(6:1) “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”
If we are truly under grace, shouldn’t this cause us to fall into licentiousness? Paul firmly disagrees. Yet, he doesn’t base his argument on revoking grace or threatening God’s wrath. Instead, he writes that sin is inconsistent with who we are “in Christ.”
Why was Paul accused of being an antinomian? From this passage, we can infer that Paul had been accused of being an antinomian; that is, he was accused of eliminating the law or being anti-law with his teaching about grace. Of course, Paul’s teaching was certainly not antinomian, but it must have been close enough for someone to cast this accusation (Rom. 3:8). Otherwise, the accusation would carry no weight, and Paul would never have raised the question here at this point in his letter. John Stott writes, “This shows conclusively that he did preach the gospel of grace without works. Otherwise, if he did not teach this, the objection would never have been raised. It is the same today. If we are proclaiming Paul’s gospel, with its emphasis on the freeness of grace and the impossibility of self-salvation, we are sure to provoke the charge of antinomianism. If we do not arouse this criticism, the likelihood is that we are not preaching Paul’s gospel.”[] Stott’s point is interesting: When was the last time you were accused of being an antinomian? Of course, antinominianism is a heretical doctrine, but Paul’s teaching of radical grace was so forceful that he garnered this criticism. Surely, extreme Lordship theologians would never be accused of being anti-law![]
(6:2-3) “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?”
The first step to spiritual growth is not to struggle or fight with sin. We shouldn’t simply “try harder” or “just do it” as the Nike slogan says. Paul’s focus here is not on doing, but on knowing (“do you not know…?”). Bruce writes, “[Paul] could never consider legalism as the remedy for libertinism; he knew a more excellent way.”[]
Paul’s remedy for sin doesn’t begin with doing, but with knowing (“do you not know…?”). The first step is to realize an important divine fact: I’m dead. If I was praying through this passage, I might say, “Thank you, God, that James Rochford is dead. That man who is so selfish, so greedy, so egotistical, so jealous… you’ve killed him. He’s dead and gone! Thank you that James Rochford has died. He died with Christ on the Cross.” By focusing on this reality, the behavior of our old self begins to die as well, and it results in the reality of Christ being formed in us (Gal. 4:19).
Keller agrees that Paul is referring to spiritual baptism—not water baptism.[] He interprets Romans 6 in line with the “new identity” in Christ. He writes, “When a Christian sins, they are acting against their identity. Why would they sin? Therefore, if I sin, it is because I do not realize who I am; I have forgotten what has been done for me in Christ.”[]
(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.”
This baptism is being “put into” Jesus’ death (“buried with Him”). If we are a Christian, we have experienced this objective fact. Likewise, the resurrection of Jesus was a certainty (“Christ was raised from the dead”).
But the term “might walk” (peripatesomen) is in the subjunctive mood, meaning that this is a possible outcome, rather than a certainty. We could be united with Jesus, and yet, we can still fall into sin (and do fall into sin regularly).
(6:5) “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.”
Some hold that this refers to our physical resurrection after death.[] After all, Paul uses the indicative mood (“certainly we shall…”), rather than the subjunctive mood (“we might…”). This implies the certainty of the believer’s resurrection from the dead. He also uses the future tense (“we shall also be…”). This is a plausible interpretation.
However, we agree with other commentators that Paul is referring to our spiritual union to Christ in our new identity. For one, the language refers to our union with Christ. Paul specifically mentions being “united” with him. Second, the context refers to daily walking in “newness of life.” In the flow of thought, the certainty is not the physical resurrection, but rather the certainty of being united with Christ’s resurrection if we have died with Christ. In other words, there is no such thing as a person who has “died” with Christ who is also not united to his resurrection power. Our “death” isn’t literal in the sense that our pulse has stopped and our brains have gone dead. Paul is saying that our old self—our old identity—is dead. In the same way, our resurrection is a current power in the Christian life at this very moment.
What about Paul’s use of the future tense? Regarding the future tense (“we shall be…”), this fits with the interpretation that Paul is describing our bodily resurrection. However, it also fits with the view of our future and ongoing sanctification. Thus, it fits both perspectives.
(6:6-7) “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.”
“Our old self.” This refers to “what we were in Adam… dominated by sin.”[] It was this old self that was “nailed to the cross with Jesus.”[]
“Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him.” The punishment for sin is death (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 6:23). Instead of rehabilitating our old self, God crucified and killed it. Consequently, the old self has been crucified (Gal. 2:20), and God has made us a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17).
Does this refer to the daily death to sin? Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Lk. 9:23). Jesus was referring to an ongoing death to sin (“take up his cross daily”), but Paul is referring to a one-time death to sin (“our old self was crucified”). Therefore, this does not refer to the daily dying to sin in our condition, but to our one-time death to sin in our position—just as Jesus died “once for all” (v.10).
We come in and out of agreement with Moo throughout Romans 6, but in our estimation, he gets it right in this section. He writes, “The believer who is ‘crucified with Christ’ is as definitely and finally ‘dead’ as a result of this action as was Christ himself after his crucifixion… Paul’s language throughout is forensic, or positional; by God’s act, we have been placed in a new position. This position is real, for what exists in God’s sight is surely (ultimately) real, and it carries definite consequences for day-to-day living.”[]
“In order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.” If my old sinful self is dead, then I can’t sin. “Knowing this” is what inactivates the sinful nature. The term “done away with” (katargeo) means to cut off the power of sin or make sin inactive.
(6:7) “For he who has died is freed from sin.”
Paul began this paragraph with a question: “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” (v.1) Why does he keep answering this question by repeatedly stating that we have died? Understanding these divine facts is the key. When we realize that our old self is dead, we see that we are “freed from sin.” Sin cannot control a dead guy. As the rabbis said, “When a man is dead he is freed from fulfilling the law” (b. Shabbat 151b, Baruch).
(6:8) “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
If our reading so far is correct, then to “live” with Christ refers to our current walk with him in this life (vv.4-5). This doesn’t refer to the future resurrection of the dead, but rather to our present spiritual growth (Col. 2:13; Eph. 2:5-6). Paul writes elsewhere of the present implications of having died with Christ, “I have been crucified with Christ… and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20). We agree with Mounce when he writes, “This is not a promise of life after death with Christ in heaven but of a life to be lived out here and now.”[]
Based on these truths, we have a battle of belief ahead of us. Our war is not with sin, but with unbelief. We don’t have the power to fight sin; instead the Holy Spirit does this in us. Paul writes that our “flesh” (old self) fights with the Holy Spirit: “The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please” (Gal. 5:17). It isn’t that we fight with sin, but the Holy Spirit does this for us. Our role is to be “led” by the Spirit. Hence, Paul writes, “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law” (Gal. 5:18).
What is our role in this process? Do we passively plop down and have nothing to do with our spiritual growth? Is the Christian life inactive and lifeless? No way! The battle is in our own mind—a battle of belief. We do need tremendous action, but action in the right place. In his book True Spirituality, Francis Schaeffer referred to this as “active passivity.”[] By this, Schaeffer was not trying to be paradoxically deep—like some mystic sage. Instead, what he meant was that we are very active in one respect (i.e. our faith), while we are very passive in another respect (i.e. self-effort). We don’t battle sin with self-effort. So, in this respect, we are passive. However, we do battle sin by fighting to believe what God says about us, giving ourselves to him in faith. We need to (1) know these truths, (2) consider and trust them, and then (3) present ourselves to God based upon them.
(6:9-10) “Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”
Death has no power over Christ because of his resurrection from the dead. If we never knew about this, we wouldn’t have access to this power in our lives. Like a slave who was never told about the Emancipation Proclamation, we would continue on in slavery—not knowing that we had been freed. Paul gives a second step: we need to trust, meditate, and “consider” the great truth of our new identity.
(6:11) “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
The NIV renders “even so” as “in the same way.” This relates Jesus’ death and resurrection to our current sanctification—not our future resurrection. Just as Jesus cannot die again, so too, we cannot die again. We’re already dead. Therefore, our job is not to die, but to consider ourselves to be already dead.
“Consider yourselves to be dead to sin.” The term “consider” (logizomai) is an accounting term and refers to making an accurate ledger entry. In other words, our role is to believe that we have died, and we’re now alive to God (“consider yourselves”). Harrison writes, “[Considering] does not create the fact of union with Christ but makes it operative in one’s life.”[] Bruce writes, “This is no game of ‘let’s pretend’; believers should consider themselves to be what God in fact has made them.”[] This implies that we very actively trust in these great truths, battle false beliefs, and take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:3-5).
To return to our illustration from earlier, this is similar to a slave who did hear about the Emancipation Proclamation, but was too afraid to claim his freedom. Author David Oshinsky writes,
Among the hundreds of ex-slaves interviewed in the 1930s, about forty percent claimed to have moved during the war itself or in the months immediately following emancipation. But most remained where they were, living as tenants or field hands on the same land they had worked all along… The exhilaration of moving was tempered by feelings of insecurity and fear. ‘We wanted to be free at times, den we would get scart an’ want to stay slaves.’ a freedman recalled. ‘We was tol all kinds of things but didn’t know jes what to believe.’[]
It’s one thing to know we are free, but it’s another to trust and believe in our freedom. Finally, Paul gives a third crucial aspect of spiritual growth. Once we know about our new identity and consider it, we need to present ourselves to God.
(6:12-13) “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
“Do not let sin reign in your mortal body.” How can we accomplish this? Paul has already gone to great lengths to show just how strong of a grip sin has in our lives. What is the key to breaking the stranglehold of sin?
Paul issues two commands here: (1) not presenting ourselves to sin, but instead (2) presenting ourselves to God. It’s interesting that Paul does not say that we are to present ourselves to righteous living or righteous behavior. Righteous living is surely the goal. But in order to get there, you first need “to present yourselves to God.” This text doesn’t say anything about acting on our faith—at least, not yet. Instead, Paul is describing the active decision to turn to God in faith, presenting yourself to him in your new identity in Christ, believing what he says about you is true. Without this, we’re operating out of self-effort and willpower. When we actively remember and believe in our new identity, righteousness comes naturally. To repeat, the contrast is not between sinning and not sinning. The contrast is between presenting ourselves to sin and presenting ourselves to God.
Is this a one-time action? Paul uses the aorist indicative mood to describe the way in which we present ourselves to God. However, Moo states that this doesn’t count for too much grammatically.[]
“Instruments of righteousness to God.” A scalpel cannot do anything on its own. It is merely a lifeless metallic “instrument.” But in the hands of a surgeon, a scalpel can perform tedious and delicate—not to mention lifesaving—surgery. So too, apart from Christ, we can do nothing (Jn. 15:5). Instead, we present ourselves to him as “instruments” for him to use. Only in this condition can we do anything in his powerful hands! (Phil. 4:13)
To return to our illustration above, a slave would need to know that he was legally free and he would need to believe he was free. But then he would need to present himself to others as a freeman—not a slave. Here, the believer needs to start by presenting himself in this identity to God himself. Even during times of struggles or sin, she might pray, “God, I believe that I’m loved by you and completely accepted. You love me, just like you love Jesus (Eph. 1:7; Mt. 3:17). I’m coming to you right now as your dearly loved daughter, and pray that you’d use me as an instrument to make an impact for the cause of Christ. I trust that you will guide and empower me to accomplish your will today.”
Paul’s teaching about our new identity is very abstract, but perhaps these illustrations can help.
EXAMPLE #1. A warrior who didn’t believe the war was over. Hirō “Hiroo” Onoda was a Japanese intelligence officer in the Philippines in World War II. His commander, Major Taniguchi gave this order to Hiroo:
You are absolutely forbidden to die by your own hand. It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens, we’ll come back for you. Until then, so long as you have one soldier, you are to continue to lead him. You may have to live on coconuts. If that’s the case, live on coconuts! Under no circumstances are you [to] give up your life voluntarily.
After the war ended, Onoda and his three friends didn’t believe it. The Japanese blanketed the jungles of the Philippines with leaflets (signed by General Yamashita), but Hiroo continued to fight for 29 years! It wasn’t until Major Taniguchi personally visited him in 1974 that Hiroo surrendered. Similarly, many believers never grow spiritually because they do not know, consider, or present themselves to God based on their new identity.
EXAMPLE #2. A librarian who didn’t know what book was in her attic. In 1961, Barbara Testa, a Hollywood librarian, inherited six steamer trunks that had belonged to her grandfather. They sat in her attic for 30 years. Then, in the autumn of 1990, she unearthed the original handwritten copy of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which is valued at $1,500,000! For decades, this librarian had been living like a middle-class person—not realizing that she was a millionaire.
EXAMPLE #3. A prisoner who couldn’t live as a freed man. In the film The Shawshank Redemption (1994), “Red” (played by Morgan Freeman) is released from prison, but he can’t adjust to real life. He is so accustomed to living as an incarcerated man that he still asks for bathroom breaks and even wishes at times that he could go back to prison.
(6:14) “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
The key to spiritual growth is to get out from under the law. When we focus on law, we are not under grace.
Does “under law” refer to the OT era? Douglas Moo takes this verse to refer to the Mosaic law which “dominates the old regime from which we have been set free in Christ; grace dominates the new regime inaugurated by Jesus.”[] Likewise, Thomas Schreiner writes, “Paul has turned the tables on those who would say that the entrance of grace actually foments sin. On the contrary, it is those under the law who are subservient to sin, while it is only those under grace who triumph over it.”[]
We disagree that “under law” refers to the Mosaic era and “under grace” refers to the new covenant in general. The difficulty with this view (as Schreiner admits[]) is that this would imply that there was no grace in the old covenant! Schreiner takes this to be a generality, rather than a rigid statement, as does Moo.[] We simply hold that this interpretation is headed down the wrong track altogether. We take Paul’s statement at face value: The Ten Commandments are not helpful for generating spiritual growth. In the next verse, Paul refers to his original question of whether we should sin because we are “under grace” (Rom. 6:15). Clearly, his approach to spiritual growth was radical; otherwise, he wouldn’t need to repeat this question about licentiousness twice in the very same chapter (Rom. 6:1, 15).
Mounce understands being “under law” to refer to the “old era in which law served to intensify sin (3:20; 4:15; 5:20).” Now that we are “under grace,” we have the “power to overcome sin” and “grace frees from the condemnation brought by failure to keep the law.” He concludes, “Believers no longer live under the condemnation of the law but with the realization that God by his grace has placed them in a totally new relationship to himself.”[]
We agree with Tim Keller who writes that Paul is getting us to focus on our position and identity in Christ—not the law: “We need to realize that we are not to be stoics when it comes to sin: Just say NO! Paul is showing us here that sinning comes not so much from a lack of willpower, as from a lack of understanding our position and a lack of reflection and rejoicing.”[]
Watchman Nee writes,
How can you know? You can know for the one sufficient reason that God has said so. It does not depend on your feelings. If you feel that Christ has died, he has died; and if you do not feel that he has died, he has died. If you feel that you have died, you have died; and if you do not feel that you have died, you have nevertheless just as surely died. These are divine facts.[]
‘If only I were stronger,’ we say, ‘I could overcome my violent outbursts of temper,’ and so we plead with the Lord to strengthen us that we may exercise more self-control. But this is altogether a fallacy; it is not Christianity. God’s means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker and weaker. That is surely rather a peculiar way of victory, you say; but it is the divine way. God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man but by crucifying him; not by helping him to do anything but by removing him from the scene of action.[]
If we had more revelation, we should have fewer prayers and more praises. We spend so much time praying for ourselves just because we are blind to what God has done.[]
What, then, is the secret of reckoning? To put it in one word, it is revelation. We need revelation from God himself (Matt. 16:17; Eph. 1:17, 18). We need to have our eyes opened to the fact of our union with Christ, and that is something more than knowing it as a doctrine. Such revelation is no vague indefinite thing. Most of us can remember the day when we saw clearly that Christ died for us, and we ought to be equally clear as to the time when we saw that we died with Christ. It should be nothing hazy, but very definite, for it is with this as basis that we shall go on. It is not that I reckon myself to be dead, and therefore I will be dead.[]
The Devil is a skillful liar, and we cannot expect him to stop at words in his lying. He will resort to lying signs and feelings and experiences in his attempts to shake us from our faith in God’s Word. Let me make it clear that I do not deny the reality of the “flesh.” Indeed we shall have a good deal more to say about this further on in our study. But I am speaking here of our being moved from a revealed position in Christ. As soon as we have accepted our death with Christ as a fact, Satan will do his best to demonstrate convincingly by the evidence of our day-to-day experience that we are not dead at all but very much alive. So we must choose. Will we believe Satan’s lie or God’s truth? Are we going to be governed by appearances or by what God says?[]
(6:15) “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!”
After Paul explains our identity in Christ, he returns to his original question from verse 1. Now that he has explained the argument from the new identity, the answer to this question takes on a deeper meaning.
(6:16) “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”
The key to spiritual growth is the person or thing we are presenting ourselves to. Again, Paul appeals to the mind—not our willpower (“Do you not know…?”). The “presenting” leads to slavery—one way or the other. Some things in life are nuanced and need many qualifications. But this is not one of them. We can either be a slave of God or a slave of sin: “There is no possibility of neutrality.”[] If we present ourselves to God, then he will use us as his “instruments” (v.13) and his “slaves” (v.16). Jesus taught, “Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin” (Jn. 8:34). When we present ourselves to sin, it enslaves us even further. Now that we are “in Christ,” we have a new master. But which master will we actively trust?
(6:17-18) “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”
This refers to our identity shifting from the one place to the other—from our old self to our new identity in Jesus. These verses are in the past tense, demonstrating that these are indicatives—not imperatives.
“Freed from sin… Slaves of righteousness.” This is the paradox of spiritual growth. We gain freedom through certain restraints. Indeed, some restraints result in greater liberty. For instance, getting to bed early is a restraint, but it gives the liberty of being well-rested the next day. By following Christ, we enjoy freedom by coming under his leadership. In so doing, God doesn’t want to take anything away from us that’s worth anything. So, if he leads us to restrain ourselves in certain ways, this is only for our benefit, as well as the benefit of others.
(6:19) “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.”
Paul was using an analogy for them to grasp these deep spiritual truths.[]
“For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”
Since our identity objectively changed (vv.17-18), the imperative is to actively present ourselves to God based on that new identity. This is the key to “sanctification,” or spiritual growth. When we served sin, we didn’t have to actively think about it or use willpower. Therefore, Paul writes, “just as” you served sin in this way, “so now” serve God in your new identity.
(6:20) “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.”
Before we met Christ, we didn’t exert effort to sin. This came naturally. Indeed, this is Paul’s point. If only we could get our identity working in the other direction, then righteousness and love would also come naturally. It’s true that non-Christians have a lot of freedom that Christians do not. But, the terrible reality is that they are free of “righteousness.” They cannot seem to develop a living reality of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). They have freedom, to be sure, but a terrible freedom.
(6:21-22) “Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”
Our old lives led to death (Gen. 2:17). Our new identity leads to sanctification in this life and glorification in the next. Paul creates a parallel between “death” (v.21) and “eternal life” (v.22). Why would we engage in sin, when we know that it leads to death? Peter writes that we’ve already had our fill of sin, and we have no more need of it. As Peter writes, “You have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you” (1 Pet. 4:3-4 NIV).
(6:23) “For the wages of sin is death.” Harrison writes, “Sin turns out to be a wretched paymaster, promising life but meting out death.”[] The Harrison also points out that the concept of “wages” implies a repeated payment of death. Sin leads to more and more death in the life of the Christian.
“But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” While the “wages” is given in the plural, the “free gift” of God is in the singular (cf. Rom. 5:15-16). Moo summarizes the three contrasts that Paul gives in this chapter: “The master that is served—sin versus God; the outcome of that service—death versus eternal life; and the means by which this outcome is attained—a ‘wage’ earned versus a gift received.”[]
Paul begins by asking why Christians shouldn’t simply sin more because they are under grace? We often hear the same question, “If you’re under grace, then what would stop you from going out and murdering someone?” If all you had was Romans 6, how would you respond to this question?
In addition to Romans 6, what additional points might you make to answer this question?
Paul tells us to consider our new identity in Christ. What barriers do we need to overcome in order to focus on our new identity?
Our new identity in Christ can be very abstract. What are some helpful ways to meditate on our new identity in Christ, and make this a firm reality in our lives?
Pray through this passage from Paul in Ephesians. Ask God to open the eyes of your heart to your new identity as you pray through this. Paul writes, “I am asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. 19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him” (Eph. 1:17-19 NLT).
We are not referring to the placebo effect. We actually have a new identity in Christ. The problem is that we don’t believe and trust in who God says that we are.
Your actions will follow what you believe—not what is true. As we saw in all of the examples above (e.g. southern slaves, Japanese intelligence officer, librarian with an original copy of Huck Finn, etc.), their lives weren’t based on reality but on what they believed about reality. If God says that you are loved and accepted, but you feel that you’re unacceptable and worthless, who is right? Will you choose personal feelings or divine facts?
How many believers are walking through life without ever knowing any of this? They are sitting on a goldmine of spiritual facts, but they simply don’t know it or believe it! What a truly heartbreaking tragedy!
John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 167.
Of course, Stott himself was a Lordship theologian, but he was not an extreme Lordship theologian. John Stott writes, “We must surrender absolutely and unconditionally to the lordship of Jesus Christ. We cannot make our own terms. What will this involve? In detail I cannot tell you. In principle, it means a determination to forsake evil and follow Christ.” John Stott, Basic Christianity (London: InterVarsity Press, 1958), 128. See also John Stott, (Sept 1959), Yes, “Must Christ Be Lord To Be Saviour?” Eternity 10: 14-8, 36-7, 48.
F. F. Bruce, Romans: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 6, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 139.
Keller writes, “Notice that water is not actually mentioned here. Paul is referring to the spiritual reality to which water baptism points.” Timothy Keller, Romans 1-7 For You (The Good Book Co., 2014), 140.
Timothy Keller, Romans 1-7 For You (The Good Book Co., 2014), 142.
F. F. Bruce, Romans: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 6, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 142.
See footnote. Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 151.
Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 151.
He states, however, that this is not a “change in nature, but of a change in relationship.” Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 373.
Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 152.
Francis A. Schaeffer, The Finished Work of Christ: The Truth of Romans 1-8 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1998), p.247.
Everett F. Harrison, “Romans,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Romans through Galatians, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 10 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976), 71.
F. F. Bruce, Romans: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 6, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 143.
David M. Oshinsky, Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice (New York: Free Press Paperbacks, 1996), 17.
Moo writes, “The aorist imperative often lacks any special force, being used simply to command that an action take place—without regard for the duration, urgency, or frequency of the action. This is probably the case here. However, we may surmise that, as the negative not presenting ourselves to sin is constantly necessary, so is the positive giving ourselves in service to God, our rightful ruler.” Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 385.
Douglas Moo, Romans: The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 200.
Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 300.
Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 326-327.
Moo writes, “The nature of Paul’s salvation-historical scheme is such that, as we have seen, a neat transfer into straightforward temporal categories is impossible. People before the coming of Christ, while still ‘bound’ to the law, could nevertheless escape its condemning power (e.g., Abraham, David—chap. 4). Moreover, people after the coming of Christ can still be subject to its rule.” Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 390.
Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 154-155.
Timothy Keller, Romans 1-7 For You (The Good Book Co., 2014), 147.
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life (Ft. Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1961), 52.
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life (Ft. Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1961), 53-54.
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life (Ft. Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1961), 58.
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life (Ft. Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1961), 65.
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life (Ft. Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1961), 76-77.
Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 399.
F. F. Bruce, Romans: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 6, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 145.
Everett F. Harrison, “Romans,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Romans through Galatians, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 10 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976), 75.
Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 408.
James is an elder at Dwell Community Church, where he teaches classes in theology, apologetics, and weekly Bible studies.
