Can I be Forgiven and not Change? – Romans 6
Gospel in a Sentence: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest…?
But he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners,
One who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven…
So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. - Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:13; 7:11, 24, 26; 8:1; 9:28
Big Picture: Jesus’ death and resurrection not only justify believers, but also give them new lives characterized by obedience to him.
Goal: That we pursue holiness by trusting that Jesus’ death and resurrection secured new life for us.
Key Ideas
1) Baptism represents Christ’s death and resurrection and the believer’s union with Christ in his death and resurrection.
2) Our future resurrection with Christ has present-day effects; namely, it makes us dead to sin and alive to God now.
3) A person’s life reflects who their master is: sin or righteousness.
4) Everyone who has been joined to Christ through faith will bear fruit, or holy obedience, for God. That is the path that leads to eternal life.
Key Terms
Baptize – Literally to ‘dip’ or to ‘wash’, usually in water. Jesus commanded that every disciple of his be baptized (Matthew 28:19). This ritual has connections with ‘cleansing/washing’ ceremonies in the Old Testament by which someone was made ceremonially clean (that is, symbolically holy) to enter the temple (and thus, again symbolically, God’s presence). It also has connections to representing being unified to Israel, God’s covenant people. In Christian baptism, Christ is recognized as true Israel, and baptism represents union with him and entry into the promises of God to save all who believe him.
United/Union – Every believer in Christ is bound to Christ in such a way that they are treated, by God the Father, as if they were Jesus, the truly obedient man. It is this union that results in our justification – his righteousness counted as ours. Chapter 6 tells us that it is also this union that results in growth in obedience – becoming more like Christ in our moral character.
Old Self –Literally, ‘old man,’ in reference to Adam. The basic idea of the old self is that who we were was bound to this old, sinful world because we were connected to Adam. It is this self that has been crucified with Christ. If we were still our old selves, we would receive condemnation and be incapable of obedience to God. However, everyone in Christ has their old self crucified, and has a new self that responds in obedience to God.
Slavery – We Americans typically have 18th-19th century American slavery in mind when we think of this concept. That’s not appropriate in Romans 6. First century Roman slavery was different, and was typically the result of debt rather than race. Some slaves were treated as members of the family. However, we shouldn’t sanitize first century Roman slavery, either. Many slaves were gravely mistreated. Paul uses slavery as a picture in this section not to bring up terrible pictures in our minds of slavery – but to give us a picture of authority and obedience. A slave was required to obey his master without question. If sin is our slave-master, we will obey sin. If righteousness is our slave-master, we will obey righteousness.
Righteousness – The meaning of the word does not change in chapter 6; however, our relationship to righteousness does. To stand right before God, we need Jesus’ obedience to God to be counted for us. However, after this happens, God begins to transform us, on the basis of Christ’s work, so that there is actual righteousness that we produce. This righteousness does not affect our standing before God in any way, but it does glorify him. It also proves that someone is united to Christ.
Sanctification – Simply the state of being set apart, or holy, to God. In Romans 6 sanctification means that we are being set apart by God so that our moral character is becoming more like his.
Fruit – Results, or effects of a cause.
Key Observations
6:1 Paul has just argued for five chapters that justification before God is based on Christ’s work alone, received by faith apart from works. Paul’s imaginary debate opponent retorts with this argument in 6:1: “Will we continue living the same way if we trust Christ, since justification is by faith apart from works? Can we just keep on doing bad works?” When we present the Gospel, we should often get this objection from people. It shows that someone understands that works have no part in our standing before God.
2 Paul’s reaction to this objection, ‘by no means’ in the ESV, is an extremely strong curse in the Greek language. He detests the idea that was brought up in verse 1. His first argument against the idea is that Christians have died to sin. If we are dead to something, we are unresponsive to it. Dead people don’t do anything. Sin is personified in chapter 6. If we are dead to sin, we don’t respond to it.
3-4 Paul here argues from baptism that a Christian is dead with regard to the old, sinful world; and, as a result of Christ’s resurrection, has newness of life and a newness of lifestyle (‘walk’). Paul is incredulous at the suggestion that Christians can go on living a sinful life. His response in vv.3-4 is as if he was saying, “Don’t you know what your baptism meant?”
Baptism and Salvation
It is necessary here to have a brief excursus about the nature of salvation and baptism. Some sects have argued from 6:3-4 that baptism is necessary for salvation or that it somehow saves the person. This, we should notice from previous chapters, is completely contrary to the Gospel. If someone has faith in Christ, they are justified before God on the basis of Jesus’ works, baptism or not.
It is not our purpose here to argue for a particular point of view that is in agreement with the Gospel, or even to explain each point of view. The three views of baptism that do not contradict the Gospel include the Lutheran view, Reformed view, and Baptistic view. Other views, however, which add baptism to the teaching of justification by faith alone on the basis of Christ’s work alone, must be rejected.
First, let us make a few observations about what this passage says about baptism. Second, let us examine a few reasons why this passage does not teach that baptism is necessary for salvation.
Observations About Baptism from this Passage
1) Paul assumes in these verses that all believers in Christ have been baptized. The analogy of a wedding ring is helpful here: a wedding ring doesn’t make you married; and not having one does not make you unmarried. However, it’s assumed that having a wedding ring reflects whether or not the person is married.
2) Baptism is a proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
3) Baptism represents the union of the believer with Christ in his death and resurrection.
4) Baptism holds a promise for all who cling to Christ – that his death and resurrection have accomplished all of their salvation.
Reasons that this Passage Cannot Teach Salvation by Baptism
1) This passage is immediately preceded by chapters 1-5. For Paul to arrive here and teach that baptism is necessary for salvation, or that it itself saves, would be to contradict his entire argument so far.
2) Paul refers here to all who are baptized into Christ Jesus and says they are dead to sin. If baptism saves, then this statement would eliminate the requirement that we believe in Christ. But we must believe in Christ; therefore, baptism itself does not save.
3) The passage teaches us that all baptized people, by the intention of God, will have a new lifestyle. If baptism itself is in mind, then God’s purpose of baptism has completely failed, since not every baptized person has a new lifestyle.
4) Verse 5 teaches us that all those united with Christ will be raised from the dead, with reference to the future resurrection of the righteous and eternal life. Yet, if Paul were talking explicitly about baptism here, this would contradict the idea that we must trust Christ to be saved. Thus, Paul is not merely talking about baptism.
5 This verse is the ground for the promised ‘newness of life’ in verse 4. We will rise from the dead, and that resurrection has entered history before the very end through the resurrection of Jesus. We have been raised to spiritual life with him now, and we will be raised physically later. See John 5:25-29.
6-7 Paul here begins to introduce the concept of sin being a slave-master. Our ‘old self’ was enslaved by sin. So when sin said ‘jump,’ our old self said, ‘how high?’ However, since Christ has died, and every believer is united to him, our old self has died as well. We no longer have a slave- master relationship with sin. We have died; therefore, we are no longer slaves to sin.
8-10 Paul has just emphasized the fact that we’ve died to sin. In these verses he highlights the fact that we are now alive to God. In v. 8 we see that we will have a future, resurrection life with Christ. In vv. 9-10 we see that when he died, he took on the full penalty of sin; therefore, he couldn’t die again. That would mean that there was more penalty for sin. But there isn’t. So he can’t die again; but rather, he has died in the realm of sin, and Christ now lives to God. God the Son and God the Father have perfect fellowship, because sin is done away with.
11 This is Paul’s conclusion (the verse starts with ‘so’) of the fact that we are dead to sin and have newness of life because of Christ’s resurrection. It’s also the first command in the book. Consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God. In other words, think about yourself as not needing to respond to sin, but instead responding to God’s word, because Jesus died and rose and you, as a believer, are united to him.
12-14 The ‘therefore’ in v. 12 indicates that Paul is drawing another conclusion from his observations about our union with Christ in his death and resurrection. These conclusions come in the form of commands. Don’t let sin rule you. Don’t give the parts, or members, of your being (mind, emotions, hands, everything!) to sin so that sin can use them – give them to God so that God might use them. Verse 14 gives us the grounds for these commands: sin will not have dominion over us. In the future, when Christ returns, sin will have no say in our lives. And that’s the case because we’ve been transferred from the realm of the law and sin to the realm of grace and new life in Christ. Therefore, even now, we are to give our lives to God and his service; not to sin and its service.
15 Paul’s debate opponent raises another objection, which is really no different than the first; namely, that we will continue to live lifestyles of sin because we’re no longer ‘under law’ to be judged by the law – but ‘under grace,’ governed by the reality of God’s gracious salvation. Paul responds with the same strong curse that he used in 6:2.
16 Here Paul shows us that our lifestyle reflects who owns us by using the relationship of a slave and master as an illustration. If we live lifestyles of sin, we show that we’re owned by sin. If we live lifestyles characterized by obedience to Christ, we show that we are slaves of righteousness.
Do Christians Sin?
On the surface, this might seem like a stupid question. “I’m a Christian, and I still sin!” you might say. However, at this point of our study in Romans 6, you may be wondering if someone who still sins can be a Christian. You may be feeling a little bit of tension between your experience and what Romans 6 says about us. Let’s take a closer look at this question.
Romans 6 is saying that everyone who is united to Christ has switched masters. We are dead to sin. Our old self is dead. We are free from sin. If we lived in sin, we’d demonstrate that we are slaves of sin. We now have newness of life. We are alive to God. If we are Christians, we are obedient. If we are Christians, there is growth in sanctification.
So there is a drastic change in not only who we are, but how we behave in heart, mind and will, when we become Christians. Obedience will be produced!
Does this passage teach that Christians obey perfectly, though? No, for several reasons.
1) The Greek verb tenses used to describe the presenting of our members to sin or to righteousness and our fruit-bearing indicate what is normal, not what is perfect. In other words, Christians will normally be obedient. Paul is describing a lifestyle of obedience, not a life of perfect obedience.
2) This passage teaches we have newness of life (v. 4). This newness, however, is on the basis of something that Christ earned for us in the future, namely, our resurrection in glory (vv. 5, 8, 14, 22). This passage does not demand perfect glory now; it demands that that future glory has begun now a lifestyle of imperfect obedience.
3) This passage commands us, on the basis of what Christ has accomplished, to present ourselves to God for obedience. If we were perfectly obedient, no command would be necessary. God’s command here is part of what he uses to draw us to Christ to bear fruit in us.
4) In the context of the whole book of Romans, we’ll see in chapter 8 that there is a battle with sin that the believer goes through, and will continue to go through, until he is glorified upon seeing Jesus.
We can conclude from this that the Christian life is one lived in normative obedience, or lifestyle obedience. There isn’t perfection, but there is growth. There is fruit. There is an active turning to Christ for the strength to obey him.
Practically, this looks like a life of constant repenting. To cite Martin Luther’s 1st Thesis (of his 95 Theses): “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said “Repent,” he called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
Repentance means a turning from your present sinful course to learning to obey Jesus. Practically speaking, it can be broken down into a few simple steps:
1) Self-examination, or comparing yourself to what God’s commandments in the Scriptures require, asking him to convict you of sin.
2) Confession, or agreeing with God that your sins are truly evil and worthy of punishment, and being grieved by them.
3) Thanksgiving, or giving thanks to God that he’s already justified you in Christ.
4) Specific prayer, that is, asking God to change your thoughts, motives, and actions in conformity with what he wills.
5) Action, that is, making choices to honor God while depending on the Holy Spirit’s ability to produce good works in you.
So, the Christian life isn’t one lived without sin; but, it cannot be one without regular repentance. And we will keep on repenting until the day we see Christ face to face, and we are made like him (1 John 3:2).
17-18 Paul in v. 16 seems to have been giving a warning; yet, he starts this sentence with ‘but’ to contrast that warning with the reality of his readers’ salvation. He credits God for his audience’s obedience from the heart to the Gospel (their response of faith to it) and affirms that they are acting as slaves of righteousness.
19 Paul here wants us to make sure we know that he’s using an analogy. He is not making a statement about slavery; but rather, he is using slavery as an example of the fact that people either have a relationship to sin as master or Jesus as master. He then instructs us to not present our members, or parts of who we are, to lawlessness, but rather to righteousness, which will lead to sanctification (see ‘Key Terms’ for a definition of sanctification).
20-21 In these two verses, Paul describes the life of someone who has not yet become a Christian. We did whatever sin demanded and paid no attention to God’s righteous commandments. The result of that disobedience is death; that is, in this context, death and hell (Romans 2:6-10).
22 In vv. 22-23, Paul contrasts that old way of living in vv. 20-21 with what’s true of every believer in Christ. He argues in v. 22 that since we’ve been transferred from being owned by sin to being owned by God, the fruit, or effects of God’s ownership, is sanctification. The endpoint of sanctification is eternal life. In other words, the path to eternal life is one of progressively growing in holiness.
23 V. 23 gives us the ground for what we are told in v. 22. It also prevents us from thinking that there is any merit in our sanctification. Though it is true that every Christian will bear fruit and grow in holiness, those acts of obedience do not participate in our standing before God. The ground of justification is still Jesus’ righteousness alone, and Paul wants to make sure that is very clear in v. 23. If sin is our master, it pays us death for our work. However, if God is our master, he gives us eternal life as a gift by virtue of what Jesus has accomplished.
Sample Discussion Guide:
-‘Growth’ is a buzzword in many spheres of life, from business and economics to psychology and counseling. What are some words that come to mind when you think of ‘spiritual growth’?
-The first five chapters of Romans are about justification. Could someone take a shot at defining justification and explaining how it happens? If no one gets this right and can explain it clearly, please explain it clearly from the book of Romans. It is more vital that they understand justification than Romans 6.
-Does it matter how you live if justification is by faith alone? Why or why not?
-Since justification is received by faith alone, many people have a natural objection to what the Bible teaches. They’d ask, “Can someone be justified before God and keep on living in sin?” This is the question that God addresses in Romans 6-8.
-Have a time of prayer before getting into the word. Read 6:1-7.
-Basically, how do you think Paul answers this objection to justification by faith?
-Paul uses the symbol of baptism as an illustration to answer this question. What does baptism symbolize according to these verses?
-Paul in this chapter uses the image of a slave and master relationship to describe our lives. We must remember two things; first, Roman slavery was different from 18th-19th century American slavery, and second, that Paul here is using imagery to describe a relationship of ownership, authority, and absolute obedience. What do you think the experience of being enslaved by sin as a master is like? To be free from sin as a master?
-According to these verses, what do Christ’s death and resurrection do for believers?
-How would you describe the experience of being dead to sin and having newness of life? How do you think someone experiences this on a daily basis?
-Have someone read vv. 8-14.
-What are the promises of this section?
-What are the commands?
-Have someone re-read v. 11. Romans 6:11 has the first command in the book of Romans. What do you think it means to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ? How does the Gospel change the way you deal with your own sin?
-Have someone re-read vv. 12-13. How do you think it looks to obey the commands in vv. 12-13? Why do you think vv. 12-13 are after v. 11 and before v. 14?
-Have someone read vv. 15-23.
-In v. 15 Paul restates his opponents’ objection to justification through faith alone – that it would lead to sinful living. He again emphatically denies the statement and then writes that there are only two ways to live, again using a slave and master analogy.
-What does it mean to own something? What’s Paul’s point?
-What does this section say about those who are slaves to sin?
-What does this section say about those who have trusted Christ?
-V. 23 says that eternal life is a free gift based on what Jesus has done. How does this relate to the command to give our members as slaves to righteousness?
-What keeps people from presenting their members to righteousness?
-How can we go about presenting our members as slaves to righteousness?
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