Scripture Daily

Context No. 1939 of 4322 · Romans

Context · Reflection

Romans 6:1-11: in context

1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him! 10For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. 11Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul asks whether we should continue in sin so that grace may abound, and answers with force: may it never be. We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? Through baptism we were united with Christ in his death, buried with him, so that as he was raised, we too might walk in newness of life. Our old self was crucified with him, that we might no longer be enslaved to sin. And so, Paul concludes, consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul's argument turns on a profound truth about what has happened to us in Christ: we have died to sin and been raised to new life. Through our union with Christ, we shared in his death, our old self crucified with him, so that we are no longer under sin's dominion; and we shared in his resurrection, raised to walk in newness of life. Sin is no longer our master; we have died to it and been made alive to God. And on the basis of this, Paul gives a command: consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God. The word consider means to reckon, to count as true, to act on the basis of. Paul is telling us to reckon as true what Christ has made true, that we are dead to sin and alive to God, and to live accordingly. This is central to the Christian life, and often misunderstood. We often approach the fight against sin as though we were still its slaves, struggling under a master who owns us. Paul says that in Christ, sin's dominion has been broken; we are no longer slaves to it but dead to it, and alive to God. The command is not first to try harder to defeat a sin that still rules us, but to reckon as true our new reality, that we have died to sin's mastery and been raised to a new life, and to live out of that reality. This does not mean sin no longer tempts us or that we never fall; the fight is real. But it means the fight is not that of a slave against an owning master, but of one who has been set free reckoning on and living out that freedom. Consider yourselves dead to sin, Paul says, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. We are to count as true what Christ has accomplished, that sin no longer owns us, that we have been raised to new life, and to live no longer as sin's slaves but as those alive to God, walking in the newness of life into which Christ has raised us. The old self was crucified with Christ; and we are called to live as what we now are, dead to sin and alive to God.

Do I fight against sin as though I were still its slave, struggling under a master who owns me, or can I take hold of what Christ has made true, that I have died to sin's dominion and been raised to new life, and reckon it as true, considering myself dead to sin but alive to God, and living out of that new reality rather than the old bondage?

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