Romans 6
BSASBPaul answers the charge that grace gives permission to sin. Believers have been joined to Christ in His death and resurrection, so sin no longer owns them. They are now to give themselves to God as His servants, because sin pays death but God gives eternal life.
Romans 6:1
Paul has just said that grace overflowed where sin was great. He now raises the obvious objection: should we keep sinning so grace gets bigger? The question is asked only to be refused. Grace is never a reason to stay in sin.
BSA: grace (“unmerited favor, divine influence”): Grace is undeserved favor, and also a power at work in us, so it cannot be treated as a cover for sin.
See also: Romans 5:20.
Romans 6:2
Paul’s answer is a strong no. Believers have died to sin, so going on in it makes no sense. His point is that something real has happened to us in Christ, and our old life under sin’s rule has ended.
BSA: Certainly not (“God forbid, by no means”): This is a strong, horrified refusal, not a mild disagreement.
Greek: μὴ γένοιτο (mē genoito, G3361) — “may it never be.” This is Paul’s sharpest way of rejecting an idea. He uses it again in verse 15.
Romans 6:3
Paul reminds them of what baptism means. Those who were baptized into Christ were joined to Him, and so joined to His death. Baptism marks the believer’s entry into Christ and everything He accomplished.
BSA: baptized (“immersed, fully wet”): The picture is of being plunged into something, as the believer is plunged into Christ and His death.
Greek: ἐβαπτίσθημεν (ebaptisthēmen, G907) — “we were immersed.” The word means to dip or plunge. Paul uses it to show being placed inside Christ, not merely a ceremony performed on us.
See also: Galatians 3:27.
Romans 6:4
Going under the water pictures burial with Christ, and rising pictures His resurrection. Christ was raised by the Father’s glorious power, and the same power now lets us walk in a new kind of life. Burial shows the old life is truly finished.
BSA: walk (“live, conduct our lives”): Walking means the everyday pattern of life, step by step, not a single moment. newness (“a fresh start, renewal”): The life is new in kind, not just the old life repaired.
See also: Colossians 2:12.
Romans 6:5
Being joined to Christ in His death carries a promise: we will also share His resurrection. The two cannot be separated. Paul speaks of a new life that begins now, and it also points to the final resurrection to come.
BSA: united (“closely joined”): The word suggests growing together, as a plant grows into one with another.
Greek: σύμφυτοι (symphytoi, G4854) — “planted together, grown together.” It is a garden picture. We are rooted in Christ and share His life, as a graft shares the life of the tree.
Romans 6:6
Our old self, the person we were under sin’s rule, was crucified with Christ. The aim is that sin’s hold on the body be broken, so we need no longer be its slaves. Sin’s power was dealt a real blow at the cross.
BSA: powerless (“useless, inactive”): Sin is not wiped out, but its control is disabled. slaves (“servants, in bondage”): Sin had owned us like a master, and that ownership is ended.
Greek: καταργηθῇ (katargēthē, G2673) — “be made inoperative, be put out of action.” The word does not mean destroyed to nothing. It means stripped of power to work, like a tool taken out of use.
See also: Galatians 2:20.
Romans 6:7
Death ends a slave’s service. Someone who has died is no longer under his master’s claim. In the same way, those who have died with Christ are released from sin’s demands, and sin can no longer rightly command them.
BSA: freed (“justified, set free”): The word can mean declared righteous, so release from sin’s claim is also a verdict of acquittal.
Romans 6:8
Dying with Christ is not the end of the story. Paul says we believe we will also live with Him. Faith holds on to this promise of shared life with Christ, a life that begins now and has no end.
BSA: live (“coexist, survive”): The life promised is life together with Christ, a shared and lasting companionship.
Romans 6:9
Christ’s resurrection was no temporary return like Lazarus’s. He rose never to die again. Death once held Him, but it has no further claim. This is the sure ground for our own hope of life.
BSA: dominion (“power, lordship”): Death ruled as a lord over all people, but its rule over Christ is over.
Greek: κυριεύει (kyrieuei, G2961) — “rules as lord.” It comes from the word for lord. Death once acted as a master, and now has no authority over Christ.
See also: Revelation 1:18.
Romans 6:10
Christ died to sin once for all. His death was final and complete, and it will not be repeated. The life He now lives is wholly for God. We share both: the finished death and the life lived for God.
BSA: once for all (“at one time, for all time”): His death was a single, complete act that never needs repeating.
Greek: ἐφάπαξ (ephapax, G2178) — “once for all time.” The word stresses finality. What Christ did on the cross is complete and cannot be added to.
See also: Hebrews 10:10.
Romans 6:11
Here is the first command. Count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is not pretending. It means taking God’s word about our new position as true and living from it.
BSA: count (“reckon, consider”): It is a settled judgment based on fact, like adding up an account and trusting the total.
Greek: λογίζεσθε (logizesthe, G3049) — “reckon, calculate, take into account.” It is a bookkeeping word. Paul asks us to treat as real what God has already declared true.
Romans 6:12
Since sin has lost its right to rule, believers must not allow it to reign again. Our bodies are still mortal and still feel desire. But we need not give in. Sin is a defeated ruler, and we are asked not to put it back on the throne.
BSA: reign (“rule, have authority”): Sin is pictured as a king demanding obedience, which believers are told not to grant.
Romans 6:13
Paul speaks of hands, eyes, tongue and feet as tools. They can serve wickedness or serve righteousness. Those brought from death to life should hand themselves over to God, whole person and each part, to be used for what is right.
BSA: instruments (“tools, weapons”): The body’s parts are like weapons or tools, good or evil depending on whose hand holds them. present (“yield, give over”): It means a deliberate offering, handing something over to a new owner.
See also: Romans 12:1.
Romans 6:14
This is a promise as well as a command: sin will not be your master. The reason is that believers live under grace, not under law. Law could command but gave no power to obey. Grace brings forgiveness and also strength to live rightly.
BSA: grace (“divine influence, graciousness, God’s unmerited favor”): Grace is both a gift we do not earn and a power that changes us.
Romans 6:15
Paul asks the question again in a slightly different form. If we are not under law, may we sin freely? Again his answer is no. Freedom from law’s condemnation is never a license to do wrong.
See also: Galatians 5:13.
Romans 6:16
No one is truly without a master. Whoever you give yourself to obey becomes your master. There are only two roads: slavery to sin, which ends in death, or obedience, which leads to righteousness. Paul wants us to see where each road goes.
BSA: slaves (“servants, bondservants”): A slave belongs entirely to his master, so Paul shows we always belong to someone.
Greek: δοῦλοι (douloi, G1401) — “slaves, bondservants.” This is the plain word for a slave who belongs wholly to another. Paul uses it on purpose to show that sin or God claims us entirely.
See also: John 8:34.
Romans 6:17
Paul gives thanks that these believers, once slaves to sin, obeyed from the heart the teaching they were given. Their change was real and not forced. The gospel they received is like a mold into which a new life is poured.
BSA: form (“model, pattern”): The teaching is a pattern that shapes the life of the one who receives it.
Greek: τύπον (typon, G5179) — “pattern, mold, impression.” It was the word for a stamp or mold that leaves its shape on whatever is pressed into it.
Romans 6:18
Believers have been set free from sin, and they now belong to righteousness. Paul describes a change of masters. Freedom here is not doing whatever we like but being released from a cruel owner to serve a good one.
BSA: set free (“made free, liberated”): It is a real release, like a slave legally freed from his owner.
See also: John 8:36.
Romans 6:19
Paul uses the picture of slavery because it is a familiar human one, and because his readers are slow to grasp spiritual things. As they once gave their bodies to impurity and ever-growing wickedness, they should now give them to righteousness, which leads to holiness.
BSA: holiness (“being set apart for God”): Holiness means belonging to God and living as His, not merely being good.
Romans 6:20
When you were sin’s slaves, righteousness had no claim on you. You were free from it, but that was no real freedom. It was a bondage that kept you from the good. Paul wants them to see what that supposed freedom really was.
BSA: free (“unrestricted, liberated”): Paul speaks with irony: they were free only in the sense of being cut off from righteousness.
Romans 6:21
Paul asks them to look honestly at their past. What good came from the things they are now ashamed of? Nothing lasting. Those paths end only in death. Shame over the past shows that the new life has opened their eyes.
BSA: fruit (“result, product, or outcome”): Fruit is what a life produces, and Paul asks what harvest sin ever gave. ashamed (“regretful, embarrassed, or remorseful”): Looking back with shame is a sign of a changed heart.
Romans 6:22
Now the picture is reversed. Freed from sin and serving God, believers bear fruit that leads to holiness, and the end is eternal life. Serving God is not a new burden but the true way to live and flourish.
BSA: eternal (“lasting forever, age-during”): The life is of the age to come, beginning now and never ending.
See also: Galatians 5:22-23.
Romans 6:23
Sin pays wages, and what it pays is death. It is something earned. Eternal life is not wages but a gift, given freely by God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We earn the one, and we receive the other with open hands.
BSA: wages (“compensation, payment”): Wages are what is owed for work done, and sin’s payment is death. gift (“free gift, divine gratuity”): The word stresses that eternal life is given freely and cannot be earned.
Greek: χάρισμα (charisma, G5486) — “free gift of grace.” It comes from the word for grace. Life is a gift from God’s grace, in contrast to the wages sin earns.
See also: Ephesians 2:8-9.