testament. The Lord certainly had in mind the concept of baptism back in Genesis and Exodus, even if it was not explicitly stated at the time. But the thing that seems to tie all of these types of baptisms together is the idea of going through death, or a death-like experience, and coming out on the other side of it alive and well. Thus, Noah and his family passed through the waters that exterminated the rest of the human race, but emerged able to restart the human race and repopulate the earth. Similarly, the Israelites passed through the waters of the sea that killed all of Pharaoh’s army, yet emerged as a nation with a newness of purpose, life, and the promises of God.

John, in baptizing unto repentance, symbolically had people die to continuing to live in sin. Jesus, in undergoing His baptism, suffered an actual death, but emerged triumphant over death in His resurrection. When people are baptized into Christ, they symbolically identify with the death and resurrection of Christ. Thus, the chief difference between the baptisms of John and Christ is the addition of the hope of our own resurrection and newness of eternal life that goes beyond merely living differently in this life. And the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a type of death to living for Christ merely in our own strength, for the chief purpose of the Holy Spirit is to be a Helper to remind us of all the things Christ has said. Jn. 14:26.

I take Eph. 4:4-5 to mean that there are no longer separate groups of people – as there once were when the plan of God was just being rolled out in the First Century A.D. – who are under separate baptisms. In other words, there are no people today who are under John’s baptism, but not Christ’s, or who are under Christ’s baptism but not of the Holy Spirit. These distinctions are obsolete. To be saved by Christ is to repent and receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. These things all occur at the same time, and cannot be separated.

Not that any of this is necessarily connected to water. Sure, Christians have for nearly 2,000 years used water as a symbol to indicate an inward or spiritual change, but water baptism is neither necessary for salvation, nor the means by which salvation is conferred. It would indeed be a strange thing if Paul, who has so consistently distinguished between outward and inward circumcision, were to now link inward and outward baptism as though they were the same. The inward change is what’s important, not the outward symbol. Those churches which require a specific type of water baptism as a pre-condition to allowing a person to become a church member, are confusing the message of the scriptures and do their members a great disservice by elevating form over substance.

Notice there is not one word here in Romans about water, nor any indication of how baptism is to be observed or performed. For that matter, when Jesus told His disciples to baptize people in the name of the Trinity, he said not one word about water, either. Nor are there any words of command anywhere in the N.T. concerning the manner of observing baptism – who can or should perform it, whether it is to be public or private, done by sprinkling or immersing, or any instructions as to where, when or how. Remember, there is no ceremonial law for the Church, as such.

Rom. 6:6-13 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

Living A Life Free From Sin

In this section, Paul continues the point he started to make in verses 1-2. Should we who are redeemed continue sinning? His reply: How can we who died to sin still live in it? After all, that is what baptism is all about in Paul’s view – being identified with the death of Christ. So as Christ died for our sins (for He knew no sin Himself), so we should die to our sins, and live for Christ. Then he presses additional arguments: our bodies of sin are to be considered as brought to nothing; we are no longer slaves to sin but freed from it; and we must consider ourselves dead to sin.

A perfectly logical conclusion, and a clear exhortation for godly living. But a far from perfect present reality, and an impossible task in the here and now. Yes, of course once we have been redeemed, all sinning is fundamentally inconsistent with that status. But nothing in scripture says that once a person is redeemed they are able, in actual fact, to perfectly keep God’s laws that we were all completely unable to perfectly keep before being redeemed. A fact Paul himself will wrestle with in the next chapter.

Notice the specific language used. We are no longer enslaved to sin; we have been set free from sin; and we are not to let sin reign over us, or let it have dominion over us. In other words, prior to redemption in Christ we had no choice but to sin. I’m not saying that absolutely everything an unsaved person does is evil, but simply that an unsaved person is in a state, or position, of being separated from God, and regardless of their works for good or ill, they cannot overcome this separation, which will eventually destroy them. Thus, as people redeemed in Christ, we now have a choice to live for God, to consciously conform our conduct to His standards, and to live in fellowship with Him. A choice the unsaved do not have.

Notice the wording in verse 10 that Christ died to sin “once for all,” a phrase used several times in the book of Hebrews. It refers not only to the fact Christ died for all people (Jews and Gentiles, men and women, bond and free, etc.), but also to the fact no one needs to avail themselves of God’s saving grace more than once during their lives. In other words, just because you sin after being redeemed, does not mean you need saving more than once, or that God’s grace to you needs to be refreshed or extended. Once is sufficient, period.

Christians do not need, as the Jews were required, to obtain periodic covering for their sins. The sacrifices and offerings performed by the Jews were never designed to, nor did they in fact, obtain salvation for them individually. Those ceremonies were performed for an entirely different purpose – that God would dwell with them in the Promised Land. Such considerations do not apply to the Church.

Therefore, the idea that Christians must periodically observe ordinances or sacraments in order to receive God’s grace (and the more often, the better) is completely false. Even the idea that God’s grace is imparted in the observing of ordinances or sacraments is completely false. That’s not the way God works. Jesus died once for all, period. No further dispensations of grace are necessary or required.

Rom. 6:14-15 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

Not Under Law, But Grace

At its most basic level, given the context of all that has been discussed so far in Romans and what will shortly follow, the phrase “not under law but under grace” simply means that the redemption of God that comes through Christ was not given to mankind by or through any law, but is the free gift of God. Therefore, it cannot be obtained by adhering to any law, but can only be imparted through faith and belief in Christ.

One of the absurd interpretations of these verses is that sure, we don’t obtain salvation by adherence to any law, but once we are saved, there is a new set of laws imposed on us pertaining to the Church – regulated forms of worship, sacraments and ordinances, elders and deacons, etc. I have already stated fairly forcefully that God has added no new legal obligations by virtue of the fact of becoming redeemed, i.e., there are no new laws imposed on believers in the New Testament. God has not merely substituted a new set of laws for the O.T. ceremonial laws. Especially since those laws never applied to Gentiles in the first place, there is no need for a replacement.

Now I want to address an equally absurd and erroneous proposition – that redemption in Christ frees us from all laws whatsoever, whether God’s or man’s. That believers are under no laws except the law of conscience and what the Holy Spirit speaks to us at the moment. In the preceding paragraph, I said God has not merely substituted a new set of laws for the O.T. ceremonial laws. The reason for that is this: all the old laws are still there. Just because salvation has come, doesn’t make the old laws go away. Nothing Jesus did destroyed any part of the laws under the Mosaic covenant.

For Jewish believers today, usually self-identifying as Messianic Jews rather than as Christians, they are still under the regulations of the Mosaic covenant. Gentile believers (most unfortunately) often regard the Mosaic covenant as having been abrogated in whole or in part, but the people to whom it actually pertains generally understand its continuing obligation. That is because the obligations of the Law apply to them due to their bloodline, or ancestry, which is unaffected by a profession of faith in Christ – the bloodline is still there. If you visit a Messianic congregation today, you will see that they tend to observe the Mosaic regulations and feasts, kosher food laws, etc.

One of the problems for them (as I see it) is that many of the Mosaic regulations, especially regarding sacrifices, require them to be performed or observed at the Temple in Jerusalem which, of course, does not now exist. Which makes full compliance with the Law impossible, even for people who want to comply. So, they attempt a substantial compliance, as we lawyers say, to do the best they can. It is not for me, as a Gentile believer, to judge whether their compliance is adequate. It is enough for me to know they recognize the continuing effect of the Mosaic law, because as I said, its purpose has nothing to do with redemption and is therefore not in the least inconsistent with Christianity or the New Testament.

God’s Universal Covenants

Gentile believers, on the other hand, are still under the laws of nature and God’s revealed universal covenant laws, meaning the divine covenants with Adam and Noah. They are universal for the same reason the Mosaic laws still apply to the Jews – bloodlines. Every person alive today is a descendant of Adam and Noah – all other bloodlines were extinguished during the flood. Their applicability to mankind has nothing to do with faith or belief or redemption. You are a descendant of Adam and Noah, end of question. You don’t have to like it or agree with it. Like the sin nature you acquired from your ancestor Adam, these obligations apply to you because you were born.

I am continually amazed at the extent to which Christians fail, or outright refuse, to acknowledge their obligations under God’s universal covenant laws. This is a serious and deplorable failure to teach the whole counsel of God in churches and seminaries. The rights and responsibilities flowing from these covenants are not mere suggestions, rules of thumb, or helpful guidelines. They are laws – which makes them mandatory and binding on all people, in all places, and at all times. Faith in Christ does not remove or lessen their obligation. Not to follow any of them is unlawful and sinful, and worthy of God’s condemnation. So, what are these laws?

The Adamic covenant is found in Gen. 1:26-30. Briefly, for legal purposes, being made in God’s image speaks to the matter of equality, as in “all men are created equal.” This is an equality unaffected by race or nationality, sex, economic status, or any other factor except a person’s responsibility for their individual behavior. It means all of God’s laws are, and all of humanity’s laws should be, impartial and color-blind – no exceptions. It means children are God’s gifts to parents, not to society at large or to any civil government, and any interference with parent’s rights over their children (especially while they are minors) is a heinous offense to God. This includes all aspects of child rearing, education, training, provision and care.

It means God gave mankind private property to exercise dominion over as each person sees fit before God. Property is not the creature of society, and governmental regulation is primarily limited to remedying private theft, trespass and nuisance offenses. It means people have authority over all animals, birds and sea creatures, and no mere animal life takes precedence or priority over people in the use of natural resources. It means that animals are not people and they have no legal rights. It means every person has the inalienable right to choose their own manner of taking dominion, i.e., choice of occupation or profession.

It also means God has granted to every individual the unfettered right to use flowering plants for food and other purposes, and no government has the legitimate authority to tell people what plants they can or cannot grow, harvest, sell, or use. And this even extends to any such plants that may be harmful, including tobacco, marijuana, grains used to produce alcohol, etc. Just because something is lawful doesn’t make it safe or prudent, but that’s why God left it up to people to learn from experience and didn’t place regulation in the hands of government. Or as Paul was fond of saying, ” All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.” 1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23.

Noah’s covenant is found in Gen. 9:1-17. It includes a reaffirmation of child-bearing and dominion commands. Added was a command to eat meat, but without the blood. Yes, I said command – not optional. The Lord didn’t say how much, what kinds, or how often, but if you permanently forego eating any meat at all, adopting a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, let me suggest you are out of compliance with God’s law. What will God do if you completely abstain from eating meat? I don’t know – maybe nothing. That’s in His sovereign discretion. But if you want God’s favor, well …

It also includes a requirement for capital punishment of bloodshed (murder). Not optional. No life imprisonment for murderers with or without possibility of parole. Murder pollutes the land (Num. 35:33), and nothing can atone for this except the life of the murderer. I submit this is an instance where the Mosaic law merely reflects the law of nature, and is completely consistent with it. Today, the unatoned for murders on the face of the earth have placed an enormous sin debt on the ground that is no longer capable of being paid, or atoned for, except for worldwide judgment – which is soon coming. More on this later.

All of God’s covenants are eternal. None of them have expired or terminated, and none will do so in the future, until the point where the present heaven and earth are destroyed and God creates an all-new heaven and earth no longer under sin or the curse. Rev. 21:1. Therefore, when Paul says people are under grace, not law, this excuses noone from God’s universal and eternal laws.

Rom. 6:16-20 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

You’re Gonna Serve Somebody

When I read this text I am reminded of the words of the famous poet: “But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed / You’re gonna have to serve somebody / It may be the devil or it may be the Lord / But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” And the parallel scripture that comes to mind is Mat. 6:24, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

In this respect, sin and righteousness are not merely two different masters, they are opposites and mutually exclusive. To serve either one is to shun the other, for they have nothing in common. And the language used here is one of slavery – not a pleasant concept to our ears, but a concept that makes a point. Namely, the choice between sin and righteousness is not merely an affinity or an allegiance – these aren’t mere preferences like choosing a sports team to cheer for. Paul is talking about slavish obedience – there can be no divided loyalties in the choice of masters. You are going to be solidly in one camp or the other, and you must affirmatively choose righteousness or you will default to obedience to sin.

Obedience to God (and what does that mean, except obedience to God’s laws) requires effort – everything you’ve got. Obedience is not going to happen automatically because you have been redeemed, you are going to have to study God’s laws and know them before you can obey them. A single brief effort won’t get you there – it’s going to take the rest of your life. Studying, learning, obeying, laying a strong foundation, building upon it, and working ever so hard to conform your behavior to what you learn.

As the poet said, there is no third option. No fence straddling or remaining neutral. No opting out of the need to make a choice. To serve yourself is to choose sin, because to serve yourself is to make yourself God, and that takes you out of the righteousness camp. Plus, as we will see shortly, we ourselves are sinful so long as we remain in these mortal bodies – which we cannot escape except through death – so that to serve ourselves is inherently sinful. Which means that everyone must choose. Not to choose is to choose sin.

That is why Paul exhorts believers to “present your members as slaves to righteousness.” This is an act of the will which requires an active choice. And in referring to members, he is referring to parts of the body in the same sense as in 1 Cor. 12:12 (“the body is one and has many members”). In other words, our actions and behaviors, as well as the different aspects and activities of our lives, all need to be presented for obedience to God’s laws. Again, there is no halfway.

Rom. 6:21-23 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A Choice of Lifestyles

For most of this chapter, Paul has been following the theme he laid down in the first verse: that continuing to sin after being redeemed is inconsistent, in nature and effect, with being saved. As expected, he reiterates the idea that sin = death, and righteousness = life. And in verse 23, by his choice of terminology, he reinforces the idea that under sin death is deserved, and if you will, earned. Hence, he uses wages to describe the result of sin. In contrast, he uses free gift to describe the result of redemption in Christ, eternal life, which is neither earned nor deserved. And this merely summarizes what he has already said previously.

Yet he frames these verses in terms of a cost-benefit analysis. Sure, death and life are the end result of the path we choose, but what about our lives now? Thus, he asks “what benefit were you then deriving” from sinning? He’s not looking to the future here, but the past – not to the end of the road, but to the quality of life in the middle. On the flip side, he notes the benefit of righteousness as sanctification – again, not the end of the road, but the here and now.

The point being that the perceived benefits we thought we were getting from a sinful life, were really illusory. And the benefits of sanctification – being conformed to the likeness of Christ – are more real and worthy. It seems he is trying to present an incentive for Christians to not merely believe in Christ, but to also live like Christ – which is harder and takes constant effort. It is clear Paul does not want believers to accept Christ as nothing more than a Get Out of Hell Free card, and then live life according to the flesh.

On the other hand, notice Paul doesn’t frame this as, live like Christ so as to maintain a good witness to the world. Rather, it’s a message of live like Christ for your own benefit. In other words, sanctification has as its purpose self-improvement, not lifestyle evangelism. I can find no scriptures exhorting believers to become sanctified for the benefit of others, or to change the way they are perceived by others. Paul is not here urging all believers to become Shiny Happy People.

In fact, I find just the opposite in scripture. “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” Mat. 6:1. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.” Mat. 23:27. “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: … I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.'” Rev. 3:1.

Finally, we shouldn’t miss that it is in fact a choice believers have, as to how to live. Belief is a choice, and sanctification is a choice. Make the right choice, if you know what’s good for you.