1. Another Look at Romans 6 Romans 6 is about conversion. There are many aspects to conversion. We tend to use single words to refer to process by which we become Christians – conversion, salvation – but we can also add adoption, forgiveness, justification, redemption and other terms.

2. Each of these words does not actually sum up everything that happens when we become Christians, but one primary thing. All these things are connected, but they are not identical.

3. The two primary things involved in Romans 6 are conversion and forgiveness. The main topic, however is conversion, a word that means change. I want to study the passage from this standpoint, showing how everything in it emphasizes the idea of change. The concept of forgiveness is merely incidental in this chapter.

4. Our deliverance from the body of sin (6:1-11). The reason for the first question of the chapter is the statement at the close of chapter 5: “Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly” (vs. 20).

5. What shall we conclude from this? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? In no way! Certainly not!!

6. Paul begins to develop his point immediately. “Know ye not that all we who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?” (6:3). The point may be expressed this way: All we who were baptized into a relationship with Christ were baptized into a relationship with His death.

7. We entered this relationship with the death of Christ through baptism (6:4a). One of the aspects of the death of Christ is the sacrificial aspect of it. By this aspect we are forgiven.

8. But this is not the aspect of His death referred to here. Rather, it is that, “Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life” (6:4b).

9. Notice how already we have the contrast between death and newness of life. As Jesus had a death and a newness of life, so we also have a death and a newness of life (6:5).

10. Our old man was crucified with Him. The purpose was that the body of sin might be done away, so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin. Bondage here is slavery.

11. This bondage in the context may come from two different sources. One is to be under a law that does not forgive – it only condemns, and there is no deliverance provided by that law. The other is to be constrained by one’s own habits, inclinations, and lusts.

12. When we obey the gospel our sins are instantly forgiven. Therefore the law no longer holds us in slavery. When a Christian is in bondage to sin, it is not because of the law. The other aspect of slavery is the one involving our own practices.

13. “He that hath died (in the likeness of Jesus’ death) is justified from sin” (6:7). Here we must point out what is an obvious truth. This dying we do is not merely the idea of saying, “I won’t sin any more.”

14. That decision alone would not free us from sin, because we would still have the guilt of our past sins to deal with, and we would still have the law to deal with. Clearly, the idea of the remission of sins (guilt) underlies this deliverance from sin (practice or lifestyle).

15. It is only through Jesus, and through baptism, that the forgiveness of sin (guilt) and the renunciation of sin (practice or lifestyle) are made possible.

16. If it were not for the forgiveness of sin, we would have no escape from its guilt, and if it were not for the change in our relationship with Christ and the law, we could not face the future with any hope, because sin will remain a factor to deal with, but it does not have to be our master. We have the option to be free from it.

17. “If we died after the manner of Christ we shall also live after the manner of Christ” (6:8). This parallel is developed in this way: “Christ being raised from the dead is not going to die again.” “Death does not have dominion over Him anymore” (6:9).

18. In verses 10-11 the parallel is drawn in even more detail. It is important to note this parallel in certain phrases found in these verses: “He died unto sin”; He lives unto God.” “Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God.”

19. Jesus had a connection with sin, but it was a connection He assumed when He agreed to be our sin offering. When He died, all connection with sin was finished. Now He lives only in regard to God. Similarly, we need to reckon ourselves to be finished with sin, but alive unto God.

20. The parallel between our experience and Jesus’ experience is not totally alike. He was finished with sin, with no possibility that He would ever be involved with it again.

21. But in our case, our involvement with sin is over only if we make it so. We are to conduct ourselves so as to make our experience with sin parallel to that of Christ. He was finished with sin. We are supposed to be finished with sin. This is to be our aim.

22. Sin shall not have dominion over us (6:12-14). That Paul says “Let not sin reign in your mortal body” shows that the freedom from sin that he discusses is a freedom that we make so by our conduct. He explains how we prevent sin from reigning in our bodies: “that ye should obey the lusts thereof” (6:12). Sin cannot remain our master whose every whim we must obey.

23. We see another parallel in 6:13: “Neither present your members unto sin, but present yourselves unto God.” Also, “neither present your members as instruments of unrighteousness, but present your members as instruments of righteousness.” The idea is that sin would use us as tools or instruments to commit unrighteousness, whereas God would use us as tools or instruments to do righteousness.

24. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law, but under grace (6:14). What does our not being under law have to do with sin’s not having dominion over us? Is it because we do not have to obey God’s word anymore. Are we not accountable to law anymore?

25. Many have been guilty of using these verses and these words irresponsibly and without respecting the context of the various passages where the idea of the law is presented.

26. We can easily create a contradiction if we saw that Paul says here that we are not under law, and then says in 1 Cor. 9:21 that he is “under law to Christ.” The passage in 1 Cor. 9:21 teaches that we are accountable to the law of Christ. The passage here in Romans 6 is making the point that because we have been forgiven, and, because forgiveness continues to be available to us, law cannot keep us in bondage to sin.

27. To remain free from the bondage of sin we must serve God in righteousness (6:15-23). “What shall we conclude? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace?” (6:15). Certainly not!!

28. As Paul fully answers this question, he will deal with the fact that though we as Christians have been forgiven of sin, and though we continue to have access to forgiveness, we may by our own choice make sin our master by doing its constant bidding.

29. “Do you not realize that you are the servant of the one whom you obey whether of sin with the result of death or of obedience leading to the result of righteousness?” (6:16). One may consider himself to be a Christian because he has been baptized, but if he continues to live in sin, he has not put away the old man.

30. Conversion is the result of a decision to change, and if the change is not made, then one continues to be in bondage to sin, not because he could not get out of it, but because he prefers sin as his master to all others. What an insult to God!!

31. But with the Christian, thanks be to God, that whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form or pattern of doctrine to which you were delivered (6:17). You were delivered to it to obey it, to live it, and you were delivered to it by the very process of conversion that is described earlier in this chapter.

32. “Being made free from sin (its power and its practice), ye became servants of righteousness” (6:18). Paul uses the figure of slavery first to point out the merciless tyranny of sin, and secondly to let us know that when we are freed from the slavery of sin, we are not completely free to do whatever we wish.

33. We are not given a license to sin. We are made to live in righteousness. Sin keeps us from doing that. When we are freed from sin, we are then free to do what we are supposed to do.

34. Paul uses these figures of slavery and bondage to help us understand these points (6:19). The rest of verse 19 is interesting because the parallel is not exactly as we would expect. He says, “You presented your members as servant to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity.”

35. We would expect the contrast to be: “Now present your members as servants to righteousness unto righteousness.” “To iniquity” means to iniquity as if it were a master, and “unto iniquity” means “in order to commit iniquity.”

36. Therefore, “to righteousness” would mean to righteousness as if it were a master, and “unto righteousness” would mean “in order to do righteousness.”

37. Instead he says, “to righteousness unto sanctification.” I think that the reason for the difference is the very idea that Paul is emphasizing that we remain free from sin by realizing that God has called us to a special calling of which we are to walk worthily.

38. We present our members as servants to righteousness so as to bring about the sanctification for which God has called us. Paul is reminding us of our commitment to live for God.

39. In verses 20-21, he reminds us that when we were slaves of sin we had a freedom from the concerns of righteousness, but what did that freedom give us to show for it? The end result of the things we did then is death. No fruit; just death.

40. But now being freed from sin and become slaves of God, you have your fruit leading to sanctification. The fruit is created in us by God and results in our increasing sanctification, with the end result – eternal life (6:22). For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God, is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

41. Through sin, we get exactly what we deserve – death. In Christ Jesus we receive from God eternal life, though we do not deserve it, and therefore have not earned it. It is the gift of God.

42. Conclusion: In Christ we are given choices. Sin gives us no choices. In Christ we are freed to be what God designed us to be. Let us strive to seek after the sanctification of righteousness. Now that we have been delivered from the bondage of the law, let us resolve not to be in bondage to sin through our practice of it.