Bible Commentaries
Romans 6

Verses 1-11

12 Death entered through sin at first, but now sin is transmitted through death. All sin because they are mortal. Christ brings life, which disposes of both death and sin.

14 The type covers the period of time up to the giving of the law, from Adam to Moses. During this period there was no transgression, for there was no law. So it is today. The law was not given to the nations, hence they do not transgress it. Nevertheless death reigns, even as it did before the law was given. The type, however, is in the nature of a shadow, whose dark outlines do not clearly depict the present grace. The reign of Sin corresponds to the reign of Grace, Adam's single offense to Christ's one just act on Calvary, bringing life where Adam brought death. But the type fails utterly in a number of particulars.

15 A simple reversal of the offense would put us where Adam was before he transgressed. But the gratuity through Christ is infinitely more than a mere recovery from the effects of Adam's offense.

16 One sin brought condemnation to all mankind. Grace recovers, not from one sin only, but from many offenses.

17 Adam enthroned death, but Christ gives believers not only a full vindication from all guilt, but life and the right to reign with Him.

18 The parallel here is perfect. Adam's one offense is counteracted by Christ's one just award. The act of Adam actually affects all mankind . So Christ's work, eventually, must also actually justify all mankind. This cannot be during the eons, hence will not be fully accomplished until after the eons are past, when all are made alive in Christ ( 1Co_15:22 ). If Adam's offense only gave each one an opportunity to sin, so that some become sinners and others not, then we might say that Christ's work brings justification to all subject to their acceptance. But we must acknowledge that man has no choice in becoming a sinner, thus also will it be through the work of Christ. Both are actual and universal.

19 The contrast here is between one and many , not between the many and the all of the previous statement. The many here are the all of verse eighteen.

20 Here we have the true character and function of the law. It crept in. It was not a normal necessity, nor did it make any vital change. Its effect was to alter the character of sin so that it became an offense. Just as Adam's sin was against God's expressed command, and thus was a personal affront to God as well as a misdeed bringing harm on his own head, so those under the law, by sinning against light, greatly increased the sinfulness of sin. Obedience to the law would have banished sin and death. Disobedience enhanced their power. But grace not only exceeds the effects of sin, but superexceeds the offenses of those under law, so that now,

Grace has dethroned sin .

1 The absolute despotism of Grace is set forth in the startling suggestion that if we should be persisting in sin, grace would increase . While the following argument is against persistence in sin, it confirms the sovereignty of grace. Let us not deny this marvelous doctrine. It will give us rich, exultant liberty, ridding us of the thralldom of Sin, and giving us power to avoid the very sins which unnatural logic supposes we would eagerly follow, now that there is no condemnation even if we should sin.

2 This and the following chapter are a digression, discussing the effects of the reign of grace, first without, and then with, law. Deliverance from sin comes, not through victory over it, but through death to it. It is useless to struggle against sin, or to fight with its practices. Rather we should acknowledge its force and reckon ourselves as dead through it and to it, yet alive in resurrection, where sin has no place.

3 The spiritual values of baptism into the death ( Luk_12:50 ) and entombment with Christ, as shown in this chapter, indicate that spirit baptism is in view here ( cf 1Co_12:13 ). "For in one spirit also we all are baptized into one body."

8 As we did not die, but Christ was crucified for us, we may reckon His death as ours, fully finishing our connection with sin, and His resurrection as ours also, for in Him we enjoy an unclouded life in the presence of God.

Verses 12-23

12 A realization of our death to sin and life in Christ will give us power to cope with sin, always remembering that sin cannot bring us into disfavor because of the superexceeding grace.

14 Law, as we shall see in the next chapter, not only cannot deliver from Sin, but actually forges the fetters of Sin, and makes Sin's bondage more cruel and galling.

15 The law said, "Accursed is everyone who is not remaining in all things written in the Scroll of the Law, to do them." Grace says, Blessed are you, whatever you may do, for Christ has justified you and not one dare bring anything against you. The fallacious logic of the old humanity in immediately imagines that this gives license and encouragement to sin. But its actual effect is quite the opposite. Grace, not law, has power to deter us from sinning. No one who has an actual experience of grace, reasons that because there is immunity, therefore he will sin. The offender against law flies in the face of law. Its austere threats do not hinder him.

But the offender against grace feels the heinousness of his offense and flies from it.

16 All of us are slaves, however much we may vaunt our liberty. We are controlled either by Sin or by Obedience. It is a cause of thankfulness that we all have had service under Sin, for only so could we realize the nature of such slavery. But we have not been taken from Sin's service to become idle. We have been transferred to the service of Righteousness .

20 Slaves of Sin can produce only the fruits of sin and know that the only possible outcome is death. But slaves of Righteousness have a brighter outlook. Even though ashamed of their lawless deeds, they look for life eonian.

23 Sin, like slave holders, does not pay wages, but only supplies rations. This consists, at present, in an attitude toward God which is the equivalent of death, for all Sin's slaves avoid God's presence. Hence their deeds will result in destruction. Neither do we, as slaves, look for wages. God not only gives , but gives graciously , or gratuitously, the very reward which is only for those whose endurance in good acts merits it-eonian life, or life for the eons ( Rom_2:7 ).

1 The apostle now addresses particularly those who have been under law, that is, who were of the Circumcision. His appeal, however, is not to the law itself, but to the nature of all law, that it has jurisdiction only over those who are alive.

2 The law of wedlock is given as a well-known example. A woman's subjection to her husband lasts only for his life. During his life she may have no relations with other men. After his death the ties which bind her to anew husband are just as sacred as those which united her to the former one.

4 A wife and her husband are one flesh ( Gen_2:24 ), hence the wife dies with the husband, but the woman remains. Those united to Christ under law died with Him to the law. Union with Christ in resurrection is a new relationship beyond the sphere of the law.

6 Exemption from the law applies only to those who were under the law. As the law is not unjust, like Sin, but just and holy, they continue to serve, no longer in letter, but in spirit.

7 The mistaken deduction from the foregoing is that the law itself is sin. Else why cease to serve its letter? Or else how does it make sin more sinful and transform it into an offense? Sin is not known in its true character except through law. Instead of sin being ignorant inability, it becomes the opposite. It is active hostility. The law which seemed to be given to regulate, only roused it. Sin is dormant or dead until law comes and gives it life. The law which should have given the sinner life, gave life to sin . It should have been the death blow of sin , but it became the death of the sinner. All this shows how futile it is to try to reform or regulate or conquer sin. It not only acts in darkness and ignorance but transforms the very light into an agent of death. The law offered life to those under it, on terms which, apart from sin, were all that could be desired. But sin not only disabled them so that they could not take advantage of its provisions, but involved them in its condemnation by stirring their passions against its just decrees.