The book of Romans is one of the greatest studies that have ever been put into language. It presents the various parts of the plan of salvation in a most logical and convincing manner. The book is so completely woven together that it is hard to separate it in such a way as to study a portion of it without studying it all.
The study of the last part of the fifth chapter last week showed the abundant power of God to save men from sin. In taking up the sixth chapter it is hard to study a portion of the chapter without taking the whole of it. But the entire chapter would make too long a study for a single issue of the paper. So we hope that the reader will make a study of the entire chapter in connection with what we have to say this week, and also study it all over again in the study of next week. The sixth chapter is one of the most valuable and helpful in the book, and the reader will find himself well repaid by the study.
"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him thru baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead thru the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him; knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died unto sin once: but the life that He liveth, He liveth unto God." Rom. 6: 1-10.
Paul begins the foregoing with a series of questions. His questions are such as many minds have raised and ever will raise. And furthermore his questions come as a conclusion to the powerful presentation he gives in the fifth chapter of the abundance of God's grace to save from all the depths and entanglements of sin.
If God's grace abounds so completely to the cleansing from sin, should we not continue in sin so that this grace may continue to abound? To this query the most emphatic denial is made. Living in sin is not so enjoyable as the life of righteousness, then why should any one desire to keep up his course of wrong-doing?
When the sinner forsakes his life of sin, and comes to the Lord for pardon and cleansing, he is also required to be "buried therefore with Him thru baptism into death." This is the plain statement of the text, and incidentally it shows that Bible baptism requires a burial. The old man of sin is dead, and it is necessary that he be buried. And having been buried with Him in baptism into death then is the converted one raised to walk in a new life. "Like as Christ was raised from the dead thru the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life."
The ideal life that we so often have pictured to ourselves can be only a faint representation of the real life that the Lord Jesus Christ is seeking to give to every one who will accept it. Then why should any one cling to his sins? May we indeed join with the apostle in saying "God forbid" that we should continue to live in sin since we have such a perfect and such an enjoyable life of righteousness that is within the grasp of every one of us.
The old man of sin is to be "crucified," put to death completely, so that the body of sin may be done away, and all for the purpose of delivering us from the bondage to sin. Every one knows what it is to be a slave to sin. We know what it means to resolve and re-resolve to abandon certain sins, only to find that we still commit the same sins over and over again. We seem bound to them so that we can not break away. When we think of giving up the sin to-morrow or at some other future time, we feel very strong. But to come right up to the point of surrendering now and not committing that sin again, we do not have the power in ourselves to do it. But the conversion that our Lord Jesus Christ gives to each one who will take it is a complete delivery from the power of sin. He provides that we may become absolutely dead to sin so that we need not live any longer therein.
In dying this death to sin we have the Lord Jesus with us. He is there by the mighty power of His Spirit to give strength so that we may endure the death pangs that relieve us from the dominion and power that sin holds over us, and then He ushers us into that new life of power and of righteousness that is His free gift. The change is past the powers of description, but every person who so desires may have the great transformation made in his own life.
Death, death complete to sin, is the privilege of every one; and the life of joy that Christ gives is to take the place of that old life of sin. It is yours for the asking and the seeking. It is all most clearly brought out in this great book of Romans, and some of the most helpful promises and principles concerning it are to be found in this sixth chapter. Study the chapter much more fully than it will be possible in this brief article.