Romans 6:1 - Meaning and Application

The apostle’s turn of thought joins this section to the last: “What shall we say then?” (Romans 6:1). In other words, what use should we make of this sweet and comforting teaching? Shall we do evil so that good may come, as some accuse us of saying? (Romans 3:8). Shall we keep on sinning so that grace may increase? Shall we treat God’s grace as a reason to sin more boldly, because more sin would show more mercy in our pardon?

No, that is a misuse of the truth. Paul recoils from the idea at once, saying, “God forbid,” meaning, “Far be it from us to think such a thing” (Romans 6:2). He deals with the objection the way Christ answered the devil’s darkest temptation, “Get behind me, Satan” (Matthew 4:10). Any teaching that gives sin approval, or opens the door to practical wickedness, should be rejected, no matter how fair it sounds when dressed up as a defense of free grace. The truth as it is in Jesus is a truth that leads to godliness (Titus 1:1).

Paul then presses the need for holiness in this chapter. He does this in two ways: by showing what holiness looks like, and by giving reasons why it is necessary. Sanctification means being made holy. In general, it includes two things, dying to sin and living to righteousness, or putting off the old self and putting on the new.

First, there is mortification, which means putting to death the old life of sin. Paul says we must live no longer in sin (Romans 6:2). We must not be as we have been, or do as we have done. The past time of life should be enough for sin (1 Peter 4:3). No one lives without sin, but some do not live in sin. They do not make sin their home or their trade. That is what it means to be sanctified.

He also says the body of sin must be destroyed (Romans 6:6). The corruption that lives in us is called a body of sin because it has many parts and workings, like a body. The axe must be laid to the root. We must not only stop sinful actions, though that can happen through outside pressure or other motives. We must weaken and destroy the sinful habits and bent within us. It is not enough to throw out the idols of iniquity from the heart.

Paul adds that we should no longer serve sin. When the inward corruption is crucified and killed, many acts of sin are stopped as well. If the body of sin is destroyed, then even if some Canaanites remain in the land, the Israelites will not be their slaves. It is the body of sin that rules like a king and uses an iron rod. Destroy that rule, and the yoke is broken. When Eglon the oppressor was killed, Israel was freed from Moab’s oppression.

He also says we must be dead indeed to sin (Romans 6:11). Just as the death of an oppressor brings release, so the death of the oppressed brings rest and ease (Job 3:17, Job 3:18). In the same way, we must be dead to sin, no longer obeying it, watching it, caring for it, or carrying out its will. We should be as unconcerned about the pleasures of sin as a dying person is about old pastimes. Death brings a great change. A person is separated from former company, business, enjoyment, and work. He is not what he was, and he does not do what he did. Sanctification makes that kind of change in the soul. It cuts off all fellowship with sin.

Paul says sin must not reign in our mortal bodies, so that we obey its desires (Romans 6:12). Sin may remain like an outlaw, and it may even oppress like a tyrant, but it must not rule like a king. It must not make laws, sit in judgment, or command the army. It must not hold the highest place in the soul, so that we obey it. Though we may sometimes be caught and overcome by sin, we must never willingly submit to it and follow its desires. Since the body is mortal and quickly moving toward the dust, sin should not rule in it. Sin brought death into our bodies, so we should not obey such an enemy.

He also warns us not to give our members as tools of unrighteousness (Romans 6:13). The parts of the body are often used by corrupt nature like tools to carry out sinful desires, but we must not agree to that abuse. Our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made, and it is a pity for them to become the devil’s tools for wrongdoing. Sin works through the body, and sinful actions strengthen sinful habits. One sin leads to another, like water breaking through a dam, so it is best to turn back before it is given room. Our members may, through strong temptation, be forced into acts of sin, but we must not yield them to sin or consent to it. That is one part of sanctification, the death of sin.

Second, sanctification includes vivification, which means being made alive to righteousness. This is to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). New life means a new heart, because the stream cannot be made sweet unless the spring is sweet. In Scripture, walking means the whole course of life. That course must be new. We are to walk by new rules, toward new goals, from new principles. We are to choose a new path, follow new leaders, and keep new company. Old things should pass away, and all things become new. The person is what he was not, and does what he did not do before.

It is also to be alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:11). This means to live in fellowship with God, to think of him, delight in him, care about him, and turn the soul toward him as toward something lovely. That is to be alive to God. When the love of God rules in the heart, that is the soul’s life toward God. Or, while we live in the flesh, we live to God, for his honor and glory, with his word and will as our rule. In all our ways we acknowledge him and keep our eyes on him. This is to live to God. And it is through Jesus Christ our Lord, because Christ is our spiritual life. No one truly lives to God except through him.

He is the Mediator. There can be no peaceful receiving from God, and no acceptable response to God, except through Jesus Christ. There is no true fellowship between sinful people and a holy God except by the Lord Jesus. Through Christ, we receive this life and keep it, as the one who gives it and sustains it. He is the head from whom we receive life, and the root from which we draw strength and nourishment. In living to God, Christ is everything.

To yield ourselves to God means to give ourselves to him as those who are alive from the dead (Romans 6:13). The heart of holiness is this full surrender to the Lord, giving our whole selves to him (2 Corinthians 8:5). We are not to yield to him only as a defeated person gives in when resistance is useless. We are to yield like a wife to her husband, a student to a teacher, or an apprentice to a master, ready to be taught and guided by him. We are not to give him only our possessions, but ourselves, our whole selves.

That means we are to submit to him and also go along with his will. We are not to present ourselves to him just once, but to stay ready to serve him at all times. We are to be like wax under a seal, ready to receive whatever shape he chooses. When Paul said, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” (Acts 9:6), he was showing this kind of surrender. To offer a dead body to the living God would be mockery, not worship. We are to yield ourselves as living people, useful people, as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). The clearest sign of spiritual life is this dedication of ourselves to God. It also fits those who have been brought from death to life, or justified, meaning declared right with God and freed from death. Such people should gladly give themselves to the one who has redeemed them.

We are also to yield our bodily members as tools of righteousness to God. The parts of our bodies, once they are no longer serving sin, must not sit idle. They are to be used in God’s service. When the strong man is driven out, the rightful owner should take over the house and divide the spoils. The powers of the soul are the main place where holiness and righteousness live, but the body’s members are to be their instruments. The body should always be ready to serve the soul in serving God.

So Paul says, “Yield your members as servants to righteousness for holiness” (Romans 6:19). Let them be under the rule of God’s righteous law, and under the guidance of the inward righteousness the Spirit plants in the soul. “Righteousness for holiness” means growth and progress, ground gained in a holy life. Every sinful act strengthens sinful habits and makes a person more likely to sin again. In the same way, every gracious act strengthens gracious habits. Serving righteousness leads toward holiness, and one duty prepares us for another. The more we do for God, the more we are able to do for him. It can also mean serving righteousness as evidence that we are being sanctified, that is, made holy.

The apostle now gives reasons to show why holiness is necessary. By nature, our hearts resist holiness, so it is no easy thing to bring them under it. This is the Spirit’s work, and he uses arguments like these to press the truth on the soul.

He begins with our baptism and our union with Christ. Baptism, along with its purpose, gives us a strong reason to die to sin and live for righteousness. We should use baptism as a bridle to restrain us from sin, and as a spur to stir us up to duty. In a general sense, we are dead to sin in profession and obligation. Our baptism marks us as cut off from the kingdom of sin. We confess that we have no more business with sin. We are also dead to sin because we have received power to kill it, and because we are united to Christ, in whom sin is put to death. All of this means nothing if we keep on sinning. That would deny our profession, break our duty, and return us to what we were dead to before. It would be like walking ghosts, and nothing is more strange or out of place.

“For the one who has died is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). That is, the person who is dead to sin is free from sin’s rule and power, just as a servant who has died is free from his master (Job 3:19). Are we going to be foolish enough to return to the slavery from which we have been released? If we have been brought out of Egypt, should we speak of going back there again?

More specifically, when we were baptized into Jesus Christ, we were baptized into his death (Romans 6:3). We were baptized into Christ, as others were baptized into Moses (1 Corinthians 10:2). Baptism binds us to Christ. It enrolls us as his followers, like an apprentice under a teacher, and shows our loyalty to him as our ruler. It is the outward sign by which Christ lays hold of people, and they offer themselves to him. In a special way, we were baptized into his death, into the blessings his death purchased, and into an obligation to share its purpose. His death was meant to redeem us from all sin, and his death also gives us a pattern to follow, so that as Christ died for sin, we should die to sin. This was part of the promise and meaning of our baptism, and we do not act rightly if we fail to match it and keep that promise.

Our likeness to Christ’s death obliges us to die to sin. In this way we know something of the fellowship of his sufferings (Philippians 3:10). Paul says we are “planted together in the likeness of his death” (Romans 6:5). This is more than a loose similarity, it is a joining together, like a grafted branch shares the nature of the tree into which it is placed. Planting is done for life and fruitfulness. We are planted in God’s vineyard in a likeness to Christ, and we should show that likeness in holiness.

Our confession about Jesus Christ includes this: he was crucified, dead, and buried. Baptism is a sacramental, or outward sign in worship, likeness to him in each of these. First, “our old man is crucified with him” (Romans 6:6). The death of the cross was slow. After a body was nailed there, it struggled and suffered many sharp pains. Yet it was sure. It lasted a long time, but it ended in death at last. So it is with the killing of sin in believers. The cross was also a cursed death (Galatians 3:13). Sin dies like a criminal, set apart for destruction. It is a cursed thing. And even though this death is slow, that very fact should hasten it, because the old man is being crucified. It is not in its full strength, but already weakening. What grows old is ready to disappear (Hebrews 8:13).

Crucified with Christ, then, does not mean only that these things happened at the same time. It means Christ’s death for us has power over the death of sin in us. When Christ died in obedience, we may be said to have died with him, because our turning from sin matches both his purpose and his example. Baptism marks and seals our union with Christ, our being joined to him. So we are dead with him, and we are committed to have nothing more to do with sin than he did.

Paul also says we are buried with Christ by baptism (Romans 6:4). This shows the full pattern of our union with him. In our profession, we are cut off from fellowship with sin just as the dead are cut off from the living. We are buried in both promise and duty, because in baptism we pledged ourselves to be the Lord’s, and therefore to be separated from sin. The apostle is speaking here of the thing baptism signifies, not of the outward act itself. The burial language points to Christ’s burial, and as Christ was buried to rise to a new and higher life, so we are buried in baptism, cut off from the life of sin, so that we may rise to a new life of faith and love.

Our sharing in Christ’s resurrection also obliges us to rise to newness of life. This is the power of his resurrection that Paul longed to know (Philippians 3:10). Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, meaning by the Father’s powerful glory. God’s power is his glory, glorious power indeed (Colossians 1:11). In baptism we are called to follow that pattern, to be planted in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection (Romans 6:5), and to live with him (Romans 6:8). Conversion is the first rising, from death in sin to life in righteousness, and it fits Christ’s resurrection.

We must match Christ’s resurrection in two ways. First, he rose to die no more (Romans 6:9). Others were raised from the dead, but they returned to death later. Christ rose once and will never die again. Death has no more power over him. So we also must rise from the grave of sin and never return to it, never go back to the works of darkness after leaving that dark place behind. Second, he rose to live to God (Romans 6:10). He rose to a heavenly life and to the glory set before him. Others who were raised returned to their old life, but Christ did not. He rose to live for God, to intercede, to rule, and to glorify the Father. In the same way, we must rise to live for God. That is newness of life (Romans 6:4), a life guided by new principles, new rules, and new aims. A life devoted to God is a new life, because now God is the highest end, not self. To live truly is to live to God, with our eyes fixed on him and him at the center of all we do.

Paul also argues from the promises and blessings of the new covenant, that is, God’s gracious agreement with his people through Christ (Romans 6:14). Someone might say that sin is too strong for us and cannot be overcome. Paul answers that sin is an enemy that can be resisted and defeated if we hold our ground. It has already been beaten, and God has stored up strength for us in the covenant of grace. Sin may fight in a believer and cause much trouble, but it will not rule over him. It may disturb him, but it will not be his master.

We are not under the law, but under grace. That is, we are not under the covenant of works, which says, “Do this and live, fail and die,” but under the covenant of grace, which accepts sincere obedience as gospel perfection and gives what it commands. Under the law of sin and death, every failure brings condemnation. Under grace, salvation is not left in our own hands, but placed in the hands of the Mediator, Christ, who speaks and acts between God and us. He has already condemned sin and will destroy it. So if we keep pressing toward victory, we will come through more than conquerors. Christ rules by the golden scepter of grace, and he will not allow sin to rule over those who gladly submit to him.

This is a very comforting word for true believers. If we were under the law in the strict sense, we would be lost, because the law curses everyone who does not continue in everything it commands. But we are under grace, grace that accepts a willing heart, does not keep a harsh record of every failure, leaves room for repentance, and promises forgiveness to those who repent. To a grateful heart, what stronger reason could there be to avoid sin? Why would we sin against such kindness and abuse such love?

Some may try to turn this truth into an excuse for sin. Paul is shocked by such a thought and rejects it at once (Romans 6:15): “Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” Nothing is more ugly than taking a friend’s special kindness as a chance to insult and wound him. To trample on such mercy, and to spit in the face of such love, would be shameful between any people.

He also argues from the result of our conduct, because it shows which side we belong to (Romans 6:16): “To whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are.” All people belong to one of two families, the servants of God or the servants of sin. If we want to know where we stand, we should ask whom we obey. Obeying sin’s commands is evidence that we belong to the family under death, while obeying Christ shows that we belong to Christ’s family.

He next argues from their former sinfulness, in Romans 6:17-21. We need to be reminded often of what we once were. Paul often did this for himself and for the people he wrote to. They had been servants of sin. Those who are now servants of God should remember the time when they served sin, so they stay humble, sorry for sin, and watchful. It is a shame to sin’s service that so many have left it and shaken off its yoke, and none who truly left it and gave themselves to God ever came back to that old hard labor. We can thank God that they were once that way, because they are no longer that way now. Their old sinfulness makes God’s mercy shine more clearly and pushes them toward present holiness.

He says, “You have yielded your members as servants to uncleanness and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness” (Romans 6:19). The misery of sin is that the body becomes a slave to it, and no slavery is lower or harder. It is like the prodigal son being sent into the fields to feed pigs. He says, “you have yielded,” because sinners choose this service willingly. The devil could not force them into it if they did not give themselves to it. This will one day fully justify God in judging sinners, because they sold themselves to do evil. Sin also grows on itself. Every sinful act strengthens the sinful habit. Sin becomes both the work and the reward. If you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind, growing worse and harder each time. Paul speaks “after the manner of men,” using a common human example of changing masters and service.

He adds, “You were free from righteousness” (Romans 6:20). This does not mean they had a real freedom given by God. It means they had taken a false freedom for themselves, which is really license, or permission to do wrong. They were completely without what is good, without good principles, good desires, or any real obedience to God’s law and image. They even enjoyed that state as if it were freedom, but freedom from righteousness is the worst kind of slavery.

Then he explains how the blessed change happened and what it means. “You have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine that was delivered to you” (Romans 6:17). This is conversion, which means turning to and agreeing with the gospel delivered by Christ and his ministers. The gospel is the great rule for truth and holiness, like a mold or pattern. Grace is the mark pressed into us from that pattern. It is the form of healing words (2 Timothy 1:13). Grace means obeying this teaching from the heart, not just outwardly, but sincerely and truly. It also means being shaped by it, like wax takes the shape of a seal, matching it point by point. To be a true Christian is to be changed into the likeness of the gospel, so that our minds, wills, feelings, goals, principles, and actions all fit that pattern.

“Being made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:18), and servants to God (Romans 6:22). Conversion is, first, a release from sin’s service, a shaking off of that yoke and a resolve to have nothing more to do with it. Second, it is giving ourselves to the service of God and righteousness, God as our master and righteousness as our work. When we are freed from sin, it is not so we can live however we please and be our own masters. No, when Israel was brought out of Egypt, they were led to the holy mountain to receive God’s law and enter the bond of his covenant. We cannot become servants of God until we are freed from sin’s power and rule. We cannot serve two masters so directly opposed to each other as God and sin. We must leave the hard labor of the far country, like the prodigal son, before we can come home to our Father.

He then asks them to think back on their former life and judge it honestly (Romans 6:21). Did they not find the service of sin to be unfruitful? “What fruit had you then?” Did they ever really gain anything from it? They should sit down and reckon the account. Beyond the huge losses to come, even sin’s present gains are not worth naming. There is no real fruit in it. The pleasure and profit of sin are only chaff, like plowing iniquity, sowing vanity, and reaping the same. It is also an shameful service, something they are now ashamed of, ashamed of its foolishness and its filth. Shame entered the world with sin, and sin still always produces shame, either the shame of repentance now or eternal shame and contempt later. Who would willingly do something that he is sure to be ashamed of sooner or later?

He closes this part by arguing from the end of all these things. It is a privilege of thinking creatures that we can look ahead and consider where things end. To turn us from sin to holiness, God sets blessing and curse, good and evil, life and death before us, and calls us to choose. The end of sin is death (Romans 6:21). The path may seem pleasant and inviting at first, but the end is bitter. It bites at the last. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Death is what a sinner earns as surely as wages are earned by a servant who has finished his work. This is true of every sin. No sin is small enough, by its own nature, to be harmless. Even the least sin deserves death.

Here, sin is shown in two ways. It is like the work a person does for pay, or like the master who hands out that pay. Anyone who serves sin and does sin’s work must expect that kind of reward. But if the fruit of a person’s life is holiness, if there is a real and growing power of grace, then the end will be everlasting life, a truly happy end. The way may be uphill, narrow, rough, and full of danger, but the end of it is certain.

So Romans 6:23 says, “The gift of God is eternal life.” Heaven is life, because there we will see God and enjoy him fully. It is eternal life, with no weakness to trouble it and no death to end it. This life is God’s gift. Death is the wages of sin, something earned by what we deserve. But life is a gift, given by favor. Sinners earn hell, but saints do not earn heaven.

There is no balance between the glory of heaven and our obedience. We must thank God, not ourselves, if we ever reach heaven. And this gift comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ bought it, prepared it, prepares us for it, and keeps us for it. He is the beginning and the end, and all in all in our salvation.