Having established the facts that “we have been justified by faith … we have also obtained access by faith into this grace” (5:1-2), and “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (5:20), Paul must now avert potential misconceptions and indifference toward obedience, morality, and the ever-present dangers of sin (cf. 3:5-8). The thought of forgiven sinners continuing to sin evokes the definitive, “By no means!” [μὴ γένοιτο].1 As to the true nature and purpose of God’s grace, it “was never supposed to be a tool to let people wallow in sin. Grace was extended so people would leave sin (2:4), not increase their participation in it.”2
Died To Sin
Carrying on the previous chapter’s theme of “sin” and “death” vs. “grace” and “life,” this section begins with the rhetorical use of “we” that immediately includes the reading audience. Against the spiritual “death” incurred by sin (5:12-21), Paul reminds the sanctified ones in Rome (1:7) that “repentance” (2:4) must accompany their obedient response to the gospel, so instead of living [ἐπιμένω] in—having “cordial relations with” and “persisting in” (cf. 11:22, 23)—sin, “we … died to sin.” This is achievable because Christ himself “died to sin” (v. 10) and we “died with Christ” (v. 8) and have been raised from the waters of baptism to “walk in newness of life” (v. 4).
True believers will demonstrate their faith by attempting to live in a way that is pleasing to him at all times. Those who allow sin to continue to dominate their lives reveal their lack of true devotion to Christ, and this inevitably raises questions about the reality of their claims to believe in him. To accept Christ as Savior is to accept Christ as Lord, and if that is to mean anything, it must mean everything.3
Baptized Into Christ Jesus
“Do you not know” is a rhetorical way of reaffirming what the readers already know.4 In fact, Paul uses a form of the word “know” in vv. 3, 6, 9. What he is saying is common knowledge among Christians. The eighteen first person plurals in vv. 2-9 are applicable to “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus.”5 The verb βαπτίζω means to submerge (in water),6 and the English word “baptize” is simply an anglicised form of the Greek. In obedience to the gospel, Paul himself had been baptized,7 which he also taught others to do, and wherever he and his coworkers evangelized, receptive hearers were baptized.8 Here Paul takes for granted that the sanctified ones in Rome have all been obedient to this divine directive as well.9
To be “in Christ” is to be integrated into the only spiritual realm wherein God’s gracious blessings are available, incl. “redemption” (3:24), “alive to God” (6:11), “eternal life” (6:23), “no condemnation” (8:1), “free … from the law of sin and death” (8:2), “the love of God” (8:39), “the truth” (9:1), and Christian unity (12:5). How, then, do we enter Christ to access these and all other spiritual blessings?10 Paul answers, with respect to penitent believers, “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus …” (cf. also Gal. 3:26-27). Elsewhere he writes, “we were all baptized into one body …” (1 Cor. 12:13); thus, to be “in Christ” is to be incorporated into his emblematic body – the church, the community of the saved.11 The title “Christ” [Χριστός] recognizes Jesus as the long-anticipated Messiah who has inaugurated the messianic kingdom,12 in which baptized believers participate both in the present age and in the age to come (cf. vv. 5-7; 14:17; 16:25-27; Eph. 1:15-23).
Baptized Into Christ’s Death
Being justified before God is made possible by Jesus’s atoning “blood” (3:25; 5:9),13 which he shed in his death (5:6-10), the spiritual benefits of which are accessed when we are “baptized into his death.”14 The act of baptism is for those having “died to sin,” who are “buried” (in water) and “raised,” corresponding to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (the central theme of the gospel message), making forgiveness of sins and spiritual life available.15 This is how the saints in Rome “became obedient from the heart … freed from sin” (vv. 17-18; cf. 10:16).
Walk In Newness of Life
As forgiven sinners, the relationship between God and penitent baptized believers is dramatically transformed through reconciliation when divine grace, “in which we stand,” is appropriated (5:2). But instead of remaining stationary, we “walk in newness of life.” The verbal “walk” [περιπατέω] portrays a persistent manner of life (cf. 8:1, 4; 13:13; 14:15), and the noun “newness” [καινότης] (cf. 7:6), synonymous with the adj. “new” [καινός],16 “denotes the fullness of the reality of salvation which Christ has given to Christians in comparison with the worthlessness of their former condition” (TDNT 3:451). “Repentance is a characteristic of the whole life, not the action of a single moment.”17
Conclusion
From the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he has been writing to penitent baptized believers sanctified in Christ. Whatever he says before, within, and after chap. 6 must be interpreted accordingly. To claim “justification by faith alone,” from chaps. 3, 4, 5, 10, or anywhere else in the letter to the exclusion of gospel obedience, is therefore to misunderstand and misappropriate Paul’s entire message. We are justified, saved, reconciled to God, and sanctified in Christ by divine grace through faith, involving an obedient faith-response to the gospel. In fact, the saving message of the gospel that Paul proclaimed stands on the foundational truth of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:1-4), which penitent believers obey by dying to sin, being buried in the waters of baptism, then raised to faithfully walk in newness of life.
--Kevin L. Moore
Endnotes:
1 “Certainly not!” (NKJV), “Far from it!” (NASB 2020), “May it never be!” (NASB 1995), “Absolutely not!” (CSB), “Not at all!” (NIV), “Of course not!” (NLT), “By no means!” (NRSV), “God forbid” (ASV, KJV). See also 3:4, 6, 31; 6:15; 7:7; 1 Cor. 6:15; Gal. 3:21.
2 Brad Price, Romans 120; cf. C. K. Barrett, Romans 131.
3 Roger Mohrlang, Romans 25.
4 Rom. 6:3, 16; 7:1; 11:2; (cf. 10:19); 1 Cor. 3:16; 5:6; 6:2-19; 9:13, 24; 2 Cor. 13:5; comparable to the more straightforward “you know” (1 Cor. 12:2; 16:15; 2 Cor. 8:9; Gal. 4:13; Eph. 5:5; Phil. 2:22; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2:2, 5, 11; 3:4; 4:2; 2 Thess. 2:6; 2 Tim. 1:15, 18), and opposite of “I want you to know” (1 Cor. 11:2; Col. 2:1).
5 The correlative pronoun ὅσος, “as many as” (LSV, NET, NKJV), is equivalent to “all” (CSB, ESV, ISV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, WEB).
6 Matt. 3:6, 11, 13, 16; Mark 1:5, 8-10; Luke 3:16; John 1:26, 31, 33; 3:5, 23; Acts 8:36-39; 10:47; 11:16; Eph. 5:26; Heb. 10:22; 1 Pet. 3:20-21; 1 John 5:6, 8.
7 Note “we were buried” [συνετάφημεν], “we” [ἡμεῖς] (v. 4); cf. Acts 9:6, 18b; 22:10, 16; 1 Cor. 12:13.
9 “From this and other references to baptism in Paul’s writings, it is plain that he did not regard baptism as an ‘optional extra’ in the Christian life. He took it for granted that the Roman Christians, who were not his converts, had been as certainly baptized as his own converts were” (F. F. Bruce, Romans 129).
10 Eph. 1:3; cf. also 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 1:7, 11; Col. 1:14; 2:10; 2 Tim. 2:10; et al.
11 Cf. Rom. 1:6-7; 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 1:2; 12:12-27; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:16; 3:6; 4:4, 12, 16; 5:23, 30; Col. 1:18, 24.
12 See K. L. Moore, “The Kingdom of God (Part 3),” Moore Perspective (25 Jan. 2014), <Link>.
13 Cf. Matt. 26:28; Acts 20:28; Eph. 1:7; 2:13; Col. 1:20; Heb. 9:12-28; 10:19, 29; 13:12, 20; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7; 5:6-8; Rev. 1:5; 5:9; 7:14; 12:11.
14 Systematically evaluated, sins are removed by Christ’s blood (Rev. 1:5) at baptism (Acts 22:16); Christ’s blood cleanses the conscience (Heb. 9:14) at baptism (1 Pet. 3:21); Christ’s blood saves (Rom. 5:9) at baptism (Mark 16:15-16); Christ’s blood was shed at his death (John 19:33-35), we are baptized into his death (Rom. 6:3-4).
15 Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:37-38; 8:36-39; 22:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Eph. 2:4-6; 4:5; Col. 2:12; 1 Pet. 3:20-21.
16 Cf. 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Eph. 2:15; 4:24.
17 Sinclair Ferguson, The Grace of Repentance 10.
Related Posts: United with Christ (Rom 6:5-14), The Church in the Gospel Plan, What Must I Do To Be Saved?, Faith and Works: Romans, Abbreviated Gospel
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