Bible Commentaries
Romans 6

Verse 1

Romans 6:1

Romans 6:1

What shall we say then?—What inference are we to draw from the doctrine of sin and grace set forth in the pre­ceding chapter?

Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?—[The doctrine of justification by faith without the works of the law was commonly misrepresented as encouragement to do evil that good might come; and, aside from such calumny, there was some real danger that the doctrine might be abused. (Galatians 5:13). Paul here meets and exposes the wickedness of such perversion. There are people in this country who say, and who are encouraged by their teachers in saying: "If I believe I can no longer sin, sin is not in me, since Christ died for me and I believe in him.”]

Verse 2

Romans 6:2

Romans 6:2

God forbid.—By no means.

We who died to sin,—A death in sin is to be given over to sin and to be dead to God by serving sin. A death to sin is to turn from sin to the service of God. “We who died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:2). This shows that to die to sin is to cease to live in sin. “And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sin, wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world.” (Ephesians 2:1-2). Before they were quickened to life, while they were yet in the course of the world, they were dead in sins.

how shall we any longer live therein?—A man dies to the love and practice of sin through faith in Christ the Lord and repentance toward God. He is buried to sin and puts off the body of sin in baptism. “In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands in the putting off the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through the faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:11-12). Here is a dead body of sin, or a body dead to sin in love and practice, and that body of sins of the flesh is put off in baptism. The person is dead to sin, is dead and buried and raised out of and free from sin.

Verse 3

Romans 6:3

Romans 6:3

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus—[All whom Paul addresses were distinctly and perfectly conscious of having been baptized. It was not possi­ble for them to doubt it. To be “baptized into” is a transition into some one or into some thing. The words would be entirely devoid of meaning if deprived of this conception. Accord­ingly, to be “baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13) is to pass from without it into it, and, becoming thereby inserted into it, to form a constituent member with its members. To be “bap­tized unto Moses” (1 Corinthians 10:2) is to pass from without the circle of his authority into it, and coming thereby under his undisputed control over their movements. To be “baptized unto repentance” (Matthew 3:11) is to pass by means of baptism from a life of impenitence into the state of him who had ceased from sin. In like manner, to be “baptized into Christ” is to pass from the world, where he is not believed and obeyed, into a state of freedom from sin and a complete subjection to his will.]

Faith, repentance, and baptism are all connected with en­trance into Christ by the same word (“eis”). It shows that all these acts are joined together, stand on the same side of remission of sins, entrance into Christ, and stand similarly related to these. Faith leads to repentance and to baptism. Repentance and baptism are fruits—the outgrowth, the em­bodiment—of faith. Faith, ruling the heart, produces repent­ance; controlling the body, it leads to baptism. Repentance and baptism are successive steps of faith, are parts of faith, and, hence, must stand related to remission of sins, to entrance into Christ, and to salvation as faith is. The relation of these acts to each other and the connection of each of them to the remission of sins, entrance into Christ, and salvation by the same word, settle beyond dispute that they are for the same end or thing. Man must believe into Christ, but his believ­ing carries him through repentance and baptism before he is in Christ. Faith that stops short of repentance and baptism does not carry the believer into Christ.

There are commands of God that seem to be arbitrary. We call them positive laws. The fitness of them to the end proposed we fail to see. We fail to discern that there is in the requirement to mold the life and the character into the likeness of God. Take as an example baptism. We call it a positive ordinance. There is nothing in it, so far as human wisdom can see, that has a molding influence on character. This may be a mistake. It is true that it tests our willingness to conform to the will of God. And whatever tests, tries, proves our willingness to follow God greatly aids in con­forming the will and strengthening the purpose to follow him. But the acts which we call positive are just such as give strik­ing expression to the spirit we are required to possess is one of self-distrust, self-renunciation, a rejecting, putting off of self as the ruler and guide, and the taking upon ourselves the rule, authority, and life of God as revealed in Christ Jesus. What could more fully express this death to self and the new life in Christ that we are to live than the burial out of self as dead to self and the new life in Christ that we are to live as dead to self and the new life in God? A burial out of self and resurrection in Jesus Christ. A baptism into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is positive law, a test of acceptance of the new life in Christ. But it is the expression of the spirit that must dwell in and rule us. Let us remember that in doing his will it is “God that works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.” And that law is but the expression of God’s manner of work­ing—that God is the supreme and ever-present factor in guid­ing all the affairs of the universe and that he leads, supports, and blesses us.

were baptized into his death?—We were baptized into his death to sin, became partakers of his death, and so died to sin as he did, and, as members of the body of Christ, we cannot live in sin. [The union with Christ, into which we enter by baptism, is thus more closely defined as union with his death. This is clearly stated in the following words: “The death that he died to sin once.” (Romans 6:10). His death is here viewed as the final and complete deliverance from a life, in which, for our sakes, he had been subject to conditions imposed by our sins, and this sense exactly corresponds with the thought which led to the mention of Christ’s death. By being “bap­tized into Christ” we become, as it were, one with him; so whatever he did, we do. Consequently, when he died, we died with him. We are, then, dead to our former state.]

Burial always signifies existing death, as only the dead are literally buried. When people yield themselves to obey the gospel of Christ, they die to sin—cease to love and practice sin, and, hence, are dead to sin when buried with Christ in baptism. Christ died for our sins and when dead was buried in the grave. So we are buried in baptism just as Christ was buried in the grave. Thus in figure we are buried with Christ into a fixed state of death to sin and at the same time into a state of life in relation to Christ. So the death spoken of is death to sin, a state of relationship in which we are dead to our former lives of sin, as Christ was forever dead to his former life of suffering from the moment he died on the cross. As Christ arose to a new life, never more to die, so Chris­tians, when raised from a watery grave, should shun lives of sin. Hence, he says: “Even so reckon ye your selves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11). And while Christians are to continue in a state of death to sin, they must also continue in a state of life to Christ.

Verse 4

Romans 6:4

Romans 6:4

We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death:—[No doubt the expression, “were buried,” was sug­gested by the momentary burial in water of the person bap­tized. It declares our union with Christ in death and our en­tire separation from our former life in which sin reigned.] All the facts and circumstances connected with baptism and all the figures used to illustrate it point unmistakably to the idea of the immersion, the overwhelming, and the burial of the per­son baptized.

On this verse Dr. Philip Schaff says: “All com­mentators of note (except Stuart and Hodge) expressly admit or take it for granted that in this verse the ancient prevailing mode of baptism by immersion and emersion is implied, as giv­ing additional force to the idea of the going down of the old and the rising of the new man.”

Albert Barnes: "It is alto­gether probable that the apostle in this place had allusion to the custom of baptizing by immersion.”

John Wesley: “ ‘We were buried with him’—alluding to the manner of baptizing by immersion.”

Adam Clarke: “It is probable that the apos­tle here alludes to the mode of administering baptism by im­mersion, the whole body being put under the water, which seemed to say: the man is drowned, is dead; and when he came up out of the water, he seemed to have a resurrection to life; the man is risen again; he is alive.”

Conybeare and Howson: “This passage cannot be understood unless it be borne in mind that the primitive baptism was by immersion.”

William Sanday: “Baptism has a double function. (1) It brings the Christian into personal contact with Christ, so close that it may be fitly described as union with him. (2) It ex­presses symbolically a series of acts corresponding to the re­deeming acts of Christ. Immersion=Death. Submersion=Burial (the ratification of Death). Emergence=Resurrection. All these the Christian has to undergo in a moral and spiritual sense, and by means of his union with Christ. As Christ by his death on the cross ceased from all contact with sin, so the Christian, united with Christ in his baptism, has done once for all with sin and lives henceforth a reformed life dedicated to God.”

[Similar testimonies and admissions might easily be greatly multiplied, but there is no need; these among the more recent will suffice.]

that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,—As Christ was raised from the dead through the glorious strength of God to a new life, we were raised to walk no more in the sins that have been put off in baptism, but were raised [from the watery burial with death between us and the old life of sin] to walk in the new life in Christ. He is still showing why we cannot sin that grace may abound.

so we also might walk in newness of life.—[Newness of the element of life, of the living, animating principle; not the life that is lived day by day, but the life that liveth in us. (Galatians 3:20; Colossians 3:3-4). We ought to exhibit the conduct proper to that life into which we were born through faith at our baptism. The conduct of life is here expressed by the figure of walking, as in the similar passage in Galatians 5:25. Compare also “walk in love” (Ephesians 5:2) and “walk in wisdom” (Colossians 4:5). The life in Christ is new. and this quality is made per­manent by the substantial form, “newness of life.”]

Verse 5

Romans 6:5

Romans 6:5

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection;—For if we have become members of the body of Christ by con­formity to his death, by following him in the likeness of his burial in baptism, we should also by our resurrection from our burial in baptism live in the likeness of his resurrection, free from sin. [If we have become vitally united to Christ in the likeness of his death, as our baptism imports, we are one with him by a life like his after his resurrection. After he was raised, he no longer lived the life he lived before his death. So with us. When raised in baptism, we are not to live the life we lived before; we are to live a new life, and, hence, can­not continue to sin.]

Verse 6

Romans 6:6

Romans 6:6

knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him,— The old man that followed sin was crucified through faith in Jesus and repentance toward God, with a burial to sin. [The old man is our former self—the self that sinned before we died to sin. In contrasting his former with his present state, Paul says: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.” (Galatians 2:20). He feels like another being, and has undergone a change as complete as that of death. His former self has passed away; he lives as a new man in Christ and Christ in him. The old man is thus seen to be our former self in the old corrupt and sinful condition.]

that the body of sin might be done away,—[The body of sin is to be rendered as thoroughly inert, motionless, and dead in relation to sin as it is by actual crucifixion in relation to an earthly master. This is done by keeping the body under and stubbornly resisting temptation, by the Spirit within helping our infirmities, and by the help of God, who is present in every time of need.]

that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;—That by this means we should no longer be in bondage to serve sin.

Verse 7

Romans 6:7

Romans 6:7

for he that hath died is justified from sin.—As the slave when dead is set free from his master, so he that has died with Christ is freed from sin and can no longer live in sin.

Verse 8

Romans 6:8

Romans 6:8

But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him;—Now, if we died with Christ to sin, we believe that we shall live with him the life he lives, not a life of serv­ice to sin.

Verse 9

Romans 6:9

Romans 6:9

knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;—Our hope that we shall live with Christ rests on our knowledge of the fact that he is alive for evermore. We could have no assurance that we shall live with him unless we knew that he can never die again. Therefore, Paul repeats the same important truth still more emphatically.

death no more hath dominion over him.—[Others who had been raised from the dead returned to that common life of men in which death still had dominion over them, but with Christ it was not so.] Being raised from the dead, dieth no more, he is free forever from the dominion of death.

Verse 10

Romans 6:10

Romans 6:10

For the death that he died, he died unto sin once:—He died a death to sin, so that he no longer felt the impulse to sin. [Christ was subjected for our sake to the power of sin, in so far as he endured all the evils that sin could inflict on one “who did no sin.” (1 Peter 2:22). This tyranny of sin—not his own, but ours—was permitted, through the counsel of God and Christ’s willing obedience, to compass his death. “He humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” (Phil. 2; 8). But there sin’s power over him ceased, because the purpose for which it was permitted was accomplished. The sin of man now, that it cost his life, can have no more power over him. He died once “unto sin”— that is, his previous relation to sin came utterly to an end. He was withdrawn forever from the power of sin, and, there­fore, from the power of death. There are thus three points to be observed in Christ’s relation to sin: (1) His life, as a con­flict with sin and a triumph over it, making him as man per­sonally exempt from death; (2) his voluntary surrender, for the sin of the world, of a life not forfeited by sins of his own; and (3) the effect of his voluntary submission to the chastise­ment of our sins—viz., his final separation from sin and death. (See Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 9:25-28).]

but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God.—But Christ now lives, and the life he lives is in absolute harmony and union with God. [To live “unto God” is to live solely to manifest and serve him, without being any more subject to the usurped tyranny of sin and death—he “dieth no more.” The glorified Savior lives and acts to manifest in the heart of man the life of God, which is his life—life eternal; and when we remember that he died that we may share his separation from sin, we cannot doubt that he died that we may also share his life of devotion to God.]

Verse 11

Romans 6:11

Romans 6:11

Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin,— Since the believer entered into Christ by being baptized into him and died with him to sin, he is now to consider himself dead unto the dominion of sin forever.

but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.—The death of Christ was to deliver all who believe in him from sin and the effects of sin. Therefore, the believer’s new life belongs wholly to God, and must, like Christ, whose life he shares, be devoted entirely to his service. These verses are to show how man cannot continue in sin that grace may abound, after he be­lieves in Christ.

Verse 12

Romans 6:12

Romans 6:12

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,—Since they had been brought into Christ to free and keep them from sin, they were not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies—to have dominion over them. [Sin is personified as a tyrant whose sphere of influence is the human body. This tyrant reigns in or rules over the body, but only as the desires of the body have control of it and lead it into sin.]

that ye should obey the lusts thereof:—We are not to allow these desires to become so excited as to impel us to obey them.

Verse 13

Romans 6:13

Romans 6:13

neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness;—To present our members unto sin is to tender them to be used in its service of unrighteousness. [Sin fights for the mastery; it calls an army of lusts, and seeks to use every faculty and power of the human body to reestablish its rule of unrighteousness.]

but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead,— The word “dead" here includes all the dead. The Roman Christians had been among the dead and had come out from them. They had been baptized into Christ, and in the act had been buried with him. This took them down among the dead. In being raised in baptism they had been raised with Christ. “Having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." (Colossians 2:12). Hence, having come out from the dead, though still dead to sin, they were alive; and now, as being alive, they were to present them­selves to God. According to this, we are not to present our­selves to God till risen with Christ alive from the dead. At this point the service of God begins; here the life devoted to him sets in.

and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.—Present the different members of your body as instru­ments to be used under the direction of God for doing right­eousness. Nothing is to be reserved.

Verse 14

Romans 6:14

Romans 6:14

For sin shall not have dominion over you:—For if you are servants of God, sin shall not have dominion over you to rule you or use your members in the service of sin. [Sin will tempt and harass and ensnare; it will be a powerful, danger­ous, and too often victorious enemy; but it shall have no authority over you; it shall not be your lord and master, dis­posing of you at will, and, as it were, of right.]

for ye are not under law, but under grace.—The law did not touch the heart, but under penalties prohibited wrong and excited the rebellious spirit. You are not under this law of works, but under the grace that touches the heart, excites love, and leads to obedience to the law of faith without exciting the rebellious spirit—a faith that works through love.

Verse 15

Romans 6:15

Romans 6:15

What then?—He has just concluded his argument, in which he shows that a man who has died with Christ cannot live in sin. He now returns to the question in verse 1 put in different form: shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid.—This would defeat the rule of grace to deliver from sin and the consequences of sin, death, and ruin. [Be­cause we are not under the law some have concluded that they are without restraint, but nothing could be farther from the truth; for although we are not under the law, we can sin, which clearly implies that we are under law in some sense. The truth is that we are under law while under grace, for to be under grace is to be under “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:2), which is the gospel. Hence, to be under grace does not exclude law. It is to be without it in one sense, but to be under it in another. The full force of the question, therefore, is: May we sin because we are not under the law, which condemns sin and makes no provision for par­doning it; but under grace, which, though we sin, provides for remitting it?]

Verse 16

Romans 6:16

Romans 6:16

Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey;—Sin is obedience to the evil one. If, then, we lend our mem­bers to sin, we obey the evil one and become his servants, and the end is death. (See 6:23). [This states the universal law that a man becomes the subject of what he does. If he yields to sin, that sin gets a grip upon him; if he lies once, not only is he likely to lie again, but that lie has him in its power. It has soiled his conscience and dimmed the light in his heart. This is also the teaching in Matthew 6:24; John 8:34; 2 Peter 2:19.]

whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteous­ness?—Without doubt, obedience is the stepping-stone to right­eousness; disobedience, to unrighteousness. To obey Jesus Christ, the Lord, is to be his servants. If we obey him, by the obedience to him we come to the state of righteousness into life. [The two words, “whether” and “or,” show that life has but two ways open, one or the other of which every man must choose; there is no middle course.]

Verse 17

Romans 6:17

Romans 6:17

But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin,—[As it is the apostle’s object to show that believers can­not live in sin, inasmuch as they have become the servants of another master, he applies the general truth stated in the preceding verses more directly to his immediate readers, and gives thanks to God that they, being emancipated from their former bondage, are now bound to a master whose service is perfect liberty.]

ye became obedient from the heart—The heart is the inner, spiritual man, embracing the will, the intellect, and the affec­tions. The obedience from the heart requires that the mind, the will, and the affections should all enter into the service. The mind must be enlightened, the will guided, and the affec­tions enlisted before the form of teaching can be obeyed. A peculiarity of the dispensation of Christ is that the service must be from the heart—that is, an outward performance without the desire of the heart to obey God is not acceptable. All service, then, must spring from the desire to obey God. It is the leading motive of all service. Honor and obedience to God from the heart are much the same. God said: “Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” (1 Samuel 2:30). We become servants of righteousness and servants of God by obeying him. The desire to obey God, then, underlies all service, all ends, desires, motive; the desire to obey God underlies even the desire to enter into Christ. We wish to enter into Christ that we may obey him. Then the desire to obey God must be present in, and lead to, all service to God. Nothing we do is acceptable to God unless it is done that we may obey and know him. It is the leading motive that underlies all motives. Other mo­tives may be absent without invalidating service, but no serv­ice is acceptable where this desire to obey God is absent. When we rightly understand God, the desire of salvation is the desire to obey him. Peter says: “Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently.” (1 Peter 1:22). The one leading motive and desire that is essential to all service that we render to God is the desire to obey him as Lord of heaven and earth. We can desire to obey him only as we believe and trust him. Then obedience to the gospel means doing the things that bring us into Christ and commit and obligate us to do the whole will of God. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance from sin, and burial out of self puts us in Christ, and binds us to a life of service to him, and are the obedience of the gospel.

to that form of teaching—The teaching was that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and raised again for our justification. The form of teaching includes the dying to sin as well as the burial and resurrection to life. We die to sin and are quick­ened by faith; we are buried through baptism, and rise in Christ Jesus to walk in the newness of life imparted through faith, just as the principle of life is imparted by begettal, but it can enjoy no distinct and personal life until it is delivered into the new state suited to the development of life. Obedience to the form of teaching includes the quickening through faith, the death to sin, the burial and resurrection through baptism into a new life in Christ. This binds to an obedience to all the laws and regulations of the Christian religion that fit us for enjoying the blessings of heaven.

whereunto ye were delivered;—[The imagery here used is taken from the custom of delivering slaves from one master to another. Sin is before Paul’s mind as a master to whom the disciples had been slaves, and he conceives of them now as delivered from this master to the form of teaching to be­come henceforth obedient to it.]

Verse 18

Romans 6:18

Romans 6:18

and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness.—And being made free from sin and the rule of sin, by the form of teaching into which they were cast, by being buried with Christ in baptism and raised again in new­ness of life, they had become the servants of righteousness. They were by their burial, out of self into death with Christ, and their resurrection to walk in a newness of life, freed from sin and the rule of sin, and became obligated to the life of righteousness in Christ.

Verse 19

Romans 6:19

Romans 6:19

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh:—He illustrated the truths he taught by exam­ples familiar to man on account of the weakness of the flesh.

for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your mem­bers as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.—Because as in the days past, before they believed, as they presented their members as servants to sin to work uncleanness and from one stage or degree of iniquity to another, in the same way they were to present their members as servants to righteous­ness to work out their sanctification.

Verse 20

Romans 6:20

Romans 6:20

For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness.—When they were unbelievers and serving sin, they felt no obligation to do righteousness. [To be free as to righteousness is to be free in the sense only in which a servant, while bound to one master, is free from another.]

Verse 21

Romans 6:21

Romans 6:21

What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed?—[The fact that when they looked back over their past lives they felt ashamed of the sins in which they had formerly delighted shows the deep change that had taken place in their minds, and implies how sincere and thor­ough their repentance had been. Moreover, if they had de­rived no benefit from their past sins, but, on the contrary, felt ashamed of them, they could certainly have no reason for re­turning to them; and this is what Paul is seeking to guard them against. The issue he is making with them is that they are not to sin because under grace.]

for the end of those things is death.—The end of the fruit we bear out of Christ is death. But even in Christ, at least of those who have entered Christ, some bear evil fruit, some good. To bear evil fruit, or to fail to bear good fruit in Christ, is to be separated from Christ and the end of this is to be burned up.

Verse 22

Romans 6:22

Romans 6:22

But now being made free from sin and become servants of God,—But having now been freed from sin by being buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life, they were obligated to serve God. [To be freed from sin is to be forgiven. The bondage to sin is the most terrible bond­age to which one can be subjected.]

ye have your fruit unto sanctification,—The sanctified are set apart to the service of God. All who have entered into Christ have obligated themselves to serve him. The growth unto sanctification is attained by a constant and persistent study of God’s word and a daily effort to bring oneself into obedient fruit bearing.

and the end eternal life.— [Not only is this service the most elevated and blessed in its own nature, but its certain con­summation is eternal life. They could not, then, because they were under grace, afford to abandon this and turn again to the service of sin. The act would be without reason; it would wreck their hope and entail on them eternal death.]

Verse 23

Romans 6:23

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death;—All death comes as the result of sin. Death and suffering of the body come as the result of sin; but the death spoken of here means the spiritual and eternal death in the future. He who sins will receive the wages of sin—eternal death.

but the free gift of God is eternal life—The gift which God in his abundant mercy bestows is eternal life. It is the gift of God. None can give it, none can earn it; he gives it to those who accept it on the condition he prescribes. Those condi­tions are such as show, and still more cultivate, the trust in God that fits the character for eternal life—for a life with God in his home forever. To fit and prepare mortals for this home is the end of all the teachings and requirements that God has given man. He does not require of us service because he needs it, but because we need the schooling and training that service will give us.

in Christ Jesus our Lord.—[Christ Jesus and his gospel, then, instead of being the ministers of sin, as their opposers so confidently asserted, effectually secure what the law never could accomplish, in obedience, consisting in sanctification and resulting in eternal life.]