Guide to the
understanding of Romans 6
Koot van Wyk
(From J. P. Louw, Semantiese Strukturalisme van Romeine Vol. I [Department of Greek, University of Pretoria, 1978], page 13)
Remaining in sin Paul says definitely not. “Should we
remain in sin [singular]”? This is a very pointed question involving all of us,
Christians included, one can say all humanity potentially if they also believe.
But notice that it is not sins plural. Why is that. How do all of us remain in
a single sin? Ellen White explains that very well in a statement from Testimonies
volume 1: “A profession of Christianity without
corresponding faith and works will avail nothing. No man can serve two masters.
The children of the wicked one are their own master’s servants; to whom they
yield themselves servants to obey, his servants they are, and they cannot be
the servants of God until they renounce the devil and all his works. It cannot
be harmless for servants of the heavenly King to engage in the pleasures and
amusements which Satan’s servants engage in, even though they often repeat that
such amusements are harmless. God has revealed sacred and holy truths to
separate His people from the ungodly and purify them unto Himself. Seventh-day
Adventists should live out their faith.” - Ellen G. White, Testimonies
for the Church, vol. 1, p. 404. The singular sin is the personified
sin and points to Satan as navigator of destruction in humanity. Once you
become faithful, Paul is saying, should we remain with Satan as navigator in
our lives? Should we entertain Satan and his cronies so that we can receive
greater grace than others to forgive “great sins”? It is a weird mathematics
but there are people saying that they need lots of grace for their sins are
many. Paul uses the optative mood here
saying defiantly and absolutely: “No definitely not”. “How can we still live in it?” How can
we continue living in this sphere or domain of Satan’s navigation? “We, the
ones who died in sin?” Many translators, for example the great Benjamin Weiss
(1906) translated “died to sin” but that is not what Paul is saying for
he did not use that preposition here. It is clearly “in”. It is “in” because it
is a domain or locality run by an Evil navigator.
(From J. P. Louw, Semantiese Strukturalisme van Romeine Vol.
I [Department of Greek, University of Pretoria, 1978], page 13) Paul uses the conditional particle “or”
connecting what he just said that one should not remain in Satan’s control any
longer with what he is going to spell out next. The baptism that we as Christians
received (past tense and Paul is also using the past tense), is “unto His death”.
Did you not know that meaning of baptism lies in its connection to the death of
Christ? It is not that Paul is bringing a new meaning to Baptism that John the
Baptist never had. The endresult of this action is that ownership took place.
From Satan to Christ: “we all were baptized unto Christ Jesus”. We should not remain in sin. Some theologians
are trying to retrieve the doctrine of original sin in the Book of Romans and
they bring it in many forms: original sin or peccatum originale
[Augustine] or sinful nature, sinful passions, sinful habits, sinful self.
Luther was trying to explain that the principle is simul iustus et peccator
meaning: at the same time just but also sinner. He said that absolute
perfection is impossible so perfection is impossible since your best works will
still be imperfect and furthermore, you still have the consciousness of sin in
you, thus perfect obedience is not possible. Wesley disagreed and said that the
Bible teaches clearly perfection as possible and that Paul said that his
friends are perfect. He also said that absolute perfection is not possible but
perfection definitely. Sin as a deed is no longer there but there may be unaccountable
imperfections like faulty memory, problematic pronunciation, and similar human
defects. Moral imperfection, namely, breaking the law of God will no longer be
an issue, says Wesley. Tongue in the cheek Luther also admitted that there is
no cheap grace license and obedience is necessary. Both men, Luther and Wesley
made their emphasis but had tongue in the cheek statements pointing to basically
the presence of Satan hanging around, whether in rooms of the memory trying to
tempt and lure the person down memory lane to follow again passions as guide to
illusional happiness. In verse 4 Paul is saying that just as
we were buried with Him. Through the baptism unto death the burial took place.
Why? Why is it necessary for Christians to get baptized? Paul says “sothat” “just
as Christ was raised from the death through the glory of God in the same manner
we [emphasized by the superfluous pronoun repetition] we can walk in a new life”.
There are benefits to this and Paul
wants to elaborate on it. “Because, if we became grown together [S. Kubo 1979]
in the likeness of His death, but also shall we be of resurrection”. Weiss [1906]
wanted to repeat the likeness as implied absent force in the second part: “in
the likeness of His death, we shall be also [in the likeness of his]
resurrection”. It is creating too many extra words not in the text. This is the
dangerous part in the translation. He may be totally correct but the
methodology is dangerous. To be minimally ignorant is better than to be
maximally wrong. Wisdom is needed and Paul is going to
supply this. There is a perspective that the elite Latin and Greek scholars and
Pharisee-transformed-Christians may not know: “Know this: that our old man is
crucified together, in order that the body of sin may be done away with/inoperative/powerless”.
The classical Greek meaning of the word is “to leave unemployed or idle” as it
was done with Euripides, “to make of none effect/to be abolished/to cease/to be
set free”. Did anything remain? Luther says yes, Wesley says no. Luther says
original sin remains and Wesley said that original sin is done away with. Adventists
believe that mortal bodies remain. Is sinful nature in Adventism the capacity
to die or the capacity to sin or the driving force of sinning? Does the sinful
nature remain after conversion? Is a sinful nature sin if Christ was born with
a sinful nature yet without sin? D. Priebe indicates that sinful nature is not
sin. Sinful actions are sins. Alfred in his old commentary says that the Greek
word here does not mean absolute annihilation. Very similar to the result of
Luther. Paul says “we no longer serve sin”. Are
we serving sin from time to time? “No longer”. Is Christian life a pop-up
situation of in and out, now there and now not? Sin is the personalized sin
here, thus Satan. We do not serve Satan any longer. In verse 7 Paul says: “For he who has
died is deemed righteous from the sin”. This is the meaning Herodotus gives to the
Greek word. He who has been baptized and died with Christ is deemed righteous
away from Satan (the personified sin with a definite article and in the
singular). Another way is to use the meaning of Aeschylus: “For he who has died
is proved/tested from the sin”. It is a proof that the person is no longer with
Satan.
(From J. P. Louw, Semantiese Strukturalisme van Romeine Vol.
I [Department of Greek, University of Pretoria, 1978], page 13) Paul continues in verse 8 that if we
have died with Christ we believe that also we shall live together with Him. “Knowing that Christ no longer dies,
being raised from the dead. Death no longer reign Him.” (verse 9). Paul then
uses data that one can also find in a few places in the Book of Hebrews. He
wrote Hebrews so one will find similarities. One can almost say, whereas Paul
focused in Hebrews on an appeal to Judaism to be converted, in Romans he focused
on the legal elite of Jews in a Latin and Greek context in Rome. “Because the death that He died for
the sin [singular, thus the personified sin, the definite article also helps to
allocate Satan: thus He died to solve the Great Controversy in Heaven] once
[word from Hebrews], but the life that He lives, [is] unto God”. Now the completion of the comparison: “Even
so you [emphasized] you should reckon yourselves dead, on the one side to sin,
but living to God in Christ Jesus.” Dead to Satan but living to God in Christ. They
should consider this.
(From J. P. Louw, Semantiese Strukturalisme van Romeine Vol.
I [Department of Greek, University of Pretoria, 1978], page 13) Paul is canceling Satan’s effect in
our mortal bodies. Mortal they are. But he says that no longer shall Satan
reign in it. There is the matter of choice. As Christians they can permit Satan
to reign in their bodies, or not. Paul said they should not. “Unto the
obedience to its desires [plural]”. Now the situation is personalized to each
person. This potential problem is desires in us. Passions, some Reformers
called it. Satan uses our passions to appeal to our memories and in memory lane
we permit Satan as navigator to lead and guide us further to easy and
shortlived happiness and ultimately sorrow. “Neither present your members as
instruments of iniquity to sin”. Satan as sin here in the personalized and
singular cannot be missed. The sin-navigator is eager to accept the offer to
take our members as tools for his tricks and devices (verse 13). Paul asked them to present themselves
to God “as if alive from the dead”. Also their members as instruments of
righteousness to God. “For not shall sin Lord you.” Satan will not be their
Lord. Christ is their Lord and master. It is the war of two masters as Ellen
White in Testimonies vol. 1 so clearly pointed out supra. “For you are not under the law” [thus
deemed guilty and packed with sin and guilt]. “but under grace” [thus deemed righteous
and free from Satan].
(From J. P. Louw, Semantiese Strukturalisme van Romeine Vol.
I [Department of Greek, University of Pretoria, 1978], page 13) “What then, shall we sin that are not
under the law but under grace?” No definitely not (verse 15). We are in the law
not under it. In the keeping of the law not under the condemnation of the law.
There is a difference of location of the sinner and or saint in connection with
the law. In verse 16 Paul want to speak about
service and consecration either to the one master of destruction or the Master
of righteousness. What is interesting is that it is “obedience unto
righteousness”. “To Him/him you present yourselves as servants unto obedience,
to Him/him you are obedient.” It is the Great Controversy conflict in us
between Satan and Christ. Paul is appealing to our choice in this matter.
(From J. P. Louw, Semantiese Strukturalisme van Romeine Vol.
I [Department of Greek, University of Pretoria, 1978], page 13) “However, grace unto God that when you
were servants of the sin [Satan] on the other hand, you were obedient of the
heart unto the type of teaching which you were given.” (verse 17). Heart-rendering
to truth coming from doctrines that was given them by some preachers and
teachers. “But, being made free from sin [Satan]
you serviced to Righteousness” [Christ] (verse 18). In verse 19 Paul says he speaks after
the manner of men, “through the weakness of your flesh”. In general speaking the
weakness of the flesh is emphasized by sinners to excuse their regular sinful
habits that they do not want to surrender to God. “For just as you presented your
members serviceable to uncleanliness and to lawlessness unto the lawless one”
[the last mentioned is Satan]. “Similarly now you must present your
members serviceable to righteousness unto sanctification.” The Holy Spirit is
the sanctifier in our lives. To present ourselves to Him is to present
ourselves to Sanctification. In verse 20 Paul says when they were
slaves to Satan they were free ones to Christ our Righteousness.
(From J. P. Louw, Semantiese
Strukturalisme van Romeine Vol. I [Department of Greek, University of
Pretoria, 1978], page 13) Paul asked them what fruits they had
when they were sinners? All those fruits were unto death (verse 21). Now, however, these converted
Christians of Rome have their fruits of sanctification “but now you have your
fruit unto sanctification”. Now in this current better set-up they are free
from the sin [Satan] but to serve unto God. But, the end is eternal life. That
is the bonus (verse 22). “For the wages of sin is death”. Satan’s
payments is death. He is the father of death (verse 23). “For the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus to our Lord” (verse 23).
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