Romans 6:1-3 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may bound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
There is an aberration from the biblical teaching on grace called “cheap grace.” It is a phrase coined by the German pastor and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is an attitude which says in effect, “I’ve been justified—forgiven for my transgressions—and I will go on being forgiven whatever I do; so, I can do whatever I wish.” “In its most common form, this attitude is exhibited in those who see in their justification no necessity to go on to the sanctification God has in mind for them.” (The Commentators Commentary) The religion of cheap grace is based upon a mountain top experience. In this theology, there is no need for obedience. Therefore, mortification and vivification— dying to sin and living to righteousness— are altogether forsaken.
“Baptized into His death”— When Jesus was baptized in water “to fulfill all righteousness,”—as our example, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matt 3:16-17) This oracle of God is for all who are baptized by faith in the Lord Jesus.
Do not continue in sin, even in self-effort to lead the Christian life. Baptism by itself saves no one, but it is a sign of profession. "It is a profession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. When a person makes a profession of faith, baptism is a sign of that profession, and a pledge of loyalty to God and the Church. It is a profession of faith in all the fundamental doctrines of salvation as taught by Christ. ‘See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?’ Philip said, ‘If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest;‘ and he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God’ and he baptized him. ( Acts 8:36).“ (The Shield of the Young Methodist)
Baptism is seen by some to be part of a works-based religion, but they don’t even see it as a good work for they have not attended to it. Many would argue that salvation is not by works, but rather by grace through faith alone. Yet, I contend that baptism should be the first good work of the regenerate. After God has delivered them that fear Him from the bondage of sin and death; after they are 'justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus, (Rom 3:24) there remains a rest for the people of God. (Heb 4:9) It is found the ordinance of a believer’s baptism.
“There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” (1 Peter 3:21)
“Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘Yahweh your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ (Deuteronomy 18:15)." (Acts 3:22-23) Jesus is that very Prophet. And He said: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16) When your heart is pricked and you believe in Jesus as the only begotten Son of God, you will ask what you must do to be saved. The biblical reply: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39) If you obey, God promises to send the Holy Spirit to abide with you forever. And just as physical circumcision is a seal of righteousness by faith, the Holy Spirit seals us and gives us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee of our salvation. (2 Cor 1:21-22)
“To be baptized is to submit to the ordinance which our Lord fulfilled at Jordan, to which the converted ones submitted at Pentecost, to which the jailer yielded obedience the very night of his conversion. The outward sign saves not, but it sets forth to us our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus, and, like the Lord's Supper, is not to be neglected. Reader, do you believe in Jesus? Then, dear friend, dismiss your fears, you shall be saved. Are you still an unbeliever, then remember there is but one door, and if you will not enter by it you will perish in your sins.” (C. H. Spurgeon)
"Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." Jesus answered. "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." (Matt 8:19-20) Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. (Matt 3:15) If you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus… and follow Him into the waters of baptism, you can joined the ranks of those who have been baptized into His death. In one breath, Jesus says "Your sins are forgiven”; "Go and sin no more"; and "Receive the Holy Spirit". (Mark 2:5; John 8:11, 20:22) Your life becomes hidden with Christ in God, but “when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Col 3:4)
Rom 6:4-7 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
“Newness of life supposes newness of heart, for out of the heart are the issues of life… Walk by new rules, towards new ends, from new principles. Make a new choice of the way. Choose new paths to walk in, new leaders to walk after, new companions to walk with. Old things should pass away, and all things become new. The man is what he was not, does what he did not.” (Matthew Henry)
“We were buried with Jesus through baptism into his death.” We gain insight from Dr. Taylor in this mystery. He explains that sumphutoi (grk 4854) gegonamen (grk 1096) is better translated “planted together.” He says: “Our translation does not completely express the apostle's meaning. Ta (grk 3588) sumphuta (grk 4854) are such plants as grow, the one upon and in the other, deriving sap and nourishment from it, as the mistletoe upon the oak, or the scion upon the stock in which it is grafted.’” (Adam Clarke Commentary) If we were buried with Christ, let us derive our nourishment from Him and His Words and thereby become fully developed, firm, strong, and vigorous… and bear fruit.
In our baptism, we die to self and begin a new life in Christ. “The life lived by the saints in heaven is but the completion and consummation of that life which, after regeneration, they live here on earth. The difference between the two is not one of kind, but of degree. ‘The path of the just is as the shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day’ (Prov 4:18). If there has been no walking with God down here there will be no dwelling with God up there. If there has been no real communion with Him in time there will be none with Him in eternity. Death effects no vital change to the heart. True, at death the remainders of sin are forever left behind by the saint, but no new nature is then imparted. If then he did not hate sin and love holiness before death, he certainly will not do so afterwards.”(A. W. Pink)
Romans 6:8-9 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
“Faith is the key! We must believe God’s facts! ‘Not behaving, but believing, is God's way; behaving follows believing’ (Newell, p. 234). God has revealed the facts about our identification with Christ and our position IN HIM. Faith must rest down upon these facts. Not only CO-CRUCIFIED but CO-RISEN! I shared in His death and I share also in His life!
What kind of life do I share? Eternal life, endless life! Death has no more dominion over Christ and it has no more dominion over me! See Revelation 1:18. Death is no more the lord or master over Christ. He conquered it! His death is something forever in the past. Christ’s resurrection was quite different from the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus was raised up only to die again. Christ was raised up never to die again. In Christ’s life I live! In His death I died. ‘I was crucified . . . nevertheless I live’ (Gal. 2:20). Because of my union with Christ, I share in His endless life. Indeed, He is my life (Col. 3:3-4)!”
http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/romans/romans6.htm
Romans 6:10-11 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“Progressive sanctification has two parts: mortification and vivification, ‘both of which happen to us by participation in Christ,’ as Calvin notes (Calvin, Institutes 3.3.2, 9 The ‘mortification/vivification’ distinction was first formulated by Melanchthon in his Commentary on Romans (Corpus Reformatorum). These occur simultaneously and continuously throughout the Christian life, rather than in stages. Christ’s death alone is atoning, and cannot be repeated. He died for our sins, but we die to our sins. Christ took up his cross once and for all as a sacrifice for sin, but he calls his disciples to ‘take up [their] cross daily,’ facing persecution from within and without (Lk. 9:23).… Subjectively experiencing this definitive reality signified and sealed to us in our baptism requires a daily dying and rising.” (Michael Horton, The Christian Faith, etc., page 661)
“I trust we know that in us there is a new life to which we were strangers once. To our body and our soul there has been superadded a spirit, a spark of spiritual life. Just as Jesus had a new life after death, so have we a new life after death, wherewith I trust we rise from the grave. But we must prove it. Jesus proved his resurrection by infallible signs. You and I, too, must prove to all men that we have risen out of the grave of sin…” (C. H. Spurgeon) It is the testimony of our lives—an open book for all to read.
Rom 6:12-16 Therefore do not let sin reign in your MORTAL BODY, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under Law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under Law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
Our MORTAL BODY is referred to in 1 Corinthians as our “body of sin.” We put off our mortal bodies at death, but there are differences of opinion as to when we put on our new spiritual bodies. I believe that it will occur for all humanity when Christ comes again in glory. At that time, the living evil people will be destroyed. (2 Pet 3:10-14) But the living saints, like Enoch, will be translated and not see death; they will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. (1 Cor 15:51-52) In contrast, here is what is revealed of those who sleep in Jesus: “Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain— perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.”(1 Cor 15:36-38)
(Your Body of Sin)... (Your Spiritual Body)
It is sown in corruption... It is raised in incorruption
It is sown in dishonor... It is raised in glory
It is sown in weakness... It is raised in power
It is sown a natural body... It is raised a spiritual body. (1 Cor 15:42b-44)
All of those in Christ will receive new bodies that are incorruptible, glorious, powerful and spiritual. We will die no more. Death no longer has dominion ...
Meanwhile, Paul does not “relax the obligations to a holy life, the apostle here proceeds to enforce these obligations” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts….“Have you had any trouble with sin this week? ‘Oh, no,’ you say, ‘I’m dead in Christ, and I’m raised to walk in newness of life!’ You are also a little arrogant because you know very well that you’ve had trouble with sin. As a matter of fact, if you say you haven’t had trouble with sin that is the very proof that you have had trouble with it. Every one of us has to deal with sin. John says if you say you are without sin, you make God a liar… we have to make a conscious choice not to obey its [sin's] lusts any more. We’ve got to make a conscious choice. Now I can’t make that for you, and you can’t make it for me. I’ve got to make it, and you’ve got to make it. He says in verse 12, ‘Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts.’" (Wayne A. Barber)
We must all resolve: “Though sin may remain as an outlaw— though it may oppress as a tyrant, yet let it not reign as a king. Let it not make laws, nor preside in councils, nor command the militia; let it not be uppermost in the soul, so that we should obey it.” (Matthew Henry Commentary)
And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God… “Christians should devote every member of the body to God and to his service. Their tongue should be consecrated to his praise, and to the office of truth, and kindness, and benevolence; their hands should be employed in useful labor for him and his cause; their feet should be swift in his service, AND SHOULD NOT GO IN THE PATHS OF INIQUITY; their eyes should contemplate his works to excite thanksgiving and praise; THEIR EARS SHOULD NOT BE EMPLOYED TO LISTEN TO WORDS OF DECEIT, OR SONGS OF DANGEROUS AND LICENTIOUS TENDENCY, OR TO PERSUATION THAT WOULD LEAD ASTRAY, but should be open to catch the voice of God as he utters his will in the Book of truth, or as he speaks in the gale, the zephyr, the rolling thunder, the ocean, or in the great events of his providence...” (Barnes’ Notes)
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under Law but under grace. “The law and grace thus differ; the one condemns the sinner, the other absolves him; the one requires perfect, the other accepts sincere, obedience; the one prescribes what we must do, the other assists us in the doing of our duty. This last seems to be the genuine sense… You may be sure sin shall have no dominion over you; for you are not under the law, which forbids sin, but gives no power against it, or which requires obedience, and gives no strength to perform it (like the Egyptian taskmasters, who required bricks but gave no straw); but under the gospel or covenant of grace, where sin is not only forbidden, but the sinner is enabled to resist and overcome it.” (Matthew Poole’s commentary)
“‘Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity’ (2 Tim. 2: 19). The more the Word is read with the definite object of discovering what is pleasing and what is displeasing to the Lord, the more will His will become known; and if our hearts are right with Him the more will our ways be conformed thereto. There will be a ‘walking in the truth’ (3 John 1:4)… Of old the question was asked, ‘Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?’ and the Divine answer is ‘by taking heed thereto according to your Word.’ Yes, not simply by reading , believing, or memorizing it, but by the personal application of the Word to our ‘way.’ It is by taking heed to such exhortations as ‘Flee fornication’ (1 Cor. 6:18), ‘Flee from idolatry’ (1 Cor. 10:14). ‘Flee these things’—a covetous love for money (1 Tim. 6:11), ‘Flee also youthful lusts’ (2 Tim. 2:22), that the Christian is brought into practical separation from evil; for sin has not only to be confessed but ‘forsaken’ (Prov. 28: 13).” (A. W. Pink)
“Paul says: ‘I fight’, ‘I run,’ ‘I keep under my body’ and in other places, 'Let us cleanse ourselves,' 'let us labor,' [and] 'lay aside every weight.' (1 Cor 9:26, 27; 2 Cor 7:1; Heb 4:11; 12:1) The Scriptures nowhere teach us that faith sanctifies us in the same sense and in the same manner that faith justifies us! Justifying faith is a grace that 'works not', but simply trusts, rests and leans on Christ (Rom 4:5). Sanctifying faith is a grace of which the very life is action: it 'works by love' and, like a mainspring, moves the whole inward man (Gal 5:6).” (Holiness by J. C. Ryle)
Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?... “You were the servants of sin…. God be thanked that you were so, that is, that though you were so, yet you have obeyed. You were so; God be thanked that we can speak of it as a thing past: you were so, but you are not now so.” (Matthew Henry) Yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. Some say doctrine divides… and it does. It is obedience to correct doctrine that leads to the separation of the wheat and the chaff. It leads to our eternal salvation. It is the knowledge of the true character and ways of Yahweh our God-- the God of Heaven-- that leads us to accept the invitation of Jesus to trust Him to save us from the wrath to come.
Rom 6:18-21 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. …“When the tyrant, sin, reigns in the hearts of men, sinners freely hand over their hands, feet, eyes, and mind to the cause of unrighteousness. In place of this constant dedication to evil, Paul urges: Hand over yourselves once for all to God… and your members as weapons of righteousness. Why should we hand over ourselves to God?—because those in Christ are living as having risen from the dead. We died with Christ. The self, of course, includes every member or part of us and every activity we may engage in. All that goes to make up the human personality will be either actively serving unrighteousness or actively serving righteousness.” [Wycliffe Bible Commentary]
I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh… We are not children of the bondswomen but rather of the free (Gal 4:31). But for sake of our flesh, Paul puts it in words that we can understand. Reckon yourselves as slaves to Christ--- to seeking of His kingdom and His righteousness....
There is no neutral activity. Each second, you are either for Christ or against Him. “When my tongue is required by the old sinful propensity within to engage in critical conversation half the battle is won when I refuse to participate, but the other half is won when I take the opportunity to say something helpful and positive instead.” (D. Stuart Briscoe) We must not only be Protestant in spirit—protesting what is wrong with the world and its religions, we must be Kingdom builders, modeling what is right. Incidentally, I fail miserably. However, I am called to repentance minute by minute. If sin reigns in my mortal body, I will not win any battles— nor the war itself. Sin—the overt breaking of the Mitzvah and the covert attitudes condemned earlier will sear my conscience… will eventually end in my eternal demise.
Rom 6:22-23 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul considered himself once to have been a slave to sin. But now he is a bondservant of Jesus and presents his members as slaves of righteousness and bears fruit to holiness—souls for Jesus. This must be our main concern.
The end of the right way is everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord… “Q. — On whom is the blame of man's condemnation laid?
A. — Men are constantly charged with the blame of their own ruin. "For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, wherefore turn ye, and live." (Ezek. 18:32) We might quote every chapter in the prophets to show that the Israelites were blamed as the cause of their own ruin. But it is needless to enlarge. The whole Bible testifies that men are truly the authors of their own destruction. God often complains that he has striven to save men, but they would not let him. ‘0, Jerusalem, Jerusalem how often I would have gathered thee, as a hen doth her brood under her wings, but ye would not.’ (Matt. 23:37) He ‘will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.’ (1 Tim. 11:4)” (The Shield of the Young Methodist.)
All of Israel left Egypt, but not many entered the rest of Canaan, which is only a picture of the true rest which remains for the children of God. It seems that it takes more than a good start of justification. We must have a good finish. We must do the work of God wherever the circumstances of life takes us. Whatever your lot in this life—remember your portion in the next... knowing that the promises of God in Christ are “yes, yes”-- to you and yours for Christ's sake. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness..."
Exodus 20:1-6 And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am Yahweh our God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.