Day 2: Dead to Sin Alive in Christ, Baptism Into His Death, Slaves of Righteousness

Reading: Romans 6

Listen to: Romans chapter 6

Historical Context

Romans 6 addresses a question that must have been circulating wherever Paul’s gospel of grace was preached: “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (verse 1). This was not merely a hypothetical objection. Paul’s enemies had apparently accused him of promoting moral license (see Romans 3:8, where Paul mentions people who slanderously report him as saying “Let us do evil that good may come”). The charge had a superficial logic: if grace superabounds where sin increases (5:20), then more sinning should produce more grace. Paul’s response is one of the most emphatic negatives in his entire vocabulary: me genoito – “May it never be!” or as older translations rendered it, “God forbid!”

Paul’s answer is not a moral exhortation but a theological argument rooted in the believer’s union with Christ. The key concept is participation: through baptism, the believer has been united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. This is not metaphor or symbolism in any weak sense. Paul is describing an ontological reality – a genuine change in the believer’s relationship to the power of sin. The “old self” (ho palaios anthropos) has been “crucified with Christ” so that “the body of sin” might be rendered powerless (katargeo – a word meaning to render inoperative, to put out of business). Sin has not been eradicated from the believer’s experience, but its tyrannical reign has been broken. The believer is no longer a slave who must obey.

The baptismal language in verses 3-5 is rich with significance. In the ancient church, baptism was typically performed by full immersion, and the physical act of going under the water and rising again was a dramatic enactment of the believer’s participation in Christ’s death and resurrection. Some scholars believe Paul is drawing on an early baptismal liturgy familiar to the Roman churches, even though he had not yet visited them. The language of being “buried with him through baptism into death” suggests that baptism was understood not merely as a public profession of faith but as the moment when the believer was incorporated into the narrative of Christ’s saving work. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so the believer walks in “newness of life” (kainoteti zoes – a quality of life that belongs to the new age inaugurated by the resurrection).

Verses 6-11 draw out the implications. If the believer has died with Christ, then the believer is “freed from sin” (verse 7) – literally, “justified from sin,” using the same legal language Paul has employed throughout the letter. Death cancels all legal obligations; a dead person can no longer be prosecuted. The believer who has died with Christ is beyond sin’s jurisdiction. And because Christ, having been raised, will never die again – “death no longer has mastery over him” (verse 9) – the believer’s new life is equally permanent and irreversible.

Verse 11 is the pivot of the chapter: “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The verb logizomai (“count,” “reckon,” “consider”) is the same word Paul used in chapter 4 for the imputation of righteousness. It does not mean “pretend” or “imagine.” It means to take into account what is actually true. The believer’s task is not to achieve death to sin but to recognize and live in accordance with a death that has already occurred.

In the second half of the chapter (verses 12-23), Paul shifts from the indicative to the imperative. Because believers are dead to sin and alive to God, they must not let sin “reign in your mortal body” (verse 12) or offer the parts of their body as “instruments of wickedness” (verse 13). The Greek word hopla, translated “instruments,” is actually a military term meaning “weapons.” The believer’s body can be deployed as a weapon either for sin or for righteousness. The imagery is deliberately martial: the Christian life is a campaign, and every member of the body is a piece of equipment in the arsenal.

Paul then introduces the slavery metaphor that dominates the rest of the chapter. In the Roman world, slavery was a pervasive institution. Perhaps a third of the population of Rome consisted of enslaved persons, and many members of the house churches would have been slaves or freedmen. Paul’s argument is that every human being is a slave – the only question is whose slave. Before faith, they were “slaves to sin” leading to death; now they are “slaves to righteousness” leading to holiness (hagiasmos, verse 19). Paul acknowledges that the slavery metaphor is imperfect – he is “speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh” (verse 19, a rare moment of rhetorical self-awareness). But the essential point stands: freedom from sin is not autonomy but a transfer of allegiance. The Christian is not a free agent but a willing servant of a new Master.

The chapter closes with one of Paul’s most memorable epigrams: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (verse 23). The contrast between “wages” (opsonia – a soldier’s pay) and “gift” (charisma) is deliberate. Sin pays what it owes; God gives what grace provides. Death is earned; life is received.

Key Themes

• Union with Christ in baptism – Through baptism the believer participates in Christ’s death and resurrection, breaking sin’s dominion and inaugurating a new quality of life
• The indicative and the imperative – Paul’s ethics flow from theology: because believers are dead to sin (fact), they must not let sin reign (command)
• Slavery transferred – Freedom from sin is not moral autonomy but a change of masters, from the tyranny of sin to the willing service of righteousness

Connections

• Old Testament Roots: The Exodus as liberation from slavery (Exodus 6:6-7) provides the background metaphor; the Israelites were freed from Pharaoh not to be masterless but to serve God
• New Testament Echoes: Galatians 2:19-20 (“I have been crucified with Christ”); Colossians 2:12-13, 3:1-10 (buried and raised with Christ, putting off the old self); Ephesians 4:22-24 (putting off the old, putting on the new)
• Parallel Passages: Galatians 2:19-20; Colossians 2:12-13; Colossians 3:1-10; Ephesians 4:22-24

Reflection Questions

1. How does Paul use the imagery of baptism to explain the believer’s relationship to sin? What is the difference between sin being eradicated and sin’s reign being broken?
2. Paul says believers should “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God.” What does it look like in daily life to reckon as true something you cannot always see or feel?
3. Paul argues that everyone is a slave – either to sin or to righteousness. Does this challenge the way you think about personal freedom? How does willing service to Christ actually produce the deepest human flourishing?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you died to sin once for all, and in your death our old self was crucified. Teach us to reckon as true what you have accomplished – that sin’s reign is broken, that death no longer has dominion, that we are alive to God in you. When temptation whispers that we must obey, remind us that we have changed masters. May we offer every part of our bodies as weapons of righteousness in your service, knowing that the wages of sin lead only to death, but your gift is eternal life. Amen.