Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Observation

Setting. Romans 5 ended with two reigns — “as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life” (5:21) — and with a sentence that invites abuse: “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (5:20). Chapter 6 opens with the objection Paul knows is coming: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” (v1).

Structure:

• vv1–2 — the first objection: keep on sinning so grace can increase? “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
• vv3–4 — baptized into His death: baptized into Christ Jesus = baptized into His death; buried with Him “so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
• vv5–7 — united with Him: in the likeness of His death and His resurrection; “our old self was crucified with Him,” the body of sin done away with, “no longer … slaves to sin”; “he who has died is freed from sin.”
• vv8–10 — Christ’s death and life: raised, “never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.” He died to sin “once for all”; He lives to God.
• v11 — the first command: “consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
• vv12–14 — the second command and a promise: do not let sin reign; do not present your members to sin; present yourselves to God. “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
• v15 — the second objection: “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!”
• vv16–18 — you are slaves of the one you obey: sin → death, or obedience → righteousness. “But thanks be to God” — once slaves of sin, now obedient from the heart, freed from sin, slaves of righteousness.
• v19 — present your members: as once to impurity and lawlessness “resulting in further lawlessness,” so now to righteousness “resulting in sanctification.”
• vv20–23 — the outcomes: what benefit then? “things of which you are now ashamed … the outcome of those things is death.” Now: benefit → sanctification → eternal life. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Repeated words, with counts (NASB95):

• “sin” ×17 — vv1, 2, 6 (×2), 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23. Almost every verse.
• death / died / die / dead ×18 — “death” ×8 (vv3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 16, 21, 23); “died/die” ×6 (vv2, 7, 8, 9, 10 ×2); “dead” ×4 (vv4, 9, 11, 13).
• life / live / lives / alive ×10 — vv2, 4, 8, 10 (×3), 11, 13, 22, 23. Death language outnumbers life language, but life gets the last word.
• slaves / enslaved ×9 — vv6, 16 (×2), 17, 18, 19 (×2), 20, 22. All of them in the second half except v6.
• “with Him / with Christ” ×5 — vv4, 5, 6, 8 (×2).
• present / presented / presenting ×5 — vv13 (×2), 16, 19 (×2).
• “resulting in” ×5 — vv16 (×2), 19 (×2), 22.
• righteousness ×5 — vv13, 16, 18, 19, 20 (plus “unrighteousness” v13).
• know / knowing ×4 — vv3, 6, 9, 16. Christ ×6 — vv3, 4, 8, 9, 11, 23. God ×7.
• grace ×3 — vv1, 14, 15. freed ×3 — vv7, 18, 22 (and “free” vv20, 23).
• “May it never be” ×2 — vv2, 15 (the two objections). master ×2 — vv9, 14 (death over Christ, sin over us). sanctification ×2 — vv19, 22.

Contrasts:

• died to sin ⟷ alive to God (vv2, 10, 11)
• the old self crucified ⟷ newness of life (vv4, 6)
• under law ⟷ under grace (vv14, 15)
• instruments of unrighteousness ⟷ instruments of righteousness (v13)
• slaves of sin ⟷ slaves of righteousness / of God (vv17–18, 22)
• lawlessness → further lawlessness ⟷ righteousness → sanctification (v19)
• “free in regard to righteousness” (v20) ⟷ “freed from sin” (v22)
• then / now (vv19, 21, 22): what you were deriving then ⟷ what you derive now
• wages ⟷ free gift; death ⟷ eternal life (v23)

Shape of the chapter: two objections, each answered “May it never be!” (vv1–2, 15). The first answer is a union — died, buried, raised with Christ (vv3–10) — leading to three verbs: know (vv3, 6, 9), consider (v11), present (vv13, 19). The second answer is a slave market — you belong to the master you obey (vv16–19) — ending in two ledgers and two outcomes (vv20–23). The chapter opens on “grace” and closes on “Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Chapter theme (my words): Grace is not permission to stay in sin; it is the power that took me out of it. In Christ I died to sin’s reign and rose to a new life and a new Master, and every day I count that true and put my body at God’s disposal.

Interpretation

Is Paul talking about a single sin or a way of life? Both, in two rounds. Guzik (with Wuest): the verb in v1 is present subjunctive — habitual, continuous sin, a home in sin; the verb in v15 is aorist — a single act, “shall we sin now and then?” Paul refuses both. Sproul names the v1 error antinomianism, the idea that because works do not justify they do not matter: “We are justified unto good works, not justified by good works.” Henry calls any teaching that makes room for sin a thing to be “rejected with the greatest abhorrence.”

What does “died to sin” mean, if I still sin? The aorist apethanomen points to a finished event — our death with Christ — and “sin” has the article: sin as a power, a king. We died to its reign. Spurgeon: “We are dead to the reigning power of sin.” Sproul is candid that the struggle continues — the old man “keeps kicking and screaming” and dies “by inches” — and in his third sermon simply says, “We still sin when we are Christians.” Spurgeon’s balance: sin “may vex you and thrust itself upon you, but it cannot become your lord.” Henry: sin will be present, but “Let it not make laws, nor preside in councils, nor command the militia.”

Baptism (vv3–4). All four teachers say baptism signifies union with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection; none says the water itself saves. Sproul: “Baptism does not make us justified, but it is the sign of God’s promise.” Spurgeon: burial is “the certificate of decease,” and baptism “the funeral rite by which death to sin is openly set forth before all men.” Henry: “externa ansa Christi—the external handle of Christ.” They differ on who should be baptized — Sproul defends infant baptism, Spurgeon preached believer’s immersion — and this study does not settle that; the chapter’s point is the union the sign points to.

The old self, the body of sin, the flesh (vv6–7). Guzik keeps three things apart: the old man (who I was in Adam — crucified, done), the new man (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10), and the flesh (the part of me trained by the old man, the world and the devil — still to be resisted). “Done away with” (katargeō) means made powerless, put out of business, not annihilated. Sproul is honest that “body of sin” is hard; he rejects the idea that the physical body is evil (Plato, not Paul) and reads it as the mass of sin. Verse 7’s “freed” is literally “justified” (dedikaiōtai): death settles the legal claim — Henry, “Death brings a writ of ease to the weary.”

Consider / reckon (v11). Guzik: “Reckon is an accounting word.” I don’t crucify the old man again; “We simply reckon him as dead.” It is the same verb as Abraham’s faith “credited” as righteousness (4:3) — God counted something true of me in justification; now I count His facts true in sanctification. Sproul: “thinking, judging, or esteeming” — the old man is ancient history, like D-Day before VE-Day. Spurgeon guards it from becoming a lie: reckoning myself sinless “would be a reckoning based on falsehood”; reckon the truth — guilt gone, reign broken, alive to God.

Present (vv12–13, 19). The negative is present tense (stop handing your members to sin as a habit); the positive is aorist (hand yourself to God decisively). It is the verb of 12:1. Hopla are tools and weapons. Guzik brings in the priests' consecration — blood on ear, thumb and toe. Sproul: members are like a sculptor’s chisel or a baseball bat, and sanctification is cooperation with grace through Word, prayer and worship. Henry: “Yield yourselves to him as wax to the seal.”

“Sin shall not be master” (v14) — a command or a promise? The verb is future indicative: a promise. The ground is grace, not law. Spurgeon preached it as a test (“Has sin dominion over you? If so, then you are not a believer”), a promise (“it cannot become your lord”) and an encouragement to the fallen (“it is not his nature to lie there”). Where the teachers differ is on how far victory goes in this life: Sproul allows that sinless perfection is “hypothetically possible” but astronomically unlikely, and saves his case against perfectionism for chapter 7; Spurgeon warns that “None are so provoking to God as sinners who boast their own fancied perfection.” Both deny that a Christian is ever sinless in practice; both insist sin cannot rule him.

Two masters (vv16–19). There is no neutral ground. Spurgeon: “There is no interregnum. Man passes from one master to another, but he is always in subjection.” Sproul: by nature we are “in bondage to sin,” and the commonest road into ancient slavery was selling yourself — which is what presenting your members to sin does. The “form of teaching” (typos) is a mold; believers were handed over to it (Henry: “as into a mould, as the wax is cast into the impression of the seal”). Verse 19 describes how habits compound: lawlessness “resulting in further lawlessness” — Guzik, “This describes the dynamic power of our habits”; Henry, “Every sinful act strengthens and confirms the sinful habit.”

Wages and gift (vv20–23). “Benefit” is literally fruit; “outcome” is telos, the end. Opsōnia is a soldier’s pay; charisma is a free gift. Spurgeon: “death is a wage, but life is a gift.” Sproul: “Wages are something you earn; a gift is something you cannot possibly earn,” and therefore “the essence of Christian ethics is gratitude.” Henry: “Sinners merit hell, but saints do not merit heaven.”

Word study (Greek):

• May it never be — mē genoito (G1096): “let it not come to be,” Paul’s strongest no; 10× in Romans (vv2, 15 here).
• continue — epimenō (G1961): remain on, stay in; present tense — a settled habit (v1).
• died — apothnēskō (G599): aorist in v2 — a finished death with Christ.
• baptized — baptizō (G907): dip, immerse, overwhelm; “into Christ” = joined to Him.
• buried with — synthaptō (G4916): only here and Col 2:12.
• newness — kainotēs (G2538): a new kind of life, not a patched old one.
• united / planted together — symphytos (G4854): grown together like a graft; only here in the NT.
• crucified with — systauroō (G4957): used of the thieves beside Jesus and of Paul (Gal 2:20).
• done away with — katargeō (G2673): made idle, rendered powerless.
• freed — dikaioō (G1344): “justified” — death settles the legal claim (v7).
• once for all — ephapax (G2178): a single, unrepeatable act (Heb 7:27; 9:12; 10:10).
• be master — kyrieuō (G2961): to lord it over; death over Christ (v9), sin over us (v14, future: a promise).
• consider / reckon — logizomai (G3049): count, credit, reckon — the ledger word of ch. 4.
• reign — basileuō (G936): the verb of the two reigns in 5:14–21.
• present — paristēmi (G3936): put at someone’s disposal; also 12:1.
• instruments — hoplon (G3696): tools, weapons (13:12; 2 Cor 6:7; 10:4).
• slave — doulos (G1401) / enslave — douloō (G1402): owned, not hired.
• form — typos (G5179): imprint, pattern, mold (John 20:25).
• lawlessness — anomia (G458): life without law; it compounds (v19).
• sanctification — hagiasmos (G38): the process of being made holy (vv19, 22).
• benefit — karpos (G2590): fruit; outcome — telos (G5056): end, goal.
• wages — opsōnion (G3800): a soldier’s pay (Luke 3:14; 1 Cor 9:7).
• free gift — charisma (G5486): a gift of grace (also 5:15–16).

Cross-references:

• Law and prophets: Gen 2:17; Exod 4:23; 8:1; Lev 8:23–24.
• Gospels: Matt 6:24; John 8:34–36; 15:1–5.
• Romans: 4:3; 5:12–21; 7:1–6; 8:1–13; 12:1.
• Letters: 1 Cor 6:19–20; 10:2; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 2:20; 5:1, 13; Eph 4:22–24; Col 2:12; 3:1–10; Titus 2:11–14; Heb 9:12; 10:10; 1 Pet 2:24.

Key insights to carry (from the Deep Dive):

1. Paul never asks “can a Christian sin?” He asks whether a Christian can live there (v1) or treat one sin as harmless (v15). “May it never be!”
2. We died to sin; sin did not die to us. The tyrant is still in the land; his subject has been executed with Christ.
3. Burial is the certificate of death (Spurgeon). Baptism certifies the union; it does not create it.
4. Reckon is an accounting word (Guzik). Counting God’s facts true is not pretending.
5. The order of the verbs is the order of the battle: know → consider → present.
6. “Done away with” means put out of business — the body of sin unemployed, not absent.
7. Verse 14 is a promise — sin “cannot become your lord” (Spurgeon).
8. Sanctification is by grace too — and its engine is gratitude (Sproul).
9. Habits compound in both directions — further lawlessness, or sanctification (v19; Henry).
10. The last verse changes the vocabulary — wages earned, a gift received.

Application

Fact to know — “our old self was crucified with Him.” Before I do anything in this chapter, God tells me what He has already done. When I was joined to Christ, the man I was in Adam died with Him. I don’t have to manufacture that, feel it, or earn it. I start every fight from it, not toward it.

Command to obey — “consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God.” Reckon is an accounting word. When temptation says, “You’ll always be this way,” I’m going to open the ledger and read what God wrote: dead to sin, alive to God, in Christ Jesus. For the men I walk with who are fighting addiction, this is not a slogan — it is the first move every morning: say out loud who you are before the craving tells you who it thinks you are.

Command to obey — “present … your members … to God.” Paul is concrete, so I will be too. My eyes, my hands, my phone, my car keys, my evenings — these are weapons, and they fight for somebody. Today I’ll name the one member sin uses most and hand it over to God on purpose, ahead of time: the phone goes on the charger in the kitchen, the route home skips the store, the hand reaches for the call to a brother instead of the bottle. Presenting is a decision made before the moment, not in it.

Sin to confess — “the things of which you are now ashamed.” Paul doesn’t pretend the old life was nothing. He asks, “What benefit were you then deriving?” — and the honest answer is shame and death. I confess the places where I’ve gone back to a master who only ever paid me in loss. But the word is “now ashamed,” and the next word is “but now having been freed.” Shame is meant to send me back to Christ, not to keep me away from Him (Rom 8:1).

Warning to heed — “resulting in further lawlessness.” Sin compounds. Every time I give in, the old road gets wider and the next surrender gets easier; that is how addiction works, and verse 19 describes it exactly. Henry: “Every sinful act strengthens and confirms the sinful habit.” But the same law runs the other way: every act of obedience lays another stone on the new road “resulting in sanctification.”

Promise to trust — “sin shall not be master over you.” This is not a promise that I’ll never fall. Sproul: “We still sin when we are Christians.” Spurgeon: sin “casts us down, but it cannot make us take delight in its evil,” and a child of God may go down, but “it is not his nature to lie there.” To the man who relapsed last week: you are not back to square one and you are not back under the old owner. Get up, confess, call your brother, and come back to the table. Grace is the ground you stand on, not the prize for standing.

Example to follow — the freed slave who knows he’s free. Guzik’s story of the freed woman who wasn’t sure she was free is “exactly the place many Christians are.” I want to live like a man who has read his papers.

Questions for the table (from the Deep Dive):

1. Paul says “we who died to sin” in the past tense. If that is true of me, why does sin still feel so alive? (6:2, 6–7, 14) Sin has lost its throne, not its voice.
2. What does my baptism say about me — and do I live like a man whose funeral has already been held? (6:3–4; Col 2:12) Burial certifies death.
3. “Consider yourselves to be dead to sin.” What lie do I most often believe about who I am — and what does God say is true? (6:11; 2 Cor 5:17) Reckoning is counting what is true, not pretending.
4. Which of my members — eyes, hands, tongue, feet, phone — am I still lending to sin? What would it look like to present that one to God this week? (6:12–13, 19; Rom 12:1) Present the one sin uses most, on purpose, in advance.
5. Where have I seen “lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness” in my own life — and where have I seen the other chain begin? (6:19–22) Habits compound both ways.
6. Sin pays wages; God gives a gift. Am I still trying to earn from God what He only gives — or still collecting from sin what it always pays? (6:21–23; Titus 2:11–12) Death is a wage; life is a gift.

Worship. Christ died to sin once for all, and death is no longer master over Him. Everything I have in this chapter — the funeral, the resurrection, the new Master, the gift at the end — is His before it is mine. Spurgeon: “His service is perfect freedom and supreme delight.” I serve a Master who gives.

Prayer. Lord Jesus, I was buried with You and I am alive to God in You. Teach me to count it true when I don’t feel it. Today I present myself to You — my eyes, my hands, my mouth, my time — as instruments of righteousness. Where I have fallen, lift me; where sin is still asking for the throne, keep it off. Thank You that sin shall not be master over me, because I am under grace. Thank You for the free gift of eternal life. In Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.