Romans 6
SIBVer. 1, 2.** But, if our justification thus wholly depend upon the free grace of God through the imputation of Jesus’ righteousness, and God’s free favour superabound where sin had abounded, should we thence take encouragement to continue in, and more eagerly practise wickedness, that God’s grace may be the more illustriously displayed in pardoning and saving us? Nothing could be more detestable and horrid, or even more unnatural to a renewed heart: for, though we cannot be justified by our own works, yet how could we, who are delivered from the guilt and dominion of sin, and whose affections are mortified to it, in any consistency with our state and character, or any sense of duty or gratitude, or with any conscience, hope, or peace, allow ourselves to continue in, or practise any known iniquity!
Romans 6:3
Know ye not that our baptism with water, by the authority, and into the profession, faith, and obedience of Jesus Christ, signified and sealed our spiritual union to him, as members of his mystical body: and the mortification, as well as the remission of our sin, through the influence of his death; and our federal obligation to concur with the end of his death, to redeem us from all iniquity?
Romans 6:4
It is therefore not only incumbent on us to be conformable to Christ’s death in the crucifixion of our sinful lusts, but to give continued proofs thereof, in conformity to his lying in the grave; that, as he was raised from the dead by the glorious power and operation of his Father, and in order to receive with him the reward of his glorifying him on earth, we, by virtue derived from him as our living and quickening Head, being quickened to a spiritual and heavenly life, should with freedom, constancy, and in a progressive manner, daily live in all holy obedience, from new principles and motives, and by a new rule, and to new ends—the praise and glory of God
Romans 6:5
For if, as is represented in baptism, we are so united to Christ as our mystical Head, that we receive from him gracious influences to render us conformable to him in his death, by the mortification of sin and separation of our souls from it, we shall certainly receive influences from him as our risen Saviour, to enable us to live like him in holiness, till we are admitted into immediate fellowship with him in his heavenly glory
Romans 6:6
For, from the principles of the gospel, we know that the subtle corruption of our nature derived from Adam, and spread into all the members of our body and faculties of our soul, is mortally wounded through Jesus Christ’s death; he having died for this very end, that its whole frame, power, and authority, should be gradually, but powerfully, mortified and subdued, and utterly destroyed; 4 from this very time we should never willingly yield ourselves to its incline and influence, or serve its interests and designs
Romans 6:7
For whosoever we lead to the reign and love of sin, through conformity to his crucified and Saviour, is freed from its domineering power and command over him, delivered from all allowed inclinations and desires to serve it
Romans 6:8
Now through the merits and influence of Christ’s death, we, by virtue of union to, fellowship with him, are thus conformed to him in an effectual death unto us, are assured, from God’s word and by his Spirit, that, through virtue of us from him as our risen Redeemer, we shall be enabled to live a spiritual, heavenly, life here, till we are raised to an eternal life of immediate fellowship with him hereafter. 9, 10. For we are certain that Christ, our risen United Head, will never more die, or be obnoxious to death; but having, in one death on the cross, fully taken away the whole guilt and punishment of sins, he is raised from the dead to a life heavenly, immortal, and divine, calculated to promote the glory of his Father’s perfections
Romans 6:11
If he is, dying once, so effectually took away the sin of his people, and destroyed his will and power of it, that he now lives in eternal honour to the glory of us, becomes you to reckon yourselves dead, and actually to be dead, to the love, and practice, of sin, through union to, and fellowship with, him; spiritually alive in your hearts and affections, loving and serving God in your word, and deed, as under the power of gracious principles and influence, derived from him as our common Saviour and Lord. 12, 13. Take that ye never suffer sin so to prevail in either your souls, or your frail, terrible, and mortal bodies, as to make you yield any voluntary obedience to corrupt desires and solicitations of those sinful lusts which still remain in favor at any time to make you willingly employ your bodily members, or the pleasures of your souls, as instruments of warfare against God, or of serving the poor or gratifying the perverse inclinations, of sin; but with full consent, and in reserve, give up your whole selves, soul and body, to God through us as your only rightful Sovereign, to whom all your obedience is due, that therein act as persons delivered from condemnation, and quickened by degenerating Spirit; and cheerfully employ all the members of your body, answers of your soul, as instruments of warfare with sin, and of serving God in ourness and righteousness
Romans 6:14
To encourage you in which, know as we say, that, however your inward corruptions may trouble, perplex, and wound us and strive for the mastery in you, yet they shall never regain their allowed uncontrolled power over you who are united to Christ; for ye are not now in the covenant of works, which however severely it forbids and condemns us, affords no pardon of it, or effectual assistance against it, but ye are under covenant of grace, which secures full forgiveness of, redemption from, and guidance against, sin, and affords every powerful motive and help to holy obedience; and are under the influence of God’s sin-subduing and heart-sanctifying it; and under the government of a never-failing principle of grace, implanted our hearts
Romans 6:15
Now nothing can be more contrary to the perfections of the design of the gospel, or your gracious character and state, than to persuade a gracious deliverance and state as an encouragement to sin
Romans 6:16
Ye must but know, that it is impossible for you to divide your chosen services between opposite governors, but ye must be the proper servants of whatever you are, and tarily give up yourselves to the habitual obedience of, whether it be to sin, service of which is deadly, and issues in eternal death; or whether it be to sin, access in the obedience of faith, for bringing forth the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God
Romans 6:17
But blessed be God that, though all of you who are Christians were once the voluntary servants and slaves of your sinful lusts, have, by his almighty and gracious influences, been made sincerely, deliberately, and cordially, upon his authority, to receive and obey those evangelical principles and commands which have been communicated to you by Christ and the ministers, and which, by their powerful impression on you, have formed you in his own image
Romans 6:18
And, being set at liberty from the tyrannical opinion and lordship of sin in your wills, affections, and conversation, ye have become the devoted and willing servants of that principle of holiness which God has implanted in your hearts in conformity to his own righteous law
Romans 6:19
In condescension to your weak capacities, enfeebled by the present frailties of nature and remains of sinful corruption, I use this common similitude of master and servant, and I affirm that, as in your unregenerate state ye resigned and employed all the members of your body and powers of your soul in the voluntary service of unclean, unrighteous, and ungodly principles and habits of sin, which cruelly reigned and tyrannized over you, and rendered you more guilty, vile, and miserable, by adding sin to sin—so ye should now, when brought into a state of grace, act up to the dignity, obligation, and holiness of your character, earnestly employing all your members and faculties in the exercise of your implanted graces, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world
Romans 6:20
For, when ye were the willing servants and slaves of your sinful lusts, ye were wholly estranged from, and disaffected to, every principle of holiness, insensible of all obligation to piety or virtue, and even pleased with an unrestrained inclination to wickedness
Romans 6:21
But what real profit, honour, or satisfaction, did you ever find, or could ye expect to find, in your former sinful courses? Were they not attended with remorse, defilement, reproach, trouble, disappointment, loss, and mischief, to yourselves? And are ye not now filled with holy confusion, self-abasement, and shame, in every review of them, as things foolish and unworthy, highly ungrateful, offensive, and dishonourable, to God, and no less ruinous and destructive to your own souls and bodies in time and eternity
Romans 6:22
But now, that by the mighty power and grace of God, in bringing you under another Head and covenant, and implanting other principles and habits in you, ye are set at liberty from the reign and love of sin, as well as from the guilt of it, and made the willing and obedient servants of God in Christ, ye grow in grace, and bring forth the fruits of righteousness and holiness in this world, the final issue and perfection of which is an honourable and everlasting blessedness graciously bestowed in the world to come
Romans 6:23
For death, in all its hideous forms, spiritual, temporal, or eternal, is all the wages allotted by the law of God, or which can be procured by all our labours and sufferings, in the service of sin; but that everlasting life, which consists in the immediate and full enjoyment of, and conformity to God, which is the issue of holiness in heart and practice, though not indeed the proper wages of it, is the transcendently free gift of God bestowed on us, without any regard to our merits, and merely on account of the righteousness and mediation of Jesus Christ, our only and appointed, and well furnished, Saviour and Lord
REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. VI.—Groundless and very injurious is every charge of licentiousness on the doctrine of the free justification of sinners through the imputed righteousness of Christ. Nothing is more detestable to a renewed heart than to continue in sin, because grace does, or that it may abound. For, though our good works do not procure, yet they necessarily follow, our justification by grace: and to indulge ourselves in sin, or to neglect the study of holiness, & a flat contradiction to all the signification and engagements of our baptism; and is absolutely inconsistent with our character, privilege, or duty, as members of Christ and partakers of his grace and glory. Yea, delightful, excellent, and useful, are the effects of regenerating grace. What dying to sin! what spiritual quickening to our holy and heavenly life! What an holy, comfortable, and edifying walk before God, from new principles and ends, and after the new pattern of Christ, and by virtue derived from his death and resurrection! There is need then to examine ourselves fully, whether sin or holiness have the ascendancy in our hearts and lives. It is shameful to be less for the Lord Christ after our conversion than we were for sin before it. And all new covenant deliverance from sin ought to render it and its service detestable to us.—Alas, what confusion and wrath follow upon sin! But, abundant, eternal, and free, is the redemption which comes to us through Jesus Christ