Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

† Paul anticipates a false charge, that grace encourages sin. He rejects it firmly. Believers died to sin, so living in it is a contradiction.

† Grace does not excuse sin, it delivers from its dominion. To remain in sin would deny the reality of covenant transformation in Christ.

Romans 6:3-4
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.

† Baptism unites believers with Christ's death and resurrection. This is not mere ritual but covenant participation.

† Colossians 2:12 echoes this, we were buried with Him in baptism and raised through faith.

† Chrysostom emphasized that baptism is not symbolic alone but marks entrance into covenant life, a death to the old order and rising into new life.

Romans 6:5-6
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

† Union with Christ means the old self is crucified. The "body of sin" refers to life under Adam and the old covenant world of death. In Christ, that body is destroyed.

† The Dead Sea Scrolls (1QS 3.6-10) also spoke of two spirits, one of truth and one of wickedness. Paul shows that in Christ, the old realm of wickedness is broken.

Romans 6:7-8
For the one who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.

† Death severs the claim of sin. In dying with Christ, we are free from sin's dominion.

† To live with Him is present covenant life. It is not postponed to a distant resurrection but realized in union with the risen Christ.

Romans 6:9-10
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time, but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

† Christ's resurrection is final and complete. Death no longer rules. His once-for-all death breaks sin's power forever.

† Hebrews 9:26 confirms that Christ's sacrifice was once at the consummation of the ages, never to be repeated.

Romans 6:11
So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

† The call is to reckon ourselves in covenant truth. We are dead to sin's dominion and alive to God in Christ.

Romans 6:12-13
Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body's parts as instruments of righteousness for God.

† Sin is no longer master. Believers must live as those raised from the dead, offering themselves to God.

† This echoes Romans 12:1, where we are called to present our bodies as living sacrifices.

Romans 6:14
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace.

† The dominion of sin was tied to the law. Grace frees us from that dominion.

† The Mishnah (Makkot 1:10) said that greater Torah study lessened sin. Paul says only grace breaks sin's rule.

Romans 6:15-16
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Far from it! Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

† Freedom from the law does not mean license to sin. Everyone serves a master, either sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness.

Romans 6:17-18
But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.

† Believers have been transferred from slavery to sin into slavery to righteousness. True freedom is service to God.

† Clement of Rome (1 Clement 35) also speaks of obedience from the heart as the mark of covenant life.

Romans 6:19
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your body's parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

† Paul uses slavery as an analogy. Just as they once served impurity, now they are to serve righteousness leading to holiness.

Romans 6:20-21
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.

† Sin seemed like freedom, but its fruit was only shame and death.

Romans 6:22-23
But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

† Sin pays wages, death. God gives a gift, eternal life in Christ. The contrast is total.

† Futurists misplace eternal life into an age to come, but Paul says it is already the present possession of those in Christ.

How it applies to us today

† Baptism unites us with Christ's death and resurrection. Our covenant life is rooted in this union.

† Grace does not excuse sin, it frees us from its dominion. We are called to live as those dead to sin and alive to God.

† Every person serves a master. We must yield ourselves daily to righteousness, bearing fruit that leads to life.

† Eternal life is not a future hope but a present reality in Christ. We already share in His victory over sin and death.

† This is the fulfilled perspective we proclaim at Fulfilled Prophecies †

Source Index
† Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans – Baptism as entrance into covenant life
† Dead Sea Scrolls, 1QS 3.6-10 – Two spirits of truth and wickedness
† Hebrews 9:26 – Christ's sacrifice once at the consummation of the ages
† Mishnah, Makkot 1:10 – Torah study as a means to restrain sin
† Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 35 – Obedience from the heart