Overview of Romans 6
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday May 27, 2008
Romans: Overview of Romans 6
Lesson # 175
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:1.
This evening, we will begin a study of Romans chapter six, which begins the fourth major section in the book of Romans.
The first major section of the book of Romans contains the introduction to the epistle of Romans and appears in Romans 1:1-17 and deals with the revelation of God’s righteousness.
The second major section in the book of Romans is contained in 1:18-3:20, and in this passage the apostle Paul demonstrates to his readers that both Gentile and Jew have a need for the righteousness of God.
Sunday morning we completed a study of Romans chapter five, which also completed a study of the third major section in the book of Romans, which appears in Romans 3:21-5:21, which teaches how the sinner acquires the righteousness of God, which is through imputation after exercising faith alone in Christ alone.
This evening we will now begin a study of the fourth major section in the book of Romans that appears in Romans 6:1-8:39, which teaches the believer how to experience the righteousness of God after being declared justified by God, which he identifies as “sanctification.”
We will begin this study of Romans chapter six by presenting an overview to the chapter.
Beginning in Romans chapter six, Paul discusses how to live after being declared justified through the imputation of divine righteousness as a result of exercising faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.
The following is an outline of Romans 6: (I) Freedom from the tyranny of the sin nature (6:1-23) (A) Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ (6:1-14) (B) Slaves to Righteousness (6:15-23).
Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”
Romans 6:2, “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
Romans 6:3, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?”
Romans 6:4, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
Romans 6:5-7, “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin.”
Romans 6:8, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
Romans 6:9, “knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”
Romans 6:10, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”
Romans 6:11, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 6:12-13, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Romans 6:15, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!”
Romans 6:16, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”
Romans 6:17, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.”
Romans 6:18, “And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”
Romans 6:19, “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”
Romans 6:20, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.”
Romans 6:21, “Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.”
Romans 6:22, “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”
Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In this chapter, Paul discusses the doctrine of “sanctification” is a technical theological term for the believer who has been set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of salvation in order to serve God exclusively and is accomplished in three stages: (1) Positional (2) Experiential (3) Ultimate.
The “baptism of the Spirit” takes place exclusively during the dispensation of the church age and is accomplished at the moment of salvation when the omnipotence of the Spirit places the believer in a eternal union with Christ, thus identifying the believer positionally with Christ in His death, resurrection and session.
1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
“Baptized” is the verb baptizo (baptivzw), “to cause the believer to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines the verb identify, “to cause to be or become identical, to conceive as united (as in spirit, outlook, or principle).”
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun identification, “a process by which a person ascribes to himself the qualities or characteristics of another person.”
At the moment of salvation, the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit causes the believer to become identical and united with the Lord Jesus Christ and also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Baptism of the Spirit results in positional sanctification and the potential to experience sanctification in time and the promise of ultimate sanctification at the resurrection of the church.
By positionally, I mean that God views the believer as crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ since at the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit placed the believer in union with Christ, identifying him with Christ’s crucifixion (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20), His death (Romans 6:2, 7-8; Colossians 2:20; 3:3), His burial (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12), His resurrection (Romans 6:5; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1) and His session (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1).
The believer can experience this victory and deliverance by appropriating by faith the teaching of the Word of God that he has been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ (Romans 6:11-23; 8:1-17; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:5-17).
“Positional sanctification” is the believer’s “entrance” into the plan of God for the church age resulting in eternal security as well as two categories of positional truth (1 Cor. 1:2, 30; 1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Thess. 5:23; Eph. 5:26-27; Heb. 2:11; 10:10; Acts 20:32; 26:18; Rom. 6:3, 8; 2 Thess. 2:13).
“Retroactive” positional truth is the church age believer’s identification with Christ in His death and burial (Romans 6:3-11; Colossians 2:12).
“Current” positional truth is the church age believer’s identification with Christ in His resurrection, ascension and session (See Ephesians 2:4-6; Colossians 3:1-4).
“Positional sanctification”: (1) What God has done for the church age believer. (2) His viewpoint of the church age believer. (3) Sets up the potential to experience sanctification in time. (4) Provides the believer with the guarantee of receiving a resurrection body.
“Experiential sanctification” is the post-salvation experience of the believer who is in fellowship with God by confessing any known sin to the Father when necessary followed by obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the Word of God.
Experiential sanctification is only a potential since it is contingent upon the church age believer responding to what God has done for him at the moment of salvation, therefore, only believers who are obedient to the Word of God will experience sanctification in time.
“Ultimate sanctification” is the perfection of the church age believer’s spiritual life at the Rapture, i.e. resurrection of the church, which is the completion of the plan of God for the church age believer (1 Cor. 15:53-54; Gal. 6:8; 1 Pet. 5:10; John 6:40).
It is the guarantee of a resurrection body and will be experienced by every believer regardless of their response in time to what God has done for them at salvation.
Sanctification is experiencing the holiness, which is manifesting the character of God (1 Peter 1:14-16).