Romans 6:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

To allow this reign would mean returning again to the realm of corruption and death. Yet death no longer has dominion over Christ's members. Therefore it must not have dominion over the members of Christians.

Thus the Apostle brings everything to this point. Justifying faith in Jesus Christ must not dispose one to self-will and sinful carelessness. On the contrary, it must dispose one to a holy and Christ-loving life. For as Christ "lives to God," that is, to the glory of His Father, so Christians must "present themselves to God as being alive from the dead, and their members to God as instruments of righteousness" (Rom 6:13).

According to blessed Theophylact, "we shall be sharers of the Resurrection, since we have shown the resurrection that consists in good works."

Co-resurrection with Christ is, of course, only an encouragement to hope. Yet it is founded on this: Christ, having died and risen, will die no more. He will live eternally with the Father, sharing His glory and ordering the gracious Kingdom with full authority in heaven and on earth.

We also have died to sin, and therefore there is no second baptism for us. Consequently, only one thing remains: to hold fast to sinlessness and dedicate our life to God. Then we shall undoubtedly rise together with Christ.

For this actually to take place, we must first of all remember two things. First, we are dead to sin. Second, we must live only for God, since we have been grown together with Him, and in Him lies all the hope of our salvation through Jesus Christ.

"Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God." The force of the saying lies in "reckon yourselves." Settle it in your mind and heart. Compose yourselves in your inward resolves, knowing that you are already dead to sin and alive only for God.

Therefore allow no movement toward the first, and direct all your zeal toward the second. If someone became convinced that he was bodily dead, whatever happened around him would not concern him. Whatever those around him invited him to do, he would have one answer to everything: I am already dead; nothing concerns me.

So, he says, be this way toward sin. Have not only no movement toward it, but not even attention to it. It does not exist for you, and you do not exist for it.

On the other hand, as some wound machine, such as a clock, does nothing but show the time, so you should do only this. Have only this concern: how to live according to God and please Him.

Only, what the machine does involuntarily, you must do voluntarily. Do it with such willing self-compulsion, or with the consciousness of such moral necessity to act thus and not otherwise, as exists in a machine without its will.

"In Christ Jesus our Lord" means either "for the sake of Christ Jesus," because such are the conditions of salvation in Him. Our salvation is so ordered by Him and in Him that it cannot be otherwise.

Being united with Him by faith and grace through the holy mysteries, we cannot be in Him as we must be except by showing ourselves dead to sin and alive only for God. Whoever is not such does not belong to Christ.

Or "in Christ Jesus" means by the power of Christ Jesus. Be of good hope that you will truly remain such, for Christ the Lord is with you. He will accomplish this in you, if you remain devoted to Him.

On the other hand, however lofty it is to be dead to sin and alive to God, do not exalt yourself or think highly of yourself. It is not you who have accomplished and are accomplishing this, but Christ the Lord, with Whom you have been united.

Yet even to union with Him you were called by His goodness. You were brought into this union by His grace, and you remain in it by His help and overshadowing. This happens only because you willingly surrender yourself to His all-accomplishing activity within you.