Freed From Slavery To Sin Baptized into Christ
Freed From Slavery To Sin Baptized into Christ
CHAPTER 3 - 1.8
This chapter examines Paul’s explanation of freedom from slavery to sin in Romans 6. The last chapter discussed how mankind is born sinful and unrighteous, slaves to sin. For all sin and are under the condemnation of the Law, sin, death, and Satan. In contrast, this chapter explains how sinners are freed from slavery to sin, and slaves to God under grace. Having received righteousness on account of Christ Jesus, the sinner is freed from slavery to sin. Christians are no longer condemned, but justified and declared righteous from the judgment of the Law, sin, death, and Satan. Freedom from slavery to sin results from the fact that all sin has been paid for on account of Christ Jesus. Those Baptized into Jesus Christ are created anew through faith, resurrected from the dead with Christ to life everlasting.
The slave to sin is born a slave because of original sin, the result of Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God in the garden. The slave to God is the freed from all the consequences of sin, original and actual, through the crucified and risen Redeemer and Savior of the sinful world Jesus Christ. Forgiveness of sins and justification from sin gives sinners declared righteousness and redemption from sin to all who believe and are Baptized. Freedom from slavery to sin only exists in the power of God in Christ.
Baptism describes the means of grace from which a slave to sin is freed and justified. Baptism sets one free from slavery to sin by Christ’s death and resurrection. Baptism is a way to unite sinners with Christ, thus bestowing justification from sin and clothing them in righteousness (cf. Rom 3-5). Declared righteousness from sin comes from outside mankind, from God in Christ Jesus. Freed slaves from sin are then enslaved to Christ through Baptism (cf. Rom 6:18), having died to the reign of sin (cf. Rom 6:2, 5, 11, 18, 23). Slaves freed from sin have forgiveness of sins, and are credited righteousness on account of Christ’s death and resurrection. Thereafter, freed sinners are slaves to God in Christ Jesus (cf. Rom 6:22), and transferred over from the power of sin. Sinners are handed over to the power of God under grace and life in Christ Jesus (cf. Rom 6:17-18).
Paul describes freedom and justification from slavery to sin in Romans 6. Freedom from slavery to sin equates to sinners no longer being “enslaved to sin” (Rom 6:6). Therefore, Paul describes the Baptized as “dead to sin . . . [and] living to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11). As a result of Baptism, the enslaved to sin are set free and declared righteous from sin (cf. Rom 6:7, 18). The slave to God under grace is an heir of God’s Kingdom as a son, on account of Christ, the Son of God. Freedom in Christ is received through faith as the gift given from God in the means of grace. Grace is issued freely for sinners.
Perhaps associating sin with slavery seems easier to accept than slavery to God and righteousness (cf. Rom 6:18-22). Although the righteousness that comes from Christ is “apart from the law”[1] (Rom 3:21; cf. Rom 10:4), it provides a kind of slavery that comes from God’s grace in Baptism. Although it is nominally slavery, it is vastly different from human slavery and eternally different from slavery to sin. Freedom from slavery to sin begins with God, who unites a sinner to the death and resurrection of Christ. This freedom is true repentant faith given and received from “the Word of Christ” (Rom 10:17) and Baptism (cf. Rom 6:3-5) for the forgiveness of sins.[2] God’s promise of unity and righteousness in and with Christ is laid out in Romans 6. Slavery to God is key to understanding Paul’s usage of slavery language for the Christian Baptized into Christ.
Baptism into Christ’s Death and Resurrection
In Baptism, one is united with Christ’s death and resurrection. Paul asks, “What then will we say? Let us persist in sin so that grace might multiply? May it never come to be! We who died to sin, how will we still live in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, [that] we were baptized into his death?” (Rom 6:1-2). A slave to God and righteousness is free from slavery to sin, having died by Baptism into Christ’s death, and is declared righteous (cf. Rom 6:7, 18, 22).
Romans 6 clearly teaches Baptismal death and resurrection in Christ Jesus. Paul writes,
As many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, [that] we were baptized into his death? Consequently, we were buried with him through this Baptism into [his] death, so that just as Christ was raised from [the] dead through the glory of the Father, thus also we might walk in life’s renewal. Indeed, since we have become united and grow together with the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be [united in the likeness] of his resurrection (Rom 6:3-5).
The Baptized are buried with Christ in the likeness of His death. Thereafter, Christians are raised with Christ to walk in life’s renewal. Baptized believers united with Christ are freed from slavery to sin on account of Christ, therefore having died to sin’s reign. The sinner, dead, buried and raised with Christ, is “living to God in Christ” (Rom 6:11). A slave to God is alive in Christ through Baptism,
They have been freed from slavery to sin and are now enslaved to a new Master and “Lord” (κύριος). As a result, his life—eternal life—is theirs. As Jesus “died to sin once for all” and now “lives to God” (6:10), so baptized believers in him are “dead to sin” and “living to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11), who is now further defined as “our Lord” (ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, 6:23). And, once again, how did we get to be “in Christ”? “We were baptized into Christ Jesus” (6:3); therefore, he is also our Lord.[3]
The slave to the new Master, Jesus, is free from slavery to sin through faith and Baptism in Christ Jesus the Lord, “by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” [4] (Titus 3:5).
The enslaved sinner cannot be freed unless born anew by the Holy Spirit. The sinner is “by nature sinful and unclean.”[5] Received by grace, the bound sinner is “(re)born”[6] anew of the Holy Spirit by Baptism into Christ and created anew as a slave to God in Christ. Sinners are the ones for whom Christ died. Paul declares, “For what he [Christ] died, he died to sin once for all” (Rom 6:10; cf. Heb 7:27; 9:12; 10:10).[7] The slave to God is sanctified, possessing true faith and holiness from God on account of Christ. Sanctification is being set apart as holy to God. Sinners are sanctified to God through Jesus Christ's sacrifice for sin. Jesus’ atonement for sin was paid for by His crucified body and shed blood “once for all” (Rom 6:10; Heb 7:27; 9:12, 26; 10:10). Justification and sanctification in Christ Jesus are gracious gifts from God.
The sinner freed from slavery to sin has Christ’s righteousness, justification, and sanctification through faith under grace. Pieper explains, “Strictly speaking, only that Word which mortifies the old man and supplies strength to the new man is the means of sanctification, namely, the Gospel (the means of grace), not the Law. It is only the Gospel which dethrones sin; the Law can only multiply sin (Rom. 6:14; 7:5-6; Jer. 31:31).”[8] Sanctification comes from the dominion of grace in the Word of Christ. Middendorf comments, “Therefore, wherever the Law causes sin to multiply, grace, like a mighty flood, overflows above and beyond our trespasses (5:20). Grace reigns!”[9] Paul writes, “Indeed, sin will not be lord of you; for you are not under Law but under grace” (Rom 6:14). Grace rules over and above the Law, covering the offense of sin. By grace, the “old man/self”[10] dies (cf. Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9), and the καινὸν “ἄνθρωπον–new man/self”[11] is raised (cf. Rom 6:4; Eph. 4:24; Col 3:10). The new man in Christ is justified from sin. The new man is sanctified, freed from slavery to sin, and bound to God “in Christ”[12] through faith and Baptism into Christ. Therefore, the sinner freed from slavery to sin has Christ’s righteousness, justification, and sanctification through faith under grace.
[1] Paul writes, “But now, apart from the Law, a righteousness of God has been revealed and is now out in the open, while being testified to by the Law and the Prophets, that is, a righteousness of God through faith of/[in] Jesus Christ into all those who believe” (Rom 3:21-22). Righteousness of God is a righteousness from Yahweh God, “[יְהוָ֥ה׀ צִדְקֵֽנוּ] Yahweh our [צֶדֶק–tsedeq] righteousness” (Jer 23:6; 33:16; cf. Isa 25:44; Dan 9:24; Rom 3:21-22; 10:4; 1 Cor 1:30; 2 Cor 5:21; Phi 3:9), and “Yahweh is righteous” (Psalm 129:4; cf. 119:37; 145:17; Jer 12:1; Dan 9:7, 14; Rom 3:25-26). Paul explains, “For [the] righteousness of God is being revealed in it [the Goon News] from faith[fulness] into faith, just as it stands written: “But the righteous person will live from faith.” (Rom 1:17; [italics mine]); “צֶדֶק” n.m. rightness, righteousness — 1. what is right, just, normal; rightness, justness, of weights and measures . . . 6. righteousness as vindicated, justification in controversy with enemies and troubles, deliverance, victory, prosperity . . . b. in name יהוה צִדְקֵנוּ, of Messianic king (vindicating people’s cause and giving victory).” BDB, 842, cf. 841.
[2] “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ‘For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself’” (Acts 2:38-39).
[3] Middendorf, Romans 1–8, 509; All who are Baptized: “From that moment [Baptism into Christ] he belongs to Christ. He is wrested from the dominion of the world, and passes to the ownership of Christ. Baptism therefore betokens a breach. Christ invades the realm of Satan, and creates for himself his Church . . . The baptized Christian has ceased to belong to the world and is no longer its slave. He belongs to Christ alone . . .” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 231; see The Cost of Discipleship, 227-235.
[4] Paul explains Baptism is the work of God: “But when the kindness and affection of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He [God] poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7; cf. John 3:5; Rom 5:5; 8:17; Eph 3:26; 1 Pet 3:21).
[5] Lutheran Service Book (St, Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), 151, 167.
[6] Not born by human birth through the womb, but born of the Spirit as a new creature in Christ, “born again” (John 3:3, 7; 1 Pet 1:3, 23), “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5), born from above––born of God (cf. John 1:13; 1 John 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18).
[7] Middendorf explains, ‘Once for all’ (ἐφάπαξ) is a crucial term in Hebrews (see … 6:10). Paul’s only use of the term in Romans makes essentially the same theological point as that author. Christ has completed his conquest over sin and death with finality. But there is more. The once-for-all-ness of his death to sin is the critical factor for all those who also, as Paul says, have died to sin (6:2). Our Baptism is effective because “we were baptized into his death” (6:3), which was a death “to sin once for all” (6:10).” Romans 1–8, 472; “ἐφάπαξ (s. ἅπαξ) adv. ① pert. to being simultaneous, at once, at one time . . . ② taking place once and to the exclusion of any further occurrence, once for all, once and never again (Eupolis Com. [V B.C.] 175 Kock) Ro 6:10; Hb 7:27; 9:12; 10:10.” BDAG, 417; “ἐφάπαξ ephapax; from G1909 and G530; once for all: — once for all.” NASEC, G2178.
[8] Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, vol. 3., 18; Scripture brings this teaching of the dominion of grace to light. Paul writes, “And the Law came in alongside that the trespass might multiply. But where sin multiplied, grace overflowed above and beyond” (Rom 5:20; cf. Rom 3:20; Gal 3:19; 1 Tim 1:14).
[9] Middendorf, Romans 1–8, 451–452.
[10] Cf. Chapter 2; “παλαιὸς ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος–old [our] man/self” (Rom 6:6).
[11] “καινὸν ἄνθρωπον–new man” (Eph 4:24); “καινός, ή, όν . . . ① pert. to being in existence for a relatively short time, new, unused . . . ③ pert. to that which is recent in contrast to someth. old, new. . . ⓑ in the sense that what is old has become obsolete, and should be replaced by what is new. . . Of the renewing of a pers. who has been converted κ. ἄνθρωπος Eph 4:24.” BDAG, 496-97; “καινός kainos; a prim. word; new, fresh: — fresh.” NASEC, G2537.
[12] Cf. Rom 5:12-21; 6:11; 1 Cor 15:21-22.