READ: Rom. 6:1-14: … to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God… and your members as instruments of righteousness to God …
Paul asks in verse 1: “Shall we continue in sin?” In 5:20 he stated that God’s grace proves to be more than abundant when the law brings so many sins to light.
One could then think that it does not matter how you live. If Christ has paid for your sins on the cross and your sins are covered by His blood, is it still really necessary to keep the law? After all, you can’t truly do it right anyway. You will never reach perfection in this life.
And isn’t the law with the Ten Commandments outdated through Christ? Isn’t it only important to continue to believe that your sins are forgiven? You sometimes hear these thoughts among Christians for whom law and sin fade out of view.
But then, what remains of our sanctification? May we live in sin without fighting against it? Paul’s answer is clear: absolutely not!
Paul supports this rejection by pointing to the work of Christ. Not first what we must do, but who we are in Christ. How could we, who live in close fellowship with Christ, still want to live in sin, when He, through His death and resurrection, radically broke with sin and its consequences? As far as our old self is concerned, have we not been crucified with Christ and raised with Him into a new life?
Our baptism shows that too (v.4), doesn’t it? If we are so closely united to Him, we cannot and must not serve sin any longer; for the power of sin over us has been broken by Christ. Living with the living Christ, sin has no power over us anymore. Thus, we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ!
That is what we must also show in our lives. From Christ’s victory over sin, we as believers can and must now fight against sin. For this, God Himself gives us His weapons as weapons of righteousness (v.13; cf. Eph. 6:10-18). In this way, on the basis of His justification Christ also asks from us the sanctification of our lives.
Do you know and use the weapons that God gives us?
Sing: Ps. 103:3