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 A STUDY IN COVENANT THEOLOGY

(RASV-1901)

ROMANS Chapter 6

   THEN it is here in chapter six that we receive our instructions for functioning under God’s invisible dispositions. Because of the complete propitiatory work of Christ on the cross, and the total liberty that has now come to us with God’s boundless grace, these questions from Paul directly address some of our natural tendencies:

   ROMANS 6—“¹What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? ²God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? ³Or are you ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were buried therefore with him through baptism unto death: That like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. ⁶Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin. ⁷For he that has died is justified from sin.”

   aaron-There is a qualifying question that every individual must ask and answer—Have we died with Christ? This "death" to sin spoken of here, would be a necessary part, I believe, of an individual’s initial initiation into God’s invisible priestly line.

   “⁸But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; [Ref.Rev.20:4-6; 2Cor.5:8; Phil.1:23] ⁹knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰For the death that he died, he died unto sin once: But the life that he lives, he lives unto God. ¹¹Even so reckon you yourselves also to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. ¹²Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey the lusts thereof: ¹³Neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead (Ref.Jn.5:25), and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. ¹⁴For sin shall not have dominion over you: For you are not under law, but under grace.”

   aaron-These passages direct our focus toward the desired victorious walk for every Christian: That they actively move on in their sanctification process. But if we were hearing Paul’s questions correctly, it would suggest that his expectations, or even his insinuations, seemed to be just the opposite. Consequently, everyone of God’s peoples who is actively living in sin, has literally brought themselves back under the dominion of the law and of death:

    ¹⁵What then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid. ¹⁶Know you not, that to whom you present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were servants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered; ¹⁸and being made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness. ¹⁹I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: For as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. ²⁰For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. ²¹What fruit did you have at that time in the things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.