This chapter in the book of Romans (Chapter 6) deals with sanctification – the change God makes in our life as we grow in the faith. It explains that believers are free from sin's control. Chapter 7 discusses the continuing struggle believers have with sin. Chapter 8 describes how we can have victory over sin.

6:1-2 Hey, I've got a question for ya! If God loves to forgive, why not give him more to forgive? If forgiveness is guaranteed, do we have the freedom to sin as much as we want to? Paul's forceful answer is "Of course not!". Such an attitude – deciding ahead of time to take advantage of God – shows that a person does not understand the seriousness of sin. God's forgiveness does not make sin less serious; his Son's death for sin shows us the dreadful seriousness of sin. Jesus paid with his life so we could be forgiven. The availability of God's mercy must not become an excuse for careless living and moral laziness.

6:1-4 In our church, we baptize as the early church did – by complete immersion. That is, new Christians are completely "buried" in water. This symbolizes death and burial of the old way of life. Coming up out of the water symbolizes resurrection to new life with Christ. If we think of our old, sinful life as dead and buried, we have a powerful motive to resist sin. We can consciously choose to treat the desires and temptations of the old nature as if they were dead. Then we can continue to enjoy our wonderful new life with Jesus. (You can read Galatians 3 and Clolossians 2 and 3 for more on this concept.)

6:5 Because we are united with Christ in his death, our evil desires and bondage to sin died with him. Now, united by faith with him in his resureection life, we have unbroken fellowship with God and freedom from sin's hold on us.

6:6,7 The power of sin over us died with Christ on the cross. Our "Old sinful selves," our sinful nature, died once and for all, so we are freed from its power. The "Power of sin" refers to our rebellious sin-loving nature inherited from Adam.

Though we often willingly cooperate with our sinful nature, it is not our spiritual self, but the our sinful carnal side in us that is evil. And the more we feed our spiritual side, the stronger we become in overcoming sin, and the closer we come to resembling Christ . And it is the "power" of sin in our lives that is defeated. Paul has already stated that through faith in Christ we stand acquitted, "not guilty" before God. Here Paul emphasizes that we need no longer live under sin's power.

God does not take us out of the world or make us robots – we will still feel like sinning from time to time, and sometimes we will sin. The difference is that before we were saved by our faith in Christ, we were like slaves to our sinful nature, but now we can choose to live for Christ!

6:8,9 Because of Christ's death and resurrection, his followers need never fear death. That assurance frees us to enjoy fellowship with him and to do his will. This will affect all our activities – work, worship, play, Bible study, quite times, and times of excitement in living an abundant life.

6:11 "Consider yourselves dead to sin" means that we should regard our old sinful nature as dead and unresponsive to sin. Because of our union and identification with Christ, we no longer want to pursue our old plans, desires, and goals. Now we want to live for the glory of God. As we start this new life, the Holy Spirit will help us become all that Christ wants us to be.

(** Share testimony of baptismal experience **)

Paul makes it clear in today's text that grace does not give permission to go on living one's previous life. Grace is not an excuse for sin. Baptism is an important element in Paul's argument, but it is his concept of how believers become united with Christ that is so important for us to understand.

Paul sees beyond the physical realities into the eternal scope of our lives, and thus is able to expand the death of Christ on the cross as something more than simply the physical death of the body. Now that the resurrection has taken place, it is possible for us to look back through the filter of that event and see things in a different light.

The baptismal event is more than just a symbolic washing. It is seen by Paul as the doorway to union with Christ--a mystical union that is difficult to understand in purely mortal terms. When a believer receives baptism, that believer is united with Christ. Through that union we become crucified with Christ and resurrected with Christ, while in our mortal plane of existence.

Of course, Paul is speaking of our spiritual beings. He recognizes that the mortal body is still fraught with the problems of the mortal world. Once we have died and been resurrected with Christ, we will have a unique spiritual existence that is eternally more significant. It is this spiritual existence that must henceforth govern our lives, our deeds, and our actions. Sin no longer has any dominion over the Christian to cause that believer to continue in sin, even though Christians can still commit sin.

Paul challenges us to look beyond the mortal realm and to unleash the power of God in our lives so we can live more abundantly the life of a disciple of Christ, and to allow the mercies of God, through grace, to have influence over our daily lives.

And it is only through Christ that this has become possible for us. We are to acknowledge this and give him praise and glory and honor.