Bible Commentaries
Romans 6

Verses 1-11

Romans 6:1. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

Romans 6:2. May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Sin is a tyrant. You can’t afford, Christian friend, to play with sin.

You say, “Well, really, Mr. Mitchell, I wouldn’t lie. I wouldn’t steal. I wouldn’t get drunk. I wouldn’t do this or that.”

I’m not talking about sins. I’m talking about sin as a whole, sin that dominates your life, sin that forces you to obey its whims.

Now, it is an amazing thing—the confusion in a great many Christians’ minds concerning this question of victory or deliverance from sin as a master. Some go to a spiritual life conference or a victorious life conference or they go somewhere and get sanctified. Some say you have to get the baptism of the Spirit. Others have various doc­trines. But all, basically, are trying to do one thing. They want to get free from sin as a master.

“How can I glorify God in my life when I am so frail and weak?” they ask.

That’s because we have a body that is not yet redeemed. You see, our salvation is not yet com­plete in our experience. It is true we have been for­given and justified; and, as far as God is con­cerned, He sees us glorified in His Son. There are certain facts that are true.

You don’t experience facts though. You experi­ence life. Facts are to be believed. The life is to be lived. And we find that Christians, having come into contact with the Saviour, loving the Lord Je­sus and wanting to please Him, find that some­times the more they try to please the Lord, the more they fail. And I know I’m talking to a lot of folk who know this through experience.

It just seems the more we try to live a holy life, the more we do things we don’t want to do. So we try to formulate a way whereby we can be deliv­ered from the power of sin in our life. As I say, and I repeat it, we have bodies that are not yet re­deemed. My body, your body has desires. Your body has lusts whether you want to acknowledge it or not. Christians do sin.

So how can I get delivered? I’m yearning for a life that is pleasing to God. I want to be like the Saviour, when He said, “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:29). And it just seems the more I try, the worse it gets. So we try in the energy of the flesh. We keep our chin up. We try by will power.

We say, “I’m not going to do that thing again. It’s dishonoring to the Lord. It’s sin, and I’m not going to do it again.”

And you confess your sin to the Lord and turn right around and do it all over again. That’s be­cause you are trying by the energy of the flesh, and there is no deliverance that way. There is only one way of deliverance, and that is God’s way. He wants you to trust Him for the deliverance.

“You mean, Mr. Mitchell, God will give me the deliverance?”

That’s right. We are going to see that. And there is ground for it, but it’s going to take faith on your part and my part.

See, my experience says, “I’ll do it.”

God says, “No, I’ll do it.”

Man says, “No, I want to try first.”

God says, “Trust Me.”

Now, I’m talking about a very difficult thing. I know this. It is so easy for us to jump into the pic­ture and want to live a holy life for God ourselves; but we find that, every time we try to do it in the energy of the flesh, we fail. God wants us to let Him do it.

It’s a question of our yielding ourselves to Him. This is not an act once for all where a person has an experience and he gets sanctified and the roots of sin are taken out.

I was discussing this very thing with one dear friend of mine.

He said, “Why, Mr. Mitchell, I haven’t sinned in ten years.”

I said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t agree with you. I don’t believe you. Before you were justified, you did such-and-such thing and it was sin. After you were justified, you did it again and it was still sin. Now you are sanctified, and you do it again.”

Is it only a mistake? Oh, no. Let’s be realistic about this. Sin is sin. Anything that is contrary to the divine character is sin. But we pray, we fast, we do things that we feel will help us get rid of our sin nature; and we find that self is still there. So we fail God. And that’s because God must do it all.

“I know He saved me from the guilt of sin and the penalty of sin,” you say, “but what about the power of sin?”

This is a case that calls for a daily walk with God, a daily walk that is pleasing to Him where it is none of self but all of Him.

Some people try to conquer sin by crucifying self. Now, let me tell you this. The Lord Jesus did not crucify Himself. You are talking about an im­possibility. Others crucified Him. The Bible does not teach self-crucifixion.

“Well, doesn’t it say some place, Mr. Mitchell, that we are to take up our cross and follow Him?”

Yes, but what is the cross? Christ must come before self, that’s true; but that’s not self-crucifixion. In fact, the Bible says in Galatians 2:20, “We were crucified with Christ.” That’s past. If I talk about crucifying self, then I must be on the wrong side of the cross. We are on the resur­rection side. Colossians 3:1 says, “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above.”

There are those who teach that we die daily to sin. Now there’s no such Scripture about that. In 1 Corinthians 15:31-32 (let me paraphrase), Paul says, “If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what’s the advan­tage of it if the dead rise not? Behold I die daily.”

Paul was living in daily expectation of martyr­dom. That’s why he could say, “What is the advan­tage of being a martyr if there is no resurrection? I die daily.” Or he says in Romans 8:36, “We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

You see, we already are dead to sin. Our history as sinners came to an end at the cross. This is not something you feel or experience. This is a fact. A fact. Facts, I repeat, are to be believed. But before I can experience this life in Christ, this being freed from sin as a master, I must acknowledge by faith that what God says is true: that, when Christ died, you and I died. We are new men, new women in Christ.

Now, chapter six contains four basic instruc­tions.

First, we are to know the facts. Let’s not be ignorant of the facts of what God says is true.

Second, we are to acknowledge, to consider the facts to be true.

And, third, we are to yield our bodies to Him so that He can work through us.

Which, of course, brings us to the fourth in­struction. We are to walk pleasing to the Lord. That’s what He wants.

As we go more deeply into this sixth chapter, I hope you will read it and re-read it and re-read it. I know there has been a great deal of confusion about this question of being delivered from the power of sin in our daily walk and manner of life. But God has a way, and God’s way is the best way. Don’t you agree?

Then let us know the facts, reckon them to be true, believe them to be true and act upon them by yielding our members to Him.

Now, let’s read the next verse:

Romans 6:3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been bap­tized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

Now, I’m going to say this again. We are not dealing with your experience or my experience. We’re dealing with a fact. God has declared that, when Christ died, you and I were joined to Him.

We were baptized into His death. When He was buried, we were buried.

And, when He came forth in resurrection, we too came forth, identified with the risen and glorified Christ. God has declared that when a sinner ac­cepts the Saviour, he is not only forgiven his sin and delivered from the control of Adam’s race where death reigns (hence he has eternal life), but he is joined to the Saviour in resurrection. We are joined to the Man at God’s right hand.

But you say, “Well, really, Mr. Mitchell, what about me now? I am still on the earth in my frailty.”

The more we know the Word of God, the more we love the Saviour, the more we want to please Him, the more we want to live lives that are glorify­ing to Him. But we do things we know we shouldn’t do, and sometimes we do them before we even think about it. We cry for deliverance, and we struggle and think that by praying we’ll be deliv­ered.

Some of us think that, if we fast, we’re going to be delivered; but God wants to do the deliver­ing Himself. He wants to deliver us from sin as a place.

Before we were Christians, we lived in sin. We live in Christ now. We are no longer living in sin. “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

Now, He amplifies that. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

This is the second fact He wants you to know. It’s the end of you and me as far as our history as sinners. I want to go back to Romans 1:7, which says, “Beloved of God . . . called saints,” holy ones.

If I were teaching Ephesians, I would point out that we are no longer children of wrath but chil­dren of God.

I would ask you, “Are you in Christ?”

You would say, “Yes.”

“Are you a child of God?”

“Yes.”

“Are you in the church, the body of Christ?” “Yes.”

Then you will know this fact from Colossians 3:1-3, “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” Why? Because you have died, “and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Now, if you take the first verse, “If then you have been raised up with Christ,” I have to ask a ques­tion. What kind of people are raised?

“Why,” you say, “dead people.”

So verse 3 tells you when you died. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

In Galatians 2:20, Paul says, “I have been cruci­fied with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” The tense of these verbs is the past tense. We died. We are not dying, but we died. It is a finished transaction. If a man is dying, he is never dead. When a person is dead, he has quit dying. As long as a person is dying, there’s still hope. But if death comes in, that’s the end.

Now then, are you dying to sin or have you died to sin? The Book says you died to sin. You’ve quit dying then. And, if we have died, then Colos­sians 3:1 says we have risen with Him.

188 Let’s Revel in Romans

Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

Let us read 2 Corinthians 5:13-17: “If we are be­side ourselves, it is for God: if we are of sound mind, it is for you.” Why? “For the love of Christ controls us (or the love of Christ overmasters us).” Why?

“Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no man ac­cording to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.” Why? Let me put it in my words: “If any man is in Christ, he is risen, glori­fied with Christ; he is a new creation (he is a new creature); old things are passed away, behold all things have become new.”

You see, friend, we were identified with Jesus Christ, not only in his death and burial, but also in His resurrection.

Now, I have met men, even teachers, who glory in the fact that they died with Christ and then they come full stop. We not only died with Christ, but we were raised with Christ. Not only are we dead to sin as a fact, but we have a new life to live for God.

You have the two aspects. That’s why I quoted Colossians 3:1-25, “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” Your past life as a sinner came to an end. You are no longer seen as a sinner by God. You are seen as one of His children, as one of the saints.

That’s why, when you come to the end of Ro­mans, you are exhorted to be saintly in your life. I am a saint by calling, but I should be saintly in my life. All Christians are saints, but they do not all walk in a manner that is suitable for saints. All be­lievers, for example, are in the Spirit. All do not walk in the Spirit or by means of the Spirit.

Now, we are dealing here in chapter 6 with a positional truth. When we come to chapter 12 and on to chapter 16, we have the experiential side of the picture. But it’s no use talking about our experience until we get the facts concerning what God says we are.

So Paul says here,

Romans 6:4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through bap­tism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:5. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,

Romans 6:6. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him.

Now, let me get in this question, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” Death has taken place.

Listen, friend, wherever you live there are grave­yards. As long as a Christian is alive, even if he is dying, he is not buried. I repeat. As long as there is life, you have hope. But when death comes in, what do you do? You take the body, and you put it in a casket and bury it.

Dead people don’t break the law. They don’t sin. They are dead. God says that, when you and I ac­cepted the Saviour, we were joined to Jesus Christ and that, when He died, He not only died for your sins but He died for you. He not only died for our acts, but He died for the “acters,” not only for the guilt but for the guilty.

I ask you the question, “Did Christ die for you or just for your sins?”

“Well,” you say, “He died for me.”

Then that’s the end of you. You and I were the ones who should have been crucified. You and I were the ones who had transgressed against the law of God and broken the law. You and I were the sinners. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “The person who sins will die” (Ezekiel 18:20).

Forgive me. I must say it again. Either we die or somebody else dies. Christ died in your stead and in my stead. We were identified with Him—we were joined with Him when Christ died. God saw you and me in His Son, hanging on the cross and bur­ied in the grave. And when He rose from the dead, we were joined to a Risen Christ.

That’s why we love this wonderful truth of our union with the Risen Son of God, joined to the eternal God. But death must come in. And I rec­ognize the fact that I died in Him.

Now I must raise this question in verses 3 to 5 of this chapter. Is Paul talking about a rite or a ceremony? Is he talking about water baptism?

No, of course not. No rite of any man can put me into Christ and join me to Christ in His death and burial and resurrection. It is an act of God for eve­ryone who receives His precious Son as Saviour.

Now, if you want to witness to this fact by water baptism, why that’s between you and the Lord. If you want to show forth in this way your identifica­tion with Christ in His death, burial and resurrec­tion, then you are still to walk in newness of life.

Sometimes I smile and tell people I am about to baptize, “Remember, if I thought for one mo­ment that you are not going to live glorifying to the Lord in your life, I would put you under the water and keep you there.”

If I am going to make a public witness by some rite or ceremony that I am joined to the Risen Christ, then my life ought to be a pattern of that, showing forth the fact that I am a new man, a new woman in Christ.

I’m not going to discuss the question of water baptism, but I mention it because I know there are those who say this passage is teaching immersion. Paul is not even thinking about water baptism in this connection. He’s talking about something God does. It is true of every believer in Christ.

Do you mean to tell me that Galatians 3:27, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ,” is water baptism? That would mean that only those who were bap­tized by immersion have put on Christ.

Oh, no. It is an act of God. The moment a sinner receives the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, he puts on Christ. He becomes a member of the body of Christ. He is baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit. He is joined to the eternal Son of God.

But Paul here is stressing the fact that, when Christ died, you died. It is an act of God. It joins us to the Son of God in His work at the cross, in His burial and in His resurrection.

Now, I think I have said enough about that, but I want this thing to be very, very clear in your minds—that we should walk in newness of life.

For me to say that I’ve been joined to Christ, identified with Christ in His death, burial and res­urrection means that I, too, ought to go forth to walk in newness of life so that His name may be magnified and glorified in my life. And the more I witness to this fact, the more there should be the demonstration of the living Saviour in and through me—and in and through you. Since you really be­lieve that you belong to the Saviour, then you ought to manifest something of this new life in Christ.

But let me again get into your heart. We are dealing here with the fact; and the fact is that, when Christ died, that was the end of your history as a sinner. You are no longer seen by God in sin or living in sin. He sees you in Christ. May the Lord make it clear to you today.

Now, starting in verse 6, Paul continues this question of identification. Remember, he wants you to know the facts. He wants you to reckon the facts to be true. And he wants you to yield your body to God. That’s what we find as we go down the chapter.

In the first 11 verses, remember, we are deliv­ered from sin as a place in which to live.

Romans 6:6. Knowing this, that our old self (all that you and I were in Adam) was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

Romans 6:7. For he who has died is freed from sin.

Now, notice, the body of sin has not been “done away with” in the meaning of “annihi­lated.” This is the same word used in Hebrews 2:14-15. Our Lord became a Man for what pur­pose? “That through death He might ‘render pow­erless’ him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

Now Satan was destroyed in the sense that he was rendered powerless; and I can read Romans 6:6 with that in mind: “Knowing this, that our old self (all that we were in Adam) was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be ‘rendered pow­erless,’ that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” Sin is no longer our master. We have a new Mas­ter, Christ Jesus.

Now the man outside of Christ is still under the authority and power of sin. Sin is his master. He may deny this. He may say he is better than you, and that may be true outwardly. Sometimes, we Christians are amazed at the good that sinners will do; but sin is still their master. That’s where they live—in sin.

Your Master is the risen Christ. Death has come between you and the old master, sin, that hence­forth we should not serve sin. He that has died is freed, liberated, from his old master, sin.

Now, I know all Christians—at least as a rule— know that the death of Christ has severed their re­lationship to sin. They have been forgiven their transgressions, and they will never again see their sins. They believe that Christ “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,” as Hebrews 9:26 says; and as 1 John 3:5; 1 John 3:8 say: “He appeared in order to take away sins; and . . . that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

The devil is still a personality. He still lives, but his power over the Christian has been cut away. Sin has lost its authority—its power—over the be­liever. Death has taken us out from under its reign, and we are now on resurrection ground. We are joined to the Risen Christ. He that has died is freed from sin.

Romans 6:8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.

If I acknowledge the fact that, when Christ died, I died, then I believe I am going to live with Him, being joined to the risen Saviour.

It’s a funny thing about us Christians. I ask the average Christian, “Do you believe you live with Christ.”

“Oh, yes.”

“Do you believe you are going to spend eternity with Christ?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Do you believe Christ has put away your sins?” “Oh, yes.”

“Do you believe that you died to sin once?”

“Oh, wait a minute. My experience doesn’t say that.”

I didn’t ask what your experience says. I’m talk­ing about a fact. I repeat it, my friend, when you come to chapters 12 to 16 of Romans, Paul deals then entirely in the field of experience.

For example, Romans 12:1-2 (my version) says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God (and this is what we are dealing with, the mercies of God), that you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not entangled again with these other things, but be ye trans­formed.”

Now I want it very clearly understood con­cerning this matter of sin. He that has died is freed from sin. He that is dead will live with Him.

Romans 6:9. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

Romans 6:10.For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all.

You say, “Well, Mr. Mitchell, I know that Christ died unto sin.”

And so did you. It’s a fact. He’s not talking about your failures. He’s talking about the fact of sin’s being a master; and it is a tyrant. Don’t you forget that. Sin is a tyrant.

Now, I know it’s hard for a believer to absorb these verses because as soon as I talk this way you immediately look at yourself. You see your failures and your frailties instead of daring to be­lieve what God says.

“Well,” you say, “Mr. Mitchell, I believe these things.”

But are they down deep in your heart and in your life? I guarantee this—that God will send you some tests along the way to see if you really be­lieve it.

You say you believe what it says here? He that has died is freed from sin?

“Well, Mr. Mitchell, I sin.”

But he that has died is freed from sin as his master. This is a fact. I wish I could get it across to you. He that is dead is freed from sin.

“But I’m not,” you say.

If we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall live with Him.

“I believe that, but it’s that seventh verse. I’m not freed from sin.”

Well, take verse 10:

Romans 6:10. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

“That’s true about Jesus,” you say, “but not about me.”

My friend, Paul is telling you the experience of our Saviour. He is through with sin forever.

Let me attack this from a different angle. Is Christ Jesus, the Living Son of God, through with sin?

“Oh, my, yes! Oh, yes!”

Absolutely through with sin?

“Oh, yes!”

When did that take place?

“At the cross.”

Where is He now?

“On the throne.”

Will He ever go back to the cross?

“No.”

Will He ever be made sin again?

“No.”

He is through, eternally, with sin, S-I-N?

“Yes.”

So are you!

God says you also in Christ are through with sin forever. Sin is no longer your master. Re­member, sin pays wages—Romans 3:23. “The wages of sin is death”—but you died. The wages were paid. You are joined to Jesus Christ and “the life you now live in the flesh,” says Paul, “you live by the faith of the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by works, then Christ died in vain.” I’m paraphrasing, by the way, Galatians 2:20-21.

Oh, I wish in some way I could make it clear to you. I’m asking you not to look at your feelings or your experience, but to dare to believe that what God says is true.

Now, listen. Am I going to believe God or am I going to believe my experience?

You would tell me, “Why, Mr. Mitchell, you should believe God.”

But what about you?

Now, look. “He who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, hav­ing been raised from the dead, is never to die again.”

Is He through with it? Death hath no more do­minion over Him?

You say, “That’s right about the Saviour. Death

hath no more dominion over Jesus Christ.” For in that He died, He died unto sin once? You say, “That’s right.”

In that He liveth, He liveth unto God?

“That’s right.”

But what about you?

Look at verse 11:

Romans 6:11. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Here now is the reckoning of faith. We go back. We are to know the facts. What are the facts? When Christ died, we died. That was the end of our history as sinners. I am no longer a child of wrath.

I’m a child of God. I’m no longer in sin; I’m in Christ. Death has severed my relationship to sin as a master. Just as Christ died unto sin once, we died unto sin once. In that He liveth, He liveth unto God. And we live unto God.

Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more. Death has no more dominion over Him. Nei­ther does it have dominion over you or me. Death has lost its authority. Sin is no longer a master. It has been rendered powerless by our Saviour. If sin comes into a believer’s life, it comes in as a test.

I’m talking about God’s way of holiness, God’s way of sanctification. God says your history as a sinner came to an end. You are a new man. You are a new woman in Christ.

Verses 1-23

The sixth chapter of Romans is absolutely full of foundational truth concerning not the question

of repentance or forgiveness or justification, not the question of S-I-N-S, but the question of being delivered from sin as a master.

Now, Paul raised this question in chapter 5:20 by saying, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”

“Then, Paul,” we say, “if grace super-abounds— whatever sin is—let us sin that grace may abound.”

So he raises the question and answers it early on in chapter 6.

Verses 12-15

Romans 6:12. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts.

Romans 6:13. 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.

Romans 6:14. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

Romans 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

As I’ve said, we have a new master; we are no longer under the tyrant, sin. Our new master is Christ. You remember Simeon in Luke, chapter 2:29-30, when he took the baby Jesus in his arms to bless Him, he said, “Now Lord, Thou dost let Thy bond-servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.”

What he really said was, and I’ll give you the lit­eral translation of that verse, “Now, Master, re­lease your bondslave, according to your Word.” He recognized God as his Master.

I’m asking you, my Christian friend, who is your master? Sin? or the Lord Jesus Christ, your risen Lord?

Chapter 5 says we were freed from Adam’s race through the death of Christ.

Chapter 6 says the only way to get rid of sin as a master is through death. We died with Christ. Again I say, if you are “dying daily to sin,” it means you are not satisfied with your new Master. You are still struggling with the old master and so there is no victory; there is no deliverance.

Take what God says as fact. We have died to sin once in the person of Christ. We no longer live in sin as a principle of operation.

Before we were Christians, sin used our bodies with all our gifts, our tongue, our mind, our hands, our eyes, our feet. It used all of us. What for? For the performance of sinful acts.

Now, says the writer of Romans, you are joined to a new Man; and sin no longer has any authority over you. You yield your members unto God. Just as before you were saved, when you yielded your members to sin, even so now yield your members to God.

You know, it’s so easy for people to become slaves. It’s true today. It’s true through the centu­ries. Here are people tied down under the bondage of sin. They think they can give sin up.

Oh, how often men say to me, “Why, Mitchell, I can give it up or leave it alone. I can take it or leave it.”

Well, I know what they’ll do. They’ll take it. Do you know why? They are slaves. Sin is a tyrant. It may be alcohol. It may be drugs. It may be immor­ality. It may be anything, but they can become slaves to it.

And they try medical sources. They try this phi­losophy and that psychology. They try everything, and they are still not delivered.

And then they come to the place where they re­ceive Jesus Christ as Saviour. And often, when they trust Him, they are freed immediately from the slavery of that sin.

But you tell me, “Mr. Mitchell, I know some Christians—men who really accepted the Lord— and they’ve still had trouble after they were saved. They are still slaves to certain sins.”

That’s right. They try and try and try to get de­livered, and they can’t. They pray, they fast and still they get no deliverance.

In desperation, they turn to the Lord and say, “Lord, I can’t do this thing. You’ve got to do it.” And immediately they’re delivered.

Now let me illustrate what I mean.

Some years ago, I was invited to speak in a certain town. And, after the morning meeting, one man said to me, “I want you to come home and have dinner with me.” So I got into his buggy.

He followed a trail right on down through the forest, and we came to an open place where he had built a house and was farming and ranching. And this man had six daughters. At that time, I wasn’t married.

He said to me, “Now, Mr. Mitchell, you get out of the buggy and go into the house, and Mom and the girls will take care of you.”

Well, I didn’t want to go into a house with six girls, so I decided to wait for him. As he got out of the buggy, he stooped down.

He didn’t see me standing there. And, just as he was going to take the tracers off the buggy, he took a big plug of tobacco out of his pocket. He bit a chunk of it off and, just as he did, apparently I moved; and he saw me. He turned around and apologized to me for the tobacco.

“Well,” I said, “it’s okay with me if you want it. I don’t want it. Thank God, I’ve been delivered from it. You go ahead. It’s up to you.”

So he took the tracers off and put the horses away. And on the way back, he said, “You know, when I was a boy, we lived in Virginia and we raised tobacco; and on the way to school every day we kids used to take a leaf of the tobacco plant and chew it. I’ve done this all my life.”

And I said, “Well, do you know the Saviour?” “Oh, yes,” he said. “I’ve been saved and I’ve been sanctified, but I can’t get rid of it.”

“Well,” I said, “I think you better trust the Lord for that. You’ve been struggling to get rid of it, and you can’t.”

A few years after this, I met a friend of mine who used to preach up in that area.

And I said, “By the way, do you ever see So-and­So?”

“Oh, yes,” he said, “he was addicted to chewing tobacco.” Then he laughed and said, “Do you know how he was delivered?”

I said, “No.”

“Well,” he said, “after you left, he was so embar­rassed because you caught him doing it, that he decided to take some water and go out into the timber. He stayed two or three days fasting and praying that he would get delivered. But the mo­ment he got back home, he just made for the to­bacco can.

“And then, one day, in desperation he got on his knees and said, ‘Lord, I’m going to heaven trusting the blood of Jesus Christ, tobacco or no tobacco.’

“And, you know, when he got up from his knees, he became violently sick; and, from that day until I don’t know how long he lived, he wasn’t able to even stand the smell of it.

“And, when his old Dad came up from the south, puffing on his old pipe, he said, ‘Dad, would you mind going into the barn? I can’t stand the smell of it. ’”

Now, I told you that for a reason. This man had tried everything, by praying, by fasting—and, by the way, I’m not opposed to praying and fasting— but he was trusting what he was doing for deliver­ance instead of trusting the Lord.

So, we read here, “Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

Yield yourselves unto God. Let God do the deliv­ering. Let God have the victory. You can’t win the victory. God wins the victory. You and I enjoy the deliverance.

Now, I don’t know what it is in your life, Chris­tian friend; but I’m sure I’m talking to some Chris­tians who have tried and have prayed and have agonized about being delivered from certain things in their lives that are hindering their spiritual growth, hindering their ministry, hindering the work of God in them.

Now it may or may not be outbroken sin; it may or may not be some filthy habit. God wants you for Himself. Sin is no longer your master.

And, just as before you were saved, when you yielded your body, your members, your mind, your tongue to sin and sin reigned in you as your mas­ter whether you believed it or not, now you’ve got a new master, Jesus Christ; and you yield your members unto Him.

For example, perhaps before you were saved, maybe your tongue was full of filthy talk, cursing and bitterness. Now yield your tongue to the Lord. Let Him put a new song in your mouth so that, in­stead of cursing and bitterness, there will be bless­ing.

See the contrast between yielding your mem­bers to what is sinful and what will be for the glory of God? You’ve been delivered from sin as a place to live, and you’ve been delivered from sin’s au­thority and from sin as a principle of operation.

God wants you and me to realize we are no longer under the tyrant of sin. We belong to the risen Saviour. We belong to the One who wrought salvation for you and me, the One who loves us with an everlasting love, the One who loves us even when we fail Him, the One who is always waiting for us to come and have fellowship with Him.

This is God’s way of sanctification where the Lord—not selfishness, not some great desire you may have for yourself—becomes the center of your love, the center of your life.

Now, I want to warn you, too, that sometimes people say, “Well, Mr. Mitchell, I’m not bound by any sin.”

No? But self is there. It sticks out all over you. Self. Your religious self. Your moral self. Oh, you wouldn’t go into the sins of society. Oh, no, sir. You’ve been delivered from that. But your life is sapped of spiritual power. You have no joy. You have no blessing, and you aren’t very useful to the Lord.

What’s the matter?

You haven’t yielded yourself.

You haven’t recognized the fact that Jesus Christ is now your Master. You have a new Mas­ter, a new life with new hopes and new aspira­tions. You and I sit in our chairs and criticize the world and how far the world has gone in its sin.

You say, “My, the world is getting terrible— lawlessness, moral corruption, legalized sinful­ness—legalizing the things that cause the wrath of God to come down upon men.”

We sit and talk all about it, but the world can’t help itself. That’s the way it is under the tyrant of sin.

But, Christian friend, you are not under that tyrant any more. Neither am I. And how can I prove that?

Paul says that God wants you to yield yourself and your members unto Him so that your tongue—instead of being filled with things that de­stroy the character of people, saying nasty things about people or being jealous and envious of peo­ple—will speak in love and peace. Your life may be a benediction.

I’m not asking you to preach. I’m just asking you to live for Him. You have a new Master, Christ Je­sus.

Verses 16-23

Now we come to the last part of chapter 6, verses 16 to 23. We’ve been delivered from sin as a place in which to live, and we’ve been delivered from sin as a principle of operation. Now we are delivered from sin as a practice in our lives.

In verse 16, we have a brand new experience. We are going to be living for God instead of sin and self.

Romans 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?

Some Christians take verse 16 entirely out of context and conclude they can lose their salvation because it says here that, if I yield myself to sin by obeying my members, if I obey the lusts of the flesh, then I become a slave of those lusts and am no longer a child of God.

But Paul doesn’t even have that in mind.

He’s saying, “Don’t you know that, if you yield yourselves to sin, you are its bondslave and the end is death? Don’t you know that if you yield yourselves to obedience the end is righteousness?” You have two different things.

Either your life is characterized by sin as your master or it is characterized by a great desire to please God even though you may fail.

Again, we are getting right down to motives of the heart in the life of a Christian. If you are a real Christian, if you really have taken Christ as your Saviour, even though you may be a failure and have weaknesses and so on, you will have a great yearning in your heart to do the things that are pleasing to God. (When we get to chapter 7, we will see more of this.)

The person who is not regenerated is con­trolled, dominated by sin. He may be a moralist, and he may be self-righteous; but he is not the servant of God. He’s serving himself or serving the devil instead.

Now, in verses 17 and 18, Paul begins to en­courage God’s people. Listen to what he says. And I’m going to put into it what I believe is the thought of the Apostle Paul.

Romans 6:17. 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,

Romans 6:18. And having been freed from sin (as a master, as a dominating force in your life), you became slaves of right­eousness.

See, Paul is bringing assurance into the hearts of Christians. His great desire for us is that we not yield our members unto unrighteousness and sin. Sin no longer should dominate the life and the heart of a believer in Christ. This is what he said in Romans 6:12-13.

Now go on to verse 19:

Romans 6:19. I am speaking in human terms because of the weak­ness of your flesh (because ye are living in bodies that are not yet redeemed). For just as you presented your members (that is, your body with all its members) as slaves to impu­rity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now (having been delivered from sin as a master and having a new Saviour, a Lord who is righteous) present your mem­bers as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

In other words, we have a new experience. We’re no longer going to be dominated by sin. We’re going to live for God instead of sin.

Now, if I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and you have too, then we have been delivered, as Colossians 1:13 says, out of the domain of dark­ness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. Hav­ing been translated from the place where sin and death reign, we are now in a new kingdom where righteousness and love reign.

You see what Paul is after? He wants us to see our position in Christ so that it will affect our lives and our daily living. This is practical sanctifica­tion. All I need so that I may stand before God is what Jesus Christ did for me at the cross. Our Lord put away our sins. He defeated death and the grave. He made it possible for God to pronounce us righteous. He made it possible for God to love us with an everlasting love and to give us life eter­nal.

But I’m still in a body not yet delivered, not yet redeemed. Now, how shall I live for God when my body has certain desires and certain lusts that are dishonoring to Him? What shall I do?

Paul asks a very technical thing.

Before we were Christians, we just naturally yielded our members to sin, lying, cheating or whatever it was. In fact, we had no righteousness. No unsaved man can produce righteousness.

This is what he is saying in verse 20:

Romans 6:20. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in re­gard to righteousness (you had no righteousness).

Romans 6:21. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.

We are now ashamed of some of the things we used to do.

You know, here comes a man who has been liv­ing a certain kind of life before he knew the Sav­iour. He comes and accepts Jesus Christ as his own personal Saviour; and he is forgiven every transgression, every sin. He has a new life. He has a new standing before God, a new relationship as a child of God. And some of the things that he used to do, he is ashamed to do them today.

There are some things that I did before I was a Christian, and I wouldn’t think of doing them to­day. I would be ashamed of them.

Now, what has made the transformation?

Paul here is telling these Roman Christians. And I’m also trying to tell you that the very fact we are now ashamed of some of the things we did before we knew Christ is one of the proofs that we have a new master—not sin, but the Risen Lord of glory.

I just trust I have made this clear to you. I’m go­ing slowly, but I want you to get this.

Now verse 22:

Romans 6:22. But now having been freed from sin (having been emancipated from sin as a master) and enslaved to God (you have a new master—and what is the result?), you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

Don’t be afraid of that word. “Sanctification” is a good word. It means “saintliness” which comes from the same root word. The joy of it is the guarantee that we have everlasting life.

Now Paul doesn’t mean that everlasting life is the fruit of living a holy life. So he guards that in Romans 6:23 when he says, “The wages of sin is death.”

Then why does he mention eternal life in Romans 6:22? To show the contrast. Before we were saved, we were free from righteousness. We had none. But now, having been made free from sin as a master and having a new Master, the Living Son of God, what is the fruit of it?

A life lived down here glorifying to God.

And what is the end?

Enjoyment, the assurance, the certainty of ever­lasting life—not because of our walk, but because of our union to this Risen Son of God whom we now recognize as our Master.

Then Paul goes on in the last verse:

Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Can I change it? Sin pays wages.

The prophet said, “The person who sins will die.” Sin pays wages, and you can’t quit the job. You can’t go on strike. The wages must be paid. Either you pay the wages or somebody else does. The wages of sin is death.

We find in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Death reigns today over the human race, and the only way one can be delivered from sin as a master or from its wages is to trust the One who died for us, the One who took our place, the One who died our death. For, you remember, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Isn’t this good news? God has made provision whereby any and all men and women may be saved, wherever they are, whoever they are, what­ever they are. I don’t care who you are; I don’t care what your past is. Sin pays wages; God executes the penalty. But the good news is Jesus Christ, His blessed Son, who came, bore our sins, took our wages and now offers to us—as a free gift— eternal life.

And eternal life can only be received from God as a gift.

The Lord Jesus could say, “He that believeth on me has everlasting life.” The gift of God is eternal life. In Him is life. To have the Son of God is to have life. Not to have the Son of God is not to have life.

I don’t care how good or religious you are. Unless you have a relationship to the Saviour, you are lost. God has made the provision whereby you can be delivered from the wages of sin, and that is by accepting God’s provision for you in Jesus Christ. You come to Christ, receive Him as your Saviour and yield your members unto God so that Christ will be glorified in your life.

This is practical sanctification where the Lord, the Righteous One, lives out His life through you and produces righteousness in you.

As Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and de­livered Himself up for me.”

Do you know this little poem? In just a few words, it gets to the heart of the matter contained in this marvelous chapter of Romans:

“Oh! the bitter shame and sorrow,

That a time could ever be,

When I let the Saviour’s pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered—

‘All of Self and none of Thee.’

“Yet He found me. I beheld Him
Bleeding on the cursed tree;
Heard Him pray, ‘Forgive them, Father,’
And my wistful heart said faintly—
‘Some of Self and some of Thee.’

“Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong, and oh! so patient,
Brought me lower while I whispered,
‘Less of Self and more of Thee.’

“Higher than the highest heavens,
Deeper than the deepest sea;
Lord, Thy love at last has conquered:b
Grant me now my soul’s petition—
‘None of Self and all of Thee.’”