Chap6_Romans

A couple of observations.

Paul knows some believers in Rome, but he is not established there. Yet he is going to Rome, the most powerful empire in the world for almost 400 years [ U.S. for about 250 and we didn ‘t occupy territory like Rome. Yet here is one guy, Paul, without political backing or soverign power, or commercial influence going boldly into the center of this power. Paul is going with the abiding. He and God - Paul is not brave nor arrogant, nor a confident speaker, but he carries with him the message which Rome was soon to come against with all their might. His pluck or his determination was fueled and directed by dine purpose and power. No single human could not even consider such a task.

Paul is laying out very difficult theology. It is not easily understood and goes against all prevailing beliefs. Yet he mails this letter. Not a letter of intro or accommodation or flattery or toning down , but he slams into their world with something that is difficult to understand and will be opposed.

Paul is laying out some of the core beliefs of Christianity. He is laying out befoer his arrival very substantive, but foreign concepts about personal sin, righteousness, justication and sanctification. Couldn’t he just take something simple like prayer, but know he lays out these topics and he’s not there to explain or answer questions. It will still be a couple of years before he makes the journey to Rome.

In the midst of explaining about sin, righteousness who we are and what god has and is doing, Paul mentions Satan only once in his conclusion of the letter > Romans 16:20 (HCSB)20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Sin of the individual is the primary threat, the main cause of death [ alienation from God in mind and body] Satan is a secondary or subservient or subordinate cause. Satan exasperates [makes more difficult, deceives into wrong thinking] the one who wanted to replace God is not even a feature star in the cast of Christianity. He’s a bit player on the side.

This chapter is divided between two categories - mortification [death] and vivification [to endow wih life]

OOOOOOO Romans 6:1–5 (HCSB)The New Life in Christ 6 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His 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 a new way of life. 5 For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Paul was noting that grace always is greater than sin. So Paul says should we sin to promote or increase grace. There was this argument for by some- justify sinning to increase goodness. This is kind of like the economic approach taken now by Democrats “ Let’s increase the debt and spend money in order to decrease debt’ Although they would contend that the way we spend money would be an investment.

But Paul dramatically rejects this. ABSOLUTELY NOT!! We don’t accommodate or tolerate sin.

How can you condone or agree with something that is dead to you. He provides the purpose of baptism. Before baptism, the new believer trusted in God and confessed that faith. Next was entry into the church and undergoing baptism. Acts 10:45–48 (HCSB) 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speaking in other languages and declaring the greatness of God.

Then Peter responded, 47 “Can anyone withhold water and prevent these people from being baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

This is not the water making some conversion but the spirit of man and the HS

> 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

The first Step 1 in the practise of water Baptism is about death- dying to or for something.. This was only done for adults. It was a tearing up of all roots. Paganism was thrown aside - a complete break and entering into the Church.

Baptism was familiar for the Gentile to become a Jew. This practise involved a sacrifice, circumcision, and baptism.

The Jewish ritual =

1.cutting his nails and hair.

2. Completely naked entering into a pool of water of at least 40 seas [about 80 gallons] every part of his body is touched by water

3. While in the water he made his confession of faith before 3 fathers of baptism and they gave exhortation and benediction to him.

the gentile turned Jew was regenerated as a like a new born baby. a new creature. All sins were forgiven because this person was just born.

The rabbis considered that a child born to this new Jew was considered his first born even if in his life as a gentile he already had children. He was not only a man changed in to a better class, he was a different man.

So as a Jew went into the mikva for ceremonial cleansing of all sin before entering into worship or the temple, etc. The Gentile Jew baptism was the final cleansing of all impurities.

The Jews believed that the “impulse” to sin would still remain until the final victory of the Messiah coming at the end time. The Christians were not longer under this unwinnable compulsion to sin. Their would still be the temptation but victory over sin was done with.

The Greeks also had baptism. The Greeks were unique in the mystic religions [any of various secret cults of the Greco-Roman world that offered to individuals religious experiences not provided by the official public religions. They originated in tribal ceremonies that were performed by primitive peoples in many parts of the world].

They would be expressed in passion plays. drama involved with union between man and gods. Emotion, passion, drama - There was music, lighting, incense and high atmosphere of mystery. Befor the play the initiate had to go through a long course [ catechism] . Initiation was regarded as a death. He underwent a “voluntary symbolic death”.

In the mystery , the one who was to die was buried up to his neck in a trench and fed with milk like a baby.

The point of this is not that Christianity copied these, but that baptism would be recognized and a familiar topic for both the Jew and Gentile.

.....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 a new way of life. 5 For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection. It is logical that if we participated in His death we will have also spiritually participated in His life.

OOOOOOO Romans 6:6–11 (HCSB) 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin’s claims. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over Him. 10 For in light of the fact that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in light of the fact that He lives, He lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

......who has died this is the Greek aorist past tense which suggests a specific point when the action occurrted, i.e. salvation

...8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him- Bthe tense indicates that we continue on believing

....>we believe - this Greek word means that something is self-evident. We know, we know. This is not something that needs to be proven out or considered to be true.

We are not lifted into a higher plane by our new faith and baptism, but we are now a new creature.

The dominion of our old nature has passed from us- it is dead and buried. our Our old nature which had dominion over us is crucified with Christ.

Though we may have some fond memories of the past life or regrets about the situation now - we are freed from the slavery of the old, because that person from before no longer exists.

We already died- we can’t die twice. We are not a cat with nine lives.

Three concepts in the Christian baptism are:

It is horrible to take advantage or grace to return to a state of ungrace.

The committed Christina is to adhere to a new way of life. Life-changing

A christian is a new man - he is not just following new or better ethics. He is in a union with God. He is grafted in. He is a new being. He is in Christ and Christ is in him > 2 Corinthians 5:17 (HCSB)17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. > John 17:21–23 (HCSB) 21 May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me. 22 I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one.23 I am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.

The church is to be one [as Jesus and the Father] as a new organism and they be one in God.

.... 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death is final. This is contradictory to the Catholic mass. In the Mass there is the “perpetual sacrifice of Christ”. This was comment in some commentatries, including Matthew Henry. This idea if I understand, the blood and body of christ are remade or constituted and we take this not just to remember Him, but they participate in the action of the blood and body renewing them. Christ is recrucified spiritually and resurrected in the mass.

HOWEVER — the statement from a catholic organization says that they participate in a perpetual sacrifice offered or taken in the blood, but Christ is not making a petutual sacrifice -crucifixation

........... CERC [Catholic Education Resource Center]Please note that in no way do we as Catholics believe that Christ continues to be crucified physically or die a physical death in Heaven over and over again. However, we do believe that the Mass does participate in the everlasting sacrifice of Christ. First, one must not separate the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross from the events which surround it. The sacrifice of our Lord is inseparably linked to the Last Supper. Therefore, the actual sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the sacrifice of the Mass are inseparably united as one single sacrifice: The Council of Trent in response to Protestant objections decreed, "The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different," and "In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered Himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner." For this reason, just as Christ washed away our sins with His blood on the altar of the cross, the sacrifice of the Mass is also truly propitiatory. The Lord grants grace and the gift of repentance, He pardons wrong doings and sins. (cf. Council of Trent, Doctrine on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass).

Moreover, the Mass also involves the sacrifice of the whole Church. Together we offer our prayers, praise, thanksgiving, work, sufferings to our Lord and thereby join ourselves to His offering. The whole Church is united with the offering of Christ: this is why in the Eucharistic Prayers we remember the Pope, the Vicar of Christ; the Bishop, shepherd of the local diocese; the clergy who minister in persona Christi to the faithful; the faithful living now, the deceased; and the saints.

or from Catholic Answers 2. If the Mass is a sacrifice, then doesn’t that imply that Christ needs to die again? It’s a common mistake to equate sacrifice with death. To understand the sacrifice of the Mass, it is essential that one understand the biblical picture of a sacrifice: It is always a gift; it is not always a killing. This is why Scripture can speak of a sacrifice of praise (Hos. 4:12) and the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Ps. 50:14).

Besides offering lambs, the Israelites also made grain offerings, drink offerings, et cetera. One sacrifice was called the wave offering, and this was an unbloody sacrifice where the Jews would wave a gift before God to symbolically give it to him. In Numbers 8:9–15, the whole Hebrew tribe of Levi was presented to God as a wave offering. In a similar way, the Mass is an offering—a sacrifice—where Christ is presented before the Father.

.... 10 For in light of the fact that He died, He died to sin once for all; The perfect sacrifice was made, one and only one time - never again

,......11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The word here is to “consider” also means root “ to tell”, means reckon. It does not mean a mental debate or among options to assess. It means to tell yourself, put to your account, completely resolve that you are and will think of yourself as dead to sin. Don’t keep rehashing the old or looking backt to the old or regretting that you could have sinned and it would be a great memory or improved life. You now must self deem that you are dead. Final.

OOOOOOO Romans 6:12–14 (HCSB) 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 law but under grace. Now Paul also addresses the physical body.

...do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons fThere are hormones, desires from the body - sex, hunger for food, or gratification by alchol, drugs, smoking marijuana, opium, nicotine . He says even bring these things of your actural flesh to be sacrificed. Don’t give in to urges and then say later I didn’t mean it or satan tempted me. You are responsible for your physical body.

Don’t expose or offer your body as instruments for wrong-doing. Instead offer all of yourself body, mind, soul to God as His weapon. Sin has lost the right to enslave you, you are now under the all covering authority of grace.

OOOOOOO Romans 6:15–23 (HCSB)From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God 15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! 16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey —either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred to, 18 and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from allegiance to righteousness. 21 So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification —and the end is eternal life! 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.