Dead to Sin, Alive to God

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1. Observe

   What objection does Paul raise at the very beginning of Romans 6, and what is his immediate answer?

   • "Is faith alone enough?" — answered with a list of required works.
   • "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" — answered with "May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?"
   • "Is the law sinful?" — answered with an explanation of the law's goodness.
   • "Are Gentiles included in salvation?" — answered with the olive tree metaphor.

2. Observe

   What does Romans 6:23 contrast as the two ultimate outcomes of the two paths?

   • Earthly blessing versus earthly suffering
   • Law-keeping versus lawbreaking
   • The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
   • Slavery to works versus slavery to grace

3. Interpret

   Romans 6:11 commands believers to "consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God." What does the word "consider" (Greek logizesthe) indicate about how this truth works in practice?

   • "Consider" means imagination — believers should picture themselves in a better state until it feels real.
   • "Consider" means suspicion — evaluate yourself regularly to see if you are truly saved.
   • "Consider" means a firm reckoning from an established fact — the same accounting word used for Abraham's faith being "credited" as righteousness (ch. 4). The believer's death to sin is an objective reality accomplished in union with Christ; "considering" it means calculating life from that truth rather than from the feelings of sin's pull, and then refusing to obey sin on the basis of that reckoning.
   • "Consider" suggests the believer's death to sin is still being accomplished and is not yet complete.

4. Interpret

   Paul says in Romans 6:14, "You are not under law but under grace." How does being under grace, rather than law, actually produce holiness instead of producing license?

   • Grace relaxes the standard so believers no longer have to pursue holiness as rigorously.
   • Grace is mainly about forgiveness after failure, leaving the law as the main engine of obedience.
   • Grace replaces external law with internal transformation — union with Christ has changed the believer's nature (old self crucified, new life given), the Spirit dwells within, and the motivation shifts from fear of punishment to love for God and gratitude for what Christ has done. Law can command but cannot empower; grace changes the heart and provides a new master worth serving.
   • Being under grace means the rules haven't changed, only the penalties for breaking them.

5. Apply

   Romans 6:13 tells believers to "present your members as instruments of righteousness to God." What would it look like to apply this command to everyday physical life?

   • It means reserving sacred time each week for religious activity while leaving the rest of life to normal habits.
   • Presenting members to God is a metaphor that only concerns mental and spiritual attitudes, not literal body parts.
   • This verse calls for intentional, body-level consecration — recognizing that eyes, ears, hands, mouth, and feet can be weapons for sin or instruments for God. The believer actively chooses each day to offer specific bodily activities (what they watch, say, handle, pursue) to God as acts of living worship, aligning physical life with the new identity in Christ.
   • The command is mainly relevant to church workers and ministers who use their bodies professionally for ministry.

6. Apply

   Romans 6:16 says whoever you obey, you are that one's slave — either sin leading to death or obedience leading to righteousness. How does this "slavery to whom you obey" framework reshape how a believer thinks about habitual temptation?

   • It means falling into temptation proves you were never truly saved.
   • It suggests willpower and self-discipline are the primary tools for defeating sin.
   • The slavery metaphor exposes a choice hidden in every act of yielding: repeated obedience to sin reinforces its mastery, while repeated obedience to God reinforces righteousness. This reframes temptation not as a moment of pleasure-seeking but as a moment of choosing a master — making the stakes clearer and the decision more serious. Freedom from sin's slavery is already real in Christ; the believer fights to live in that freedom rather than surrendering back into bondage.
   • This framework only applies to serious moral failures, not everyday small temptations.

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