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

    In Romans 5 we find
unfolded the character of the triumph of grace over sin. The apostle now, in
the beginning of chapter 6, 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, sin must have at least a certain measure of rule over us.”

    But the apostle will not
allow those who are in Christ to draw 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
apostle teaches otherwise. He teaches and insists on a present deliverance
from the dominion of sin. Our Lord in John 8:34 said, “Whoever commits 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 subjects of grace
should regard bondage to sin as incompatible with subjection to grace.

    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 on 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 our deliverance, that
as subjects of grace and as those who are in Christ, we 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 change the words of Scripture to say, “We ought to be dead to
sin,” and exhort Christians to 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.

    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.

    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 not
allow its lusts to 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.