Rather than read the whole of Romans 6 and 7 in one go, it is probably better to take it in sections, slowly!
So read Romans 6:1-4
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
We know that in the new Christian churches, it was the accepted practice for all new Christians to have been baptised by immersion. But we also have to accept that today some truly born-again Christians have not been baptised, or not in this way. And before we move on we must remember Ephesians 2:8-9 ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.’
It is not my intention to enter into a discussion about baptism here – there are many websites like THIS If you want to pursue it now.
But for those Christians who had been baptised as believers, they did so as a symbolic act when they publicly professed their faith (Acts 2:41). They were obedient to the command of Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20), and it was a symbol of their desire to bury their past sinful life and to rise again spiritually – alive and cleansed (Colossians 2:11-13).
Remember Paul is still answering his question from verse 1: Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? (And actually the whole of this chapter continues this theme.)
Read Romans 6:5-7
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Many Christians will say ‘I’ve given my life to Jesus’. Now if we really mean that, it means that we have ‘died’ to our old way of life and have been ‘raised’ to a new life set free from the grip of sin.
Read Romans 6:8-11
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
It is a wonderful fact that we are already living eternal life with Jesus. Yes, there will come a time when we are ‘translated’ from this world to the next – but our life with Jesus will not be interrupted!
Read Romans 6:12-14
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
The important word here is ‘reign’ (v12). We know that we are in a process of sanctification – and I for one, know that I haven’t arrived there yet. We know that we are likely to ‘slip up’. But there is a difference between letting sin, rather than Jesus, master us. Although we have given our lives to Jesus it is still up to us to control what we do. If we ‘offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness’ (v13) we are consciously allowing sin to reign and we need to do something about that. We cannot serve two masters (v14).
Read Romans 6:15-18
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
In Paul’s day slavery was an acknowledged fact. Slaves had no lives of their own, they were expected to obey without question. But again we are reminded that it is possible to be tempted, and so with our minds offer ourselves to sin. Rather we should be ruled by our heart – and our conscience – and become true ‘slaves to righteousness’.
Read Romans 6:19-23
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now Paul wraps up his argument. He began by asking ‘Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? ’ and concludes by stating that for Christians, that is theoretically impossible.
He reminds us of his argument in Romans 4 that we have an account with the Lord, and that the wages of sin are recorded as debits. This means that unless we have been credited with the free gift of Christ’s righteousness, we remain overdrawn and ‘when the books are opened’ (Revelation 20:12) we will find we have earned a Godless death.
As we move into chapter 7 we must remember that all of Paul’s readers were subject to the Law of Rome. Also, those who had been brought up as Jews would have had God’s Laws instilled in them from an early age. Under either system, obedience to ‘The Law’ was mandatory – disobedience would lead to punishment – often, death.
As before, you could read the whole of chapter 7 first, but I an going to take it in manageable chunks.
Read Romans 7:1-6
1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters – for I am speaking to those who know the law – that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Both legal systems (Roman & Jewish) were concerned with punishment for wrongdoing. Here we are reminded that as we are dead to our old life and have begun our new life with Jesus, the man-made laws no longer apply. But that does not mean we can break them with impunity; no, rather that God’s superior laws will now be applied from within, by his Spirit.
Paul still focuses on God’s laws given to Moses as we continue.
Read Romans 7:7
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’
Following the previous argument, we might think that it meant that there must be something wrong with the old law. No – the laws were given to reveal what is sinful in what we do.
In Paul’s example he didn’t realise coveting would be classed as a sin unless he had been told it was. Then he realised just how sinful he had been.
Read Romans 7:8-9
8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
‘The wages of sin is death’ but until the law showed where Paul had failed, he was blissfully living his life. However once it had been applied, he realised he was already dead.
Read Romans 7:10-13
10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognised as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
Ignorance of the Law is no excuse, and it is not the fault of the law that we break it! It is only when the Spirit begins his work in our hearts that we will become aware of our sin and our desperate need of a Saviour.
But Paul recognises a problem – although we now have Christ living in us by his Spirit, sin is also still living in us (v17). Our sanctification is obviously an ongoing process.
Read Romans 7:14-25
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
How often do we struggle like Paul; ‘what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do’.
The problem is that we are all made in the image of Adam, not God, (Genesis 5:1-3) and so our nature is naturally to sin. As a baby our basic instinct is ‘me first’ – and have you noticed that you don’t have to teach a child to be naughty? Rather you have to spend all your time training it to do what is right.
How great it is that we have a Saviour and so can say ‘
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! ’
