“Freedom From The Power of Sin”  6:1-2

We discovered in chapter 5 that sin has come through the headship of Adam and that sanctification comes through the headship of Christ. Because of the natural headship of Adam, sin was imputed to the human family. But there is another head of the human family, and that is Christ. He brings life and righteousness. He removes the guilt of sin from us. And on that basis, He can move into the lives of those who trust in Him and begin to make them righteous. That is, He can begin to make them good. J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible

“Justification is the foundation on which all the superstructure of sanctification rests.” McGee

Justification is an act; sanctification is a work. Justification took place the moment we trusted Christ. We were declared righteous; the guilt was removed. Then God began a work in us that will continue throughout your lives.

“I believe in instantaneous salvation, but sanctification is a lifelong process. In other words, justification is the means; sanctification is the end. Justification is for us; sanctification is in us. Justification declares the sinner righteous; sactification makes the sinner righteous. Justification removes the guilt and penalty of sin; sanctification removes the growth and the power of sin. God is both an exterior and interior decorator. He is an exterior decorator in that He enables us to stand before Him because He has paid the penalty and removed the guilt of sin from us. But He is also an interior decorator. He moves into our hearts and lives by the power of the Holy Spirit to make us the kind of Christians we should be.” McGee

Both justification and sanctification flow from being in Christ, crucified with him, and with him risen. 1 Corinthians 1:30, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."

Up to chapter 6, Paul does not discuss the holy life of the saint. From chapter 6 on, Paul does not discuss the salvation of the sinner. He wasn't talking about the saint and the life he is to live when he was discussing salvation. The believer has a new nature now, and he is to obey God. Being united with Christ in His death and resurrection means that He is now our Lord and our Master. He gives us freedom, but that freedom is not license.

6:1 “...continue in sin”  epimenumen / Fut. Act Ind / abide, remain - Rom. 5:20; 6:15

“that grace may abound”/ pleonash / Aor Act Subj / exist in abundance, increase

Paul is being argumentative. In the Greek the question is asked in such a way that there is only one answer. He precedes the question with "What shall we say then?"


6:2 “God forbid”/ genoito / Ridiculous to think that we should live in sin

After you have experienced this complete salvation by God's free grace, what can you say to it? This is God's answer to the question of whether, after we are saved, we can continue to live in sin. The answer is, "God forbid" or "perish the thought!" or "may it never be!" McGee

“...that are dead to sin”/ apeqanomen / Aor Act Ind / Col. 3:3; I Pet. 1:14; 2:24

The very fact that Paul is asking this question makes it obvious that he understood justification to mean a declaration of righteousness; that it did not mean to make a person good, but to declare a person good. Justification means that the guilt or the penalty of sin is removed, not the power of sin in this life.

Now Paul is going to teach about removing the power of sin. If God has declared you to be righteous and has removed the guilt of your sin, then, you should not continue in sin. The answer is, "God forbid!"

"How shall we, that are dead to sin" (2nd Aor Act) We are never dead to sin as long as we are in this life. However, we died in the person of our substitute, Jesus Christ. We died to sin in Christ. Any honest person knows he never reaches the place where he is dead to sin. He does reach the place where he wants to live for God, but he recognizes he still has that old sin nature.

We died to sin in Christ, but we are never dead to sin in this life. You have a sinful nature; I have a sinful nature; and we'll have it as long as we are in this life." The phraseology of this verse is common among Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins. To DIE to a thing or person, is to have nothing to do with it or him; to be totally separated from them: and to live to a thing or person is to be wholly given up to them; to have the most intimate connection with them.    Clark

To be dead to a thing is a strong expression denoting that it has no influence over us. A man that is dead is uninfluenced and unaffected by the affairs of this life. He is insensible to sounds, and tastes, and pleasures; to the hum of business, to the voice of friendship, and to all the scenes of commerce, gaiety, and ambition. When it is said, therefore, that a Christian is dead to sin, the sense is, that it has lost its influence over him; he is not subject to it; he is in regard to that, as the man in the grave is to the busy scenes and cares of this life. Barnes

For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Gal. 2:19
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Col. 3:3
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. I Pet. 2:24; Cf. Romans 6:6,11

Live any longer therein. - How shall we, who have become more aware of the evil of sin, and who have renounced it by in our lives, continue to practice it?

6:3 “know ye not”/ agnoeite / Pres Act Ind /

“as were baptized into (eiV ) Jesus Christ” / ebapisqhmen / Aor Pass Ind
“were baptized into his death”/ ebaptisqhmen / A witness that we have died to sin

Both uses of ebaptisqhmen are examples of being baptized into the body of Christ. I Cor. 12:13 says, For by one Spirit are we all baptized (ebapisqhmen) into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

All three instances of the baptized are in the Aorist Pass Indicative. The action of being baptized is not performed by the believer. It is not water baptism. The context of Romans 6 is not water baptism, but the sanctification of the Christian. However, Water baptism is beautifully pictured in this passage. Water baptism does not produce union with Christ, but it does picture it.

6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: - Cf. Rom. 6:9-11

Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Col. 2:12-13

that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, -

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Col. 3:1-3

And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. I Cor. 6:14

even so we also should walk in newness of life. - peripathswmen - Rom. 8:11; 6:19; 7:6; 12:1-2

Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.  For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. 2 Cor. 13:3-4

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Cor. 5:17

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Eph. 4:22-24

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
Eph. 5:8

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Col. 1:9-12

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Col. 3:10

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Peter 1:4

He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. I John 2:6


6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death/ vital union, united / sumfutoiV / to germinate and grow

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; Phil. 3:9-10

we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: - omoiwma - similitude, resemblance

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Eph. 2:5-7

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Psalm 92:12-15

Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Matt. 15:12-13

- Romans 6 Learn to KNOW, RECKON, YIELD
- Romans 7 Our DEATH in Christ causes us to be DEAD to the Law
- Romans 8 Source of POWER over sin

6:6 knowing this/ ginwskonteV / Pres Act Ptc /


That our old man

Eph. 4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

Col. 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

1 Pet. 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:


crucified with him sunestaupwqh/ Aor Pass Ind

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Gal. 5:24

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Gal. 6:14

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; Eph. 4:22

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Col. 3:9-10


“that the body of sin” - Cf. 7:24-25; 8:3,13

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. Col. 3:11-12


“Might be destroyed”/ katarghqh / annulled / Aor Pass Subj


“That henceforth we should not serve sin”/ 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Col. 2:11-12

6:7 "For he that is dead"/ apoqanwn / Aor Act Ptc / This is a judicial deliverance! If we are dead to sin through the blood of Christ we are delivered from sin’s power and dominion. We may stray into sin, but we are not under its authority! Because this is also a continuing fact (Ptc) we have continuing and lasting forgiveness, and the assurance of continued deliverance.

"is freed"/ dedikaiwtai / Perf. Pass Ind / It is the completed action of Christ in the past and His continuing ministry on our behalf, as His children. It is not us (passive voice). There is no time limit on the this verb.

"from sin"/ Meaning to separate from an entire unit, a state of separation: by a physical distance (place), and a temporal distance (time). cf. Rom. 4:7; 5:1; 8:1; Isa. 54:17

6:8 "now"/ by confidence in the Word of God we shall "live with him"/ It is salvation seen with the resurrection as the beginning, enduring, and end of the physical life. So often the resurrection is viewed as the end, but in salvation it is the fulfillment of the NOW in the life of the believer. We "are" risen with Christ.

6:9 "Christ...dieth no more...no more dominion over Him"

6:10 "...died unto sin once...He liveth unto God"

6:11 *I died with Christ to sin, and I live with Christ in resurrection life. "Alive" to God indicates that Paul is conscious of his being united to God, welcomed by God, conducting his life with God, and trusting God in life and death.

6:12 The believer’s responsibility: do not let sin be reigning (as a principle, nature). Sin is present and ‘ready’ to reign once we give it the chance.

6:13 Present yourself in living active faith, as alive unto God.

"Neither yield your members" - paristavete - Pres Act Imp - to place beside or near, to set at hand, to present, to bring to, bring near

"As instruments of unrighteousness unto sin" - opla - any tool or implement for preparing a something or arms used in warfare, weapons

"And your members as instruments of righteousness..."

Melh - any part of your body

6:14 "for sin shall not have dominion over you" - kurieusei

Fut Act Ind - to be lord of, to rule, have dominion over, to exercise influence upon, to have power over. Sin shall not have "lordship" over you. This is not an exhortation, but a declaration of truth. There is a legal principle of the law:

The law demands full duty, and promises blessing based on condition of fulfillment. if we fail, sin reigns. Under grace the blessing is given when you trust Christ (freedom from the curse and bondage of the law), therefore you will have fruit unto God.

6:15 Restatement of 6:1

6:16 "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey;"

"whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Personal choice between right and wrong

6:17 "but God be thanked" - Eph. 2:5-10

"That ye were the servants of sin" - For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. Gal 6:15

6:18 "being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness" -

6:19 cf. Rom. 7:5,23; 6:13; James 3:5,6; 4:1; Col. 3:5

"holiness"/ I Cor. 1:30; I Thess. 4:3-7

6:20 No obligation to righteousness

6:21 What works, deeds, what visible expression of the power of the Holy Spirit has been seen.

6:19-23 I make a statement for you to understand. Just as you have presented your members as slaves to impurity, lawlessness, iniquity, to do that which is forbidden...Even so now present yourselves slaves of righteousness, with the same zeal and drive that was used in serving sin. Present yourselves for sanctification, conformed to the character of Christ.

We you were under sin, you had no relationship to righteousness. What did that freedom give you? What benefit were you deriving from that which you are now condemned? What was the benefit of the Old man? The end of those things is death! BUT now being made free from sin, being a willing bondslave of God, you have real fruit and it is what you were recreated for in the first place.

The purpose of being a bondslave of God is that you should have the image of Christ conformed in you. The fruit of the Spirit is sanctification! God is more interested in what you become than in what you were before!