6:1 What 1 shall we say then? Shall we continue in a sin,
that grace may abound?
(1) He passes now to another benefit of Christ, which is called
sanctification or regeneration.
(a) In that corruption, for though the guiltiness of sin,
is not imputed to us, yet the corruption still remains
in us: and this is killed little by little by the
sanctification that follows justification.
6:2 God forbid. 2 How shall we, that are b dead to sin, live
any longer therein?
(2) The benefits of justification and sanctification are always
inseparable joined together, and both of them proceed from
Christ by the grace of God: now sanctification is the
abolishing of sin, that is, of our natural corruption,
whose place is taken by the cleanness and pureness of a
reformed nature.
(b) They are said by Paul to be dead to sin, who are made
partakers of the power of Christ, so that the natural
corruption is dead in them, that is, the power of it is
removed, and it does not bring forth its bitter fruits:
and on the other hand, they are said to live to sin,
who are in the flesh, that is, whom the Spirit of God
has not delivered from the slavery of the corruption of
nature.
6:33 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into
c Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
(3) There are three parts of this sanctification: that is, the
death of the old man or sin, his burial, and the
resurrection of the new man, descending into us from the
virtue of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, of
which benefit our baptism is a sign and pledge.
(c) To the end that growing up as one with him, we should
receive his strength to extinguish sin in us, and to
make us new men.
6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead d by the glory
of the Father, even so e we also should walk in newness of
life.
(d) So that Christ himself, being released of his
infirmity and weakness, might live in glory with God
forever.
(e) And we who are his members rise for this purpose, that
being made partakers of the very same power, we should
begin to lead a new life, as though we were already in
heaven.
6:54 For if we have been planted together in the f likeness
of his death, we shall g be also [in the likeness] of
[his] resurrection:
(4) The death of sin and the life of righteousness, or our
ingrafting into Christ, and growing up into one with him,
cannot be separated by any means, neither in death nor
life: by which it follows that no man is sanctified who
lives still to sin, and therefore is no man made partaker
of Christ by faith, who does not repent and turn from his
wickedness: for as he said before, the law is not
overturned but established by faith.
(f) And by means of the strength which comes from him to
us, so we die to sin, as he is dead.
(g) For every day we become more perfect: for we will never
be perfectly sanctified, as long as we live here.
6:6 Knowing this, that our h old man is crucified with i
[him], that the k body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not l serve sin.
(h) Our entire nature, as we are conceived and born into
this world with sin, is called "old", partly by
comparing that old Adam with Christ, and partly also in
respect of the deformed state of our corrupt nature,
which we change with a new.
(i) Our corrupt nature is regarded as belonging to Christ,
not because of what he has done, but by imputation.
(k) That wickedness which remains in us.
(l) The end of sanctification which we aim at, and will at
length come to, that is, when God will be all in all.
6:75 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
(5) He proves it by the effects of death, comparing Christ the
head with his members.
6:10 For in that he died, he died unto sin m once: but in that
he liveth, he liveth unto n God.
(m) Once for all.
(n) With God.
6:126 Let not sin therefore o reign in your mortal body,
that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
(6) An exhortation to contend and strive with corruption and
all the effects of it.
(o) By reigning Paul means that principal and high rule
which no man strives against, and even if anyone does,
it is in vain.
6:13 Neither p yield ye your q members [as] r instruments
of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God,
as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
[as] instruments of righteousness unto God.
(p) To sin, as to a Lord or tyrant.
(q) Your mind and all the powers of it.
(r) As instruments to commit wickedness with them.
6:147 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are
not under the law, but under grace.
(7) He grants that sin is not yet so dead in us that it is
utterly extinct: but he promises victory to those that
contend bravely, because we have the grace of God given to
us which works so that the law is not now in us the power
and instrument of sin.
6:158 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the
law, but under grace? God forbid.
(8) To be under the law and under sin signifies the same thing,
with respect to whose who are not sanctified, and on the
other hand to be under grace and righteousness is in
harmony with those that are regenerated. Now these are
contraries, so that one cannot agree with the other:
therefore let righteousness expel sin.
6:179 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin,
but ye have obeyed from the heart that s form of doctrine
which was delivered you.
(9) By nature we are slaves to sin and free from righteousness,
but by the grace of God we are made servants to
righteousness, and therefore free from sin.
(s) This type of speech has a special meaning in it: for he
means by this that the doctrine of the gospel is like a
certain mould in which we are cast, to be shaped and
fashioned like it.
6:20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were t free from
righteousness.
(t) Righteousness had no rule over you.
6:2110 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are
now ashamed? for the u end of those things [is] death.
(10) An exhortation to the study of righteousness and hatred of
sin, the contrary results of both being set down before
us.
(u) The reward or payment.
6:2311 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God
[is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(11) Death is the punishment due to sin, but we are sanctified
freely, to everlasting life.
