Shall We Sin? The Real Point of Romans 6
by Randy Blackaby
Virtually any survey of Bible teaching on the importance of baptism includes an examination of Romans 6:3-4, which demonstrates how baptism connects the believer with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. This passage illustrates how baptism imitates and is, in fact, a pattern of our Lord's sacrifice.
However, while these two verses certainly demonstrate these points, the primary point of Romans 6 is not to establish the necessity or function of baptism, but to highlight its implications. This first becomes evident in verse 4, where the Apostle Paul averred that since Christ was raised to new life, "even so we also should walk in newness of life." Baptism implies that our "old life" has been buried with Christ, and that the future should be a new way of living, a new lifestyle.
Paul said in Romans 6:5 that if we have been united in the likeness of Christ's death, we also should be united in the likeness of his resurrection. Again, the implication is a "new life." This is what Jesus was teaching Nicodemus, as recorded in John 3, when he insisted that becoming part of God's kingdom requires "being born again." Many use the phrase "born again" without fully appreciating that this second chance at life demands a different way of living. This is what Paul declared in Romans 6:6, when he said, "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin."
Baptism, in part, represents a death. According to Colossians 2:12, baptism is a "burial." You bury what is dead. And Paul declared in Romans 6:7 that "he who has died has been freed from sin." This freeing from sin is both a freeing from the consequences of past sins and from the practice of sin. Paul continued in Romans 6:8 by saying, "if we died with Christ... we shall also live with him." Many new converts (and some who are older) fail to recognize that baptism not only "washes away our sins" (Acts 22:16), but it also implies that we are committed to live according to Jesus' pattern, teaching, and demands.
Paul emphasized this when he said, "Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God, as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God" (Romans 6:11-12). Sin is not to "reign," that is, rule or have control over the way we live, after we are baptized. We are to use our body members to do good, to live righteously. Baptism implies this change, not merely the removal of accountability for past sins.
Some have misunderstood the concept and purpose of "grace." Paul declared, "For sin shall not have dominion (rule) over you, for you are not under law but under grace." (Romans 6:14) In other words, you don't have to face eternal condemnation because you have in the past, or may occasionally in the future, commit a sin in ignorance or weakness. Forgiveness is available. Before Christ's death, sin controlled one's eternal destiny. That is no longer true.
If forgiveness is available, does that mean we don't have to be concerned about whether we sin? Some in Paul's day, and many of today's Calvinists (teachers of the "once saved, always saved" doctrine), seem to be unconcerned about sinful living. But Paul again declared our baptism implies something different. Paul asked, rhetorically, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?"
His answer: "Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?"
In other words, baptism links us with Christ's sacrifice, and that sacrifice offers us a new life. The kind of life we have depends on the choices we make. You can be a servant or slave of sin and return to the "old life," or you can become a servant or slave of Christ and live a "new life." Which course does baptism imply we should take?
Paul quickly declared, "But God be thanked that though you were the slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:17-18). When Paul spoke of "obeying from the heart," he was alluding to that which must precede effective baptism into Christ—repentance. Not only is repentance the expression of sorrow for past sins, but it is also a turning toward God—a willingness to submit to or serve God and His will.
The apostle concluded Romans 6 by demonstrating the benefit of living a "new life" after baptism. He asked us to consider the "fruit" of both the old and the new life. What did a life of sin bring us? What will life in Christ produce? Of the old life, Paul said, "for the end of those things is death." Of the new life, he said, "You have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life."
In the last verse of Romans 6, he repeated this emphasis on the outcome of the two ways of living. He said, "For the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Therefore, it becomes clear that Romans 6 is not merely about the necessity and form of baptism, but about what it implies for our lives after baptism.
