Romans 6 — Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Today’s Passage: Romans 6

Chapter 5 ended with grace abounding all the more where sin increased. Chapter 6 answers the question that abundance provokes: then why not sin all the more, so grace may abound all the more? Paul’s reply is the loudest “no” in the letter. The reason is not a rule. It is a death. Everyone united to Christ was baptized into His death, buried with Him, and raised with Him to walk in newness of life. The old self was crucified. The believer is now dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So do not let sin reign. You are no longer a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness. The chapter closes with the verse that holds the whole choice in a single sentence: the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As you read, hold this: Grace does not free us to sin. It frees us from sin.

Romans 6:1–4 (BSB)

¹ What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? ² Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? ³ Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.

Paul names the objection in its rawest form and crushes it. Notice how. He does not say you may not sin. He says how can you, which is the contradiction of a corpse trying to live where it has died. We who died to sin (ἁμαρτία) hamartia, pronounced ha-mar-TEE-ah. Strong's G266, sin; missing the mark. Hamartia is the most repeated word in the chapter, and Paul uses it in a way English can flatten. Its root sense is missing the mark. Across Romans 6 he personifies it. Hamartia is not merely an act we commit. It is a power that reigns, a master that enslaves, a king that gives orders. So Paul warns us not to let sin reign (6:12), promises that sin shall not be our master (6:14), and describes the old life as being slaves to sin (6:17). The gospel does not only wipe the record clean. It dethrones the tyrant. To be dead to sin is not to be incapable of failing. It is to be no longer owned. : the death is past, accomplished, and ours. Every believer was plunged into Christ Jesus, and therefore into His death. Going down into the water was a burial. The old life was put in the ground with Him. But a burial is not the point. Resurrection is. Just as Christ was raised, we too may walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:5–11 (BSB)

⁵ For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. ⁷ For anyone who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰ The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Union is the key. If we have been joined to His death, we will certainly be joined to His resurrection. The two are not separable. Then Paul names what was nailed to the cross: our old self, the person we were under sin’s dominion, was crucified with Him. The purpose was not to make us incapable of sinning but to render the body of sin powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to hamartia. Anyone who has died has been freed from sin. A dead person owes the old master nothing. Sin still calls. It no longer commands as a right.

Christ cannot die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him. His resurrection is irreversible, and because we are united to Him, ours is too. The death He died, He died to sin once for all. Then the first command of the chapter, and it is a command to believe: count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God. The new life does not begin with effort or feeling. It begins with taking God at His word about who we now are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:12–14 (BSB)

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. ¹³ Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Now the indicative becomes imperative. Because we are dead to sin, we must not let it reign. Hamartia wants to sit on the throne of the mortal body and issue orders. The believer’s task is to refuse it the crown. Paul speaks of the body in parts, the hands and eyes and tongue and feet, and frames the daily choice as presentation. These members are instruments, and they will be wielded by one side or the other. Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. We give ourselves to God not to become alive but because we already are. Sin shall not be your master, because you are under grace, grace not as permission to sin but as the power that breaks sin’s mastery.

Romans 6:15–23 (BSB)

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness. ²¹ What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The objection comes a second time, slightly recast: not under law, so why not sin? Certainly not. There is no third option, no autonomous self hovering free of all masters. You are slaves to the one you obey. The only question is which master, and the two pay in opposite currencies. Then a doxology breaks in: thanks be to God, for you once were slaves to sin, and you have been set free from sin and become slaves to righteousness. Freedom here is not masterlessness. It is belonging to the right Lord.

Paul pauses to apologize for the metaphor, saying he is speaking in human terms, and then keeps it because it tells the truth about direction. The same parts of the body once offered to impurity and escalating wickedness are now to be offered the other way. The old slavery never holds still. It always demands more. The new slavery moves the opposite way: righteousness leading to holiness.

He exposes the old “freedom” for what it was. Slavery to sin came with a kind of liberty, a freedom from any obligation to righteousness, but it was the freedom of the runaway heading for a cliff. What fruit did you reap? Shame, and beyond it, death. Then the great pivot: But now. Set free, owned by God, the believer reaps a different harvest. Holiness. Eternal life.

And so we reach the chapter’s summit. The wages of sin is death, and the word wages means exactly that: what is earned, what is owed, what is paid out on schedule. Sin keeps perfect books. Over against it stands the gift: eternal life. We work for death and earn every penny of it. We cannot work for life at all. It can only be given. And the gift comes in one place: in Christ Jesus our Lord, the same Christ into whose death we were baptized and to whose risen life we are joined. The chapter that began with a sneering question, why not sin more, ends with the answer that silences it. Grace does not free us to sin. It frees us from sin.