Romans 6.2b-The Believer is Dead to the Sin Nature
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday May 29, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:2b-The Believer is Dead to the Sin Nature
Lesson # 177
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:1.
Last evening we noted Romans 6:1-2a, in which the apostle Paul emphatically rejects the idea that a Christian living under the dominion of the sin nature accentuates the grace of God.
This evening we will study Romans 6:2b, in which Paul teaches that the believer is dead to the sin nature.
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?”
“Who” is the indefinite relative pronoun hostis (o^sti$) (hos-tis), which refers exclusively to those sinners who have been justified by faith in Jesus Christ since they alone among members of the human race are described in Scripture as having died with Christ and raised and seated with Him through the baptism of the Spirit.
“We died” is the verb apothnesko (a)poqnhv|skw) (ap-oth-nace-ko), which is used in a figurative sense of “retroactive positional truth,” which refers to the believer having been identified with Jesus Christ in His death through the baptism of the Spirit meaning that God now views the believer as having died on the Cross with Christ.
The verb apothnesko in Romans 6:2b refers to the fact that the believer is dead to the sin nature and is no longer under its rulership since at the moment of salvation they were identified with Christ in His death and under the headship of Christ and no longer under the headship of Adam.
This use is also found in 1 Corinthians 15:31; Galatians 2:19; Colossians 2:20; 3:3.
The word means that the believer is no longer under the authority of the sin nature.
Thus, Paul asks the question as to how could the believer permit himself to continue to live habitually under its authority when he has died with Christ.
The believer does not have to obey the desires of the sin nature and the only reason that the sin nature exercises control over him is that he allows the sin nature to do so whereas prior to salvation the believer had no choice but to obey it.
“Retroactive positional truth” is one of two different aspects related to “positional sanctification.”
“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.
Sanctification deals with conforming the believer to the holiness of God and reproducing it in the believer.
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.
“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.
All three stages of sanctification refer to the process of conforming the believer into the image of Jesus Christ, which is the Father’s plan from eternity past (Romans 8:28-30).
Romans 6:2b, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
“To sin” is the noun hamartia (a(martiva) (ham-ar-tee-ah), which refers to the sin nature.
“How” is the interrogative particle pos (pw$) (poce), which is used to ask a rhetorical question, which rejects the erroneous conclusion that grace is a license to sin and demands a negative answer.
“Still” is the adverb of time eti (e&ti) (et-ee), which emphasizes the continuing state of a believer living under the dominion of the sin nature.
“Shall live” is the verb zao (zavw) (dzah-o), which refers to the manner in which a person behaves or conducts himself in relationship to the sin nature, which is being personified.
The future tense of the verb is a “deliberative future” meaning that it asks a question that implies some doubt about the response.
However, Paul is asking a rhetorical question in place of a direct assertion that demands a negative response.
He is asking his fellow Christians, “is it right or appropriate that they have a lifestyle of obeying the lusts of the sin nature when they have died to the sin nature by being identified with Christ in His death?”
Romans 6:2b, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
“In it” is composed of the preposition en (e)n), “in” and the dative feminine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (au)tov$) (ow-tos), “it.”
The personal pronoun autos means, “it” since its antecedent is the articular dative feminine singular form of the noun hamartia, which refers to the sin nature.
The preposition en functions as a marker of sphere signifying the believer habitually living “in the “sphere” or “realm” or “dominion” of the sin nature, which is being personified in context.
When Paul poses the rhetorical question in Romans 6:2b that how can a believer who died to the sin nature, still live in it, he is not referring to what kind of life that a child of God should be living but rather how or by what method he is to live his life!
The fact that Paul is not referring to what kind of life that a child of God should be living but rather how or by what method he is to live his life in Romans 6:2b is indicated in that throughout the New Testament there are many prohibitions and commands addressed to believers to govern their conduct and their lifestyle.
The rhetorical question in Romans 6:2b is designed to encourage, exhort, challenge and remind believers that they have died to the sin nature the moment they trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior since the Spirit identifies the believer with Christ in His death (Romans 6:3).
This is called “retroactive positional truth.”
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.”
In Romans 6:2b, Paul is not implying that a believer will never sin or that it is impossible that a believer can habitually live in obedience to the desires of his sin nature.
Rather, his argument is that since the believer has died to the sin nature by being identified with Christ in His death, through the baptism of the Spirit, they no longer are under the reign or tyranny of the sin nature and headship of Adam but under the reign of righteousness, eternal life and the headship of Christ.
So in Romans 6:2b, he is stating a point of doctrine that is true of all believers.
Therefore, Paul is speaking of the believer’s new position in Christ that has freed them from the bondage of the sin nature.