In the fifth chapter, Paul has concluded his exposition of the “righteousness of God” which is revealed in the Gospel. But the exposition leaves something to be desired something hinted at in Romans 3:8 (“Let us do evil that good may come”) and recalled in Romans 5:20 f. (“Where sin abounded, grace... [ Continue Reading ]
Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; What inference then shall we draw, _i.e._, from the relations of sin and grace expounded in Romans 5:20 f.? Are we to continue in sin (_cf._ Romans 11:22 f.) that grace may abound? Lightfoot suggests “ _the_ sin” and “ _the_ grace” just referred to. The question was one sure to be as... [ Continue Reading ]
μὴ γένοιτο, _cf._ Romans 3:4. οἵτινες ἀπεθάνομεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ : the relative is qualitative: “we, being as we are persons who died to sin”. For the dative, see Romans 6:10-11, and Winer, p. 263. To have died to sin is to be utterly and for ever out of any relation to it. πῶς ἔτι ζήσομεν; how after tha... [ Continue Reading ]
But this death to sin, on which the whole argument turns, raises a question. It is introduced here quite abruptly; there has been no mention of it hitherto. _When_, it may be asked, did this all-important death take place? The answer is: It is involved in baptism. ἤ ἀγνοεῖτε ὅτι κ. τ. λ.: the only a... [ Continue Reading ]
This symbolism interpreted. συνετάφημεν οὖν αὐτῷ κ. τ. λ.: Therefore we were buried with Him (in the act of immersion) through that baptism into His death burial being regarded as the natural sequence of death, and a kind of seal set to its reality. _Cf._ 1 Corinthians 15:3 f. It introduces a false... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse proves the legitimacy of the reference to a new life in the preceding one: union with Christ at one point (His death) is union with Him altogether (and therefore in His resurrecton). εἰ γὰρ σύμφυτοι γεγόναμεν τῷ ὁμοιώματι τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ : it is simplest to take συμφ. and τῷ ὁμοιώματι t... [ Continue Reading ]
All this can be asserted, knowing as we do that “our old man” = our old self, what we were before we became Christians was crucified with Him. Paul says συνεσταυρώθη simply because Christ died on the _cross_, and we are baptised into that death, not because “our old man” is the basest of criminals f... [ Continue Reading ]
ὁ γὰρ ἀποθανὼν κ. τ. λ. Here we have the general principle on which the foregoing argument rests: death annuls all obligations, breaks all ties, cancels all old scores. The difficulty is that by the words ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας Paul introduces one particular application of the principle the one he is conc... [ Continue Reading ]
The Apostle now resumes his main thought. συνζήσομεν : see note on ἀνάστασις Romans 6:5 : there is no conscious separation of ethical and transcendent life with Christ to Paul it is one life.... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰδότες … οὐκέτι ἀποθνήσκει : The new life with Christ will be the same which Christ Himself lives, a life inaccessible to death. The post-resurrection life of Jesus was not His old life over again; in that life death had dominion over Him, because He made Himself one with us in all the consequences... [ Continue Reading ]
This is expanded in Romans 6:10. ὃ γὰρ ἀπέθανε, τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ἀπέθανεν ἐφάπαξ · the ὃ is ‘cognate' accus. Winer, p. 209. “The death that He died, He died to sin once for all.” The dative τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ must be grammatically the same here as in Romans 6:2; Romans 6:11, but the interpretation required seems... [ Continue Reading ]
In this verse the application is made of all that precedes. The death with Christ, the life with Christ, are real, yet to be realised. The truth of being a Christian is contained in them, yet the calling of the Christian is to live up to them. We may forget what we should be; we may also (and this i... [ Continue Reading ]
f. Practical enforcement of Romans 6:1-11. The inner life is in union with Christ, and the outer (bodily) life must not be inconsistent with it (Weiss). ἐν τῷ θνητῷ ὑμῶν σώματι : the suggestion of θνητὸς is rather that the frail body should be protected against the tyranny of sin, than that sin lead... [ Continue Reading ]
They can obey these exhortations, for sin will not be their tyrant now, since they are not under law, but under grace. It is not restraint, but inspiration, which liberate from sin: not Mount Sinai but Mount Calvary which makes saints. But this very way of putting the truth (which will be expanded i... [ Continue Reading ]
ἁμαρτήσωμεν; deliberative: are we to sin because our life is not ruled by statutes, but inspired by the sense of what we owe to that free pardoning mercy of God? Are we to sin because God justifies the ungodly at the Cross?... [ Continue Reading ]
οὐκ οἴδατε : It is excluded by the elementary principle that no man can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). The δοῦλους is the exclusive property of _one_, and he belongs to that one εἰς ὑπακοὴν, with obedience in view; nothing else than obedience to his master alone is contemplated. The masters here... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul thanks God that his readers have already made their choice, and made it for obedience. ὅτι ἦτε … ὑπηκούσατε δὲ : the co-ordination seems to imply that Paul is grateful (1) that their servitude to sin is _past_ ἦτε having the emphasis; (2) that they have received the Gospel. Yet the two things a... [ Continue Reading ]
There is no absolute independence for man; our nature requires us to serve _some_ master.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀνθρώπινον λέγω διὰ τὴν ἀσθένειαν τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν. _Cf._ Romans 3:5; Galatians 3:15. Paul apologises for using this human figure of the relation of slave to master to convey spiritual truths. But what is “the weakness of the flesh” which makes him have recourse to such figures? Weiss makes it moral.... [ Continue Reading ]
In every state in which man lives, there is a bondage and a liberty. In the old state, it was bondage to sin, and liberty in relation to righteousness. For τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ see Winer, 263.... [ Continue Reading ]
f. To decide which of the two lives, or of the two freedoms, is the true, Paul appeals to their fruits. The marked contrast between τότε and νῦν is in favour of those who put the mark of interrogation after τότε. “What fruit therefore had you _then?_ Things of which you are _now_ ashamed.” The const... [ Continue Reading ]
The γὰρ introduces the general truth of which what has been said of the Romans in Romans 6:21 f. is an illustration. “All this is normal and natural, for the wages of sin is death,” etc. ὀψώνια 1Ma 3:28; 1Ma 14:32. The idea of a warfare (see ὅπλα, Romans 6:13) is continued. The soldier's pay who enl... [ Continue Reading ]