“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
“For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him! For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
“Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.”
Paul has said that where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly. The obvious objection follows: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” His answer rests upon what has happened to those who belong to Christ. They have died to sin.
The language of death and life carries the argument through the passage. Believers were baptized into Christ’s death, buried with him, and united with him so that they might walk in newness of life. Their old man was crucified with Christ so that they would no longer be enslaved to sin. The practical commands of verses 11–14 follow from that changed reality. Those who are dead to sin and alive to God are not to surrender their bodies again to the master whose dominion has been broken.
Shall We Continue in Sin?
Romans 6:1–2
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?”
The question arises from Paul’s declaration that “where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly.” If the multiplication of sin displays an even greater abundance of grace, continuing in sin might appear to magnify grace further.
Paul does not answer by qualifying his earlier claim. Grace really does abound beyond sin. Instead, he challenges the assumption that those who have received grace remain in the same relationship to sin: “We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?”
Death to sin cannot mean an inability to commit sin. Paul will command these same believers not to let sin reign in their bodies and not to present their members to it. Sin remains a genuine possibility, but its dominion has been broken. The people addressed by Paul no longer belong to the order in which sin reigned over them as master.
The contradiction, then, is not simply between being forgiven and behaving badly. It is between having died to sin and deliberately continuing to live beneath its rule.
Baptized Into His Death
Romans 6:3–4
“Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.”
Paul appeals to his readers’ baptism as their identification with Christ. Those baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized “into his death” and buried with him through baptism into death.
The movement from death to burial makes the identification unmistakable, but Paul does not leave believers at the grave. Christ “was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,” and their corresponding life is described as walking “in newness of life.” Baptism marks identification not with a dead Christ considered in isolation but with the crucified and risen Christ.
Paul’s emphasis falls upon the life appropriate to that identification. The believer cannot appeal to the grace revealed in Christ’s death as permission to remain under sin while ignoring the resurrection that followed it. The same union that joins the believer to Christ’s death directs him toward newness of life.
United With Him
Romans 6:5–7
“For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.”
Paul describes believers as united with Christ in his death and destined to share in his resurrection. The future resurrection remains ahead, but union with Christ has already changed their present relationship to sin: “our old man was crucified with him.”
The “old man” belongs to the existence governed by sin. Paul is not dividing the Christian into two independently existing selves, one old and one new, competing within the same person. He describes the former existence as having been brought to the cross with Christ.
The purpose appears in the words that follow: “that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.” The body itself has not been destroyed, nor has the capacity to sin disappeared. Paul will shortly command believers concerning their mortal bodies and their members. What has changed is the body’s relationship to sin as master. It need no longer serve as the instrument through which sin exercises its rule.
The language of release in verse 7 follows naturally: “he who has died has been freed from sin.” Death ends the former claim of slavery. Paul’s concern throughout these verses is not sinlessness but emancipation from sin’s dominion.
Death No More Has Dominion Over Him
Romans 6:8–10
“But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him! For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.”
Christ’s resurrection is irreversible. He was raised from the dead and “dies no more.” Death, whose reign Paul described in Romans 5, no longer has dominion over him.
When Paul says that Christ “died to sin one time,” he cannot mean that Jesus ceased committing sin when he died. Christ had never lived as sin’s slave. His death brought his relation to the burden and consequence of human sin to its decisive conclusion. The one who was “delivered up for our trespasses” entered death and emerged from it beyond death’s dominion.
The contrast is permanent: the death he died was once for all; the life he now lives is to God. Those who have died with him consequently have their future bound to his life. They still await resurrection, but the resurrection of Christ already determines the direction and certainty of the life to which they belong.
Consider Yourselves Dead to Sin
Romans 6:11
“Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Paul now turns from what has happened in Christ to the way believers are to understand themselves. They are to consider themselves “dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“Consider” does not mean pretending that sin is absent or imagining a spiritual condition into existence. Paul has supplied the basis for the reckoning: believers died with Christ, their old man was crucified with him, and they have been released from slavery to sin. They are commanded to understand themselves according to what their union with Christ has made true.
This also establishes the order of Christian obedience. Paul does not tell sinners to free themselves from sin’s mastery so that they can become alive to God. The commands that follow are addressed to people who are already to regard themselves as alive to God in Christ. Their conduct is to conform to that reality.
Do Not Let Sin Reign
Romans 6:12–13
“Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
The command “don’t let sin reign” continues the language of dominion running from Romans 5 into Romans 6. Sin once reigned in death, but believers who have died with Christ are no longer required to obey it.
Their bodies remain mortal, and sinful desires remain capable of demanding obedience. Freedom from sin’s dominion therefore does not eliminate the necessity of resistance. It makes resistance possible. Sin can command, but the believer no longer owes it obedience.
Paul also refuses to treat the physical body as the problem. The same members that might be presented to sin as “instruments of unrighteousness” can be presented to God as “instruments of righteousness.” The issue is not possession of a body but the master to whom that body is presented.
Believers are to present themselves to God “as alive from the dead.” Their obedience is resurrection-shaped: people whose former slavery has ended now place themselves and their bodies at the service of the God to whom they live.
Not Under Law, but Under Grace
Romans 6:14
“For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.”
“Sin will not have dominion over you” is stronger than a command. Paul states the changed condition under which his commands can be obeyed.
Being “not under law, but under grace” does not mean that righteousness and obedience have become irrelevant. Paul has just commanded believers to present their members to God as instruments of righteousness. The contrast concerns the power under which they now live.
The law identifies and exposes transgression, but Paul has already said that “the law came in that the trespass might abound.” It can reveal sin without liberating the sinner from sin’s dominion. Grace brings what law could not produce: through union with Christ, those who were enslaved to sin have died to their former master and been brought into life before God.
The relationship between law, sin, and freedom will occupy Paul again as the argument develops. At this point his claim is specific. Sin’s mastery has been broken because believers no longer stand under the order in which law exposes transgression and leaves the sinner condemned beneath it. They stand under grace.
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
Paul does not defend grace against the charge that it encourages sin by making grace smaller. He answers by showing what grace has done to the sinner’s relationship with sin. The person united with Christ has participated in the death that ends the old slavery and now belongs to the life revealed in Christ’s resurrection.
The commands of the passage therefore arise from liberation rather than an attempt to earn it. Believers refuse sin’s rule because it is no longer their rightful master. They present themselves to God because they are alive to him in Christ. Their bodies, still mortal and still capable of being yielded to sin, can now become instruments of righteousness.
Sin remains an enemy to resist, but it is no longer a master that must be obeyed. Those who have died with Christ are alive to God, and the grace under which they stand has broken the dominion that grace is sometimes falsely accused of encouraging.