render God propitious to us by his expiation, in any other way than by making us partakers of his
Spirit, who renews us to a holy life. It would then be a most strange inversion of the work of God
were sin to gather strength on account of the grace which is offered to us in Christ; for medicine
is not a feeder of the disease, which it destroys.^183 We must further bear in mind, what I have already
referred to — that Paul does not state here what God finds us to be, when he calls us to an union
with his Son, but what it behoves us to be, after he has had mercy on us, and has freely adopted us;
for by an adverb, denoting a future time, he shows what kind of change ought to follow righteousness.
Romans 6:3-4
- Num ignoratis quod quicunque baptizati
Sumus in Christum, in mortem ejus baptizati
sumus? - Know ye not, that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his
death? - Consepulti ergo sumus ei per baptismum
in mortem; ut guemadmodum suscitatus est - Therefore we are buried with him by
baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised
Christus ex mortuis per gloriam Patris, sic et nos
in novitate vitæ ambulemus.
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life.
3.Know ye not, etc. What he intimated in the last verse — that Christ destroys sin in his people,
he proves here by mentioning the effect of baptism, by which we are initiated into his faith; for it
is beyond any question, that we put on Christ in baptism, and that we are baptized for this end —
that we may be one with him. But Paul takes up another principle — that we are then really united
to the body of Christ, when his death brings forth in us its fruit; yea, he teaches us, that this fellowship
as to death is what is to be mainly regarded in baptism; for not washing alone is set forth in it, but
also the putting to death and the dying of the old man. It is hence evident, that when we become
partakers of the grace of Christ, immediately the efficacy of his death appears. But the benefit of
this fellowship as to the death of Christ is described in what follows.^184
(^183) This phrase, “died to sin,” is evidently misapprehended by Haldane Having been offended, and justly so, by an unguarded
and erroneous expression of Stuart, derived from Chrysostom, and by the false rendering of Macknight, he went to another
extreme, and maintained, that to die, or to be dead to sin, means to be freed from its guilt, while the whole context proves, that
it means deliverance from its power as a master, from the servitude or bondage of sin. To live in it, does not mean to live under
its guilt, but in its service and under its ruling power; and this is what the Apostle represents as a contrast to being dead to sin.
Not to “serve sin,” in Romans 6:6, is its true explanation. See also Romans 6:11, 12, and 14.
The very argument requires this meaning. The question in the first verse, — Shall we continue in sin?” does not surely
mean — shall we continue in or under the guilt of sin? but in its service, and in the practice of it. It was the chapter of practical
licentiousness that the Apostle rebuts; and he employs an argument suitable to the purpose, “If we are dead to sin, freed from it
as our master, how absurd it is to suppose that we can live any longer in its service?” Then he shows in what follows how this
had been effected. This is clearly the import of the passage, and so taken by almost all commentators.
But it must be added, that Venema and Chalmers materially agree with Haldane The former says that to “die to sin” is to
give to sin what it demands and that is, death; and that when this is given, it can require nothing more. In this sense, he adds,
Christ died to sin (Romans 6:10); and in the same sense believers die to sin, being, as they are, united to Christ, his death being
viewed as their death. However true this theology may be, (and Chalmers shows this in his own inimitable manner,) it does not
seem to be taught here: though there may be something in one or two expressions to favor it; yet the whole tenor of the passage,
and many of the phrases, seem clearly to constrain us to adopt the other view. — Ed.
(^184) “Baptized into ( ) Christ,” “baptized into ( ) Moses,” 1 Corinthians 10:2, “baptized into ( ) one body,” 1 Corinthians
12:13, are all the same forms of expression, and must mean, that by the rite of baptism a professed union is made, and, in the