October 2018 TRANSCRIPT

Romans Class SRL, Medellin

Prepared by: Walter Eriksen
LESSON 16 Romans 6:1-14
Sins Domination is Broken Part I
1) ON VERSES 1-2: What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means!
How can we who died to sin still live in it?
a) Moo, D. J.: God’s gracious act in Christ, when appropriated by faith, puts people into a new relationship.
i) with God and assures them that they will be saved from wrath in the last day.
ii) Paul asserts in Rom. 6. Christ’s death “on our behalf” frees from the penalty of sin.
iii) Frees from the power of sin also.
iv) Justification—acquittal from the guilt of sin—and sanctification—deliverance from “sinning”—must
never be confused, but neither can they be separated.
v) The Westminster Larger Catechism puts it like this: Question: “Wherein do justification and
sanctification differ?”
(1) Answer: “Although sanctification be inseparably joined with justification, yet they differ, in that
God in justification imputeth the righteousness of Christ; in sanctification his Spirit infuseth grace,
and enableth to the exercise thereof; in the former, sin is pardoned; in the other, it is subdued.”1
b) What shall we say then? Some might have concluded; Lets continue sinning so grace can increase more.
c) By no means! Again, Paul uses a very strong negative in the Greek language. Absolutely not!
d) we who died to sin; Grammar: aorist, a completed act, dead to and freedom from that which held us captive.
i) Gal. 2:19: For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
e) Sproul, R.C.: One of the greatest problems in evangelical Christianity today is the pervasive influence
of what we call ‘Antinomianism’. Antinomianism says, ‘I am saved by faith; therefore, I never have to be
concerned in the slightest about obeying the law.’ Antinomianism says that the commandments of God
have no binding influence on my conscience. That is not just a distortion of Christianity, it is a fundamental
denial of Christianity. Yet this notion is commonplace in Christian circles.2
2) ON VERSE 3: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
his death?
a) Calvin, John: We put on Christ in baptism, we are baptized to be one with him.
i) His death brings forth its fruit in us; Not for washing alone, the death and the dying of the old man.
b) Baptism emphasizes the face that Christians have died.
c) Sproul, R.C.: one of the crucial elements of the symbolism of baptism is that it marks our identification
with the death of Jesus.
i) The very act of baptism automatically doesn’t give us all the benefits of Christ’s atonement.
ii) In the OT people were circumcised but never believers. Today Some are baptized but not regenerated.
iii) Baptism signifies my identification with Jesus’ death on the cross, I am mystically crucified with
Christ.
iv) I identify with that act; I put my personal trust in the act of Christ on the cross, and as Christ was taken
down from the cross and buried in the ground, so I, in terms of my old nature, am put to death and
buried.
d) In ancient times clothes would be dipped in dye and be baptized taking on the color of the dye

1
Moo, D. J. (1996). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 350). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
2
Sproul, R. C. (1994). The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (p. 110). Great Britain: Christian Focus
Publications.
3) ON VERSE 4: We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
a) Calvin, John: He rightly makes a transition from a fellowship in death to a fellowship in life;
i) Two things tied by an indissoluble knot—that the old man is destroyed by the death of Christ, and that
his resurrection brings righteousness, and renders us new creatures.
b) MORRIS, LEON: Being “with Christ” is an important category for Paul.
i) It is interesting that we are never said to have been born with Christ or to have been baptized with him.
ii) In baptism we are buried with Christ. An old way of life passes away completely.
iii) The parallel with Christ is followed through. His death was followed by resurrection, and our death to
sin and our baptism into his death are followed by our being raised to new life.
iv) Paul uses aorists in his verbs were buried and was raised. They give a note of decisiveness to the
rising to new life.
c) SPROUL, R.C.: Just as Christ came out of the tomb with a new power of life, a resurrected life, so the
Christian, once he is reborn and justified by faith, is to show evidence of new life, because a new power
for life has been imparted to him by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
4) ON VERSE 5: For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him
in a resurrection like his.
a) Calvin, John: “united” There is great force in this word The Apostle does not exhort, but rather teaches
us what benefit we derive from Christ; for he requires nothing from us, but speaks of the grafting made
by the hand of God.
b) “we have been” perfect tense (Explanation): We have been and still are united to him with all that implies.
i) Our death is not equal to Christ’s, we are significant identifying parallels to it.
c) Sproul, R.C.: How can we as Christians identify with his death and not identify with his resurrection?
How can we identify with Christ’s death on the cross by faith and then continue to live as if nothing has
happened, as if there is no new power, as if there is no resurrected life within our souls?3
5) ON VERSE 6: We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought
to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
a) We were “in Adam” but now “in Christ”; the desire to live in Adam remains until Christ’s return
b) Being brought to Christ means a change to a whole way of living.
c) old self was crucified with him: aorist pointed end one life, making the new life possible.
d) we should no longer be slaves to sin. With the crucifixion, we are delivered from the absolute hold of sin.
e) Sproul, R.C.: ‘that the body of sin might be done away with’—that is very difficult to understand.
i) A somewhat barbaric form of this punishment was for the convicted murderer to be sentenced to have
the rotting corpse of a victim tied to his own back, to hm reminded of the loathsome act that he had
committed.
ii) Some have said that this is what Paul had in mind by the phrase ‘body of sin’. We carry the foul-
smelling, corrupt old man that is still clinging to us, but in our sanctification, we are to be set free from
the power of that corpse.4
f) David in Psalm 51:2-4; Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know
my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is
evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

3
Sproul, R. C. (1994). The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (pp. 111–112). Great Britain: Christian
Focus Publications.
4
Sproul, R. C. (1994). The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (p. 112). Great Britain: Christian Focus
Publications.
6) ON VERSES 7-8: For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we
believe that we will also live with him.
a) Calvin, John: If Christian, there must be evidence fellowship with the death of Christ;
i) Fruit of the flesh is crucified together with all its lusts;
ii) Fellowship does not cease to exist because the relics of the flesh still live in us
iii) Its increase ought to be diligently laboured for, until one arrives at the goal.
b) Psalm 51:5-7: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold,
you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 7 Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
c) Morris, Leon: Sin has no claim on the justified person, just as the law has none on the one who has died.
d) Sproul, R.C.: We are freed from the dominion of sin in our lives.
i) We still sin, and we still sin willfully but a Christian can never say that he had to sin. God has said
that every time we face a temptation he has given us a way to escape (1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has
overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond
your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to
endure it.).
ii) We can’t say, ‘The Devil made me do it’ or ‘My fallen nature made me do it’. We may surrender to
the lusts of our fallen nature, but we do have the power within us to resist.5
7) ON VERSES 9-11: 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer
has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to
God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
a) Calvin, John: raised from the dead, will never die again
i) He, therefore, by submitting to its dominion, as it were, for a moment, destroyed it forever.
ii) (Remembering Kevin Levos with crohn’s disease can mean die soon but live forever)
iii) Yet, to speak more simply, the dominion of death is to be referred to the state of death voluntarily
undergone, which the resurrection terminated.
iv) For having stated that Christ once died to sin and lives for ever to God, he now, applying both to us,
reminds us how we now die while living, that is, when we renounce sin.6
v) So. you also must consider yourselves: Grammar: present, middle or passive, imperative, second
person It is imperative that God’s people need to keep before them that Christ’s death was once for
all, there will be no other available. A strategy of resistance needs to be enforced every day.
b) “the death he died” His death with all that it means had to do with sin, and his life with all that it means
has to do with God.7
c) His death cannot be re-created
d) Sproul, R.C.: Protestantism repudiated the idea of a re-creation of the death of Christ in the Mass. That
is why Protestant crosses are empty; there is no crucified Jesus on them.
i) Paul is making here a very simple deduction. If God reckons you dead in Jesus Christ, if God accounts
your sins to be dead on the cross, then you also ought to reckon yourself to be dead.

5
Sproul, R. C. (1994). The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (pp. 112–113). Great Britain: Christian
Focus Publications.
6
Calvin, J., & Owen, J. (2010). Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans (pp. 226,229).
Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
7
Morris, L. (1988). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 255). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans;
Inter-Varsity Press.
 ii) Paul is not asking us to do anything toward ourselves that God has not first done for us. We are to
consider that our old life is dead. Put it away, it’s over, it’s done. It died once and for all. You can’t
go back.8
8) ON VERSES 12-14: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not
present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who
have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin
will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
a) Calvin, John: Christians ought to regard all their faculties to be the weapons of the spiritual warfare
i) To indulgence in depravity, is to be the service of sin.
b) Morris, Leon: Godly living is a necessity, not an option.
c) My college president: “Students this is not optional"
Stop thinking as a slave to sin would think. Don’t try to hide from God
i) present yourselves to God: Present: place beside, put at someone’s disposal9. We are not to put
ourselves beside sin as though it will have no effect upon us.
ii) Psalm 51:11-12 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore
to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
d) Sproul, R.C.: (14) Here Paul is elaborating upon what he said earlier: believers have been freed from the
dominion of sin, so sin shall not have dominion over them. That is, if you are truly in Christ you will not
be under the rule and reign of sin because you are not under law, but under grace.10

8
Sproul, R. C. (1994). The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (pp. 113–114). Great Britain: Christian
Focus Publications.
9
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New
Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 778). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
10
Sproul, R. C. (1994). The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (p. 115). Great Britain: Christian Focus
Publications.