A man and a woman get married while still unbelievers. The marriage is often unpleasant and the husband’s abusive words have had enough impact over the years that they have taken root in the woman’s psyche, given her own fleshly weaknesses. He’s beaten down her spirit because he, himself, is an insecure little man (or shall I say a pathetic male?). It’s a sad situation, but not uncommon by any means.

The husband dies at an early age, so the woman is free to remarry. God saves her and she finds a good church that teaches the unadulterated Word of God. She’s content and at peace, grateful to God. God ushers a widower into her church; they meet and after ample Biblical courting, deep prayer, and consideration, they discern that God has meant for them to be married. What a blessing, indeed.

Once married, the woman realizes the blessing of a godly man and she is so grateful to the Lord for him. He’s nothing like her first husband, who was cruel, leaving scar tissue that haunts her to this day. She can still hear his voice in her head, saying, “You’re a nobody…I don’t know why you’re so happy all the time…you’ve got nothing to be happy about, just look at yourself!” She shudders whenever she hears his voice. Juxtaposed to his awful words are the encouraging words of her current husband, “You’re wonderfully made, my dear…Christ loves you and so do I…shine on, love.”

Even though her first husband is dead, as is the marriage, itself, he has a bad habit of haunting her from the grave. He has no right to do so, but her own weaknesses allow for it. It upsets her every time she catches herself being influenced by a dead man, especially when her beautiful husband is right beside her reminding her of her worth in Christ.

This is a lot like what Paul wrote about in Romans 6. As unbelievers, we are like the woman above in her first marriage - under the authority of sin and death. Before salvation, we are bound to spiritual death, even though we are alive physically. We are hopeless and helpless in this estate. When we are saved, we are “baptized into [Christ’s] death” (Romans 6:3), which is tantamount to saying that we are to “consider [ourselves] dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). In other words, from sin’s perspective, we have become dead; but, from God’s perspective, we are made alive!

The key to unlocking the mysteries of Paul’s writing in Romans 6 is to understand one thing; you must read the chapter with both the perspective of sin towards you and the perspective of God towards you (once you’re saved). Sin is analogous to the first husband in the story above while God is analogous to the second. Before salvation, you were under the rule of sin; but, after salvation, “He has delivered [you] from the domain of darkness and transferred [you] to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). Ideally, we’d never forget this truth.

While the woman above had every right to live unencumbered with her new husband, she often experienced the vestiges of her first husband’s evil influence. This is akin to what we believers experience, once saved, whenever we lose our righteous perspective on our new life in Christ. When we’re weak, we can still hear the echoes of sin’s voice whispering in our ears. If we’re honest, we are often affected by it, even sinning as a result of being tempted by it.

Be encouraged, my friend. We all are like the woman in the story, coping with little voices in our heads, being tempted daily to lose sight of our position in Christ Jesus, and learning to focus on the fact that we are dead to sin but alive to God. When you read Romans 6, keep both perspectives in view; otherwise, you might become confused. Paul wrote this chapter from the perspective of each master in view (sin or God), which is why we are described as either slaves of one or the other (either alive or dead "to" them, from their perspective).

With the above guidance in view, read this magnificent chapter now.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Romans 6

I hope you see what God the Holy Spirit is pointing out in this blog. The key to unlocking this chapter is reading it with two perspectives in view: sin’s and God’s. We are alive to sin prior to salvation while dead to God; however, after salvation, we are dead to sin while alive to God. Being dead to the sovereign of one or the other means you are useless to that sovereign, incapable of being rightly moved by them since you are not under their rule. As believers, we are dead to sin; however, like the woman in the story, it often still haunts us, so much so that we stumble as a result. While this isn’t the honorable thing to do, given our rights as children of God, it’s normal (read Paul’s lament in Romans 7 for encouragement). The more you read Romans 6, as this blog suggests, the more you’ll understand this very truth.

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
— John 8:32

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins