Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ: The Revolutionary Logic of Romans 6
What’s Romans 6 about?
Paul tackles the million-dollar question: if grace covers all sin, why not just keep sinning? His answer is revolutionary – you can’t live in what you’ve already died to. It’s like asking a butterfly to go back to crawling.
The Full Context
Picture this: Paul has just finished five chapters explaining how righteousness comes through faith, not works, and how grace superabounds where sin increased. But he knows what’s coming next – the questions, the raised eyebrows, the inevitable “So we can just sin all we want?” It’s the same challenge every grace preacher faces, and Paul sees it coming from a mile away.
Paul wrote this letter around 57 AD to a church he hadn’t yet visited, but desperately wanted to. Rome was the center of the known world, and Paul knew that a strong understanding of the gospel there would ripple outward to every corner of the empire. But he also knew the Romans were practical people who would press him on the implications of his radical grace message.
This chapter sits right at the heart of Paul’s theological masterpiece. Having established justification by faith in chapters 1-5, he now turns to sanctification – how this new life actually works. Romans 6 isn’t just theological theory; it’s the foundation for Christian living. Paul is about to explain why the Christian life isn’t about trying harder to be good, but about recognizing who you already are in Christ.
What the Ancient Words Tell Us
The Greek word Paul uses for “died” (apethanomen) in Romans 6:2 is in the aorist tense – it describes a completed action in the past. This isn’t “we are dying to sin” or “we should die to sin.” It’s “we died to sin.” Past tense. Finished business.
Grammar Geeks
When Paul says we were “buried with him through baptism into death” (Romans 6:4), he uses synetaphemen – literally “co-buried.” It’s not just symbolism; it’s union language. In baptism, you don’t just remember Christ’s death – you participate in it.
But here’s where it gets really interesting. The word for “newness” in Romans 6:4 is kainotes – not just chronologically new (like a new day), but qualitatively new, unprecedented new. It’s the same word used for the new creation in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Paul isn’t talking about reformation; he’s talking about transformation.
And when Paul talks about being “slaves to righteousness” in Romans 6:18, he uses the same slavery language he used for sin. The word doulos appears throughout this chapter – we’re not freelancers in the spiritual realm. Everyone serves someone. The only question is which master you’re going to serve.
What Would the Original Audience Have Heard?
To Roman ears, Paul’s baptism imagery would have been immediately recognizable – but not necessarily comfortable. In the Roman world, when a slave was freed, there were elaborate ceremonies that symbolically marked their death to their old life and birth into their new status. But Paul is saying something even more radical: every Christian has undergone this death-to-life transformation.
Did You Know?
In Roman society, freedmen (former slaves) often wore a special cap called a pileus to signal their new status. Paul is essentially saying that every believer wears the spiritual equivalent – we bear the mark of those who have died to our old master and been set free.
The slavery metaphor would have hit particularly hard in Rome, where nearly a third of the population were slaves. Paul isn’t being insensitive – he’s being strategic. His readers knew what it meant to have your entire identity determined by whose property you were. They understood that a slave’s whole life revolved around serving their master’s interests, not their own.
But Paul flips the script. Instead of seeing freedom as the ultimate goal, he presents it as a transfer of ownership. You don’t graduate from slavery to independence – you graduate from slavery to sin to slavery to righteousness. And counterintuitively, this new “slavery” is what actually sets you free.
Wrestling with the Text
Here’s where things get puzzling: if we’ve really died to sin, why do Christians still struggle with it? Paul seems to be describing a reality that doesn’t always match our experience. What’s going on?
Wait, That’s Strange…
Paul uses both indicative (what is true) and imperative (what to do) language. In Romans 6:11, he says “count yourselves dead to sin” – but if we’re actually dead to sin, why do we need to count ourselves as such?
The key is understanding the difference between position and practice, between identity and experience. Paul is describing our new fundamental nature – we are people who have died to sin’s dominion. Sin no longer has the right to rule us. But that doesn’t mean sin has disappeared; it means sin’s authority has been broken.
Think of it like this: when a country is liberated from an occupying force, there might still be scattered resistance fighters causing trouble. But they’re no longer the legitimate government. The war is won, even if there are still battles to fight.
Paul addresses this tension directly in Romans 6:12-13. Don’t let sin reign (present imperative – keep on not letting it reign), and don’t present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. The commands assume ongoing choice, but they’re grounded in the reality of what has already happened to us.
How This Changes Everything
This isn’t just theological fine print – it’s revolutionary. Paul is dismantling the entire performance-based approach to Christianity. The battle against sin isn’t won by trying harder; it’s won by believing better. By believing what God says is already true about you.
“Christian growth isn’t about becoming someone new – it’s about learning to live as the someone new you already are.”
When Romans 6:6 says our “old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,” the Greek word for “done away with” (katargeo) means to render powerless, to make ineffective. It’s the same word Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 15:26 when he says death will be “destroyed.” Sin’s power structure has been dismantled.
This changes how we approach temptation, failure, and growth. Instead of asking “How can I stop sinning?” we start asking “How do I live out who I already am?” Instead of focusing on behavior modification, we focus on identity formation. Instead of trying to kill sin, we present ourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead.
The practical implications are staggering. Guilt loses its grip when you realize you’re not trying to become righteous – you’re learning to act righteous. Shame loses its voice when you understand that your identity isn’t based on your performance but on your position in Christ.
Key Takeaway
You are not a sinner trying to become righteous; you are righteous learning to live righteously. Your identity was settled at the cross – now you get to discover what that means for your everyday life.
Further Reading
Internal Links:
External Scholarly Resources:
- Romans: The Gospel of God by R.C. Sproul
- The Letter to the Romans by Douglas Moo
- Romans by John Stott
Tags
Romans 6:1, Romans 6:2, Romans 6:4, Romans 6:6, Romans 6:11, Romans 6:12, Romans 6:13, Romans 6:18, Romans 6:23, Grace, Sin, Sanctification, Baptism, Identity, Freedom, Slavery, Death, Life, Union with Christ
