The following is an essay on what important truths for a believer
can be pulled from Romans chapter 6. This chapter is an amazing chapter that
touches on the topics of why we should not continue knowingly in sin after salvation
as well as the symbolic importance of baptism.
Romans
Chapter 6 reads:
Romans 6:1-23 What shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? (2)
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer
therein? (3) Know ye not, that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? (4)
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been planted together in the
likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection: (6) Knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin. (7) For he that is dead is freed from sin. (8)
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
him: (9)
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath
no more dominion over him. (10) For in that he died, he died unto sin once:
but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
(11) Likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. (12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. (13)
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (14)
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law,
but under grace. (15) What then? shall we sin, because we are not
under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
(16) Know ye not, that to whom ye
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether
of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (17)
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. (18)
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of
righteousness. (19) I speak after the manner of men because of
the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to
uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members
servants to righteousness unto holiness.
(20) For when ye were the
servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. (21)
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for
the end of those things is death.
(22) But now being made free from
sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end
everlasting life. (23) For the wages of sin is death; but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In
verses 1 and 2 Paul starts off asking “shall we continue in sin?” after our
salvation through Christ. We find the best answer in verses 8 through 14. In
these verses Paul explains that even though our sin was paid for by Christ’s
death and sin no longer has dominion over us, we are still to “Live with Him
[Christ]” as stated in verse 8. We have a debt to Christ since He covered our
sins. We as believers are to present ourselves as alive to God and we do this
by being obedient to Christ.
Verse
16 through 23 of Romans describes this obedience to Christ and aligns it with a
slave/master concept. Before our death to sin and salvation we where slaves to
sin, as saved Christians paid for by Christ we are to be obedient to Him like a
repayment of our gift thus becoming slaves, or servants to righteousness and
God’s word and Christ’s teachings and commandments. Our obedience to God allows
us to bear fruit, the product of the Holy Spirit within us, which we are unable
to do if we are still slaves to sin and this fruit we will reap in our
everlasting life with God.
Baptism
is also explained in this chapter in verses 3 through 7. Christ died physically
on the cross for our sins. Like Christ, we are able to die along with Him
through baptism. The act of baptism’s full submersion in water is our uniting
in a fleshly death and burial with Christ. The resurrection or the bringing
forth from the baptism water is our resurrection from death and the grave and
our rebirth as a child of God cleansed and resurrected in the liking to Christ
rising from the grave.
As
Christ was killed bearing our sins, buried in the ground we are to take our
fleshly body and old sinful man to Him and burry it, and as Christ rose from
the grave we are to be resurrected from the water as a new born, a new man free
from our sins. This baptism is not a requirement of salvation but should be an
important second step after salvation for a believer. It is this baptism that
acts as a testimony to others and a statement of our faith as well as an
example of our obedience to God.
In our
new lives as members of Christ’s kingdom we are then to honor Christ as our
Lord and be obedient to Him as this obedience allows us to bear fruit of
righteousness for the honor and glory of that sacrifice made on our behalf
granting us through grace our everlasting life free from our slavery to sin and
death.
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