(Rom 6:1 NASB) What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?
Rom 6:1: Paul told us in chapter 5 that death reigned over all mankind through the disobedience of Adam and righteousness and justification reigns over all who are faithful through the obedience of Yeshua Messiah (Romans 5:16-17). Paul makes it clear the contrast between the disobedience of Adam and the obedience of Messiah led to the justification of His people (Romans 5:18-19). It is by Elohim that all of Israel is justified through Messiah (Isa. 45:25). The term “justified” in the Hebrew means “made righteous.” Justified – H6663. tsadeq, tsadoq, [842c]; denom. vb. from H6664; to be just or righteous:– acquit(1), acquitted(1), be properly restored(m)(1), declare right(1), do justice(1), give justice(1), just(2), justified(5), justifies(1), justify(5), justifying(2), lead to righteousness(1), made righteous(2), proved right(1), proved righteous(1), right(4), righteous(9), vindicated(1), vindicates(1). It is through the obedience of Messiah that we are made righteous to Elohim.
The work of Elohim in our lives which continually brings us closer to Him is a process called sanctification. Too often it is taught that there is a huge difference between justification and sanctification. They are actually two sides of the same coin. Justification means that you are “just” before Elohim. You are justified when His Spirit is within you and your heart and desire is to follow Yeshua and His commandments. Sanctification is a result of justification. Sanctification is the work of the Spirit of Elohim in you bringing you closer to the Father through obedience to Him.
Sanctification is not a duty that follows justification, it is a fact. If you are truly justified, sanctification will follow. Justification and sanctification flow from the fact that Yeshua Messiah died, resurrected, and ascended to the Father and sent His Spirit to dwell within His people, Israel.
Up to this chapter, Paul has not discussed the set-apart life His people should lead (except for “do not judge if you are engaging in that same sin” in chapter 2). He has been talking only about salvation and that it is not achieved by the works or words of the individual. From chapter 6 on, Paul is not going to discuss the salvation of the chosen, but the life that the child of Elohim should be leading. This falls in line with the discussion of justification and sanctification. Up to chapter 6, Paul has been discussing justification, or salvation by the graciousness of Elohim through His faithfulness which we receive as a gift from the Father. From chapter 6 on, Paul is going to discuss the process of sanctification, or the Spirit of Elohim at work in our lives to give us a new nature and desire in our lives. A true union with Messiah as our Master means that we are no longer slaves to sin and we will break free from that bondage. Sanctification gives us freedom, but that freedom is not a license, as we shall soon see.
The first thing we must do is define “sin.” John does that for us (1 John 3:4). John also tells us that all unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:7). What is righteousness (Deut. 6:25)? The Torah of Elohim is the way all men should walk that they might live (Lev. 18:5).
(Rom 6:2 NASB) May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Rom 6:2: Paul is very emphatic about this. There is no mistaking what he is telling us. We should not continue in sin. We died to sin when we have the Spirit of Elohim within us, truly realize Yeshua as Messiah, and have a desire to follow His commandments. The righteousness we receive through Yeshua is Torah written our hearts and minds. We have righteousness which leads to life through Messiah in a similar manner that we have death from sin through Adam. The death we are to have is death to sin, death that comes from sin.
Since we have died to sin through Yeshua, how can we still live in it?
(Rom 6:3 NASB) Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
(Rom 6:4 NASB) Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
(Rom 6:5 NASB) For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,
Rom 6:5: I believe we are to interpret the previous two verses in context of this one. The term “baptizo” in the Greek can have 22 different meanings. It can also mean “to be associated with, or to be united with (verse 5).” When we are immersed in baptism, we are associating ourselves with Him and we are no longer associated to sin. We are to walk in newness of life and will follow His Torah. When we are associated to Messiah, we are united with Him in His resurrection as well as His death
We were buried with Him through identification with His death and, by the same token, we are identified with Him in His resurrection. He died to sin and we are to die to sin.
(Rom 6:6 NASB) knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;
Rom 6:6: What is “our old self?” This is our sinful ways. We are no longer slaves to sin because we are free to obey Torah through the blood of Messiah. When we have a realization of Messiah, Elohim places His spirit within us and we then have the desire to follow Him and His Torah (Ezek. 36:25-27). This is the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34). The New Covenant was prophesied in Torah (Deut. 30:6-16). The vehicle of the New Covenant is the shed blood of Messiah (Luke 22:20). It is through His shed blood that the Spirit of Elohim dwells within us and we are empowered to walk according to Torah
(Rom 6:7 NASB) for he who has died is freed from sin.
Rom 6:7: We have been declared righteous from sin through Messiah. We are acquitted. We are to be free from sin.
(Rom 6:8 NASB) Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
Rom 6:8: Since the Spirit (Breath) of the Father dwells in His people, we are living with Him both now and after He returns.
(Rom 6:9 NASB) knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
Rom 6:9: Yeshua is ruler over death (Rev. 1:18). This is in keeping with one of the main themes of Paul’s message. He preaches the resurrection. He used the resurrection of Messiah as the proof of the resurrection of man.
(Rom 6:10 NASB) For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Rom 6:10: He died once and lives forever. His life He lives to Elohim. We should do the same thing if we died with Him and resurrected with Him.
(Rom 6:11 NASB) Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
(Rom 6:12 NASB) Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,
Rom 6:12: Don’t let sin rule over you. This is the same warning given to Cain (Gen. 4:7).
(Rom 6:13 NASB) and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Rom 6:13: Now that we are justified and united with Messiah, we are to be sanctified and live a life that will be pleasing to Him. Our body is to be an instrument of righteousness to Elohim.
How do we live a life that is pleasing to Him? We can only do this through obedience to His Word (Deut. 28:1-14).
(Rom 6:14 NASB) For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
Rom 6:14: You are no longer a slave to sin. You have a new desire to follow Him through the grace of Elohim.
What does Paul mean by “under the law” and “under Grace?” He is putting people into two different categories. There are those who reject Messiah and His ways. They are under the judgment of Torah. There are also those who are chosen by the Father to love His ways are under His graciousness and will be blessed.
(Rom 6:15 NASB) What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
Rom 6:15: Paul’s question here is similar to that in verse one. Is it okay to sin because we are going to be judged according to the grace of Elohim? The answer is “no!”
Many groups come up with their own list of rules for a Christian life. The Puritans said that strict observance of the Sabbath was very important to leading the Christian life. However, they called the Sabbath Sunday, when it is actually Saturday.
Obedience to Torah is the experience of sanctification. It is HOW you walk and WHERE you walk. Are you walking in the Light? Are you walking in fellowship with Messiah? Sin will break the fellowship naturally, but then we are to confess the sin the Elohim. We do not have fellowship with Him unless we confess our sins to Him and turn back to Him and His ways.
(Rom 6:16 NASB) Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
Rom 6:16: Paul is saying here that we all are obeying something. We are either obeying sin or obeying Torah. Regardless of who you are, whatever or whomever you obey is your master.
Paul agrees with Deuteronomy when he says here that our obedience results in righteousness (Deut. 6:25).
(Rom 6:17 NASB) But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
(Rom 6:18 NASB) and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Rom 6:18: After you have been delivered from sin and made a believer, you CAN obey Torah. But you cannot obey Torah as long as you are still a blinded slave to sin.
(Rom 6:19 NASB) I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Rom 6:19: Paul says they are weak in their flesh alone to be slaves to righteousness. They presented themselves as slaves to uncleanness Impurity – G167. akatharsia, from G169; uncleanness:– impurity(9), uncleanness(1). and lawlessness which resulted in further lawlessness. We are now to present ourselves as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Yeshua told us that if we commit sin, we are slaves to sin (John 8:31-34). It is interesting to hear Christians say that they cannot help but sin. If that is the case, then they are slaves to sin, are they not?
(Rom 6:20 NASB) For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Rom 6:20: Before the Spirit (Breath) of Elohim came into our lives, we didn’t think of serving Him. His Torah was the farthest thing from our mind. We weren’t interested in it at all.
(Rom 6:21 NASB) Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
Rom 6:21: This verse makes perfect sense to those who used to be Christians and now have the Spirit of the Father within them to be obedient to Torah. We were deriving no benefit from the sins we freely committed as Christians.
Man tends to think that freedom means to sin in any form that we want to. Actually freedom comes from following Yeshua and walking in His footsteps of Torah. Slavery to sin is the actual bondage in the world.
(Rom 6:22 NASB) But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
Rom 6:22: If you are a slave to Elohim through His Spirit, you are set free from sin which leads to death and you have sanctification (fruit to holiness – NKJV) which will abide with you into eternity. Life eternal is the contrast to death.
(Rom 6:23 NASB) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom 6:23: There is a paymaster and he will see to it that you get paid. If you work for him, the payment is death. But the gift of Elohim is eternal life. You receive that gift through Him choosing you, not vice versa.
You are to walk according to faithfulness. You cannot live for Elohim by yourself any more than you can save yourself. It is the Spirit of Elohim that gives us the desire to follow His Torah and walk in faithfulness to His Word.
Patrick McGuire
Copyright 2014 Patrick McGuire and Beit Yeshua Torah Assembly All rights reserved, no portion of this Lesson may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews. Beit Yeshua Torah Assembly Fort Smith, Arkansas