Rom 6.1-23 tells us about our release from the power of the sin nature; the call to consider ourselves dead to sin’s governing power; the call to serve Yehovah.
v 1…What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin (the sin nature, not the act of sin. This is a noun in Greek. There are four words translated as sin in the New Testament and they all mean different things; they are: hamarteon meaning sinful acts; hamarteas or hamarteah is the sin nature; hamartanay of hamartanain meaning a sin against someone; and hamartano meaning a special sin that leads to death) that grace may increase (Paul looks back at 5.20).
v 2… May it never be! How shall we who died to sin (the sin nature) still live in it (go on living in sin; sin is a transgression of the Torah, because it defines sin-1 John 3.4) that grace may abound (receive more grace)?
v 3… Or do you not know (he did not start this congregation, so he doesn’t know what they know exactly) that all of us who have been baptized into Messiah Yeshua (immersion is a change of status, we are identified with him and his benefits and purposes) have been baptized into his death?
v 4… Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death in order that as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory (kivod) of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (the only place this “walk” is outlined is the Torah).
v 5…For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection
v 6… knowing this, that our old self (old nature) was crucified with him, that our body of sin (sin nature-same as old self) might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin (compelled to sin by the sin nature);
v 7… for he who has died is free from sin (sin nature-see Col 2.14).
v 8… Now if we have died with Messiah, we believe that we shall also live with him,
v 9… knowing that Messiah, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over him.
v 10… For the death that he died, he died to sin (to atone for and satisfy the judgment for it) once and for all; but the life that he lives, he lives to God (as the heir, the head of the Kahal).
v 11… Even so (in like manner) consider yourselves to be dead (like a corpse) to sin (the sin nature) but alive to God in Messiah Yeshua.
v 12…therefore do not let sin (the sin nature) reign (have jurisdiction) in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts
v 13…and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin (the sin nature) as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God (by obeying the Torah as it applies to you).
v 14… For sin (the sin nature) shall not be master over you, for you are not under law (“upo nomou”= subject to a legal system of works righteousness, nor the law of sin and death) but under grace (Paul has taught that the Gentiles were to follow the Torah, so “not under the law” does not mean they are not to follow the Torah; it means they are not under the condemnation of the Torah and not under a system of works righteousness or legalism. Many teach that believers do not have to obey the Torah but that view would be in conflict with other verses, such as- Rom 3.31; 7.12, 14, 22, 25; 8.4,7; 13.8-10; Matt 5.17-19, 19.17; John 14.15; 1 John 2.1-7, 3.4, 5.2-3; 1 Cor 11.1-2).
v 15…What then? Shall we sin (a great sin, sin unto death) because we are no longer under law but under grace? May it never be!
v 16… Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin (the sin nature) resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
v 17… But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin (the sin nature) you became obedient from the heart (desires, intentions, thoughts) to that form of teaching (the only form of teaching that Yeshua, Paul and the writers of the New Testament delivered was from the Torah, Prophets and the Writings called the Tanak) to which you were committed (Gentiles were to walk in this also-Acts 15.19-21),
v 18… and having been freed from sin (divorced from our previous spouse-the sin nature) you became slaves of righteousness (The “old husband/wife” called the sin nature is still around but we have to tell that old spouse to get lost and move on).
v 19… I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness (no Torah) resulting in lawlessness (a non-Torah observant life), so now present your members as slaves to righteousness (as defined by the Torah) resulting in sanctification (kedusha; set apart for special use).
v 20… For when you were slaves of sin (the sin nature/old spouse), you were free in regard to righteousness (unattached; as defined in the Torah).
v 21…Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed (in other words, what true benefits did we have from our previous husband/wife, except for shame, neglect, pain and abuse)? For the outcome of those things was death.
v 22… But now having been freed from sin (divorced from our previous spouse-the sin nature) and enslaved to God , you derive your fruit (fruit/acts as defined by the Torah, good works-Eph 2.10) resulting in sanctification (being set apart) and the outcome, eternal life.
v 23… For the wages of sin (the sin nature) is death; but the free gift (charisma-a gift of grace, kindness) of God is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.
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