Chapter Text
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
Slaves to Righteousness
Summary
Paul anticipates the objection that grace encourages sin and answers with an emphatic denial. Believers who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death and raised to walk in newness of life. The old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be destroyed. Paul exhorts believers to reckon themselves dead to sin and alive to God. Sin shall not have dominion, for believers are not under law but under grace. They are to yield themselves as instruments of righteousness.
Meaning
Paul addresses the inevitable misunderstanding of grace: if salvation is free, does it matter how we live? His answer is that union with Christ fundamentally changes the believer's relationship to sin. Baptism symbolizes a real spiritual death and resurrection — the old self enslaved to sin has been put to death.
The command to reckon ourselves dead to sin is not wishful thinking but an act of faith based on accomplished fact. Believers are called to live in the reality of what has already happened in Christ. The question is not which master we choose but which master we serve — sin leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness.
Background
Baptism in the early church was by immersion, making the symbolism of burial and resurrection physically vivid. Paul's language of the 'old man' being crucified draws on the corporate solidarity themes established in chapter five. The imagery of presenting members as instruments recalls the dedication of tools or weapons for service. The slave-master metaphor would have been immediately understood in Roman society, where slavery was pervasive.
Chapter Outline
- vv. 1-2Shall we continue in sin?
- vv. 3-5Buried and raised with Christ
- vv. 6-11Dead to sin, alive to God
- vv. 12-14Yield your members to righteousness
- vv. 15-19Servants of sin or righteousness
- vv. 20-23The wages of sin and gift of God
Key Verses
“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”— 6:4
A foundational text on the meaning of baptism, uniting the believer with Christ's death and resurrection. It anchors Christian identity in union with Christ and the call to transformed living.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”— 6:14
A pivotal declaration that grace, not law, breaks sin's mastery — central to Pauline soteriology and the Reformation recovery of justification by grace.
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”— 6:23
One of the most quoted verses in all of Scripture, often called the heart of the gospel. It contrasts the just penalty earned by sin with the unearned gift of eternal life in Christ.
People & Places
People
- Jesus Christ — The risen Lord whose death and resurrection are the pattern and power of the believer's new life.
- The Father — God the Father, by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead.
Devotional
Paul confronts a question every honest believer faces: if grace covers sin, why resist it? His answer reframes the whole struggle. You are not merely forgiven — you have died with Christ and been raised to walk in newness of life.
That changes the daily fight. Sin is no longer your master; it is a deposed tyrant whose commands you are free to refuse. Each morning, reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God. Yield your hands, your words, your attention as instruments of righteousness, and let grace do what law never could.
Literary Style
Doctrinal epistle in Paul's characteristic diatribe style — posing rhetorical objections ('Shall we continue in sin?') and answering them. Features vivid baptismal and slavery metaphors, antithetical parallelism (death/life, sin/righteousness), and a climactic aphorism in verse 23.