Exposition of Romans 6:1-4
David Istre
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· 31 viewsCome hear this message about the power of grace to set us free from the reign of sin and death!
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Welcome
Welcome
Good morning everyone,
I’m so glad that you were able to make it here to join us for worship. I hope you are as excited as I am to come together into the presence of our Lord to lift up his praises.
I want to welcome our visitors and returning guests. We feel privileged to have you with us. If you haven’t already, please take a moment to fill out our guest cards that are out on the table in the hallway. And please let us know if there’s any way that we can stand with you to help you in your journey to Christ. When you’ve filled those cards out, please return them to me after service so I can say hi!
Challenge
Challenge
Our challenge this month is to make ourselves accessible to our community.
When Jesus commissioned his kingdom to take his good news into the world, he necessarily altered our focus from being exclusively about ourselves and our own families, as is the case with the world, and refocused our attention outwardly on others.
This challenge is about conforming our thinking and way of life to Jesus!
Assignments
Assignments
Your reading assignments for next week to help cultivate your minds for God’s word is Romans 6:5-11.
Now if you will open your Bibles to Romans 6:1-4.
Pause to go live > > >
Should We Sin Because Grace Abounds?
Should We Sin Because Grace Abounds?
Everybody knows Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son. If you don’t, or you need a refresher, you can read the story in Luke 15:11–32. The younger son twists his father’s arm for his share of the property, goes off and spends it all, and comes home, as he thinks, in utter disgrace. But, to his astonishment, he finds his father running down the road to meet him, and throwing a huge party in his honor. He’s welcomed back as a son, even though he doesn’t deserve it.
Now let’s play the story forward a few years and imagine a thought stealing unbidden into the young man’s mind: life has settled back down into its numbingly humdrum existence again. His older brother tolerates having him around, more or less; his father is getting older. He longingly remembers the joy, excitement, and festivities of the day he came down the road and his father came running up to greet him. So he thinks, “supposing I did it again? Why not help myself to enough things to survive, run away for a few weeks, and then play the penitent and come back again? Maybe I’ll get another party!”
Absurd? Unthinkable? Don’t you believe it. It’s exactly what a great many people think. "God will forgive me; that’s his job!" Indeed, a great many people today seem to believe that the only message the church has for anyone is the message of forgiveness.
Today’s sermon challenges this thought in order to intercept and dismiss the terrible tragedy that will come if this thought is acted upon.
I expect that I will be more misunderstood in this sermon than any other that I have ever preached because I must necessarily begin some thoughts at the beginning that can only be finished at the end of the sermon. So let me ask for your patience, especially those listening to us online, in hearing me out to the end before you render your final judgments about what I’m saying.
Now for some observations that should help make this easier.
Exegesis
Exegesis
Paul just introduced a series of closely related concepts like “sin”, “death”, “the Law vs. grace”, “life”, and so on, as he began to contrast the story of Adam with the new man in 5:12–21. So now, in chapters 6–7, Paul must address a series of questions that arise out of these comparisons. For this reason, the stories of Adam (and those in him), and Christ (and those in him), continue to undergird and carry this discussion forward to chapter 8. This point must not be missed because the “death” he speaks of here is just as much the death of Adam as the “new life” he speaks of here is also the new life of Christ. This means that chapters 6–7 “digress”, or draw back, to answer and clarify the dramatic narrative that Paul has just told, before finally moving forward, in chapter 8, to provide God’s solution to the dilemma of this human drama.
Therefore, chapters 6–7 proceed on the basis of 5:12-21 and form one large argument, composed of four parts and seven rhetorical questions. This argument deals with human fallenness in light of the cross. And in it, Paul moves from solution to plight.
So the four parts to this argument are:
6:1-15
6:15-7:6
7:7-13
7:14-25
The seven rhetorical questions are:
6:1–3; 5. 7:1
6:15; 6. 7: 13
6:16; 7. 7:24
6:21
You’ll notice that the four questions in verses 1-3 are being treated as one. I suspect the reason why will be self-evident after today, but the third and fourth questions really just serve to expand the point of the second question, which is the first of seven implications of the first question.
I also want to point out that the deliberative tone and structured progression of Paul’s argument is characteristic of what the rhetorical handbooks of his day called “conversational reasoning”, which uses dialectical reasoning to engage controversial subjects in order to make one’s argument appear “self-evident”. And “dialectical reasoning” refers to the process of arriving at truth by comparing and contrasting various solutions. In other words, Paul is reasoning with them based on the implications of Christ’s story to help them discover for themselves God’s solution to our dilemma by contrasting the nature of Adam with Christ. This means that if read correctly, chapter 8 should not come as a surprise, but should crystallize the answer one is already beginning to see.
So, as Paul anticipates seven questions that are likely to arise from 5:12–21, he uses these questions to prepare the readers to more clearly see Christ’s solution to the human dilemma that is going to be presented in chapter 8.
And the first of these questions is whether or not grace enables sin. An astute reader will notice that the definitive answer to this question does not come until 8:12–13, further showing why any attempt to treat chapters 6–8 as isolated theological topics is so misleading. Instead, they should be read as the outworking of 5:12-21.
1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?
“What should we say then?” (v. 1): Paul’s intent to carry the narrative of 5:12-21 forward is understood by this question. This question’s purpose is to force the reader to stop here and reflect in their mind on the things just taught. How are we freed from the reign of death through grace? What does it mean for my life that I receive the gift of righteousness through Jesus’ obedience?
These are the kinds of thoughts that should be going through the reader’s mind after completing this section. So Paul necessarily has to intercept some dangerous “wrong answers”.
“Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?” (v. 1): This is the first of seven rhetorical questions that arise from Paul’s prior narrative. In reflecting on these stories, one might ask “how are we freed from the reign of death through grace?” Or one might ask “what does it mean for my life that I receive the gift of righteousness through Jesus’ obedience?”
Consider this:
20 The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more
One might reasonably conclude from this that because sin multiplied grace, the effect of Jesus’ salvation on our life is that we are free from all moral constraints. In fact, this thought might linger in one’s mind throughout chapter six as one reads things like “you are not under the law but under grace” (v. 14).
So it’s imperative that Paul intercept this thought before it takes root and bears its tragic fruit. Like a weed that sprouts up in a garden and quickly chokes out all the good plants, this conception of grace is catastrophic to the Christian life. And nothing could simultaneously be more foreign to Paul’s thought and yet be more commonly misunderstood. And this is why we’re taking the time to correctly interpret Paul’s writings.
What this means is that “grace” should not be understood simply as a covering for sin. In fact, as we will see going forward, Paul views grace as the means by which sin’s reign over our lives is actually broken! In other words, grace is transformative. And that is why grace is the means by which Christians overcome sin in the world as the Lord’s ambassadors of grace.
2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
“Absolutely note!” (v. 2): All too often this is presented as the short answer to the question. But this is far more than just Paul’s short answer. English readers will notice the exclamation mark in this clause. Whenever you see an exclamation mark you need to pay attention because that is how translators often translate grammatical force that English cannot otherwise convey.
Another example:
36 Then he said to them, “But now, whoever has a money-bag should take it, and also a traveling bag. And whoever doesn’t have a sword should sell his robe and buy one. 37 For I tell you, what is written must be fulfilled in me: And he was counted among the lawless. Yes, what is written about me is coming to its fulfillment.” 38 “Lord,” they said, “look, here are two swords.” “That is enough!” he told them.
The exclamation mark in “that’s enough!” translates the force of Jesus’ answer. Jesus was not saying two swords were sufficient for what he was telling them to do, he was expressing his frustration at how dull their understanding was that they did not understand what he was saying.
“μὴ γένοιτο”: Back to our clause, Paul isn’t simply answering “no way Jose”, he’s demonstrating how flawed this answer is by expressing the appropriate repulsion to this conclusion. The Greek phrase “μὴ γένοιτο” is one that expresses disgust and extreme disapproval.
In other words, “how could you possibly think that?” This is the very same response all of us should have felt in our opening illustration when we carried the prodigal-son’s story out a few years and proposed his thought that he might run away again to experience the rush of acceptance and joy when he returns. The idea that grace is meant to simply cover sin is manifestly preposterous.
“How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (v. 2): The third question expands the scope of the second question by calling the readers attention to the means of grace, which is the death of Jesus upon the cross. But it does this in an unexpected way. Up until this point, it may not have been entirely clear that in the same way that all humanity shares in death through Adam’s sin (and actively participates with Adam in sin), so the redeemed share in life through Jesus’ obedience (and actively participates with Jesus in his death and resurrection).
In other words, we are meant to see ourselves in the story-lines of either “Adam” or “Jesus”. And if we see ourselves in Jesus’ storyline, then we have died with him to sin. So how can we live any longer in sin?
3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
“Or are you unaware” (v. 3): Paul’s third question expands the scope of the question to be considered in light of the means by which we share in Jesus’ storyline.
In conversational style, Paul is asking his audience to realize just how outrageous this conclusion is by comparing it to what God has done in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Simply stated, the cross is no solution at all unless through it we join Christ so that sin’s reign over us might finally be put to an end through grace!
“That all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (v. 3): In the same manner as we all entered Adam’s storyline through our birth into this world, so we all enter Jesus’ storyline through our spiritual rebirth when we are baptized into him.
Now on this point a few clarifications should be given.
First, Paul makes clear by the phrase, “all of us”, that he has in mind the common baptism experienced by all believers, and not some special religious rite experienced by an elite few. So what he is describing here is simply the Christian act of discipleship that we call baptism.
Second, our baptisms are into Christ Jesus. That is to say that these are the means by which we first enter Christ. This truth is variously expressed in different ways. Some people explain this by saying that we are “baptized into the body of Christ”.
This would reflect:
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink.
Others talk about “putting on Christ”, which would reflect:
27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
Regardless, what is being described here is how we move from the storyline of Adam to the storyline of Jesus. We “enter” Jesus when we are baptized.
“baptized into his death”: Our final point of clarification is that we enter Jesus’ storyline through baptism by sharing in his death.
John Owens famously wrote about what he termed “the mortification of sin” . In this book, Owens wrote that “The mortification of indwelling sin remaining in our mortal bodies, that it may not have life and power to bring forth the works or deeds of the flesh, is the constant duty of believers.”
Just as believers enter Christ, and through him share in the ongoing joy and bliss of new-life, so too must we also daily enter through his death into the mortification of sin. That is to say, the battle that begins when we enter his death through baptism, we must carry on through the power of grace until we shed our mortal bodies.
This anticipates what comes momentarily:
10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. 13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. 14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.
You see how Paul moves from Christ’s obedience to our realization and participation in Christ? What begins in Christ is to be realized in us. What only he could do is now to be daily worked into us by grace.
I hope it is now immediately clear why I said the rebuttal given now is not finally finished until chapter 8, where Paul will give the final answer to how we are freed from the reign of sin over our life:
12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.
The reason you are no longer under the reign of sin is because you have entered through Jesus into his death so that you now, having died to sin through him, you have become alive to God through the Spirit in whom you now live. In other words, the thought is not yet complete, but this entrance into Jesus’ storyline is nonetheless essential to understand how the gospel frees us from the reign of sin and death.
4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
“Therefore” (“οὖν”) (v. 4): By now you’re well familiar with how this is one of Paul’s logical formulas that summarize and transition his arguments. In this case, it is the first of two summary transitions used to complete his answer to the first rhetorical question. The second “therefore” is in verse twelve, which, taken together, provide his summary answer to why grace does not enable sin:
4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.
Sin’s reign over us ends through grace precisely because we now share in Jesus’ storyline through faith!
“We were buried with him by baptism into death” (v. 4): As to be expected, Paul repeats the point in order to pull this thought forward. Just as Adam’s disobedience brought death to everyone born of him, so Jesus’ obedience brings life to everyone who is born of him. And to enter his life we must share with him in his death.
“In order that” (v. 4): I hope it is becoming clear that our entrance into Jesus’ death has something else in view. In other words, we don’t simply stop at sharing in his death - for then we would be above all people most pitiable - but we enter through his death into something else.
Paul’s language here reflects Jesus’ own words:
7 Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
Jesus himself is the means by which we enter another storyline - the storyline of life. And all of this is meant to show how we are set right with God by trusting Jesus to accomplish all of this for us (since none of this is accomplished by our works).
This describes the necessity of baptism as the means by which God’s grace is powerfully initiated in the believers life. We have to move from Adam’s storyline to Christ’s. This is, in effect, as if another acts on our behalf to change the tragic ending of our story.
Literal or Symbolic?: I have not had time to address one of the pressing questions that often has to be dealt with in this discussion. Quite a lot of attention is given to whether or not the language Paul is using here is meant to be taken as “literal” or “symbolic”. In other words, does Paul mean that baptism actually causes us to enter Christ and share in his death, or is this meant to be taken as symbolic representation for spiritual realities?
The reason I waited until the end of my sermon to address this question is because I think once we deal with Paul actually means to say, my answer becomes quite clear: I think this question becomes an example of a “distinction without a difference”. And I think almost everyone, in practice, draws a little bit from both sides.
Here’s what I mean, most who say this is literal also acknowledge that the water itself does not cause this effect. And most who say this is symbolic also acknowledge that baptism represents a real change and turning point. There are extremes in both of these views that would argue for something like “effectual holy water” or “irrelevant ritualistic symbolism”, but I don’t think it’s difficult to see that Paul describes baptism as an event in which something really does happen. And I also don’t think it’s difficult to see that Paul describes baptism as an event that reflects deeper spiritual realities (namely, those seen in Jesus Christ).
And I think you can get to the truth through either way of thinking. In fact, I know you can.
Someone who is inclined to see the symbolism in baptism is nonetheless capable of seeing that Paul says we were “baptized into Christ” and his “death”. In fact, their emphasis on the symbolism of baptism enables them to see this meaning clearly. What’s important is that they maintain the connection between this and 5:12-21 so that they understand that Paul is talking about how we enter Jesus’ storyline.
Likewise, those who are inclined to see the literal effect of baptism are nonetheless capable of seeing that baptism reflects the deeper realities of Jesus “death and resurrection”. Again, what’s important is that they maintain the connection between this and 5:12-21 so that they understand that Paul is talking about how we enter Jesus’ storyline.
The errors all come from disconnecting this from the narrative to which it belongs (and from disconnecting that narrative from it’s greater thesis). And that’s precisely what we’re striving not to do here.
Now we’re ready to move on.
“Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father” (v. 4): We are buried with Christ by baptism into his death for a reason. Now the real connection between what Jesus did and what we receive is going to be made. And what did Jesus do? He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
I think it is easy to gloss over this phrase, but we shouldn’t - and I hope you don’t in your reading assignments - because there is so much here through which we can experience real and tangible fellowship with God through faith in our Christian meditations.
Here’s what I mean: what does Paul mean that Jesus was “raised by the glory of the Father?”
This expression “the glory of the Father” occurs a few times:
14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
5 Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed.
27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each according to what he has done.
In each case, Jesus is the means by which God discloses and reveals his eternal glory to the world. And, in so doing, God shows through his power and majesty that he is both altogether different from the lowly things of this world and mercifully committed to working within them!
His glory is demonstrated through Jesus’:
incarnation by his grace and truth.
resurrection by his ascension into the Father’s presence.
return by his power to judge the world.
Therefore, I think Jesus’ resurrection “by the glory of the Father” reflects the words of the prophet Ezekiel:
23 I will honor the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord—this is the declaration of the Lord God—when I demonstrate my holiness through you in their sight.
Jesus’ resurrection demonstrates God’s holiness by showing his power to overcome death and save sinful humanity from death’s tyranny!
“By the glory of the Father”: Now let’s take this and set it back in Romans. We now enter by God’s grace into his glory through Christ’s resurrection, by which we are saved from the tyranny of death and the reign of sin according to God’s power, which demonstrates his holiness to the world!
This thought is not yet complete, but will be completed in chapter 8:
17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
The good news of Jesus Christ boldly declares that we move from Adam’s storyline of death to Jesus’ storyline of life through God’s grace.
“So we too may walk in newness of life” (v. 4): Now the first summary transition in response to Paul’s first rhetorical question concludes by stating that we share through God’s grace in Jesus’ newness of life.
The full expectation of the grace that we have received from Jesus is that we will actually move from death to life. And that glorious realization is only amplified when we realize that this move is not only one of anticipation, but is actually one of present realization as we enter his death and new life now! So then the struggles and temptations that we face in this life, and the sins that we mortify now, are only evidence and proof to us of what we are receiving when Jesus returns again “in the glory of the Father”!
We Too May Walk In New Life!
We Too May Walk In New Life!
Now the reason why Paul illustrated Abraham’s story in chapter 4 before illustrating Adam’s story in chapter 5 becomes, I think, immediately clear: in a very real way, Adam prefigures Egypt’s “house of bondage”, and all humanity stands with Israel as slaves in Adam to sin and death. Therefore, God’s promises to Abraham prefigure Israel’s deliverance from Egypt into the promised land through the sea.
Our baptisms into Christ, then, parallel Israel’s baptism into Moses:
1 Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did.
9 Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes. 10 And don’t grumble as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer. 11 These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall.
So the grace of God that has been shown to us through Christ has really and effectually delivered us from sin’s bondage. But this deliverance requires a new way of thinking and living.
This will be described next week:
11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
The good news that we celebrate every week is that through Christ we may also now live new life!