Romans 6 - Introduction

We may not live in sin, for we are dead unto it, as appeareth by our baptism. Nor are we to let sin reign any more, because we have yielded ourselves to the service of righteousness: and death is the wages of sin.

Anno Domini 58.

ST. Paul's design in this and the two following Chapter s, was to confute the slanderous report mentioned chap. Romans 3:5 namely, that the Apostles ordered their disciples to sin, that grace might abound in their pardon: also to prove, in opposition to the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, that the doctrine of justification by faith without works of law, does not render law useless, but rather establishes it as highly useful, chap. Romans 3:31. His transition to these subjects is elegant. For, in the foregoingchapter, having shewn that all mankind die for the sin of Adam; also having discoursed, chap. Romans 5:20 of the superabounding of grace, through Christ, in producing the righteousness of faith, and in rewarding that righteousness with eternal life, he begins this chapter with asking, Whether any one could seriously think that he could be so inconsistent as to order men to sin, that grace might the more abound in their pardon? Romans 6:1.—Persons, said he, who teach as we do, that God has subjected the whole human race to death for the one offence of the first man, never can fancy that God will bestow eternal life the more abundantly on men, because they continue in sin, Romans 6:2.—Next, to shew that the Apostles, who taught the doctrine of justification by faith without works, did not mean thereby to set their disciples free from the obligations of morality, he observed that, in baptism, the rite of initiation into the Christian church, the baptized person is as one put to death withChrist on account of sin, in order that he may be strongly impressed with a sense of the malignity of sin, and excited to hate it as the greatest of evils, Romans 6:3.—Moreover, in the same rite, the baptized person is taught that he shall be raised from the dead with Christ, by the power of the Father, to live with him for ever in heaven, provided he is prepared for that life by true holiness, Romans 6:4.—Farther, by their baptism, believers are laid under the strongest obligations to holiness, because it represents their old man, their old corrupt nature, as crucified with Christ, to teach them that their body, which sin claimed as its property, being put to death, was no longer to serve sin as its slave, Romans 6:6.—By calling men's body the body of sin, the Apostle represents sin, or evil desire, as a person who, by overcoming the first man, had made him and all his posterity his slavesbyrightofconquest, and who, as their master, was continually demanding from them,withrigour,theignominious service of wicked actions. And because the Greeks and Romans were well acquainted with the manner in which slaves were acquired, and with the laws by which their lives and services were regulated, he appealed to these known customs, to prove that, by the death of Christ their federal head, the claim which sin has set up to the persons and services of mankind, in consequence of the fall of the first man, is utterly destroyed.

Sin, says the Apostle, claims you as his slaves, in consequence of having subdued your first parents, and taken them captives: but I will shew you by the laws of slavery, that that claim is now cancelled, and that it is both your right and your duty to shake off the yoke of that tyrannical master. Sin having put you to death with Christ, ye are no longer his slaves. For the slave of sin who is dead, is freed from the dominion of sin, even as every slave who is put to death by his master, is freed from the dominion of that master, Romans 6:7.—But though we died with Christ on the cross, we live at present, and shall afterwards, if faithful, live together with him in heaven; and therefore we are now, of right, his servants, Romans 6:8.—Farther, that the Romans might rightly understand this argument, the Apostle desired them to conclude, from what he had told them, that at the fall they had been killed, both corporally and spiritually, by the sin of their first parents, but were made alive, both in body and spirit, by Christ, who on that account was become their rightful Lord, Romans 6:11.—Wherefore, it was both their duty and their interest, not to allow sin to rule them any longer, in the life which they had acquired through Christ, but to employ both the members of their body, and the faculties of their mind, in the service of God, as persons, who have been made alive from the death brought on them by sin, ought to do, Romans 6:12.

Next, in answer to the calumny, that the Christian teachers encouraged their disciples to sin, by telling them that they were not under law, but under grace, the Apostle affirmed that that doctrine has the direct contrary tendency. Sin shall not lord it over you, for this very reason, that ye are not under law, but under grace: and he had good reason to say so, because he had shewn, Romans 6:11 that under grace, that is, under the new covenant, men are made spiritually alive by God; consequently theyhave sufficient strength communicated to them for conquering evil desires, and for working righteousness; and great encouragement to do so, by the promise of pardon which is made to them in that covenant. Whereas law, by rigorously requiring perfect obedience to all its precepts, and by refusing pardon to sinners, drives them to despair, and hardens them in their sins, Romans 6:14.—These, said the Apostle, being the doctrines which we constantly preach, can you believe that we ever said, Let us sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? Romans 6:15.—In the mean time, I must inform you, that the advantages which you enjoy under grace, though very great, are of such a kind as to leave you still at liberty to give yourselves up, either to holyaffections, or to sinful desires, as you choose; and that, to whomsoever of these masters you yield yourselves slaves, you give him the absolute direction of you, Romans 6:16.—However, I thank God, that ye Romans, though formerly the slaves of sin, have obeyed the form of doctrine into which ye were delivered, as into a mould, Romans 6:17.—and are become the servants of righteousness, Romans 6:18.—Withal, to prevent the Romans from being surprised at the things that he had written, he told them, that, on account of the weakness of their understanding in spiritual matters, he had reasoned from the laws and customs of men respecting slaves, to give them a just idea of the power of men's affections. And therefore, as formerly, through the power of their lusts, they had employed themselves wholly in wickedness, he exhorted them now, by the aid of the Spirit of God, (without whom they could do nothing,) through the influence of holy affections, to employ themselves wholly in working righteousness, Romans 6:19.—Then he contrasted the miserable condition and end of the slave of sin, with the happy state and reward of the servant of God: from which it appears, that even under the gracious new covenant, the wages of sin obstinately continued in, is death; but the reward of holiness, is everlasting life, Romans 6:21.

Themetaphors in this chapter are extremely bold; yet, being taken from matters well known, they were used with great advantage. For the influence of sinful passions, in constraining wicked men to commit evil actions, could not be better represented to those who were acquainted with the condition of slaves, and with the customs by which their lives and services were regulated, than by the power which a tyrannical lord exercised over his slaves. Neither could any thing more affecting be devised, to shew the miserable condition of a person habitually governed by his lusts, than to liken it to the state of a slave under a severe unprincipled master, who rigorously requires him to spend the whole of his time and strength in his work, who exacts from him things both painful and ignominious, and who, by the severity of the services which he imposes, miserably puts an end to the lives of his slaves.