Chapter 6

Justification by Faith Means Being Dead to Sin and Alive to God

¹ Now how are we to relate to this wonderful truth of being saved by grace? Can we say that since Christ’s redeeming grace has cancelled Adam’s sin plus all our own personal sins, we are now at liberty to enjoy sin, seeing grace has set us free from all condemnation [Romans 8:1]. ² No, never! How can we ever think like that when we know that Christ’s death to sin included all mankind [2 Corinthians 5:14] and we believers have by faith identified ourselves with that death? [Galatians 2:20] ³ Or are you not aware of the meaning of baptism, that it is a public confession declaring our union by faith to Christ and Him crucified? ⁴ This means His death to sin becomes our death to sin; His burial becomes our burial — symbolized by our immersion in the waters of baptism; and, just as God raised Christ up from the dead by His undefeatable power, we too must allow that same power, now dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit, to control us in our new Christian life [Romans 8:11].

⁵ For since we have by faith identified ourselves with Christ, sharing in His death to sin, surely we must also identify ourselves by faith with His resurrected humanity, cleansed of sin. ⁶ And knowing this — that our self-centered, sinful life was crucified with Christ, thus bringing to an end the source of our sin problem — by faith we can now experience deliverance and no longer be slaves to sin [Galatians 2:20].

⁷ For when a sinner dies, such a person has not only met the justice of the law [justified], but has also been set free from the dominion of sin. ⁸ And if we have died with Christ, our sin bearer, we believe with certainty that we shall also live with Him in eternity, ⁹ for we know that Christ died only once and was raised from the dead never to die again; death can no longer have sway over Him. ¹⁰ This is because when Christ died on the cross He died the death the law demands of every sinner, the equivalent of the second death, and now that He lives He does so in unbroken union with His Father our God; never will He ever have to face God-abandonment as He did on the cross.

¹¹ In the same way, you too, who are united to Christ by faith, must regard yourselves as having died to sin and ended with that relationship, and must now live in unbroken union with God. ¹² Accordingly, do not let the pull of sin rule over you so that you have to yield to its demands. ¹³ Neither must you allow the clamors of sin to control the various parts of your body to satisfy its own sinful ambitions; but by faith put yourselves at the disposal of God’s Holy Spirit and let Him use your bodies as tools for doing good and righteous acts.

Justification by Faith Means Being Slaves of God

¹⁴ For remember, sin no longer has authority over you who are in Christ; it has no right to dominate you nor can it destroy you eternally, because you are no longer legally under the law, in the sense of the old covenant, from whence sin gets its power to kill sinners [1 Corinthians 15:5]; but you are now under grace, the new covenant of God, which does not destroy but saves to the uttermost [Hebrews 7:25]. ¹⁵ Does this mean we can take advantage of this truth? What I am alluding to is this: since sin can no longer destroy us Christians, because we are no longer under the jurisdiction of the law but under God’s saving grace, can we say “it really does not matter if we keep on sinning”? The answer is a definite No!

¹⁶ You know well enough that in the slave society, when one places himself at the disposal of a master as a slave, he has to obey his master in all that he requires. This is how it is in the spiritual realm too; when you chose to serve sin it became your master and it will rule you until it takes you to your grave. On the other hand, if you have decided to obey the gospel, then you have chosen God to be your master and you have to obey Him, who is the author of righteousness and not sin. ¹⁷ All of you believers can thank God because you were all born slaves to sin as a result of the fall [Romans 7.14]; now, from the depths of your hearts, you have obeyed the gospel you were taught; ¹⁸ and being emancipated from the dominion of sin, you have, out of your own free will, chosen to be slaves of our benevolent God, the source of all righteousness.

¹⁹ I am using this illustration of slavery because you understand how your sinful natures are slaves to sin; but now what I am admonishing you is that just as you formerly yielded the various parts of your bodies to impure acts and to ever-increasing lawlessness, so also, now that you have been set free from sin by the grace of God, you must yield the various parts of your bodies to right-doing, making Christ’s holy character your goal in life [Philippians 3:12-14]. ²⁰ Remember . . . when you were slaves to sin all that you were capable of was to commit sins, for even your good deeds were polluted with selfishness. What profit was that to you, now that you have seen the light? ²¹ None whatsoever; not only are you ashamed of your past history but had you continued that lifestyle it would have ended in eternal death.

²² But now that you have been emancipated from the dominion of sin and become slaves of God by your own choice, the blessings you receive are twofold; it is holy living in this life and the joys of eternal life with God at Christ’s second advent. ²³ For just as the wages paid by sin is eternal death, so likewise the gracious gift of God is eternal life through our faith-union with Jesus Christ our Lord.