Romans 6:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

So that they would neither say nor think this, see how the Apostle removes their objection. First he does so by prohibition, saying, “Let it not be,” as he usually says about something universally recognized as utterly absurd (cf. Rom 3:4, 6, 31; Rom 6:15; Rom 7:7, 13; Rom 9:14; Rom 11:1, 11; Gal 2:17; Gal 3:21).

Then he brings forward an irrefutable proof. What is it? “We died to sin. How shall we still live in it?” (Rom 6:2).

Yet in general this teaching can trouble, in every age, zealots of religious rite and visible righteousness, and not only superficial ones. Therefore it is very important to trace how the holy Apostle develops this thought and by what he proves it.

In the development of this thought one observes five separate points, or arguments, in the Apostle.

First, the Christian is dead to sin (Rom 6:1-3).

Our death to sin takes place in the mystery of baptism. “We died to sin. How shall we live in it?” (Rom 6:2), the Apostle asks. “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death” (Rom 6:3-4).

This means that Christians are obliged, from the moment of their baptism, to keep the crucified, dead, and buried Christ as the constant pattern of their whole life. Thus they are to be in union with Him and in the likeness of His resurrection.

“For,” says the Apostle, “if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall also be united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom 6:5).

Consequently, we Christians must also be made like Him in life. Therefore we must no longer commit sins, but serve God, having once for all died to sin. So also Jesus Christ Himself died for sin once and rose in order thereafter to live eternally and reign over death.

In the teaching on baptism here, it is worthy of attention that baptism is called death to sin. Its image is expressed more clearly in baptism by immersion, whereas in baptism by pouring it is impossible even to represent the image of death and burial.

According to one interpreter, “In baptism it is the same as if someone prepared a chemical compound which, when unclean linen or clothing is immersed in it, immediately dissolves and consumes every impurity. Only immerse it, and every impurity will be consumed.

So also the death of Christ, as the cleansing power of sin, consumes every sin as soon as one is immersed into this death through baptism. But one must keep in mind that in this death to sin through baptism nothing happens mechanically. Everything is accomplished with the participation of the moral and free resolve of the man himself.

The essence of death to sin is always one thing: aversion from sin, a deadly hatred of it.”

“But hatred and aversion are always formed in the soul in such a way that, turning away from one thing, it turns toward something opposite. According to this law, turning away from sin, it turns toward righteousness and holiness and loves them. This love of righteousness and holiness is the new life.”

“This new life is accomplished graciously and sacramentally, yet freely and willingly” (Theophan).

Explaining the meaning of the words of verse 5, “conformed,” or “planted together,” “to His death,” St. John Chrysostom says: “The Apostle understands two forms of mortification here. One is accomplished by Christ in baptism, and the other we ourselves are obliged to accomplish by our own diligence after baptism.

As, for the blotting out of former sins, you for your part used faith, so, in order not to be defiled by sins after baptism, show a change in disposition.”

For after the mystery of redemption, he considered the chief subject of his teaching to be the explanation of the Christian’s obligation before God: to be holy and undefiled.

What anyone was before his calling is no longer the matter. But once he is called, let him be holy, because he has been called to holiness and equipped with everything necessary for attaining it.

St. Chrysostom places these verses in such a connection. He says that the Apostle turns to morality, that is, to the exhortation to be holy. Yet, so as not to seem burdensome and unbearable, he appears to turn to this not deliberately, but as compelled by the vain reasoning of weak minds.

“He proved that grace is sufficient to heal grave sins. But the senseless could have regarded these words as indulgence toward sin. They might begin to reason: if grace is revealed in greater measure when we commit the gravest sins, then let us not stop sinning, so that grace may appear more abundantly.

Notice how the Apostle turns away from such reasoning and opinion. First he refutes the objection by a simple denial, saying, ‘Let it not be,’ as one usually speaks about something universally recognized as utterly absurd. Then he brings forward an irrefutable proof. What is it?”