"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall
we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (Romans 6:1,2).

In the fifth chapter of Romans we find unfolded the character of the triumph of grace over sin.
The apostle now, in the beginning of chapter six, is anxious that those who are participators in this
triumph should be preserved from what is a common abuse of his doctrine.

Enemies of the doctrine of grace have sought to discredit it by charging it with making sin a
necessity. There are those who understand the doctrine to mean that it permits going on still in sin.
Flagrant violations of holiness have been defended by the plea that it is allowable under grace to
continue in sin_to indulge the lusts of the flesh. In many places it is taught that victory over sin
is not to be counted on as long as we remain in our earthly life. It is said by some, "We have not
yet received our sinless body, and as long as we have the old sinful body we must inevitably be
subject to sin. It must have at least a certain measure of rule over us."

But the apostle will not allow those who are in Christ to entertain such unholy deductions from
his doctrine of grace. He asks the searching question (if we might paraphrase his words), "Does
the doctrine of grace allow one to go on still in sin? Do we take the view that grace abounding
over sin implies that sin is justifiable as furnishing occasion for the triumph of grace?"

How indignantly the apostle refuses the thought! Such a thought would destroy the true character
of grace; it would rob it of the reality of its triumph; it would mean serious damage to souls. Such
a view is to be wholly condemned. While it is true that we still have our old sinful body, we
cannot allow that we must therefore sin. That, indeed, would not be deliverance from the
dominion of sin.

If it be said, "Our future deliverance is secured but present deliverance is impossible," the answer
is that the apostle teaches otherwise. He teaches and insists on a present deliverance from the
dominion of sin. Our Lord in John 8:34 said, "Whosoever committed! sin is the servant of sin."
The doctrine of the apostle is the same. With him, being under grace and under sin is an
impossibility. Those who are the subjects of grace should regard bondage to sin as incompatible
with subjection to grace.

Let us consider the apostle’s discussion of the subject of present deliverance from the dominion
of sin. Before we begin to follow the apostle’s argument, let us remind ourselves that all men, as
sprung from fallen Adam, are victims of sin and of death. Those laid hold of by grace, which is
by Jesus Christ, have become His seed (Isa. 53:10). As thus sprung from Him, they are sharers
in the eternal life which is in Him and they are of the position in which He is.

What then is His position? Here we must remember that Christ, in grace, once took our position
under sin. He was not personally under it, but in grace entered into the position of being under
sin in the behalf of those who were personally in that position. Having thus in grace taken the
position, He died_death being the penalty of sin, and that which was the due of those in that

position. It was a vicarious death; He could die in no other way. Having died thus making
atonement for the victims of sin, He has risen again and has taken up a new position. He is thus
dead to the former position under sin which in grace He had taken for those under sin.

Now, as we have already said, as sprung from Him we are of Him in His new position. We are
of the position in which He is, and therefore dead to sin.

It is to this blessed fact that the apostle appeals in beginning his discussion as to our right to be
practically delivered from the dominion of sin. His argument is this:Sin having had its reign over
us to its legitimate end in death, and Christ having taken our place in subjection to it, we who have
been laid hold of by His grace have passed out of that position from under sin. We are subjects
of grace, and as such dead to sin. We have the right to be free practically from sin’s power and
rule. We have a positional deliverance which entitles us to live in happy subjection to grace, in
the realization that sin’s rights over us have all been annulled. We are freed completely from every
claim of sin upon us, even from its claim to the use of the old sinful body. What a perfect
deliverance grace has thus provided for us!

Alas, how little it is understood! How difficult it is to lay hold of the true conception of what our
deliverance is! How few are in reality entering into what the apostle means when he teaches, as
he does here, that the subjects of grace_those who are in Christ_are dead to sin!

Some, in their inability to lay hold of the real import of the doctrine of being dead to sin, deny
it altogether. They insist that the fact of our having still the old sinful body is the clearest proof
that we are not yet dead to sin. Others, while they do not deny that the doctrine is taught, and that
there is a certain ideal sense in which it is true, yet deny that it can be practically true. Others still
modify the form of the words in which the doctrine is taught, and say, "We ought to be dead to
sin." In their teaching there is much exhortation to the effect that Christians should strive to die
to sin. How forcefully sometimes we are exhorted to’ put the old man to death. But in all this
teaching the true conception of deliverance from sin is lacking.

Clearly then is our position demonstrated to be Christ’s position of being dead to sin. But this
implies and involves living with Him, and living with Him now, not merely by and by. We shall
surely live with Him when we get our redeemed bodies, but we have title to live with Him now,
while we are still in the old body. He lives no more under sin’s dominion. He went under it once
in grace, but by dying and rising again He lives in eternal deliverance from sin’s power. As
subjects of grace_as being in Him_we are in the same sphere of life in which He is, where sin
cannot enter. It is not simply that we have life in Him, but that we live with Him; and living with
Him implies living in practical deliverance from sin’s dominion.

Now, the very first step toward practical deliverance from serving sin is to think rightly of
ourselves. The apostle tells us in verse 11 how we should think of ourselves. He says that we
should reckon ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God. We are still in our earthly life, but as in
Christ we are entitled to think of ourselves as if we had died and were risen from the dead. It is
this right thought of our position that the apostle presses "upon us here.

Now another thing necessarily accompanies this right thinking of ourselves as if we were dead and
risen. Viewing ourselves as connected with Christ in His position of having died to sin and living
to God, we will consider that sin has no longer any title to the use of the mortal body. We will not
consent to its reigning there; we will refuse that its lusts should govern us. We will look upon the
members of our body as belonging to God, as if they were members of the new body which we
are yet to receive. We will hold them to be instruments of righteousness_not of sin.

If now we take the apostle’s standpoint of looking at ourselves as being in Christ, as if we were
thus dead and risen and living to God, we shall then regard sin’s title to our body as annulled, and
shall recognize the claims of our Saviour-God upon our body_that its members should be
instruments of righteousness. As under these claims, there will be in us a purpose to have God’s
title over us_His rights to our body_ realized in practical life.

May the Lord use the apostle’s exhortations in this chapter to establish in the souls of all the
subjects of His grace an insatiable desire to be practically delivered from sin’s power in its use of
the body for any sinful purpose.

FRAGMENT "I am crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20).