July 7, 2002

HE THAT IS DEAD IS FREED

Romans 6:7

   "He that is dead is freed from sin" [sin's dominion] (Romans 6:7). But are we really dead? Romans 5:15 reads "If through the offence of the one the many be dead..." And again, "How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?" (Rom. 6:2). In both cases there is a death which we die in another. In the first "the many" includes the whole human race and the "offence of the one" refers to Adam. All died in Adam. In the second case, believers died as identified with Christ. We were "baptized into (identified with) His death..." (6:3); "we are buried with Him by baptism into death..." (6:4); "we have been planted together in the likeness of His death..." (6:5). "Now if we be dead with Christ..." (6:8). We died both in Adam and in Christ!

   In the first case, "the many" are dead because of sin; in the second they are dead "to sin." To escape both the penalty and the dominion of sin, death is required. There is no alternative!

   But the word translated "freed" in Romans 6:7 is really "justified," that is, "He that is dead is justified from sin." The meaning is more than that one is simply freed. He is justified! This idea is expressed in Romans 6:18, "having been freed from sin, you were enslaved to righteousness (justification)." He is justified from "sin," not "sins." Now all die because of "sin," not "sins," and so everyone who dies in this way is "justified from sin" because Christ has paid the penalty. But this leaves one "dead," and death gives no claim on life.

   But one who has died to sin in Christ is freed, or justified from sin and its penalty. And we have a share in the new life He came to impart to all who believe. "But if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him" (6:8). One asks, "Why should we thus believe, and why should our death with Christ give such assurance?" The next verse answers: "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives unto God" (6:8-10)! We live because He lives; "we shall be saved by His life" (5:10). Thus death ends one dominion and life in Christ begins an-other; we are "enslaved to righteousness" through our risen Lord.

Ivan L. Burgener