Full Text for The Christian Under Grace, According to Romans 6:1-14 (Text)
WALTER A. MAIER THE CHRISTIAN UNDER GRACE, According to Romans 6:1-14 Concordia Theological Seminary Press . Fort Wayne, Indiana . FORT WAYNE THE CHRISTIAN UNDER GRACE, ACCORDING TO ROMANS 6:1-14 A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Department of New Testament Theology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Sacred Theology by Walter A. Maier May 1967 Approved by: [Martin H. Franzmann 1 Advisor [Victor Bartling 1 Reader TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1 II. THE GRACE WHICH THE CHRISTIAN HAS RECEIVED, ACCORDING TO ROMANS 6:1-10 ................................... 3 Verses 1 and 2 .................................................. 3 Verses 3 and 4 .................................................. 4 Life Through Faith and/or Baptism? ................................... 7 The Question of Time and Space Relationships .......................... 10 Verse 5 ...................................................... 13 Verses 6 and 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15 Verses 8-10 ................................................... 21 III. GRACE THE CHRISTIAN MUST STRIVE TO APPROPRIATE, ACCORDING TO ROMANS 6:11-14 ................................. 24 Verse 11 ..................................................... 24 tv XptO''tli> 'IT\O'oi) .............................................. 28 Verses 12 and 13 ............................................... 31 Verse 14 ..................................................... 34 IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS .................................. 37 ENDNOTES.. . ........................................................... 41 BffiLIOGRAPHY ........................................................... 56 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION If ... at morning's dawn we consecrate ourselves anew to God and at nightfall plead again the perfect sacrifice of Christ, into whose death we have been baptized and into whose new divine life we have been engrafted, Baptism will mean more to us than a rite and we shall experience the constant power of the new birth's sanctifying operation.1 These words of Arthur Carl Piepkom reflect a central truth of Lutheran theology, namely, that the sacrament of Holy Baptism is an efficacious means of grace, through which God bestows saving blessings on the baptized at the time of his baptism and for the whole of his life subsequent. Christians are privileged to return in faith daily, and continually within each day as spiritual needs may require, to the fact of their baptism and the fountain of grace and strength for godliness which God has made this holy washing for them. This thesis proposes to discuss one of the basic New Testament passages dealing with baptism and its significance for baptized believers, Romans 6:1-14. In this section the Apostle Paul speaks of one of the mighty, saving effects of the sacrament, the fact that it establishes spiritual union of the baptized with Christ. This is sometimes referred to as the "mystical union" of the believer and his Lord. Because of the union with Jesus, the child of God participates spiritually in Christ's crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, and continuing life. As a result, the Christian is a new creation in Christ and, as the Apostle Paul shows, is provided with fundamental motivation and power for a godly life. To this motivation and power the believer is instructed to have recourse in his daily struggles against sin, so as regularly to emerge the victor. Often the Pauline theology of baptism in Romans 6 is neglected in Christian circles, possibly because of its difficulty. The writer can assert that in the approximately thirty years since his confrrmation he has heard very little preaching on this chapter; very little emphasis upon the vital implications of the doctrine of the mystical union for Christian sanctification; very little instruction concerning the sin-defeating power which the baptized Christian, as a man "in Christ," derives from union with Jesus for the personal day-to-day battle with evil and striving for holiness. He also recalls his own struggles in past years with "second-level" motivations (love, gratitude, fear, hope of reward) for godliness and resultant frustrations of spiritual endeavor, on the one hand; and the joy over discovery of the truths of Romans 6 and concomitant power for sanctification experienced, on the other. It is this past contact with, and personal benefit obtained through understanding and use of Paul's teaching, that has prompted the writer's interest in undertaking a more thorough investigation of Paul's statements in Romans 6. The wording of the thesis topic, "The Christian under Grace, According to Romans 6:1-14," has been suggested by the reference to divine grace in the first and last verses of this Scripture section -particularly by the closing words, "you are not under law but under grace." Chapter II of the thesis considers the first ten verses of the Pauline text under the heading, "The Grace Which the Christian Has Received, According to Romans 6:1-10"; Chapter III, the remaining verses under the heading, "Grace the Christian Must Strive to Appropriate, According to Romans 6:11-14." A final chapter, IV, offers a summary and conclusions. The body of the thesis, therefore, is essentially an exegetical study of the first fourteen verses of Romans 6.2 In the concluding chapter the relevance of Pauline theology in Romans 6 for the teaching and proclamation of the Church in the twentieth century is discussed. 1 The writer states at the outset of this study that, as his basic assumption, he considers the Bible to be the Word of God, the product of divine inspiration; that the Sacred Book is a unity and presents a unified message. In accordance with his basic assumption he uses Scripture to illumine and explain Scripture. Clearer understanding of Paul's terms and concepts as employed in Romans 6 is sought through a comparison with their usage elsewhere not only in the Pauline corpus but in other writings of the New Testament. A final preliminary observation. Since there is no serious question regarding the authenticity and integrity of the section of Romans under consideration, matters pertaining to the introduction to Romans are not discussed in the thesis. The writer assumes that the Apostle Paul wrote the epistle at Corinth in 56 A.D.3 to the Christian congregation at Rome, in order to acquaint them with his missionary and travel plans and provide the membership with a systematic presentation of the chief doctrines of the Christian faith. 2 CHAPTER II THE GRACE WHICH THE CHRISTIAN HAS RECEIVED, ACCORDING TO ROMANS 6:1-10 In the first section of our study we shall consider the grace which the Christian has already received from God, as set forth in verses 1-10 of Romans 6. First, a word about the context of this Scripture. Chapters five to eight of Romans present the effects, or fruits, of justification by grace through faith, which is the theme of the epistle. Among these are life and salvation through Jesus, the Head of the new humanity, treated in chapter five; union with Christ and release from the dominion of sin, chapter six; freedom from the coercion of the law through the same Lord, chapter seven; and the guidance, comfort, and help of his indwelling Holy Spirit throughout earthly life, chapter eight. The first-mentioned benefits, life and salvation, are not only blessings of the future, extending into a heavenly eternity; they have their beginning and a significance for the believer from the moment he comes to faith and is justified. What is involved in the reception of life is detailed in the tIrst portion of Romans 6: it includes union with Christ in his death and resurrection. This brings us to the discussion of the ten verses before us. The third chapter will consider Paul's emphasis on the fact that possession of the new life through union with Christ carries with it ethical responsibility and supplies ultimate ethical dynamic.1 Verses 1 and 2 Paul introduces the subject of Romans 6 by taking up a misunderstanding to which his immediately previous statement might be liable. In 5:20 he stated: "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." In this immediate context he asks, verse 1: What shall we say, then? Are we to continue2 in sin, so that grace may abound?3 The less sinning, the less divine grace required to pardon sin; the more sinning, the greater the application of grace required, and the more that grace would be magnified, the more brightly its luster would be exhibited. Would not continuance in sin, then, serve to enhance the grace of God?4 AJlap't1:a appears with the article in verse 1 and in its other occurrences throughout this section, except in verse 14. It will be helpful to note at the outset of a chapter which sets forth the Christian's rescue from the dominion of sin that the apostle appears to view it as a personal power (especially in verses 6,7,10-14,16-20, 22, 23; compare also such passages as 5:21; 7:8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 17, 20, 23, 25; and 8:2,3. Hans Lietzmann says: "die Suende wird bei PIs stets als fast persoenliche Macht betrachtet."s Similarly, Sanday and Headlam: It is remarkable how St. Paul throughout these chapters, Romans v, vi, vii, constantly personifies Sin as a pernicious and deadly force at work in the world, not dissimilar in kind to the other great counteracting forces, the Incarnation of Christ and the Gospe1.6 Gustav Staehlin, who finds that "the personal conception of aJlap't1:a (mostly with the article) ... is often found in the New Testament, especially Romans 5-7," speaks of the possible significance here of a demonic agency: It is hard to say how far what we have here is the concrete notion of a demon "sin" (Dibelius) standing in the place of Satan, who is not mentioned at all in R. 6f., and how far it is simply poetic imagery (Feine). How fluid are the boundaries between these NT forms of the aJlap't1:a concept may be seen from John (cf. esp. Jn 8:34; 1 In 3:5; and e.g., In 8:21 with V.24).7 3 Walter Grundmann pointedly states: sin is here [Romans 5-8] personified as a demon .... Sin has a demonic character. This demonic character emerges quite clearly in the fact that it uses the holy will of God to increase its power ... (7:13) .... He [man] is possessed by the demonic power of sin. Sin controls him and finally gives him the reward of death. ... The demonology and satanology of Paul is not dualistic speculation, but a way of expressing the fact of sin.8 We have in this personification of sin a case of metonomy; the effect, sin, is named for the personal cause -:-. Satanic spirit, or spirits in combination (all opposed to God).9 Paul's idea would be: shall we remain under the control of the sin-power, consciously and voluntarily following its directives? Xaptt; also has the article and seems here and in its anarthrous appearance in verse 14 (as well as with 1'\ again in verse 15), likewise to be a personification. This is the positive, saving power of a gracious God, which abounds for sinners: it represents the Deliverer -God Himself, engaged in the rescue of lost mankind. His graceas-attribute moves Him to bestow the infinitely enriching gifts of grace, here the declaration of justification, the pronouncement of forgiveness, and bestowal of life and salvation. Paul continues in verse 2: Perish the thought! We who died with reference to sin, how shall we still go on living in it? The apostle categorically rejects the suggestion of verse 1 with his emphatic "Perish the thoughtl" His reaction is instinctive and immediate to a thought and idea which, despite a show of logic, is actually abominable, absolutely untenable. It is a thought that cannot stand in the presence of God, as in Romans 3:8. With the next words "We who died with reference to sin" placed forward in the following sentence for emphasis, Paul begins to mention the specific gifts of grace to which his Romans 6 Gospel presentation calls attention. Noteworthy in verses 2-8 are the verbs in the indicative and in the past tenses, aorist and perfect. These, together with the futures in verses 5 and 8, signify past saving experiences which a gracious God has caused every Christian to undergo (at baptism and conversion) and prepare for the Pauline imperatives issued in verses 11_13.10 The first great Gospel indicative is: we Christians died to sin. The dative 'til ~ a p ' t t a is the dative of reference. The aorist (me9avoJlev indicates an act in the past which occurred once-for-all. The death which every believer died has removed him from sin's sphere, the sphere in which it exists, operates, influences, and tyrannizes. This death is precursor to immediately consequent resurrection and life in a new sphere, the sphere dominated by "Christ." Now, "We who died with reference to sin, how shall we still go on living in it?" "Shall ... go on living" is the rendering of ~ f \ ( J o J l e v , which is best regarded here as a durative future.ll As in the physical domain, when a person dies, he ceases to react to external earthly stimuli, so in the domain of the application of divine grace here under consideration: when a Christian dies in his inner being, this self ceases to respond in any way to sin's stimuli. This being the situation, how can there really be any serious thought or talk: about a believer's living "in it" [sin]? It is utterly contrary to fact. Verses 3 and 4 The apostle in the next two verses proceeds to explain the believer's death to sin, the manner in which it came about, its implications, and the life in the new field of existence, or domain, into which the Christian has been translated. Or12 do you not know that all of us who were baptized into union withI3 Christ Jesus, were baptized into union with his death? Now, through our baptism into union with his death we were buried together with Him, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we might come to walk in a newness of life. 4 The New English Bible's "Have you forgotten" brings out the force of the more literal "do you not know," ayvoEi'tE. Paul assumes that what he tells the Romans in these verses concerning union and dying with Christ has certainly been told them previously and has been understood by them. If Lightfoot's comment on 1\ ayvoEi'tE -"Such a supposition betrays the grossest ignorance,,14 -means that the Romans had never known of their union with Christ and its sigificance, it is obviously wrong, as a comparison with Paul's use of the same phrase in 7:1 makes clear.ls Hans Wilhelm Schmidt writes: Paulus hebt nachdruecklich hervor, dasz er damit seinen Lesem nichts Neues sagt: 1\ ayvoEi'tE ist nicht Ausdruck der Besorgnis, sie koennten es noch nicht recht wissen, sondem hat den Sinn: "Ich brauche euch ja wirklich nicht daran zu erinnem.,,16 He goes on to suggest that the apostle perhaps is here using terms and familiar words from liturgical formulas (possibly a baptismal liturgy) which had been entrusted to his readers. The Romans have known about the truths to which Paul makes reference, and a recollection of their death to sin would actually make the question of verse 1 impossible. In order that these Christians may fully recall and continually apply this Gospel information in their lives, however, the apostle sets it forth in greater detail. He says: "All of us who were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, were baptized into union with his death." This is how the Roman Christians had died to sin. The death carne about through, and occurred at the time of, their baptism. Baptism joined the believers to Christ -in vital, intimate union -and this union with Christ instantaneously effected their participation in Christ's death; it is thus that they "died with reference to sin" (verse 2). The two historical aorists (a1tE8avop.Ev, ~ p a 1 t ' t { O " S r t p . E V ) refer to past, contemporaneous acts. What exactly is the meaning of p a 1 t ' t { ~ E t v Etc; XptO"'t6v? Alfred Wikenhauser offers the following interpretation, which is shared by many scholars: Der Ausdruck fuer Taufen ( P a 1 t ' t { ~ E t v ) hat fuer den Griechen stets die Vorstellung des Hineintauchens in ein Element bawahrt, und so hat wohl die paulinische Formel "auf [EtC;J Christus getauft werden" den Sinn: in die Person Christi, dies lokal vorgestellt, hineingetaucht oder hineingesenkt und damit in die innigste Verbindung und Lebensbeziehung zu ihr gebracht werden. 17 Rudolf Schnackenburg speaks of this view as embracing "the spatial idea" and having a deep, mystical significance.ls The baptized person is mystically immersed into (local EtC;) Christ as into a new element and becomes a part of Him. Schnackenburg's own contrasting interpretation, however, given in his Baptism in the Thought of St. Paul, "allows dC; to reproduce only an outer relation, or connection,,;19 it, too, has many supporters. He argues that the notion that baptism necessarily includes the idea of immersion is not demonstrable. He points out that in 1 Corinthians 10:2, where the Israelites are spoken of as baptized EtC; 'tOy MOluCJ'1"\V, the local signification is an absurdity. Concerning this verse he goes on to say: Certainly, this passage is to be regarded as a secondary imitation of the expression f 3 a . 1 t ' t { ~ E t V de; XptO"'t6v; but this procedure would be impossible if f 3 a 1 t ' t { ~ E t v de; XptO''t6v necessarily possessed a mystical significance. Besides, in 1 Cor. x.2 the element in which the Israelites were "baptized" is expressly named: tv 'til V E 4 > ~ A ; 1 J lCat tv 'til 8w..aO"O"'IJ. The "baptism of Moses" is manifestly a sign of "adherence to Moses, in order to belong to 5 him as the leader chosen of God" (Huby). This passage, therefore, suggests that the formula l 3 a m ( ~ E t v EtC; should be closely linked with l 3 a m ( ~ E t v EtC; 'to ()vo}la. Among the many baptisms that existed at that time, baptism is defined by means of the name of the person to whom it sets a man in a particular relationship of belonging.2O Finally he suggests setting l 3 a m ( ~ E t V EtC; in parallelism with mO"'tEi>EtV dC;, remarking that the latter indicates the direction of faith while not expressing any mystical movement toward Christ. Schnackenburg's arguments are compelling. l 3 a 1 t ' t t ~ E t V dC; XptO"'tOv thus expresses an ablution for the purpose and toward the goal (contruing the dC; as [mal) of binding or attaching to Christ, so that the baptized belongs to Him. Now in the New Testament sacrament this attachment to Christ is of such a nature that it consists of the baptized's intimate spiritual21 union with the Lord and effects for him a real participation in the most significant events of Jesus' life, his death, burial, resurrection, and in his eternal life. Combining all these thoughts, we may render l 3 a m ( ~ E t v dC; XptO"'tOv simply as "baptize into union with Christ. ,,22 The expression l 3 a 1 t ' t t ~ £ t v dC; 'tOv 8tiva'tov au'toi}, which speaks of an immediate consequence of the believer's baptism into union with Christ, may be conceived of as formed on the analogy of l 3 a m ( ~ E t v dC; XptO"'tOv. The baptismal ablution connects the baptized with the death of Christ in such a way as to effect the baptized's "union with" or participation in that death; that is, it brings about his real experience of a death with Christ. The ouv in verse 4 is simply continuative.23 Paul is moving on with his subject, proceeding from one thought to another. EtC; 'tOv 8wa'tov is more naturally construed with Ot(). 'toi} l3am(O"}la'toc; than with O"1.)VE'tti1l}lEV . . . amtp, and repeats the thought of verse 3b. To be "buried into union with death" does not make much sense; and in Christ's case burial followed his death and was not the instrument which brought about the death. Paul's point here is that the baptism which united believers with Christ and with Christ's death also joined them to his burial, so that they were really "buried with Him." Colossians 2:12a is a parallel. Now, burial or entombment, which follows death, seals the death, as it were. Murray remarks: "The burial of Jesus was the proof of the reality of his death . . . it is burial that gives meaning to resurrection. ,,24 Just so, the burial of the Christian with Christ seals and makes sure and clear the reality of his death with Jesus.2S Death and burial with Christ occur for the baptized, says Paul, "in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we might come to walk in a newness of life" (verse 4bc). The two previous participations come about in order that the third here mentioned may take place, that is, participation in Christ's resurrection. On the first Easter Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. "The glory of the Father" has been variously interpreted as the power of God, as the sum total of the divine attributes of the deity, and as the Holy Spirit.26 Perhaps M ~ 1 l C ; here refers primarily to the power of God in view of the parallel in Ephesians 1:19-20, where Paul refers to "the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead .... " Compare also Colossians 2:12. The apostle might have continued in 4c: "so also we might be raised from the dead" He does not, however; rather, he merely implies this occurrence and proceeds at once to the Christians' walk as affected by this momentous occurrence. Paul Althaus writes: Der Schlusz von Vers 4 ist ueberraschend. Man erwartet zunaechst, dasz Paulus fortfahren wird: wie Christus erweckt wurde, so sind auch wir jetzt zu neuem Leben erweckt, oder: so werden auch wir erweckt werden (am juengsten Tage). Aber Paulus redet gar nicht erst von der durch die Taufe vermittelten Erweckung zu neuer Lebendigkeit, sondern sogleich von dem Wandel im neuen Leben, als Ziel und Forderung der Taufe. Das entspricht dem ganzen 6 Zusammenhange: es kommt darin alles auf die sittliche Haltung der Christen an.27 That Christians, however, are raised from the dead is clear from the fact that they possess "a newness of life," in which they can walk. Their being raised is stated in so many words in Colossians 2:12: "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him." Regarding KCttV(n;T\<; Johannes Behm says: In the NT it is found only in Paul. In accordance with the use of KCttV6<; ... it denotes the fulness of the reality of salvation whcih Christ has given to Christians in comparison with the worthlessness of their former condition.28 Katv6'tT\'tt ~ c o i \ < ; signifies a new quality or condition, which is life, life spiritual and eternal; the genitive ~ c o i \ < ; is probably epexegetical. Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich prefer to view the words as a Hebraistic usage, the noun for an adjective, and so translate "a new life.'r29 Either analysis of the construction brings us to the same meaning. The baptized Christian is, and is enabled to act and conduct himself, in the sphere of spiritual and etemallife, that is, following the (path)way of life, drawing on the sin-defeating and sin-destroying power of this spiritual life. That believers "might come to walk" (ingressive aorist) in this "newness of life" is the final purpose of their union, death, and resurrection with Christ. KCtwO't'T'\<; is a "teleological term in apocalyptic promise," like the adjectival KCttV6<;.30 It brings to mind such eschatological realities as a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1; 2 Peter 3:13); the new human creation (2 Corinthians 5: 17); the new aeon, which has dawned with the coming of Christ. Concerning the new aeon, Nygren has written: Paul thinks in terms of aeons. Two realms stand over against each other. One is the dominion of death over all that is human, the age of Adam. The other is the dominion of life, the age of Christ. . . . Christ has been given to us. . . . the new aeon, the aeon of life, has come upon us. Thereby have they who stand with Christ, in faith on Him, been taken out of the dominion of death which overshadows Adam's race. This is the fact which was written to the Colossians (1:13), "He [God] has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son."31 Baptism introduces sinners into the new aeon. In the words of Nygren: He who, through baptism, is in Christ is a new creation, a new man, formed according to the nature of the new aeon. All the old, which belonged to the dominion of death, has passed away. Now he lives and acts tv KCttV6'tT'\'tt ~ c o i \ < ; , "in newness of life," in the nature which corresponds to the resurrection aeon, the aeon of life.32 Life Through Faith and/or Baptism? The two quotations from Nygren speak, the one of faith, and the other of baptism, as fundamentally connected with the Christian's status in the new aeon. It may be convenient at this point to ask: what is the relationship between the two in Paul's thought? In view of Paul's teaching in Romans 3:21-5:21 it must be said that faith is the divinely designated medium for the reception of life and salvation. Yet here in Romans 6 the prominent emphasis is on baptism, as the means of grace which puts men into possession of these gifts.33 Is a harmonization of these two emphases possible? We meet a wide array of opinions among scholars. An extreme position, which discounts altogether the saving efficacy of baptism, is Adolf Deissmann's. He says: 7 The question, "What, according to St. Paul, brings about the fellowship of Christ?" is answered from the hints which we have given concerning St. Paul's converison. It is God who brings about fellowship with Christ. Not that every Christian has an experience equal to that of St. Paul on the road to Damascus, but everyone who possesses the living Christ or the Spirit has received the gift from God Himself, or is "apprehended" by Christ Himself. There are numerous passages in which God is celebrated as the giver of the Spirit. The assertion that in St. Paul baptism is the means of access to Christ, I take to be incorrect. There are passages which, if isolated, might be held to prove it but I think it is nevertheless more correct to say that baptism does not bring about but only sets the seal to the fellowship of Christ. In St. Paul's own case at any rate it was not baptism that was decisive, but the appearance of Christ to him before Damascus .... 34 W. D. Davies is of the same persuasion: Nor was it by any celebration of outward rites such as Baptism ... that the union and dying and rising with Christ was achieved .... On the contrary it is faith, "a joyful self committal of the whole personality to God" in Christ, that always determines his being "in Christ" ... . The critical verse is the familiar one: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. ,,35 Diametrically opposed to the views above expressed is Albert Schweitzer, a prime exponent of "sacramental mysticism." He writes: The idea that it is only through a believing self-surrender to absorption in Christ that the Elect can bring about the mystical fellowship with Him is quite outside of Paul's horiwn. He assumes as self-evident that a grafting into Christ takes place in Baptism and is bound up with this ceremonial act. In primitive Christianity Baptism guaranteed the forgiveness of sins and allegiance to the coming Messiah, and the prospect of sharing the glory which is to dawn at His corning. In this significance Paul takes it over, but he explains its operation by his Christ-mysticism. On this basis he asserts that what takes place in Baptism is the beginning of the being-in-Christ and the process of dying and rising again which is associated therewith. He makes no use of the symbolism of the ceremony to explain what happens. He does not make it an object of reflection. In Romans vi. 3-6 he nowhere suggests that he thinks of Baptism as a being buried and rising again with Christ just because the baptized plunges beneath the water and rises out of it again. These ingenious explanations have been read into his words by interpreters; Paul himself follows no such roundabout ways. Baptism is for him a being buried and rising again, because it takes place in the name of Jesus Christ, who was buried and rose again. It effects what the mysticism of being-in-Christ accepts as the effect of redemption. 36 Obviously Deissmann, Davies, and Schweitzer, who reject the efficacy either of baptism or of faith, do not help us to an understanding of the relationship between the two in the scheme of individual salvation. How shall this be determined? The following factors should be noted: 1. Paul does indeed teach that God grants sinful men life and salvation through faith, Romans 1:16-17; 8 3:21-5:21; 10:1-17; 11:19-32; the epistle to the Galatians; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; and many more passages. (Here may also be adduced Pauline passages like 1 Corinthians 4:15; where the apostle speaks of the regenerative effects of his Gospel-Word. The correlative of the Word in these contexts is faith. Compare Romans 6:15-23, James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23 and other texts.) 2. Paul teaches the same concerning baptism, as a means of grace: Romans 6; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:12; Titus 3:4-7, and other passages. Compare John 3:5. 3. According to Paul's theology, faith is absolutely necessary for salvation (compare the passages in 1). His epistles nowhere predicate such absolute necessity of baptism. When the Philippi an jailer cries out, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Paul and Silas reply, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved .... " (Acts 16:30-31). Compare Mark 16:16. 4. The account in Acts 16 continues, however, reporting that Paul and Silas at once "spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he [the jailer] ... the same hour of the night ... was baptized, he and all his, straightway" (verses 32 and 33). "And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house" (verse 34). Paul immediately baptized the jailer, when the latter had come to faith in Jesus.37 This procedure sheds light on the apostle's conception of the connection between faith and baptism of adults: a person must first believe in Christ and the Gospel; then, when faith is present, he ought at once receive the sacrament of baptism. Paul would have the two experiences to be brought into closest conjunction -an individual's being baptized, with his beginning to believe -so that these appear almost as two phases of one great experience. F. F. Bruce observes: In apostolic times it is plain that baptism followed immediately upon confession of faith in Christ. The repeated accounts of baptism in Acts give ample proof of this . . .. Faith in Christ and baptism were, indeed, not so much two distinct experiences as parts of one whole; faith in Christ was an essential element in baptism, for without it the application of water, even accompanied by the appropriate words, would not have been baptism.38 5. In Ephesians 5:25-27 Paul asserts: Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water [baptism; compare Titus 3:5] by the word [ ~ v p1jpa:n], that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. The apostle here indicates that the Gospel-Word of God is essentially connected with the sacrament of baptism and that it operates along with the sacramental water in effecting the cleaning of the baptized Once again, the correlative of the Word is faith, which the Word calls forth (or strengthens) and by which the Word and the blessing it brings are personally appropriated?9 Reginald White comments on the Ephesians passage: The whole church being cleansed by the baptism of her individual members, baptism is both a purification and an initiation; but here ... the water does 9 not operate alone; the cleaning is accomplished by the Lord, active in baptism, and by means of a "bath" attended by ,conditioned by, a word or utterance -tv p1\p.an. With. the primitive confessional rite in mind, it is natural to take p1\p.a as referring to the kerygma (and catechesis) to which baptism was the appropriate response.4D Here in Ephesians 5, too, we conclude that for Paul faith is the presupposition of effectual baptism. 6. The connection between faith and baptism is close in Colossians 2:12 and in Galatians 3:26-27. In the Colossians passage Paul says that baptism effects burial and resurrection with Christ, but he appends to the "in which [baptism41] you were also raised with him, [Christ]" the phrase "through faith in the working of God" (Revised Standard Version). In Galatians 3 Paul tells his readers they are all God's sons through faith in Christ Jesus (verse 26) and, with the explanatory ')UP, points them to their baptism as the time when they began to believe, and when they put on Christ. White's observation is correct: "There is no dualism ... between faith and baptism simply because for Paul baptism is always, and only, faith-baptism.,,42 What shall we say in view of these considerations? Both the Gospel-Word and baptism are objective means of grace which God employs to bring about a man's union, death, and resurrection with Christ. The correlative or complement of the divine means of grace -of the Word and of baptism -, however, is always faith, the divinely wrought subjective response to the saving action of God, the human means through which the gracious gifts of God are personally appropriated and received.43 A final word from Rudolf Schnackenburg: Faith and baptism belong together, but they are at all times significant in themselves. In one relationship faith is the presupposition of baptism, in another it has a fundamental and independent position. Baptism without faith in Christ is unimaginable for the thought of the primitive Church (Mark xvi. 16; Acts xvi. 31; John i:13) .... But faith is not on that account simply a preliminary step. By it a man is justified, and it retains its significance beyond the o n c e - f o r ~ a l l act of baptism. The mutual relation could be described as complementary. Genuine faith, which is obedience towards the Word of God (Romans x. 16; 2 Thessalonians i. 8), leads to baptism, as Paul himself also submitted to this act (Acts ix. 18; xxii. 16). We :fmd no mention of baptism in Paul's compendium of the doctrine of justification, Romans iii. 21-26, because for him baptism is included in the O t ~ mO't£roc; '11'\0'0'0 XPtO'to'O of v. 22.44 The Question of Time and Space Relationships Before proceeding with an exegesis of verses 5 and following, it will also be useful to inquire into the perplexing question concerning the time and space relationships involved in the Christian's dying and rising again with Christ in baptism. Paul's language suggests that the believer's participation in these experiences of Jesus is actual and real. The Apostle reaches the height of his christocentric baptismal theology in the conception of 'dying and rising with Christ' .... In baptism the believer in Christ is drawn into the Christ event; he accompanies his Lord through death to resurrection. Starting out from 'being buried with Christ,' Paul infers also a resurrection to a new divine life and a corresponding walk of life for God. The depth of this thought lies here, that it all happens 'with Christ,' who was crucified for us and rose again. It is not simply a question of remembrance and becoming like 10 Him, but rather a participation in Christ's cross and resurrection, so that everything that Christ went through for our salvation also happens to the baptized, and he thus obtains the fruit of Christ's dying.45 Yet, how is this to be conceived? What about the interval of time between the present, in which the Christian exists, and the occurrence of the central events of history on Calvary and in Joseph's garden nineteen hundredplus years ago? And what about the related factor of local removal from the places in Palestine where the Savior was crucified and resurrected? In Walter Bartling's study of the tv XptO''tqJ formula he cites Paul Feine's interpretation, which the former terms "psychological identification": Der Glaeubige soIl sich dergestalt in das Leiden und den Too Christi versenken, dass er mit diesen Erlebnissen Christi innerlich zusammenwaechst und sie so stark empfindet, als seien sie auch an ihm vollzogen.46 Bartling is right in rejecting this explanation. Feine would have the Christian become a mystic47 and thus attain communion with Christ and his death. Paul, however, does not say that the believer by his personal mental effort, by a process of contemplation or meditation of the passion, induces and achieves a kind of participation in that death. Union with Christ in his death and resurrection is rather a miracle wrought by God, instantaneously, through the means of baptism. It is, as Paul states in Romans 6, an actual joining Christ on the cross and in the grave; vivification with Him, and procession with Him from the tomb. It is a real occurrence, upon which the believer can look back in faith and with gratitude for the rest of his life. Schnackenburg's may be termed the "representative-man" explanation. He says that Paul's statements: are founded on a Semitic idea, according to which the founder of a people is inseparably bound up with those who are joined to him; he represents and takes the place of his followers, and these again share his destiny. Baptism is the place where this union of believers with Christ, the Founder of a new humanity, is established, and therefore they die "with Him" and live "with Him." The entire process takes place in them sacramentally by grace.48 This is also Nygren's view: Some have suggested that Paul here affirms a "contemporaneousness," a "paradoxical contemporaneousness" between Christ and one who believes in Him. Indeed, it has been suggested that the category of time, belonging only to the old aeon, plays no role in the new aeon. But such an interpretation is not true to Paul. Paul has not ceased to take time into account. He knows very well that Christ died at a precise point in human history, and that a certain period of time had elapsed between that event and the date when Paul writes this epistle to the Romans. It is no challenging problem for him that believing Christians were not contemporaneous with Christ. The death and resurrection of Christ do not need to be "contemporary" with a Christian to be able to bring their blessing to him. Here too the parallel between Adam and Christ can show us the way. I am not, according to Paul, "contemporary" with Adam; and yet I stand in relation with him and bear the condemnation which comes from him. And we can add that already through him, through his action, it was determined that I, even now, should stand under the dominion of sin and death. We are 11 indeed remote from each other in time. That fact is not abolished; but neither are the results of his actions on me abolished. The same is true as to life "in Christ." The separation in time does not prevent me from being, even now, a real member in "the body of Christ," in a{Op.a. Xpta'wO; and as such I share in His death and resurrection.49 These ideas are attractive, but also inadequate as a precise interpretation of the Pauline declarations. First of all, the apostle does not employ the Adam-Christ parallel in Romans 6. Secondly, we may note, Paul neither in Romans 5 nor 6, or elsewhere, suggests that human solidarity with Adam is of the same nature as the Christian's union with Christ. All indeed sinned in and through Adam (Romans 5:12), but Paul does not describe this as a going "with" Adam in the Garden of Eden and hearing of the voice of temptation "with" him, and eating "with" him of the forbidden fruit and then a dying "with" him. The point in Romans 5 is simply that God regards all mankind in solidarity with Adam and accounts it that all men sinned when their ancestor sinned; thus death came upon all. Thirdly, the union with Christ, on the other hand, is itself of a different nature -it is spiritual, a union of spirits (as will be shown in the discussion of subsequent verses of Romans 6) -and fourthly, provides the Christian with experiences which are said throughout to be with Christ. Note the cruv-compounds, a'\)vE'tliI\>TlJlEV, verse 4; cruJlI\>'U'tot, verse 5; a'UvECJ'ta.'Upm8Tl, verse 6; a'Usf\aOJlEV, verse 8; and the phrase a'\)v Xpta'tq>, in verse 8. This is thea'6v of accompaniment, and it stands stubbornly in the way of the "representative-man" interpretation. It denotes actual joint-personal-participation -here, in context an actual passing through the experiences of death, burial, and resurrection along with Christ on Calvary and in the garden. A death really takes place in the case of the Christian; a resurrection to life really takes place in the case of the Christian -and these are both with Christ in Palestine. Bartling points out that in: This intimate relationship between dying and rising with Christ ... we have to do here with nothing less than the actual death of Christ on Calvary. Galatians 6:14 lends solid support to this interpretation of Romans 6: "Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." The Apostle's own death to the world has its source, its locus, in the Cross of the Crucified. 50 How is this possible? The statements and the concepts are hard. We shall have to let them remain so. What Paul tells us is simply beyond the natural realm, and beyond our present, poor, limited powers of comprehension. So Bartling: All that we can confidently say is that this teaching of Paul implies a complete overthrow of the usual time relationships. And we must leave it at that. "Angesichts der Bestimmtheit der paulinischen Aussagen kommt eine unbefangene Betrachtung gar nicht urn das Zugestaendnis herum, dass das exklusive Verhaeltnis, das fuer das empirische Urteil zwischen verschiedenen Subjekten, Raumpunkten und Zeitpunkten besteht, in diesen Saetzen aufgehoben ist. ,,51 Having thus acknowledged our intellectual incapacity, however, one can still hold to the truths which Paul reveals, the reality of our death, burial, and the resurrection with Christ, infaith. In this lies profound benefit for all believers, as Paul will show. 12 Verse 5 Verses 3 and 4 present the principal thought of the section (verses 3-10), which constitutes the doctrinal basis upon which Paul grounds his admonitions in verse 11-13. Verse 5 is transitional to verses 6-10, which may be grouped together. In verse 5 Paul explicates further (,up) the nature of the Christian's union with Christ in his death, and resurrection, the profound truth he has set forth in 3-4. Two thoughts predominate: the Christian's resurrection (to unending life) necessarily (EO'l'>JlE9a, a logical future) follows his death with Christ; and the nature of the Christian's death and resurrection is in either case like (6JlO1lfiJIan), not identical with, those of Christ. Verses 6-7 expand upon the latter idea; verses 8-10, upon the fonner. Verse 5: For if we have become grown-together with Him in a death like his, we shall indeed also be grown together with Christ in a resurrection like his. The e{ with the indicative ()'E'YOvaJ.1Ev) indicates that Paul assumes the condition's protasis to be a fact: Paul and the Roman Christians have become grown-together with Christ (amiP is to be supplied, as implied by Paul; see below). The perfect )'EoyOvaJlEV signifies past occurrence with lasting result: this having become grown together with Christ occurred in baptism and is a characteristic of the believer's condition ever since. :E'OJlC\ltrt01 is a hapax in the New Testament, a compound of cruv and C\l'(0), which in the active means "bring forth," "produce"; in the passive, "spring up," "grow." The passive sense is applicable in the compound; thus the rendering, "grown-together."S2 Sanday-Headlam translate "united by growth," see in the tenn an expression of "the process by which a graft becomes united with the life of a tree," and comment: So the Christian becomes "grafted into" Christ. For the metaphor we may compare xi. 17 ern ~ a y p t ~ A . a t o C ; (JJv EVEKEV'tptO'8rtc; EV amotc; Kat O'U"{K01Vo)VOc; 't1'tc; p t ~ l l C ; Kat 't1'tc; m6't'Jl'toc; 't1'tc; EA.ata.C; tytV01.).S3 Murray remarks that "No tenn could more adequately convey the intimacy of the union [with Christ] involved. ,,54 To understand or supply an aO'ttp (or, 'ttp XptO"ttp) with cruJlC\ltrtOt instead of taking the latter directly with the following 'tiP 6JlotlfiJIan 'to'O 9a.v}la, the human body, the physical mechanism (through which sin works itself out). It is used in this sense in 6:12; in 8:10, 11, 13,23; and in 12:1. Tf\c; a}lapnac; is the sin-power, as previously; the genitive is either the genitive of description8o (attributive genitive) -"the body marked by sin," or "as controlled by sin" -or the closely related genitive of possession8! -"the body of which sin has taken possession." The basic meaning of K a ' t a p ~ r o is to render idle, inactive, inoperative; in the passive it may mean cease. Literally, Paul is saying "so that our body as one controlled (wholly, absolutely possessed and tyranized) by sin might be rendered inoperative, or, put out of commission." A smoother English rendering would be, "so that our body might cease to be one controlled by sin." 18 Now, connecting this with the previous, and amplifying to make clear what is understood, the thought is: the Christian's sin-dominated old man was crucified with Christ, so that the new man might rise with that Savior, and that in the might of the new man the believer might challenge the sin-power's endeavor to continue dominating and controlling the body for its purposes (that is, for the production of sins). The child of God can, indeed, in the strength of the new man use his body, once employed by sin as an instrument of unrighteousness (verse 13), to serve the Lord. He can present it to God as "a living sacrifice" (12:1) for the doing of his will.82 With the death of the old man and his replacement with the new, sin has wholly lost control of the believer's inner being, the former citadel of sin's operation in the individual. Its power in and over the body, furthermore, is no longer absolute; because of the Christian's death (in the old man) and resurrection with Christ (in the new) he can overcome sin's coercion of the body and use the body and its members in the production of righteousness (verses 7 and 12-14). Not that the follower of Jesus will no longer do any wrong at all through the body. When he does not use the might of his new resurrection life, sin will prevail in his members, and he will commit transgressions. The situation, nevertheless, is this, that when the believer does employ the power of the new man, he always triumphs over sin.83 Because the Christian still does err and fall into sin's temporary control, inclusion of the word "exclusively" in the translation of verse 6 supplied above is justified; "our old man was crucified with Christ, so that our body might cease to be one exclusively controlled by sin." Paul adds in the last part of verse 6 the words, "and we might no longer keep slaving away for sin." The final clause is primarily dependent on the one immediately previous, the latter constituting the proximate, or intermediate, and the former the ultimate purpose of the crucifixion of the old man. The Christian's slavery to, and uninterrupted slaving for, sin is terminated with his baptism and the crucifixion of the old man. While there is a continuing battle with sin after baptism, the decisive victory over this evil force has been achieved, and the believer may impress his body's members into the service of righteousness. To do so is his perpetual task after baptismal regeneration, as verses 12 and 13 show. The consideration of the entire section, verses 11-14, in the chapters following will provide additional insights into the apostle's teaching in verse 6. That the Christian can, indeed, cease slaving for sin Paul again emphasizes and further shows (explanatory yap) in verse 7 with the words "for he who has died has been acquitted from sin." These words are best taken, not as a general and axiomatic proposition concerning the effect of any human death, as many commentators suggest, but as a reference once more to the basic subject of Romans 6, the believer's death with Christ to sin, in the inner man. This the apostle has treated in verses 2-6, and the 6 ... cl1t09avcbv rerninds us of it. But now he adds something to the foregoing. He explains how his readers can be absolutely sure that the power and dominion of sin is broken in their lives, that death with Christ truly means for every believer an end to sin's tyranny over him, that sin cannot follow the believer through the latter's death and still "lord it over" him after his resurrection with Christ. The reason? "The one who has died" with Christ "has been declared free from sin," oeot KruOYtat cl1tO 't1'l C; ap.ap't1:ac;. Here OeOtKa(OYtat retains its full forensic sense: he who died with Christ was at the same time of this death declared righteous by God -acquitted alike of any and all condemnatory charges concerning his transgressions' guilt (Romans 8:33) and of all the sin-power's claims of right, based on such charges, to continue exercising its enslaving control over his inner being. To this justifying decreee of the living, omnipotent God sin must yield; it is legally compelled to relinquish its grip once-and-for-all upon the justified sinner.84 Murray, who supports this interpretation, adds the comment: This judicial aspect from which deliverance from the power of sin is to be viewed needs to be appreciated. It shows that the forensic is present not only in justification but also in that which lies at the basis of sanctification.8s 19 The perfect tense of BeBuca{ortat indicates that the action which has taken place in the past, contemporaneously with that of the preceding aorist, has effected a lasting result: the Christian has been acquitted and stands so still, and continuously. Through faith he thus remains free forever from sin's dominion. Lenski is a representative of those who take the statement "he who has died has been acquitted from sin" as a general and axiomatic assertion. He holds that Paul argues: "Any man when he died, by his dying is acquitted and remains so as far as the sin is concerned," and Lenski adds: "In what sense that is true the entire context shows, and thus also why this axiom is so pertinent here."86 Yet it is hard to see in what sense this is true. It certainly is not clear or true, for example, that God renders a judicial verdict of justification and acquittal from sin's claims upon the impenitent sinner, when he undergoes physical death. On the contrary, sin surely does retain its hold upon the unbelieving damned after their physical death; never freed from its rule, they will continue an existence in opposition to God throughout all eternity in hell. Paul's words cannot be the expression of a universal principle or maxim. Robin Scroggs in a recent article in New Testament Studies87 invesitgates a number of other yet similar explanations of Romans 6:7. He points out that According to a common interpretation of Romans vi. 7, Paul is stating here a legal maxim: Death brings release from obligation to the Torah, so that the dead are free from any further culpability which might be caused by disobedience to the commandments. [Althaus ... Leenhardt ... O. Michel] .1.tlCat6ro is taken to mean in this context "To be free," [T.W.N.T. n, 222] and ap.apna, 'Obligation to the Torah' (to which one must occasionally be disobedient and thus fall into sin). In short, 0 ytJ..p a7t08avcbv BeBtlCa{o:rtat a 7 t ( ~ 't1je;; ap.ap't{ae;; says essentially the same thing as does Romans vii. 1, 0 v6p.oe;; lCUpte'6et 'to\) av8p6m0'U ~ < I > ' ~ c r o v XP6vov ~ 1 l . Romans vi. 7 refers only by implication to the death of Christ or to that of the believer, since the maxim applies to any man under the law. Sometimes ap.apna is understood as a personified power. In this case Paul is saying that death releases man from the control or power of sin.S8 Scroggs rejects the above interpretations on the grounds that BtlCatoucr8at does not usually mean "to be free"; that ap.apna can only with distortion be taken to mean "obligation to the Torah; that if ap.apna means the "power of sin," the verse makes sense only if BtlCatOucr8at means "to be free," which it does not; that interpreted as a general maxim, the verse "sits loose" in its context; that if Paul wants to say the same thing in Romans 6:7 as he does in Romans 7:1-6, he has unfortunately obscured in the one place what he simply and clearly states in the other -but the difference in contexts shows that the apostle is not repeating himself. Scroggs also mentions an alternative proposal made by K. G. Kuhn.89 According to Kuhn, "Paul in Romans vi. 7 is quoting a rabbinic maxim . . . 'All who die receive atonement through their death. '" Scroggs summarizes: Kuhn believes that the notion of death as a means of atonement, independent of any ethical or religious quality of the person or of his death, was a popular belief among Jewish theologians of the early rabbinic period. The verse in Romans thus applies to the Christian because through baptism he has participated in a death, the death of Christ.90 While granting that Kuhn's interpretation takes BtlCat6ro in the usual Pauline sense, Scroggs immediately objects: 20 Nevertheless, the argument of Kuhn that death per se was a commonly accepted means of atonement in Judaism cannot be substantiated. Out of the wealth of evidence he presents, only two logia really support his claim. With Paul's emphasis upon the centrality of the cross as the only means of atonement how the Apostle could have accepted this minority view, even assuming that he knew it, is difficult to see. The basic assumption of the rabbis was rather that for certain kinds of serious sins death atones, if there is a previous repentance.91 Dismissing Kuhn's proposal because he attempts to take Romans 6:7 as a general maxim and does not succeed in correlating the verse either with its immediate context or with Paul's soteriology, Scroggs states his own view, which is in agreement with the exegesis offered in this thesis: Romans vi. 1-11 is concerned with the death of Christ and the participation of the believer in this death. By baptism the Christian is incorporated into that kind of death which Christ died .... thus the most natural way of understanding verse 7 in its context is to see that the death spoken of is the death of Christ. It is this specific death that brings justification. . 0 IX1toOavU:Jv does refer to the believer but only in so far as he has died with Christ in baptism. The verse would then be not a general maxim about death in itself but a statement of the specific situation of the believer in so far as he has died a specific death with ChriSt.92 Verses 8-10 Verses 8-10: Now, ifwe have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also continue living together with Him, since we know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more, death no longer has dominion over Him. For, the death He died, He died with reference to sin once for all time; but the life He lives, He goes on living to God. The Christian has died with Christ in order that he might rise and live with Him; the apostle has already indicated this, particularly in verse 4 and 5. Now, what kind of life is this which the believer lives with Christ? Specifically, what about the extent and duration of this life? Paul speaks to this point in verses 8-10. The Christian's life with Christ, which necessarily follows death with the Savior (verse 5), he now describes forthrightly, in emphatic elaboration, as a life perpetual, unending, eternal, one which no death shall ever bring to a termination. A ~ is continuative and transitional from the consideration of death with Christ to that of life with Him. IIto'truop.ev (verse 8) and etM'tec;; (verse 9) are in parallel with ytvOOcrlCov'tec;; (verse 6). What Paul tells his readers in verses 8-10 is, again, nothing new to them; he is merely voicing the contents of their mutual (the Romans' and Paul's) faith and confession.93 Together they believe that if they have died with Christ -as they are certain they surely have (e{ with the indicative IX1teOwop.ev) -they will also continue living together with Him. The future ous1joop.ev is at once logical and durative, like ~ o ( ) p . e O a in verse 5. The believers' possession of life with Christ is a necessary and immediate consequence of their death with Him, just as there is an inseparable conjunction of Christ's own death and vivification in resurrection.94 And the life Christians receive will remain with them throughout the period of their earthly walk into a heavenly perpetuity. Why do the Romans and Paul believe and confess that they shall continue living together with Christ? Paul points his readers to the knowledge which is contained in their common faith: "since we know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more, death no longer has dominion over Him." This knowledge has to do with the basic fact that as Christ experienced one death, He experienced only one resurrection (the aorist, ~ ' Y E p O e t C ; ; ) . Ever since He has remained alive, and He will evermore remain alive. He "dies no more," oUlCtn IX1tOOv(\olCet; He has not undergone a succession of deaths and resurrections. 8ava'toc;; au'to1l oUlCtn lCUptruet. There was a time when death had a legal right to lord it over Christ, that is, when He had assumed men's sins, in order to accomplish the vicarious atonement, and then was overcome by death as the wages of 21 sin. After this one experience, however, and because of the full atonement He made, Christ was no more subject to death's power and dominion and never again will be. Of the latter fact his resurrection, the defeat of death, is the guarantee. Now, in view of Christ's experience, the Christian joined to-Jesus and to his resurrection wi11live perpetually, too. There will assuredly be for the believer no repeated "dyings" and no succession of "resurrections" with Christ "There can be suspension or interruption of participation in Christ's resurrection life or reversion to death in sin no more than can the fact of Jesus' resurrection be negated or repeated,,9S There can be for those who are the Lord's nothing but everlasting life with Christ With the !UP of verse 10 the apostle introduces an emphatic summary of the situation as regards Christ -and, by implication, the Christian. "For, the death He died, He died with reference to sin once for all time; but, the life He lives, He goes on living to God." The 6 of 6 ... cl7tfSavev is equivalent to a cognate accusative, as if Paul had written 'tOy SlXva'tov 6v cl7tfSavev; the same-is true of 6 ... ~ 1 l . 9 6 The change in the tenses of the verbs, from the aorists in verse lOa to the durative presents in lOb, is striking. The datives 't'fl ap.ap't1:q. and 'tlil Seq, are datives of reference. In keeping with the context of Romans 6, which deals with the Christian's release from sin's dominion (especially verses 2, 6,7,9, 11-14), it is best to think of Christ's death 't'fl clJlap't1:q. in verse 10 as a death to the power of sin. Surely He died to the mass of sin placed upon Him and to the guilt of the sin He vicariously bore; but it is also true that, when dying for men's sin, the Savior also died to sin. This does not mean that sin exerted its might on Jesus, while He walked on earth, in such a way as to make Him sin (as is the case with men). On the contrary, He remained perfectly sinless throughout his life's course. Sin, however, did bring its power to bear upon the stainless Christ in the form of temptation and especially in the form of the consequences of transgression which He had to endure including death itself, the wages of 1'\ clp-ap't1:a (6:23). Murray comes to the same conclusion concerning Christ's death, that in Romans 6 it is represented as a death to the dominion of sin: As applied to believers in verses 2 and 11 the thought is that they died to the power of sin. May the same be said of Christ? It cannot be said of Christ that sin exercised its power over him in the same sense in which it ruled over us. We were the bondslaves of sin in its defilement and power; sin did not thus rule over him. Nevertheless, Christ was identified in such a way with the sin which he vicariously bore that he dealt not only with its guilt but also with its power. Death ruled over him until he broke its power (vs. 9). So sin may be said to have ruled over him in that his humiliation state was conditioned by the sin with which he was vicariously identified. He was made sin (II Cor. 5:21), and sin as power must be taken into account in this relationship. It was by his own dying that he destroyed the power of sin, and in his resurrection he entered upon a state that was not conditioned by sin. There is good reason to believe that it is this victory over sin as power that the apostle has in view when he says that Christ "died to sin once." And it is because Christ triumphed over the power of sin in his death that those united to him in his death die to the power of sin and become dead to sin (vss. 2, 11 ).97 To underscore the finality and decisiveness of Christ's death Paul adds to the aorists in verse lOa the word t C ! > O O t a ~ , "once-for-all," "once for all time." A host of parallel passages come to mind, such as Hebrews 7:27; 9:12, 26, 28; 10:10; and 1 Peter 3:18. The words of Gustav Staehlin are an eloquent commentary on the usage of t c ! > O O t ~ here in 6:10: In the NT this [ t C ! > a 7 t a ~ ] is a technical term for the definiteness and therefore the uniqueness or singularity of the death of Christ and the redemption thereby accomplished: R. 6:10: 'til ap.ap't1:q. cl7tfSavev t C ! > a 7 t a ~ , where t C ! > a 7 t ~ , prepared for and emphasized in v. 9 by oi>un 22 ano9v1jcr1cet, 9 ( x v a ; t o ~ O U l ( ~ ' t t l(UPU:UEt, sharply expresses the basic significance of the death of Christ, namely, that sin and Christ are quits, and Christians with Christ, since His one death is of paradigmatic and dynamic effect for us. To the an09avEiv 'til ap.apuQ, ~ 4 > ( X 1 t a c ; in the case of Christ there corresponds V E l ( p 0 1 ) ~ dvm (dead once and for all) 'til ap.apuQ,. There here rules a divine casuality mediated through baptism .... Like Christ, man can die this death only once (as he can rise again only once ... ); there is a turning from sin to God which cannot subsequently be reversed. The man who has died this death lives once and for all according to Paul, i.e., in eternity like ChriSt.98 The verbs in the durative present tense, verse lOb, signify Christ's eternal continuance in life. This living of Christ concerning which the apostle speaks takes place in and through his human nature. After completing redemption and sealing this with his triumphant resurrection, Christ still retained his human nature; with it He ascended into heaven, in it He received glory from the Father, in and with that nature He continues to live to God.99 "This his living to God ... rests on his having died to sin, and both pertain to us, first in a redemptive way, then in a sanctifying way, the latter resting on the former."lOo Thus far the consideration of the text of Romans 6 in which the apostle treats of grace the Christian has received from God. Paul has provided the information that in baptism God has joined each of his people to Christ in intimate, vital spiritual union, a union which effects the believer's very crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. As a result the believer lives with his risen Lord in the power of an eternal life. On the basis of these fundamental Gospel facts Paul in the immediately following verses of Romans 6 structures a series of exhortations which direct his readers' thoughts to grace of God they must yet strive to grasp. This aspect of the matter will be treated in the next chapter. 23 CHAPTER III GRACE THE CHRISTIAN MUST STRIVE TO APPROPRIATE, ACCORDING TO ROMANS 6:11-14 The Nestle-Aland text with the larger space between verses 11 and 12 indicates that the editors suggest verse 11 be taken with the preceding nine, verses 2-10, and that 2-11 be considered a unit of Paul's thought in Romans 6. The translators of the Revised Standard Version and The New English Bible are in agreement, both these New Testament versions starting a new paragraph with verse 12. Doubtless this is correct. Verse 11 belongs in thought with verse 10, the adverb ot'>'troe; signaling the close relationship between the two passages. The reason why in this thesis' discussion of the text we consider verse 11 along with 12-14 is that the series of imperative verbs in 11-14 ( A . O y t ~ E c r e E , ~ a c n A . e \ } ~ ' t r o , 1t(Xptcr'tWE'tE, 1tapacr't1'\cra'tE) fonn a natural unit, and contrast with the series of indicatives of 2-10. Together these imperatives direct the Christian to the way in which he should use the Gospel which the apostle has set forth in the previous portion of the chapter and show him grace of God he must yet strive to grasp. This grace is that the believer, in the power of his new life in Christ, prevent sin from ruling his still mortal body and its members; that he devote these rather to God and his service exclusively. In 11-14 Paul builds "practically" on the foundation of doctrine laid in 2-10. Verse 11 Verse 11: In this way also you must keep on accounting yourselves to be dead with reference to sin but continually living to God in union with Christ Jesus. The opening omroe; refers Paul's readers back to the previous sentence, verse 10. He had there made the summary statement concerning Christ: "The death He died, He died with reference to sin once for all time; but, the life He lives, He goes on living to God." Now the apostle makes the application of this to his readers. Let them think of themselves, of the death which they died in baptism and the life which they live with Christ, in exactly the same way. As Christ died with reference to sin once for all time, so did they. As Christ since his resurrection lives an uninterrupted, unending, eternal life, so do they who have been joined with Him in his resurrection and through faith remain in union with Him, their living Lord. These are the facts of spiritual reality, as far as the Roman Christians are concerned. The apostolic instruction added is that they keep reckoning ( A . o y t ~ E c r e E , a durative present) with these facts, consciously recalling and continually considering them. Commentators almost universally regard A . o y t ~ E c r e E as imperative and not indicative. It fits more naturally after what precedes and corresponds with the imperatives which follow, as was indicated If Paul had wished to continue here with an indicative, he would no doubt have used a first personal plural of the verb, as he has all along in the paragraph. The addition of the emphatic UJlEie; accords with the change to an imperative. It is important for an understanding of verse 11 to be clear on the meaning of A . O y ( ~ E c r e E here. We come upon a strange idea, for example, in the writings of John Knox. He asks in his Life in Christ Jesus: What are we to say about this way [Paul's in Romans 6] of dealing with the antinomian's question -this way of understanding the nature and ground of ethics within the Christian life? Two remarks are appropriate: one somewhat critical .... First we must recognize, I think, that Paul does not altogether succeed in refuting the antinomian's argument. For the fact of the matter is that we are not "dead to sin," or "free from sin." We can "still live in it," and to a considerable extent still do. Paul's tacit acknowledgment of this fact, so obviously true but so contradictory to his theoretical point, appears in his saying: "So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin .... " and in his exhortations that we "not yield [our] members to sin as instruments of wickedness .... " There would be no need of these exhortations if we were 24 "free from sin," and it would be irrelevant whether we considered ourselves "dead to sin" or not, if in fact we were. It is precisely because we are not dead to sin that we are urged to think of ourselves as being so and to act as being so. The time will come, of course, when we shall be thus "free," and the future is so surely promised, so fully guaranteed, as, in a sense, to be ours already. But it is still actually future. . .. And until we shall have come fully to share in his [Christ's] death and life ... we are still (one would suppose, and from our experience we know) not free from the enslaving power of sin and from the guiding, guarding, and judging power of law. Knox supposes that he "explains" Paul by observing: This "interim," for Paul too brief and transient to be important or even quite real, could be passed over in his thought in a way in which it cannot be in ours, whose whole lives, not to mention the lives of our fathers and children for innumerable generations, are spent within it. . .. The new age was so imminent that for all theoretical purposes it had arrived. The persistence of this evil world could be ignored in one's thinking, although obviously in actual fact one was called on to bear it and, in a degree, to bear with it for awhile. Here is, certainly at least in part, the explanation of the contradiction we are considering, a contradiction which Paul expresses without intending to in his question: "How can we who died to sin still live in it?"! Knox, whose exegesis in these paragraphs runs directly counter to the statements of Paul in verse 11 and the foregoing passages, is mistaken in his conception of the significance of A . O y t ~ E c r e E . The verb does not mean, according to Paul's usage, to regard a non-existent situation as a reality; it does not in this context mean that the Romans are to think of themselves as dead to sin when actually they are not. No, the apostle is asking his readers to deal with facts, to consider these facts as facts, to accept them in unswerving faith, and on this basis to act upon them in their lives. Hans-Wolfgang Heidland in his article in Kittel points out that A . O y t ~ E c r e a . t in Romans 6:11 (as also in 3:28; 8:18; 14:14; and Philippians 3:13) designates "Glaubensurteil," and explains: Die Norm des A . O y t ~ E c r e a . t steht ... auszer und ueber ihrn [the Christian], als Heilsgeschehen nur dem Glauben faszbar. Sie ist nicht ein Prinzip, sondem ein Faktum, nach dem sich jeder Denkakt ausrichten musz. Dann ist das A . O y t ~ E c r e a . t gehorsam. Heidland goes on to point out: Bezeichnend fuer das Glaubensurteil ist nun seine unbedingte Gueltigkeit. Urteilt PIs ueber den Stand seiner Vollkomrnenheit (Phil 3,13) oder ueber seine Stellung als Ap (2 K 11,5), so ist von seiten der Gemeinde ein Einspruch unmoeglich. Nach R 14,14 kommt darurn auch der "Schwache" durch den Genusz von Opferfleisch in seinen Glauben selbst zu Fall: Die "Beurteilung" des Fleisches als unrein bedeutet eine fuer ihn verbindliche Wirklichkeit, deren Verletzung auch eine Erschuetterung seiner selbst ist. So enthaelt die gehorsame Erfassung der Glaubenswirklichkeit im A . O y t ~ E c r e a . t zugleich die Aufforderung, sich dieser Wirklichkeit auch im Leben unterzuordnen: R 6,11 mahnt der Imperative A . O y t ~ E c r e E , sich fuer tot der Suende, doch lebend fuer Gott "zu halten," dann: sich danach aber auch zu "verhalten."2 There is faith in Paul's A . O y t ~ E c r e E to be sure, but this faith of the Christian's embraces divinely revealed reality; it clings to the accomplished historical occurrence of one's death with Christ in baptism and its necessary consequence -life perpetual with the living Lord. And we may add in the words of Martin Franzmann's characterization of faith: "Thus, by receiving from God, by purely receptive relatedness to divine 25 and gracious omnipotence, by committal to God ... thus faith becomes power, ,,3 power, as Paul will show, for the utter defeat of sin in the believer's earthly walk and total dedication of being and behavior to God. C. H. Dodd, too, is mistaken in his interpretation of what Paul means to indicate, when he employs A o y £ ~ e c r 8 e in verse 11. He supposes the apostle is saying that: Unless he [the Christian] "considers himself dead to sin," he is in effect not dead to sin, in spite of his baptism .... The steady intention of mind and will is needed to make explicit in fact what is already given in principle.4 Kenneth Wuest speaks directly to Dodd's error in his comment: "Reckon" is logizomai, "to calculate, take into account." The fact that he takes into account the change God wrought in his inner being when He saved him does not make it so, but his act of reckoning puts into operation the machinery which gives him victory over sin and enables him to live a life pleasing to God. When the saint counts upon the fact that the power of indwelling sin is broken he will refuse to obey it and will fulfill Paul's admonition.5 We come next to the word ~ a ' \ ) ' t o u < ; in Paul's directive "keep on accounting yourselves to be dead with reference to sin but continually living to God." The reference is to the essential self of each Christian to whom Paul is writing; this self died once with Christ and then instantaneously rose with Him to enter upon a continuous life with the living Lord. The apostle thinks of the individual, regenerate selves of the Roman believers together and uses the plural "yourselves," ~ a m o u < ; , as he speaks to them. In the previous verses he has combined himself with these "selves" and has written "we": "we" died to sin with Christ, how shall "we" go on living in it? "We" were baptized into union with Christ and with his death. "We" were buried with Him that "we" might be raised with Him. "We" have become grown-together with Him in a death and in a resurrection like his. "We" shall continue living together with Him. The essential self, the ego, the "I," of the believer is the "new creation," Kat V1'\ KnO"t<;, of 2 Corinthians 5: 17 and Galatians 6:15; "the new man" of Colossians 3:10 ('tOv v ~ o v rtv8pomov) and Ephesians 4:24 ('tOv KawOv rtv8pomov), who has replaced "the oldman" of Romans 6:6 (61taAatO<; 1'JJl&v w8pomo<;) and of Colossians 3:9 and Ephesians 4:22 ('tOv 1taAatOV rtv8pomov); "the inner man" of Romans 7:22 ('tOv ~ c r O ) rtv8pomov; compare the expression also in Ephesians 3:16 and 2 Corinthians 4:16), where Paul says, "I delight in the law of God according to the inner man." To be identified with this inner man is the "I" of Romans 7: 15 and following which wants to do the total good and avoid all evil in the behavior, wills what is right and hates what is wrong, agrees with and serves the law of God. That this "I" so delights, wants, wills, hates, agrees, and serves is due to the fact that the "I" has life -this is what it means for the regenerate ego to be "continually living to God -or, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:24, that the new man is created righteous and holy (he is 'tOy KatVOV rtv8pomov 'tOy Ka't<'l 8eOv l C ' t t c r 8 ~ v ' t a ~ v OtKatOcr'C>VTJ Kat 6O"t6'tTl'tt 'ti"t<; aA1'\8eta<;) and thus constantly exercises himself in such godliness. It is the nature of the new man always to have his will in harmony with God's; the new man is a morally perfect creation of the Almighty. This is true, despite the fact that the apostle also says in Romans 7, "I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do" (verse 19, Revised Standard Version), for he immediately adds in the next verse, "Now if I do what I (t-yro) do not want, it is no longer I (t-yro) that do it, but sin which dwells within me." In other words, it is actually not the new man ever who himself does wrong; it is rather sin, the sin-power, which still dwells in the flesh6 (the as yet unregenerate nature in the Christian), verse 18a, and compels the flesh to follow its dictates, when the believer does not employ the powers of the new life in Christ to overcome sin. When the believer yet sins, the new man experiences temporarily and unwillingly a kind of "subjection" to the 26 sin-power, until the child of God repents and the new man comes to the fore and "holds the field" in the Christian once again. But, even though the believer's regenerate ego is sinless, this inner man -as the essence of the human being the Christian is -nevertheless bears the responsibility for the sin committed in the flesh; and so Paul writes, "with my flesh I serve the law of sin" (Romans 7:25, Revised Standard Version). Luther, commenting on 7:18 puts the matter this way: Just because one and the same man as a whole consists of flesh and spirit, he [Paul] attributes to the whole man both of the opposites that come from the opposite parts of him. Thus there comes about a communio idiomatum: one and the same man is spiritual and carnal, righteous and sinful, good and evil. Just so the one person of Christ is at the same time both dead and alive, both suffering and blessed, both active and inactive, etc., because of the communio idomatum, even though there belongs to neither of his two natures what is characteristic of the other, for as everyone knows, they differ absolutely from each other.7 Now the essential self, the ego, the new, inner man of the believing child of God is his regenerate spirit. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 6:17, "he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit"; that is, the union with Christ which takes place in baptism is a union joining the believer's spirit to Christ's. In Romans 8: 10 the apostle makes the assertion, "if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness." In the previous passage we have reduced the King James Version capital "s" of the word "Spirit" to a small "s," since it is not the Holy Spirit but the regenerate human spirit signified here. (Compare the Revised Standard Version, The New English Bible, renderings, "your spirits are alive" and "the spirit is life itself," respectively.) The apostle, then, is saying that the Christian's spirit is so fully possessed of life -the life to which believers have risen, and in which they continually live, with Christ -that it can be called life itself. A striking parallel to this Pauline teaching, the identification of the believer's ego with his spirit, presents itself in implications of two "words" which Jesus spoke from the cross on Calvary. To the penitent malefactor on his right the Savior gave the comforting assurance, "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43; italicizing mine); then when Christ was ready to die He spoke to his Heavenly Father, saying, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (verse 46; italicizing mine). As Christ immediately thereafter expired ( t l ; ~ 1 t V E \ } ( J £ v ) , his human spirit departed the body to be with the Father in heaven (for the parts of three days, until Easter Sunday when this spirit returned again to his body in Joseph's tomb and vivified it for resurrection); the Lord's body was interred in a customary manner. Yet Jesus had said that He would be in paradise that very day. This ego of Christ was his spirit. The same can be stated with regard to the penitent criminal. His body was buried, no doubt in a common burial plot near Jerusalem, but he went at once to be with Jesus in paradise -and that according to the spirit, that is, in his regenerate spirit.8 Luther, the great student and exegete of St. Paul, understood that the believer's death and life with Christ are "in the spirit." In a gloss on Romans 6:7-11, for example, he writes (and our interest in the following quotation is not so much in the commentary as on the repeated use of the terms "spiritual" and "spirit"): For he, who actualizes this "If we have been planted together," etc., is dead: by a good spiritual death he is made righteous from his sin, i.e., he is risen in a spiritual resurrection. Now if we be dead by a spiritual death through baptism, in order to end sin with Christ: we believe ... that we shall also live in spirit and newness, now and forever, with him .... death shall have no more dominion over him; in other words: therefore it cannot have any dominion over you in spirit. ... So do you also reckon, i.e., feel, know, that you are dead to sin, I Peter 2:24: "That we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness," but alive in a spiritual life to God in Christ Jesus, by faith in Christ.9 27 In many passages of the Refonner's lectures on chapters 6-8 he speaks of the inward man. the spiritual man, the spirit of the child of God, dying and living spiritually, and so on. 10 Each Christian, then, is continually to account himself to be dead with reference to sin but perpetually living to God. The present infinitive etVat has a durative significance, indicating unchanging condition, the condition described by the balanced phrases with }ltv and O ~ . As our translation indicates, the datives are datives of reference, as in verse 10. The participle ~ u > v ' t c t ~ is in the durative present tense, again denoting a continuing state; compare the durative verbs in verse 8, O ' \ ) ~ ' f \ O ' O } l E V , and 10, ~ 1 l . The combination of ~ U > v ' t c t ~ with dvat is the "heaping" of durative present upon durative present and an emphatic stress of the pennanent continuance of the "living to God." This is the "living to God" of the Christian's inner self, the new man, created in baptism. It includes the believer's faith in and love for God; his delight in, and desire to have the entire person render obedience to, God's will, as has been mentioned. tv XPt IT\O'oi): At root is the view of Christ as a universal personality. This is to be construed cosmically and eschatologically rather than mystically in the current Hellenistic sense. Cf. 1 C. 15:22,45-49; R. 5:12-21. The first and the second Adam ... are progenitors initiating two races of men. Each implies a whole world, an order of life or death .... Each includes his adherents in and under himself .... By baptism ... believers are removed from the sphere of the first Adam, which is that of sin and death, into the sphere of the second Adam, which is that of righteousness and life . . . . This underlying spatial concept gives us the clue to the true significance of the formula tv XptO''t4> and its parallels. Yet here, too, there is both a local and an instrumental element. 20 We have had occasion to consider the Christ as "representative man" or "universal personality" concept earlier in this thesis and have shown that it is not applicable to Paul's teaching in Romans 6. For the reasons cited in Chapter II (to which the reader is referred21) Oepke's interpretation of the tv XptO"t4> formula, if this be proposed for the phrase as appearing in verse 11, is unacceptable. Closely related to Oepke's is C. H. Dodd's idea: in the tv XptO''t4> phrase, "Christ" = the Church. He says in his commentary on Romans: In verse 11 we have the first instance in this epistle of Paul's characteristic use of that phrase ["in Christ"], the formula of what has been called his "Christ-mysticism." The context in which it here occurs offers a clue to its meaning. It is the baptized person who is in Christ. He has been baptized into the Church, into the Body of Christ, and so into Christ. He has become one of that company of people who embody the new humanity of which Christ is the inclusive Representative (cf. xii. 5: for all our numbers, we form one Body in Christ).22 Now it is true that when persons are baptized etc; XptO''tOv, they are immediately baptized EtC; ~ v O'6)p.a (1 Corinthians 12:13), which is the Church; compare Galatians 3:27-28 and Ephesians 2:13-16. In one sense tv XPtO''t4> = EV E K l C A . T \ c r { ~ . But, as Walter Bartling puts it, though the two are inseparable, "they are not quite the reverse sides of the same coin, because EV XptO''tip is logically and soteriologically prior in time and importance to EV E K l C A . T \ c r { ~ . ,,23 Our study of Romans 6:2-11 has shown that in this chapter the Apostle Paul is speaking of the believer's vital, intimate, personal union with the Christ-as-individual, through whom he receives the life to live in the community of God's people. 29 It is probably correct to assume that Paul ultimately derived his EV XptO''tlP concept and expression from Christ Himself,24 in view of Jesus' extensive teaching about "being in" (dvat EV) and "abiding in" ()ltVEtV EV) Him as recorded particularly in the Fourth Gospel. Vincent Taylor in a study of Johannine and Pauline mysticism shows the close resemblance between the two, "the principal differences being that the former discloses itself also as a God-mysticism and does not make use of the Pauline idea of dying and rising with Christ." Taylor further summarizes: Like the Pauline mysticism, that found in the Johannine writings is a "fellowship-mysticism" in which the personal relationship is so reciprocal in character that, alternatively, it can be described by saying that God or Christ "abides in" the believer or that the believer "abides in" God or "in" Christ. In this respect also the Pauline use of the phrases "Christ in you" and "You in Christ" supplies a close parallel. More important still is the strong ethical note which so decisively distinguishes this teaching from the characteristic utterances of Hellenistic piety. Less varied in range than in the Pauline Epistles, this ethical emphasis is clearly marked in J h . 2S . .. 0 anmne passages .... In other words, the mystical expressions in John's epistles, the Pauline corpus, and the discourses of Jesus as preserved in the Fourth Gospel are of a kind. Both apostles were true disciples of their Master.26 The best illustration of the "in Christ" formula is provided by the words of Jesus in John 15, which indicate that He is related to those who believe in Him as a vine is to its branches. The Savior says: I am the true vine .... Abide in me [EV E)lOt], and I in you [EV u)liv]. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine [EV 'til Ct)l1ttACP]; no more can ye, except ye abide in me [tv E)lOt]. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me [EV £)lot], and I in him [tv (lu'tlP], the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me [ X O l p t ~ £)l0'CJ] ye can do nothing. (verses la, 4,5) As a branch is vitally joined to a vine stem (trunk), so that from the stem it receives its nourishment and support and derives its very life (separate the branch from the stem, and it dies); so the Christian is vitally joined by faith to Christ, in intimate spiritual connection or union ("mystical," because we cannot with our minds penetrate its mysterious nature), such that he keeps receiving from Christ his very life and the means to support and maintain it. This picture of vine and branches accords also with the idea of grafting which is inherent in the O'U)l1ta1(®Etv. The present tense of l 3 a m A . £ ' \ } ~ ' t O l is durative, which gives the word the significance, "hold uninterrupted sway"; this idea is adequately conveyed by the single English word "reign.,,29 Paul says the sin-power is not to reign "in your mortal body, so that you obey its lusts." Baptism has removed sin's control of the Christian's spirit; the only field left for sin's operation is the "mortal body" (compare 'to CJ{i'Jp.a ' t 1 ' t ~ ~ a p ' t t a ~ , verse 6). :ElilJIan here certainly refers to the human body, the physical organism. This is confmned by the attributive adjective "mortal," eV1l't«i>. Even the Christian's body is subject to death, and this because of Adam's sin (Romans 5:12). As mortal, and in the process of perishing, the body is too weak to resist the sin-power; sin can still operate in and through the body. Neither intrinsically evil (for the body can be used for the service of God; the body will be glorified) nor the source and seat of sin in man, it is the "victim" upon which sin "pounces," whose members sin still can coerce and use for its purposes. We confront a problem, however, when Paul attributes "lusts," t m e ' \ } J l t a . t ~ , to the "body" -amoil refers to CJlilJIan -and intimates that the sin-power stirs up these lusts of the body. Normally we speak of "appetites" or "needs" of the body. The production of "lust," "desire," "longing," or "craving" -any of these terms may be employed to translate tmSu}lta, and in context here each takes on an evil significance, evil lust, sinful desire, and so on -is rather a function of the psychical part of man. What does it mean that the "body" has "lusts"? The answer lies, no doubt, in a comparison with the New Testament usage of the term "flesh," C J ~ ~ . ThayerO offers a convenient and helpfully organized summary of the pertinent information. (1) The basic meaning of C J c ' i p ~ is "flesh," the soft substance of the living body, which covers the bones and is permeated with blood; flesh of both man and beasts. (2) : E ~ ~ is frequently used in Scripture also in the sense of "body/' not designating it, however, as a skillful combination of related parts ("an organism," which is denoted by the word CJ{i'Jp.a), but signifying the material or substance of the living body. (3) Sometimes "flesh" also means simply "a living creature." (4) But C J c ' i p ~ , when either expressly or tacitly opposed to 'to 1tVEilJla, has an ethical sense and denotes mere human nature of man apart from the influence of the Holy Spirit, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God; accordingly it includes whatever in the soul is weak, debased, tending to ungodliness and vice, according to Thayer. We may add that in the case of the unbeliever his whole being -spirit, psychical nature, and body -is "flesh"; whereas in the case of the Christian his inner being, the spirit, has been recreated in righteousness, and only his body and psychical nature are "flesh." It should be noted, however, that the unregenerate psychical nature of the Christian is a part of his "flesh." This is clearly indicated, for example, 32 by Galatians 5:19-21, where Paul gives a list of "the works of the flesh" and includes such sins as enmity, jealousy, anger, selfishness, and envy. l;li)p.fl, according to Thayer,3! is our English "body," primarily of men and animals. (Not significant for our discussion are some of the word's transferred meanings such as the body of a plant, or a heavenly body; its figurative usage as designating the mystical body of Christ, the Church; and other meanings.) The author adds: "the fact that the body includes 1'\ O ' O : p ~ , and in the flesh also the incentives to sin [see meaning (4) of O ' O : p ~ above], gives origin to the foIl. phrases: J l i ' l l 3 f l O " t A £ U ~ ' t O l 1'\ aJlflpUfl tv 'ttp 8vJY'tll UJlO)v O'OOJ1fl'tl, Ro. vi. 12 ... at 7 t P O : ~ E l t ; ; 'to\) O'OOJ1fl'tOt;;, Ro. viii. 13." In other words, 0'liJJ:ta. in certain New Testament contexts takes on a meaning practically equivalent to O ' a p ~ in sense (4) above.32 In the passage before us, then, we may conclude the term O'liJJ:tfl is used in a wider sense -to include along with the physical human body also the unregenerate psychical nature of the Christian.33 It is the latter nature, however, which actually produces the "lusts" spoken of, and this at the instigation of the sin-power. What is the whole of the apostle's thought in verse 12? He is saying in effect: "Enough of sin's reigning in your mortal body (your unregenerate nature), stirring up all kinds of lusts, with the result that 34 you obey these lusts, embrace them and commit acts of sin." The Roman Christians are to battle and overcome the very lusts themselves, which are indeed sins in their own right (Romans 7:7) and also lead to further sins of deed. Sin is not to be allowed to reign through the unregenerate nature even in so far as the stimulation of evil desires is concerned -to say nothing of the production of consequent acts of sin (with which the next verse specifically deals). We are reminded of the statement attributed to Luther to the effect that the sinful lusts in the Christian are like birds: "you can't keep them from flying over your head, but you can keep them from making a nest in your hair." Paul continues in verse 13: "and do not furnish your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin." This admonition is a natural sequel to the one previous. The thought progression is: do not allow sinful lusts to remain within you, and certainly do not let the sin-power compel you to obey these lusts, which means that you turn over your members for sin to use these as its instruments for the production of wickedness. The body's "members," ' t ~ ptA,11, here include the various parts of the physical anatomy, eyes, ears, mouth, hands, and so on, and -in view of the significance of "the body" in verse 12 -the various components of (unregenerate) human psychical nature such as the intellect, the emotions, and the will. In context, 07tA.a is better rendered "instruments" than "weapons," which the word certainly also means and which some commentators prefer as the translation in this passage.3S AOllda.t;; is a genitive of qUality: the sense is, "instruments for the production of unrighteousness," transgressions of every type which violate the divine norm and standard of right as set down in God's law. The present tense of 7tflP10''tO:VE'tE may be regarded as iterative. In plain terms, then, Paul is telling the Romans: do not let sin rule your members so that your eyes look at the wrong things, your feet take you to the wrong places, your mind thinks the wrong thoughts, your emotion of love be misdirected toward material things, and so on. First the negative, then the positive. "On the contrary ( a ~ after a negative clause is strongly adversative, introduces a sharp contrast), present yourselves once-and-for-all to God, as men alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness, to God." The aorist imperative 7tflPflO''"Cf\O'fl'tE calls for a decisive, once-for-all break with past sinful practice, through a once-for-all-time presentation of self and bodily members to God, as the new Lord and Master. Interestingly, the apostle asks here fust that each believer devote and fumish36 his inner being, his ego, his regenerate spirit to God in a conscious act of self-dedication and vow of deathless loyalty. 'EflU'tO'i>t;; is to be conceived of exactly as in verse 11, the real inner self, the spirit; the contrast between the self and the members which belong to, but do not constitute, the self is very evident in this verse. The phrase dxJet tK VEKPO)V ~ O ) V ' t f l t ; ; shows the "spirit" (if we may be permitted to use this term) in which the presenting of the self to God should be done -as really alive from the dead! as beneficiary of 33 a stupendous miracle, such as being raised and alive from the dead. Paul implies: well, this happened to you -your old self was crucified with Christ and killed off; with Christ your new self was raised from the dead -you are actually alive. Be congnizant of, and demonstrate your recognition of, this as you present yourselves to God Act as men raised to life, men who are really alive from the dead. Secondly, the apostle directs his readers in the same act of consecration to present their members (same meaning as at the beginning of the verse) once-and-for-all as instruments of righteousness, to God, for use in his service. ~ t 1 ( o o . o c : r u v l l C ; is a genitive of quality; and the sense, "for the production of righteousness." Let it be forever decided that the ears will be used exclusively to hear the things God wants his children to hear; the tongue, to speak the things God wants them to speak; the hands, to be active in the deeds God wants them to perform; the mind, to produce the thoughts God wants them to think, and so on. And should any of the body's members temporarily yield to the service of sin, let these immediately, by repentance, be returned to the service of God. This is grace, indeed, for the Christian to strive after -to exercise the powers of the new being and life bestowed in baptism and gain the facility of their use so as to triumph over sin; decisively to remove the body and its members from the service of the old tyrant and present them a living sacrifice acceptable to God; to conquer lust, to suppress the evil thought and feeling, to hold in check the stubbom, contrary will; to devote energy and talents to the work of the Lord; daily to seek fIrst the Kingdom and its righteousness; unremittingly to pursue the godliness which is full of blessing for this life and leads to glory in the life to come. Once the believer is shown the way to lay hold of this grace -and Paul gives the clearest directions in Romans 6 -he must pursue it with all his might. But what about its actual attainment? Might this not after all be beyond the reach of the ordinary Christian -such as would be found, for example, in the rank-and-file of the Church's membership in Rome? Paul anticipates this and any other misgiving which might arise in the hearts of those who would ponder his words in Romans 6 by adding the assurance of verse 14. Verse 14 Each evangelical instruction which the apostle has given the Roman Christians in verses 12 and 13 they can most assuredly carry out. Why? Verse 14 (the last clause of the sentence begun in verse 12) supplies the unequivocal answer: for sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under law but under grace. r(\p is illative, introducing a reason. The first clause of the verse constitutes a categorical promise, a climax guarantee, full of strengthening encouragement: "sin shall not have dominion over you." What has been implicit in Paul's argumentation right along in the previous verses (compare especially verses 6 and 7) he now at the conclusion of this section enunciates in the form of clearest, point-blank assurance. Sin's power to "rule as lord" (ruPl£'6O'Et) and to enslave -more specifically, the power of any sin (anarthrous ~ a : p ' t f : a : ) thus to have dominion -is utterly at an end for the believer, today, tomorrow, next week, next year, throughout the period of life on earth, forevermore! TIris is the emancipation God has effected for every one of his children in baptism. Let his people believe this with all their hearts and then proceed boldly to the conquest of sin. To understand fully the apostle's declaration, two points must be noted. To the fIrst we have already made reference. AJla:p'tf:a: here is anarthrous; the point in omitting the article is to stress quality and not the personification of sin as previously.37 Paul refers to "anything in the nature of sin" and, in context, "known to be sin"; any known sinful act, word, thought. He implies: not only will the sin-power itself no longer reign over you like a king; no single sin of any kind at all will be able to hold you in subjection or even temporarily lord it over you. Putting it another way, there is not a single recognized transgression which the believer cannot overcome in his "body" (unregenerate physical and psychical nature), and in the power of Christ. Kenneth Wuest writes: 34 Here is one of the secrets of the victorious life, the realization that we are set free from the clutches of the sinful nature with the ability to say no to it, the realization that we have the same power over this fallen nature that we have over our radio. We can snap it off at will and in an instant. It has no more control over us than that which we allow it to have.38 This is not to suggest, however -and this is the second point -that the Christian will never again commit wrongs which he knows to be sins, after regeneration or after learning Paul's doctrine in Romans 6. In his inner being, the new man, to be sure, he is altogether righteous and living to God without sin. The flesh, though, is weak. When the believer is not on his guard, sin can still tempt him in this unregenerate nature and lead him into transgression. In such cases the ego is temporarily "taken captive," as has been explained previously; and, though the "I" itself does not do evil, it nevertheless must bear responsibility for whatever wrong is done. Because of the frailty of the flesh the problem of "falling into" sins of weakness will remain with the child of God throughout the course of his earthly walk. On the other hand, it should be stressed that when the Christian consciously addresses himself to the problem of sin in his life, to particular and besetting transgressions; when he recalls what Paul has stated in Romans 6 and applies this to himself in faith, then the victory over the sin-power and individual sins is assured. The important thing, then, in the struggle with evil and the pressure of temptation, is that he keep on accounting himself dead to sin and living to God in union with Christ Jesus; that he hold in unswerving trust to the pledge "sin shall not have dominion over you." To engage in such accounting and have such faith is to operate in the invincible strength of Christ. The second clause in verse 14 gives the reason (illative ')UP again) why no sin at all will exercise dominion: "for you are not under law but under grace." "Law" and "grace" are not strange or abrupt "imports" into Paul's discourse at this point. The apostle had spoken of both in the verses immediately preceding 6:1. Romans 5:20 reads (Revised Standard Version): "Law [anarthrous v 6 J l o ~ ] came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace [1'\ X / X p t ~ ] abounded all the more"; and 5:21: "so that, as sin reigned in death, grace [1'\ X / X p t ~ ] also might reign through righteousness to etemallife through Jesus Christ our Lord." The reference to grace in 6:1 we have already considered. Before 5:20 these terms, either with or without the article, have appeared in many passages of the first five chapters of the epistle. What is their significance in 6:14, and why their introduction into the context of verses 12-14? To be "under law," under the authority and rule of law, and to be "under grace," under the authority and rule of grace, is plainly here a direct antithesis: either the one or the other.39 If a person is still under "law" -and anarthrous v 6 J l o ~ in verse 14, as frequently in Romans, signifies anything in the nature of law, law in general, law of any kind or code, God's written law included40 -then he is by no means free of the dominion of the sin-power or even any single sin. To man under law an appeal for holiness in inner nature or outer behavior (like that which Paul issues in verses 12 and l3) would be fruitless. The apostle has stated in 5:20 that God let law come into the world to exert an influence on men alongside sin and death, and its express function is "to increase the trespass," to multiply transgressions, to strengthen the sin-power's grip upon, and tyranny over, human beings.41 The more men would deal with law in whatever form they had it, come under its authority, and try to obey its precepts, the more they would violate the very precepts and ordinances to which they had committed themselves. How this result of law-use comes to be Paul has alluded to in 4:15 and spells out in detail in chapter 7, especially verses 5 and 8-13; the sin-power employs law to increase human transgression. Law could never render its devotees capable of resisting this sin-power and producing actual righteousness, because it has no capacity to bestow spiritual life upon the sinner (Galatians 3:21). The situation is entirely different, on the other hand, if a person is under grace. In anarthrous X / X p t ~ the emphasis is upon quality, that which has the quality of grace. The term grace in Scripture names an attribute 35 and action of God according to which He shows sinful men undeserved kindness, unmerited favor, particularly in bestowing upon the objects of his grace the infinitely enriching gifts of salvation. Paul's first mention of grace in the course of the formal doctrinal presentation of Romans is in 3:24, where grace as divine attribute is said to be the cause of the believer's justification. In this verse (and in the entire section on justification, 3:21-4:25) Paul shows that divine grace operates and bestows the saving blessing of forgiveness upon men apart from any coefficiency of law. In chapter 5 grace's function of imparting life and salvation by justification is emphasized. Writing the article with X(xpt<; so as almost to personify grace as a sin, and deathdispelling power -the very opposite of 1'1 u)lapna and 0 8fxva'to<; -Paul states in verses 20 and 21: "grace abounded . . . so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Again, we see that grace confers its blessings without the help of law, for verse 20 indicates that law carrie in "on the side of" sin and death and "to increase the trespass." Now the Christian to whom grace has brought its gifts of forgiveness or justification, life, and salvation cannot be "under law" but is rather "under grace" -exclusively under its jurisdiction and control. This is plain to see, because grace is said to reign "to," that is, "for the bestowal of" (final e{<;), "eternal life." Where there is life, and life that is to continue everlastingly, there is of necessity also given along with this life the means of its perpetual maintenance -(1) the capacity to defeat and destroy sin, which brings on death,42 and (2) a freedom from domination by, or a "being under," coercing law (in any form), which only serves to multiply sin and thus bring on death. For the benefit of his readers Paul details the first, 0), in Romans 6 and the second, (2), in Romans 7. Having briefly considered this background of the apostle's thought, we are in a position to understand the reference to "law" and "grace" in 6:14. The Roman Christians have the ability to follow Paul's directives in verse 12 and 13; he assures them, "sin shall not have dominion over you." When they became believers and received justification and life (by union with Christ in his death and resurrection), they were freed from being under not only the sin-power itself but also "law," which is the one great agency that supports and multiplies sin. When Christians are removed from the control of sin and law and placed "under grace," there is no other opposing power which could prevent their withdrawing the body's members from sin's use and employing them in the service of God The believer's triumph over sin, in Christ, is complete. With the consideration of Paul's assurance "you are ... under grace" in verse 14 we have come the full circle in our study of the apostle's doctrine in Romans 6:1-14. We have seen the grace the Christian has received, 1-10; the grace the Christian must strive to appropriate, 11-13; and in the last verse of the section Paul has brought us once again to the grace received. It remains for us to draw some conclusions as to the relevance of the theology of Romans 6 for the teaching and proclamation of the Church today. 36 CHAPTER IV SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS It will be well at this point briefly to summarize Pauline doctrine in Romans 6:1-14, as we have interpreted his statements in the preceding pages. Our study has shown that substantial differences of opinion exist among New Testament commentators in the explanation of these verses but that there is exegetical support for the position this thesis has taken on the significant controverted issues. The facts of stupendous importance, of which Paul reminds his readers in verses 1-10 in Romans 6 (which is located in the section dealing with the effects of justification for the believer in Christ) are the following: when these Christians were baptized and came to faith in Jesus, they were joined to Christ, spiritually united to Him. This union was such that it brought each of them into participation in Christ's own death and resurrection. They each one experienced crucifixion with Christ, death and burial with him, and then, in the same moment and miracle of regeneration, they experienced resurrection from the dead for entrance upon a condition of endless spiritual life with Christ. The Christian's union with Christ is a spiritual union, that is, a union of the believer's spirit with Christ's spirit, . and thus with Christ. The old spirit-self with its opposition to God was done away with; a newly created inner spirit-being with a loving responsiveness to God was provided the believer in the act of baptismal regeneration. Because the union with Christ and the participation in his death, resurrection, and eternal life are of a mysterious nature, that is, beyond the powers of the human intellect to penetrate and comprehend, this being joined to Christ is sometimes called the believer's mystical union with Jesus. All the effects of justification described in verses 2-10 constitute grace which the believer has received in Christ. In verses 11-13 the apostle proceeds to make application of the Gospel information provided in 2-10. Because of their death and resurrection with Christ all the Roman Christians, Paul urges, ought constantly do two things. First, according to verse 11, these believers are to take seriously ( A . o y t ~ £ O " e a . t ) that, just as Jesus died once-forall-time on Good Friday but was subsequently vivified and resurrected on Easter morning and has been continually living ever since in the power of his resurrection life, so also they severally by the baptismally established union with Christ (a) died once-for-all-time and have ever since remained dead to the sin-power which once dominated their former inner being; and (b) are continually living to God -have been so ever since baptism, and will continue thus to live (t.v XptO"'ttp 'IT\O"oi», as does the resurrected Christ, the living and life-giving Lord to whom they are joined. Secondly, according to verses 12 and 13, the Roman Christians, after reckoning that they in their real egos have died and are alive with Christ, are then -for this very reason ("therefore"), because of this actual death and resurrection really experienced -(a) negatively to keep the sin-power, which is still stirring in the as-yet unregenerated and therefore mortal body, from controlling the body as its ruler and using its "members" (eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, intellect, emotions, will, and so on) as instruments of umighteousness; and (b) positively to yield their entire beings to God, with their members constantly serving as instruments of righteousness for Him. Verses 11-13 describe grace the Christian must continually strive to grasp in consequence of the grace already received. In Verse 11 Paul shows the believer the ultimate motivation for sanctification to which he may and must have recourse in the battle against sin, and points him to the ultimate power upon which he may and must draw for the production of good works. Why not sin after conversion, or baptismal regeneration? Paul answers in effect: because, Christian, you yourself -in your real self, the real "you" -do not want to. You may not always feel or sense this new will to please God, as for example, in times of stress, trouble, temptation, 37 depression, spiritual inertia; but you can and should believe that you have it. Keep accounting yourself dead to sin, alive and living "to God" -which new condition includes having the will and entire life of your inner man attuned and responsive to the divine desire. Where find the power to defeat sin? Again -Paul would say -in the knowledge and, through faith, in the fact of your death with and life in Christ. Your new man is mightier than the sin-power: "sin shall not have dominion over you" (verse 14). The endeavor to do righteous works is no longer a hopeless task, as it was in your unconverted state, when law was your master; when, as you gave attention to its directives, the result was that law drove you to further sinning, more deeply under the control of the sin-power. Now a new power rules you, the power of divine grace. The grace of God which brought you deliverance from sin's guilt (justification) has also afforded you deliverance from sin's coercing might (by union with Christ) and from the coincident and supporting lordship of law. Christ's own victorious, sin-conquering strength is now yours, the present possession of your inner man. Believe this truth and enter into employment of the Savior's power. Exult (with Paul, Philippians 4:13): "I am able to do all things in union with Him who is strengthening me." There is not a single sin which you cannot overcome in union with Christ. Now, a number of observations and conclusions. 1. In Romans 6 Paul, then, presents the doctrine of the believer's mystical union with Christ, as effected in baptism. Constituting the most detailed and extensive New Testament treatment of this great spiritual phenomenon and its significance for Christian life, verse 1-14 are a sedes doctrinae on the mystical union. Here is "deep" theology and yet also powerful Gospel, relevant to, and practical for, every Christian who seeks to fight the good fight of faith and do the will of his Heavenly Father. The mystical union is the basis of Christian sanctification. The fact that the believer was joined to Christ in baptism and as a result died, rose, and lives with the Savior makes it possible for him to live the holy, sin-conquering life. This very fact, indeed, according to Paul is to provide the believer with his basic nwtivation and power for the God-glorifying life. He is to believe about himself that he has actually died and is living with Christ; that as such he in his inner man is possessed of a constant desire to serve and obey the Lord and has the might to overcome any sin in his psychical nature or external behavior. If and when the believer so "accounts" himself and proceeds resolutely to the mortification of the deeds of the body, he will always triumph over sin in Christ; he will find again and again that the dominion of this evil master over him has truly been broken. Such is the practical thrust of Pauline theology in Romans 6. An investigation of the Pauline corpus will reveal that, wherever the apostle issues ethical appeals to his readers, the facts of the believer's union with Christ are either specifically, in so many words, mentioned (as, for example, in Colossians 2:11-23 and 3:1-14 and Ephesians 4:20-32) or are clearly alluded to as the grounds on the basis of which Paul can issue his instructions and the Christian addressees can and should respond in obedience. The allusions to the union which we have in mind are those like the one in Romans 12:1, the passage heading the section of the epistle in which Paul mentions the specific components of the godliness the believers in Rome should strive to attain, and the apostle states: "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God .... " (Revised Standard Version) Following justification, the most significant "mercy of God" through (Olc'l) which believers can present their bodies a living sacrifice to Him is the new spiritual being and life given them by their baptismally established union with Christ. Allusions to the mystical union are to be found particularly also in the . frequently appearing tv XplO''ttp formula and its variants wherever they occur, especially in the passages in which Paul provides churches with moral admonitions. The formula capsules, as it were, or serves as a "capsule reference" to, the entire teaching in Romans 6. This being so -and the same 38 emphasis on facts related to the believer's union with Christ, we may add, occurring throughout the New Testament in sections dealing with sanctification! -Paul's doctrine of the mystical union, its connection with and vital importance for the life of good works, the power faith in these truths unleashes for victory over sin and for godliness had better be explained in careful detail to the members of Christian congregations today and repeatedly brought to their attention. Certainly all ethical instruction should include mention of, or allusion to, the doctrine of Romans 6, in imitation of the Pauline pattern. (Luther's article on baptism in the Small Catechism is an example of tt; .. \ The preceding is perhaps the major conclusion which may be drawn from this thesis study, for the life of the Church today, namely, the complete relevance of Romans 6 theology for -indeed, the necessary place it should occupy in -the teaching and proclamation in the Church. The Gospel of the believer's release from the power of sin should receive equal emphasis along with the Gospel of his release from the guilt of sin. The Christ in us should be diligently proclaimed along with the Christ for us. Yet this often is not the case. Too frequently preachers employ only what may be termed "second-level" motivations in urging their people to make strides in holiness of living. The appeal is to "loving Christ" and "being so grateful for redemption" that certain acts of godliness follow; or, to "fearing God," or "hoping for reward," and so on. Now it is true, the New Testament indicates that love, gratitude, fear, and hope for reward can supply an impetus for sanctification, when these holy emotions have been generated and are operative within the child of God. None of them, however, can serve as ultimate motivation; none of them can supply ultimate power for godliness, since as emotions they are notoriously "fickle" -now present in strength, now but very faintly present, sometimes absent altogether -and thus afford a very shaky foundation for the moral battles of life, particularly in periods of temptation, affliction, pain, mental stress, doubt, or other trying situations. Moreover, these emotions are actually themselves "good works" which require appropriate motivation in the believer's heart for their uninterrupted generation. The ultimate motivation and power for the holy life to which Paul points believers in Romans 6 is that of faith, not feeling -faith in the accomplished Gospel facts which enable the child of God to proceed dauntlessly with the struggle against sin despite a given physical-psychical condition and any external circumstance. God's people would discover and could employ undreamed of power for Christian accomplishment, for more rapid and substantial progress in sanctification, if they were carefully taught, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to believe, Paul's doctrine in Romans 6. Ministers who take the time and effort thoroughly to instruct their members in the matters pertaining to the mystical union will help them to come by a genuine dynamic for ethical performance -and this will serve their congregations far better than emotion-packed sermons which may fire up the hearers on Sunday but leave them emotionally cold on Monday; better than the undue use of law in preaching and teaching; the development of gimmicks of every description to enlist the people's participation in the work of the Lord; and better than dependence upon any means to elicit Christian action other than one which includes forceful, urgent, continuous appeal to the ultimate motivation and power for sanctification Paul discusses in Romans 6. What God wants and what the Church needs today is a membership which fully understands, firmly believes, and thoroughly exploits its potential for spiritual fruit-bearing in union with Christ. 2. Beyond this it should be stated that the doctrine of the mystical union, as set forth in Romans 6, is a part of the "whole counsel of God" and should be carefully expounded in the Church, according to apostolic example and divine direction. Paul's use of the imperative A . O y t ~ E O ' e E in verse 11, and t h ~ inferential ouv and the imperatives in verses 12 and 13, do not leave the matter of deriving motivation and power for sanctification from the mystical union to individual Christian option. The apostle's instructions are evangelical mandates for every Christian. Indeed, it should be asserted that any 39 teaching of the Scriptural doctrine of good works is incomplete unless the instruction that works are to be done EV XptO''t«i>, in union with Christ, drawing on his power for their performance, is included. And any endeavor to live the godly life apart from the employment of the motivation and power Paul presents in Romans 6 is to that extent deficient. It is important that God's people in the Christian Church today realize these facts. 40 ENDNOTES CHAPTER I 1. Arthur Carl Piepkorn, "The Lutheran Church A Scramental Church," The Augustana Quarterly, XVII (1938),50. 2. The Greek text on which this investigation is based is Nestle's: Eberhard Nestle, Erwin Nestle, and Kurt Aland, editors, Novum Testamentum Graece (Twenty-fifth edition; Stuttgart: Wuerttembergische Bibelanstalt, 1963). 3. This date is adopted by Martin H. Franzmann: "Paul, then, wrote to Rome from Corinth during the winter of AD. 55-56," The Word of the Lord Grows (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961), p. 111. Other datings, however, are possible. Paul Feine, Johannes Beinn, and Werner Georg Kuemrnel suggest "the spring of 55 or 56, Introduction to the New Testament, translated from the fourteenth revised German edition by A J. Mattill, Jr. (New York: Abingdon Press, 1966), p. 220. A H. McNeile and C. S. C. Williams designate the year as 57, An Introduction to the Study of the New Testament (Second edition; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), p. 124. Alfred Wikenhauser states that "Romans was written during Paul's last sojourn at Corinth at the beginning of 58 AD.", New Testament Introduction, translated from the German by Joseph Cunningham (New York: Herder and Herder, 1958), p. 405. CHAPTER II 1. This understanding of the coherence and thought progression of the epistle to the Romans is opposed to the view of a man like Albert Schweitzer: "In the Epistle to the Romans an amazing thing happens, that, after the new righteousness has been presented at length as coming from faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice (Romans iii. 1-5:21), it is explained a second time, without any reference whatever to the previous exposition, as founded on the mystical dying and rising again with Christ (Romans vi. 1-8: 1). To the presence of these two independent expositions of the same question is due the confusing impression which the Epistle to the Romans always makes upon the reader." The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, translated from the German by William Montgomery (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1931), pp. 225-226. 2. ~ m p t v r o p . E v . The textual variants given in Nestle-Aland apparatus, the present and the future indicative actives of ~ m p t v O ) for the present subjunctive ~ m p t v O ) J l E V , are insufficiently attested to warrant the preference of either of them over Nestle's adopted reading. John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, c.1959), I, 212, points out in a footnote that the subjunctive here "lends strength to the implied objection that there is some obligation to continue in sin because it magnifies grace .... It is the strongest form in which the question could be asked and the rejoinder 'God forbid' takes on the greater vehemence." -Because none of the remaining variant readings occurring in texts of Romans 6: 1-14 are weighty or affect the exegesis of this section, this thesis will not take note of them. Cf. William Sanday and Arthur C. HEadlam, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Eleventh edition; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906), p. 156: "The various readings in this chapter are unimportant." 3. In Chapters II, III, and IV, the writer will provide his own translation of the Greek text, indicating the same with underlining. Other Bible passages cited are quoted from the KJV, unless otherwise specified. 41 4. Cf. the argumentation in 3:5-8. 5. Hans Lietzmann, Einfuehrung in Die Textgeschichte der Paulusbriefe (Second edition; Tuebingen: Verlag von J. C. B. Mohr, 1919), p. 65. He remarks: "Woher diese Personiflkation der . Ap.ap'tta starnmt, wissen wir noch nicht: sie flndet sich z.B. Sirach 27:10, nicht aber Genesis 4:7 LXX." The latter passage, however, may very well be a source of the concept. The anarthrous ap.apna in v. 14 is also "sin as a power" -F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, a translation and revision of the nineth-tenth German edition by Robert W. Funk (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c.1961), Section 258(2). 6. Sanday-Headlam, p. 145. 7. Gustav Staehlin, co-author of the article on ap.apna in Gerhard Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited and translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), I, 296. Cf. Sanday-Headlam, p. 146: "We see ... that just as in the other books of the N.T. the Gospels, the Apocalypse, and the other Apostolic Epistles, evil is referred to a personal cause. And although it is doubtless true that in chapters vi, vii, where St. Paul speaks most directly of the baleful activity of Sin, he does riot intend to lay special stress on this; his language is of the nature of personification and does not necessarily imply a person; yet, when we take it in connexion with other language elsewhere, we see that in the last resort he would have said that there was a personal agency at work. It is at least clear that he is speaking of an influence external to man, and acting upon him in the way 'in which spiritual forces act." 8. Walter Grundmann, co-author of the article on ap.apna ibid., p. 311. See also James S. Stewart, A Man in Christ (New York: Harper and Brothers, n.d.), pp. 104-105. 9. Compare the personification of sin in Romans 7:7-25, which recalls the account of the first temptation in Genesis 3. 10. On the significance of the indicatives and imperatives in these verses see Paul Althaus, Der Brief an die Roemer (Sixth revised edition of Das Neue Testament Deutsch, Vol. VI; Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1949), pp. 55-56: "Das Neue Leben als Wirklichkeit und Aufgabe (Indikative und Impertive)." The relationship of the imperatives to the indicatives is discussed in Chapter III of this thesis. 11. A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research (Second edition; New York: George H. Doran Company, 1915), pp. 888-889. So also HE. Dana and Julius R Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the GreekNew Testament (New York: Macmillan Company, 1944), Section 178(2). This distinction of a "durative" future is not allowed by Blass-Debrunner-Funk, Section 348, but would seem to be supported by usages such as the present passage and, e.g., Phil. 1:18; 2 Thess. 3:4. 12. This "or," ft, could be left untranslated, as, e.g., in the RSV and NEB. Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich translates "or" and suggests that the 1\ here is that which often occurs in interrogative sentences, to introduce and add rhetorical questions. See Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, translated and adapted by William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), p. 343. The question in the text is asked in order to supplement the one previous and to provide additional information. 42 13. The rendering "into union with" is a periphrastic translatio.n which will be justified in subsequent discussio.n. 14. J. B. Lightfo.o.t, Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul (Grand Rapids: Zo.ndervan Publishing Ho.use, 1957), p.295. 15. Franz J. Leenhardt, The Epistle to the Romans, translated fro.m the French by Haro.ld Knight (New Yo.rk: Wo.rld Publishing Co.mpany, 1961), p. 152. AlSo. indicative o.f the Ro.mans' kno.wledge o.f these Go.spel facts are the ytVOOlCo.VtEC; o.f v. 6 and the mO"'tEUo.JlEV o.f v. 8. 16. Hans Wilhelm Schmidt, Der Brief des Paulus an die Roemer, Vo.l. VI o.f Theologischer Handkommentar zum Neuen Testament (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt GmbH., 1962), p. 108. 17. Alfred Wikenhauser, Die Christusmystik Des Apostels Paulus (Second revised and enlarged editio.n; Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 1956), pp. 71-72. 18. Rudo.lf Schnackenburg, Baptism in the Thought of St. Paul, translated fro.m the German by G. R. Beasley-Murray (Oxfo.rd: Basil Blackwell, 1964), p. 21. 19. Ibid.; see Schnackenburg's entire seco.nd chap., pp. 18-29. Cf. Albrecht Oepke's discussio.n o.f "Christian Baptism" under J 3 a . 1 t ' t ( ~ r o in Kittel-Bromily, I, 538-545. Oepke, who. rejects the "spatial" interpretatio.n, says pointedly, p. 539: "The idea o.f a mystically understo.o.d medium o.f baptism ('to be immersed in Christ, etc. ') is always and in every respect wide o.f the mark. J 3 a . 1 t i t ~ £ l v means technically 'to baptise in water.' Hence it is unnecessary to. specify a medium." 20. Schnackenburg, pp. 22-23. In the previo.us co.nsideratio.n o.f the expressio.n "baptism in the name o.f Christ" the autho.r had o.bserved, p. 20: "the fonnula [EtC; 'to Ovo.Jla.] when linked with J 3 a . 1 t ' t t ~ E t v must surely be derived from the language o.f the Rabbinic schools as the translatio.n o.f D W? . It indicated to. what purpo.se an ablution too.k place. The naming o.f a perso.n had the meaning o.f attaching the baptized to. this perso.n so. that the baptized belo.nged to him .... " Schnackenburg's co.nclusio.n: "Thus the fonnula expresses a binding to Christ, but the nature o.f the relatio.n is no.t mo.re clo.sely dermed. From o.ther passages it may be gathered that Paul understands the koinonia o.f the baptized with Christ as realistic, spiritual and perso.nal, established thro.ugh the divine 1tVE'OJla. (cf. Gal. iii. 27, 1 Co.r. xii. 13); but there is no.thing mystical in the fonnula itself. 'No. mystic ideas whatsoever are bo.und up with the expressio.n: the juristic interpretatio.n approximates more clo.sely to. its intentio.n.' H. Bietenbard in Kittel" -On dC; 'tOv Mooi)crf\v, see alSo. Leenbardt, p. 153. 21. The characterizatio.n o.f the believer's unio.n with Christ as "spiritual" will be justified later in this thesis. 22. So. the NEB translates the expressio.n here in Romans 6:3 and in Galatians 3:27. -F. F. Bruce, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.mpany, 1963), p. 137, co.mments on "Baptized into Jesus Christ": "Cf. Galatians iii. 27: 'as many o.f yo.u as have been baptized into Christ have put o.n Christ' -i.e. have been inco.rpo.rated into Him, have beco.me members o.f His bo.dy (cf. 1 Co.rinthians xii. 13), and so. have shared by faith-union with Him tho.se experiences which were His histo.rically, His crucifixio.n and burial, His resurrectio.n and exaltatio.n." With the "and so." fo.llo.wing the reference to 1 Co.rinthians 12:13 Bruce wo.uld seem to imply that unio.n with the "bo.dy" o.f Christ is to be co.nceived o.f as (lo.gically prio.r to and) in some way 43 determinative of Christians' sharing with Christ "those experiences which were His historically." This is hardly correct. In Romans 6 -it should be clear -Paul is speaking exclusively of the believer's union with the person of Christ effected in baptism and of participation in the major events of his life by virtue of that union. Cf. Schnackenburg, p. 21: "Next to this soteriologicalline, which fmds its high point in Romans vi. 1-11, is the ecclesiological, which rates baptism as the basis of the unity of the Christian Church .... " (italicizing, ours) 23. The ouv is not inferential, as Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich suggests (p. 597), because what follows does not seem to follow as a natural inference from union with the death of Christ. The Christian's burial and resurrection with Christ are facts of additional information. 24. Murray, p. 215. 25. Some commentators suppose that Paul's words "through our baptism ... we were buried together with Him [Christ]" give an indication of the mode of baptism and hold this to be immersion -for only immersion provides an analogy to burial. Anders Nygren asserts: "It is immediately evident that in these words Paul makes reference to the external form of the rite of baptism. When he who is baptized is immersed in the water, the act signifies burial 'with Christ'; and when he again comes up out of the water, that signifies resurrection 'with Christ. '" Commentary on Romans, translated from the Swedish by Carl C. Rasmussen (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1949), p. 233. Similarly, J. Barmby, expositor of "The Epistle of Paul to the Romans" in The Pulpit Commentary: "The reference ... is to the form of baptism, viz. by immersion, which was understood to signify burial, and therefore death." The Pulpit Commentary, edited by H. D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), XVIII, 156. Also Sanday-Headlam, p. 153: "It [baptism] expresses symbolically a series of acts corresponding to the redeeming acts of Christ. Immersion = Death. Submersion = Burial (the ratification of Death). Emergence = Resurrection." Their views are not acceptable, however. These men focus their attention exclusively on the believer's burial with Christ in baptism. They fail to give due consideration to the next verses in which Paul says that Christians are persons who by the same baptism came to be "grown together" «rIJll ( ~ v cp). It is more natural and to be preferred syntactically over the suggestion (cf. Schnackenburg, pp. 67-68) that ~ v 4> here is in series with the tv Formula," Concordia Theological Monthly, XXI (June 1950),407. 46 47. A mystic is defined as a believer in mysticism -the latter in turn being defined as "the doctrine that it is possible to achieve communion with God through contemplation and love without the medium of human reason" (New World Dictionary, College Edition, c. 1960). -The expression "mystical union with Christ" is often employed in the discussion of Paul's Romans 6 theology. This is proper, providing that the etymological significance of the adjective "mystical" -from the Greek Jl'6m, to close, (be) shut -is kept in mind. "Mystical" thus refers to realities which are hidden, neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence, but which God can reveal and does reveal in the Gospel. This usage would be akin to that of Jlucr't'f\pwv in many New Testament passages. The application of the word "mystical" in a characterization of the believer's union with Christ would be incorrect, however, if it is employed to convey the thought that union with Christ is achieved by a kind of human mystic, mental exertion. 48. Schnackenburg, p. 206. 49. Nygren, pp. 237-238. 50. Bartling, p. 405. 51. Ibid., 407. The citation is from O. Schmitz, Das Lebensgefuehl des Paulus (Muenchen: n.p., 1932), p.45. 52. Thus also Murray, Romans, p. 218. The RSV translates cr'6Jl!j>U'tDt simply as "united with"; the NEB, as "incorporated with." Neither rendering, however, brings out the relationship to the stem word !j>'6m. Cf. crUJl!j>'60Jlat in Luke 8:7. 53. Sanday-Headlam, p. 157. Similarly, L. S. Thornton, The Common Life in the Body of Christ (London: Dacre Press, c.1942), p. 144. Cf. Leenhardt, p. 160; and Nygren, p. 234: "We are branches which did not formerly belong to Christ, the vine; but we were ingrafted into the vine and have been united with it in groth, so that we are henceforth a part of the vine and derive our nourishment and strength from it." We may think of John 15:1-8 in this connection. 54. Murray, Romans, p. 218. 55. Schmidt, p. 109. 56. Richard Chenevix Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1953), in his discussion of eiK6:lv, o J l o { m c r t ~ , 0Jlo{ffiJlCX (pp. 49-53) brings out clearly the basic significance of oJlo{mJlcx, as used in the New Testament, in the comparison of its meaning with that of dK6:lV. While granting that the two words might often be used as equivalent, there is, he says, an essential difference in them. "EiK6:lV... always assumes a prototype, that which it not merely resembles, but from which it is drawn, a 1tcxpc1oetWcx ... it is the German "Abbild," which invariably presumes a "Vorbild" .... Thus, the monarch's head on the coin is eiK6:lv (Matt. xxii. 20); the reflection of the sun in the water is UK6:lV, (Plato, Phaedo, 99d); the statue in stone, or other material is UK6:lV (Rev. xiii. 14) .... But in the 0Jlo{ffiJlCX ... while there is resemblance, it by no means follows that it has been acquired in this way, that it is derived: it may be accidental, as one egg is like another, as there may exist a resemblance between two men in no way akin to one another." (p. 50). He further states: "EiK6:lV is weak; for what image is of equal worth and dignity with the prototype from which it is imaged? But it has also its strong side; it implies an archetype from which it has been derived and drawn; while o J l o t 6 ' t T \ ~ , 6 J l o { m c r t ~ , and words of this family, expressing mere 47 similarity, if they did not actually imply, might yet suggest, and if they suggested, would seem to justify error, and that with no compensating advantage" (p. 51). 57. Schmidt sees in op-otcop-a. a reference to the act of baptism. He writes, pp. 109-110: "Man verstand op-otcop.a. auch so, dasz es die Identitaet ader Gleichheit ausdrueckt; 'wenn wir mit ibm zusammengewachsen sind in der Gleichheit seines Todes.' Paulus will nun wohl nicht sagen, dasz wir mit einem den Tod Christi nur abbildenden Vorgang ader Zustand zusammengewachsen sind. Denn nur in Christi Tod selbst sind wir der Suende wirklich gestorben. Wenn er trotzdem nicht sagt: 'wir sind mit dem tod Christi zusammengewachsen,' sondern: 'mit dem Gleichbild des Todes Christi,' so will er damit zum Ausdruck bring en: nur die Taufe ist es, welche diese Verbundenheit mit Christi Tad verschafft und uns in diesen Tod hineinversetzt. 'Mit dem Gleichbild seines Todes' heisst also: 'sakramental mit seinem Tad' oder 'in der Taufe mit seinem Tad.' Die freie Uebersetzung: 'zusammengeschlossen mit ihm durch gleichen Tod' (A. Nygren) ist richtig; aber op-otcop.a. will den art und das Mittel dieses Geschehens anzeigen: die Taufe." Schmidt's view is unacceptable. It appears altogether inappropriate (1) to designate baptism as a likeness or copy of Christ's death and then (2) to suppose that Paul means to say that Christians have become grown-together with this rite, which makes no sense. There is no textual, contextual, or other reason which justifies the statement: "aber 6p-otcop-a. will den art und das Mittel dieses Geschehens anzeigen: die Taufe." 58. Murray, Romans, p. 218. Cf. Lenski, p. 405: "Our little inward death to sin, enabled by his mighty death for the world's sin, only resembles his death and no more. And the resemblance lies in this, that as he died and rose again, so we died to sin in order to enter a new life." 59. Robertson, pp. 1185-1186. 60. Blass-Debrunner-Funk, 448(6); see also (5). 61. Charles Kingsley Barrett, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1957), p. 124. 62. Murray, Romans, pp. 218-219. A similar argument is advanced by Leenhardt, p. 161: "Is it [the future tense of EcrOP-ESa. in verse 5] an allusion to the general resurrection, or to the present participation of the believer in the life of the Risen Lord which should flow logically from his participation in the death of the Crucified? The second meaning is preferable both because of the indissoluble unity constituted by the cross and the resurrection as also because of the parallel thought expressed in Colossians 2: 12. Further on, Paul will make another allusion to the new life of the believer which cannot be understood except on the basis of his sharing in the life of the Risen Lord (v. 11)." 63. Kenneth S. Wuest speaks of the old man as the worthless, worn-out "individual self'; "Victory over Indwelling Sin in Romans Six," Bibliotheca Sacra, CXVl (1959), 46. Sanday-Headlam, p. 62, call the old man "our old self'; Murray, p. 219, "the old self or ego." The RSV translates 0 1 t a . A , a . t O ~ 1'lp.lOv r t v S p C 0 1 t o ~ "our old self'; the NEB, "the man we once were." 64. Cf. Galatians 2:20, Xptcr'tlP crUVEcr'ta.'OPCOP.a.t. 65. Murray, Romans, e.g., makes the mistake of identifying the "old man," "the old self or ego" with "the unregenerate man in his entirety [including the body]." 66. A full discussion of this concept that man's essential self or ego is his spirit (both in the case of the 48 unregenerate and the regenerate) appears in connection with the exegesis of verse 11. 67. Lenski, p. 406. 68. Ibid., p. 407. 69. The "new man" is designated as lCatVOC; in Ephesians 4 and as vtoc; in Colossians 3. Both adjectives (standing in opposition to 7taAatOC;) describe this "man"; the former denotes the new primarily in reference to quality, as utterly fresh, different; the latter denotes the new primarily in reference to time, as recent, or relatively young. The "old man" of the unregenerate is full of lust, deceit, rottenness, corruption (Ephesians 4:23); the "new man" of the believer is new in the sense that he did not exist before and that he has been created in righteousness and holiness, that is, he is righteous and holy (Ephesians 4:24). -In connection with Ephesians 4:22,24, we should note that the inftnitives a7t09ta9at and ~ v o u O " ( r o 9 a t are better taken as declarations of past occurrence than as expressions of exhortation; compare John Murray's excellent discussion in Principles of Conduct (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c. 1957), pp. 214-218. 70. Small Catechism, p. 17. Cf. Eric Wahlstrom, The New Life in Christ (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1950), p. 124: "And forever afterward, whenever this 'old man,' this 'self' arises again, he must be destroyed and put to death. This is 'the crucifying of the flesh,' 'the putting to death of your members which are upon the earth.'" 71. Murray, Principles, pp. 211-213. Murray in the pages following demonstrates that a study of Colossians 3:9-10 and Ephesians 4:22-24 confrrms the viewpoints presented in the quotation. Cf. also Bruce, p. 138; Sanday-Headlam, p. 158. 72. John Calvin, Commentary upon the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans, edited from the original English translation of Christopher Rosdell by Henry Beveridge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Printing Company, 1844), p. 152. 73. Martin Luther, Lectures on Romans, Vol XV of The Library of Christian Classics, translated from the German and edited by Wilhelm Pauck (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1961), p. 183. 74. C. H. Dodd, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans in The Moffatt New Testament Commentary (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, n.d.), p. 90. 75. Leenhardt, p. 162. 76. From James Fraser, A Treatise on Sanctification (London: n.p., 1897), p. 61; as quoted in Murray, p. 220. 77. Nygren, p. 234; cf. the two preceding pages. 78. T. W. Manson, "Romans" in Peake's Commentary on the Bible, edited by Matthew Black and H. H. Rowley (New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1962), p. 945. Cf. also Schmidt, p. 107: "Der Getaufte ist nicht mehr Glied am Leib der Suende; er wird dem Leib Christi eingegliedert, in Christi Tod und Leben miteingeschlossen." Again, p. 111: "Der Text redet von der Vernichtung des Leibes. Es ist deshalb die von A. Nygren vorgeschlagene Deutung zu erwaegen. Er versteht den 'Leib der Suende' als dem Gegensatz zum 'Leib Christi.' Paulus kann der Suende einen Leib zuschreiben, weil er sie 49 personifiziert als die Herrin des altern Aeons denkt. So wie der Gerechtfertigte jetzt 'in Christus' lebt und dem 'Leib Christi' angehoert, so war er vorher unter der Suende und ein Glied am 'Leib der Suende.' Der 'alte' Mensch wird mit Christus gekreuzigt, damit der Leib (das Reich, das Machtsystem) der Suende zerstoert werde und wir in unserer leibseelischen Ganzheit nicht mehr der Suende versklavt sind." 79. Bruce, pp. 138-l39. 80. So Dana-Mantey conceive this genitive, 90(1); Murray, p. 220; Lenski, p. 408; and others also. 81. So Sanday-Headlam conceives the genitive, p. 158, and Wuest, p. 46. 82. Cf. Bruce's footnote, p. 46. 83. "Paulus ... zeigt, dasz die Christusgnade den Getauften von der Suende trennt, nicht so, dasz er schon 'Suendlosigkeit' gewinnt und den Kampf mit der Suende hinter sich hat, aber so, dasz er jetzt, erst jetzt, diesen Kampf fuehren kann und die Frieheit zu echtem Gottesdienst hat." Schmidt, p. 107. 84. Leenhardt says, p. 163, in a footnote on this verse, "To be justified is to be the object of a judgment which exculpates and restores to the accused freedom of person," and refers to the comparable usage of ouca.t6ro in Acts l3:38-39. 85. Murray, Romans, p. 222. 86. Lenski, p. 409. Sanday-Headlam, p. 159, hold a similar view: "The argument is thrown into the form of a general proposition, so that {) a1t08aVIDV must be taken in the widest sense, 'he who has undergone death in any sense of the term' -physical or ethical. The primary sense is however clearly physical: 'a dead man has his quittance from any claim that Sin can make against him': what is obviously true of the physically dead is inferentially true of the ethically dead." Again: "The sense of OEOtlCa{ortat is still forensic: 'is declared righteous, acquitted from guilt.' The idea is that of a master claiming legal possession of a slave: proof being put in that the slave is dead, the verdict must needs be that the claims of law are satisfied and that he is no longer answerable; Sin loses its suit." 87. Robin Scroggs, "Romans VI. 0 rAP ATI08ANnN AEMKAlnTAI ATIO TIlL AMAPTIAl:," New Testament Studies, X (1963-1964), 104-108. 88. Ibid., p. 104. 89. K. G. Kuhn, "Roem. 6, 7," Zeitschrijt fuer die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde des Urchristentums, XXX (1931),305-310. 90. Scroggs, p. 105. 91. Ibid., pp. 105-106. 92. Ibid., p. 106. 93. Cf. Otto Michel, p. 132: "Dem a1tE8avoJlEV entspricht folgerichtig c r ' \ ) ~ 1 j c r O J l E V ; doch schiebt sich 50 bezeichnenderweise mcr'tEUOJlEV ein: es will offenbar Hinweis auf das urchristliche Bekenntnis sein (mcr'tEUEtV = OJlOA.O)'Etv). In a footnote to this statement Michel says: "Glauben heisst nach dem Roemerbrief: die Botschaft von Jesus Christus hoeren und ihren Anspruch anerkennen (U1tUlCOUEtV, OJlOA.O)'Etv), in die Gemeinschaft mit Jesus Christus durch die Taufe treten, sich in den Dienst der Gerechtigkeit stellen, sich selbst zum Opfer bringen. Innerhalb der Rechtfertigungslehre bedeutet Glauben so viel wie: die Gerechtigkeit Gottes anerkennen, auf eigene Gerechtigkeit verzichten und begnadigt werden. Man musz also den Roemerbrief als eine Erziehung zum Glauben bezeichnen, ohne dasz der Begriff der m c r ' t t ~ abstrakt oder logisch abgegrenzt werden koennte. Was Glauben heiszt, wird von der Fragestellung und von der Sache aus bestimmt, die zur Diskussion stehen." 94. The fact that God confers upon the believer the (spiritual) life with Christ referred to by ~ f t c r O J l E V in baptism, as an immediate consequence of his death with Christ in the same sacrament, is discussed in the exegesis of verse 5. In verses 8-10 Paul is not referring in fIrst instance to the Christian's physical resurrection on the last day and eternal life (in spirit and body) thereafter, although these are certainly a part -indeed, a consummation -of the blessing which the believer's union and present life with the risen Christ assures him. 95. Murray, Romans, p. 223. Regarding repeated "dyings" and "risings" with Christ the same author writes, p. 224: "The believer is not regarded as dying and rising with Christ again and again. Undoubtedly there is process and progression in the believer's life and this may properly be understood as progressive realization of the implications and claims of having died and risen with Christ. But the dyding and rising with Christ are not viewed as process but as definitive and decisive event and can no more be construed as continuous process than can the death and resurrection of Christ himself." Cf. Schmidt, p. 112: "Aber durch seine [Christ's] Toetung bereitete sich die Suende ihre endgueltige Niederlage; aus diesem Tod erwuchs dem getoeteten Christus und in ibm allen Suendern die Freiheit von der Suende. Diese Freiheit ist endgueltig; eine Wiederholung des Sterbens ist deshalb ausgeschlossen. Das Neue Leben ist ewiges Leben und wird ganz foer Gott gelebt." 96. Schmidt, p. 112: "l) ist nach Analogie der Redewendungen ~ o n ' \ v ~ " V oder 9uvu'tov ; of a new mystery offering a mystic death and rising again has failed." Cf. also the fIrst two chapters in Albert Schweitzer's The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, translated from the German by William Montgomery (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1931); and Kurt Deissner, Paulus und die Mystik seiner Zeit (Second revised edition; Leipzig: A. Deichert'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1921). 27. L. S. Thornton, The Common Life in the Body of Christ (London: Dacre Press, c.1942), pp. 144-145. 53 28. Cf. Paul Althaus' discussion, "Das neue Leben als Wirklichkeit und Aufgabe (Indikative und Imperative)," pp. 55-56. Also: George T. Montague, "Paul's Teaching on Being and Becoming in Christ," Bible Today, I (1962), pp. 78-85. Archibald Hunter, p. 115, cites an old Puritan theological work: "Both these laws (the law of Moses and 'the law of Christ') agree in saying, Do this. But there is this difference. The one says, Do this and live. The other says, Live and do this. The one says, Do this for life. The other says, Do this from life." 29. R. C. H. Lenski in The Interpretation 0/ St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (Columbus: Lutheran Book Concern, 1936), p. 417, remarks on I 3 c x < n A £ u ~ ' t O ) : "A false contrast is injected when the force of reigning is pressed to mean: just so the sin does not reign, even if some sin is present. This subject of still finding sin in ourselves Paul treats in 7:14 etc., not here in chapter 6, where the great subject is the fact that they who are justified are delivered from the tyranny, the domination of sin, are no more sin's slaves, not the fact that this overthrown tyrant still harasses them." 30. Joseph Henry Thayer, editor, A Greek-English Lexicon o/the New Testament, translation, revision, and enlargement of Grimm's Wilke's Clavis Novi Testamenti (New York: American Book Company, c.1886), pp. 569-571. 31. Ibid., p. 611. 32. Cf. F. F. Bruce, The Epistle 0/ Paul to the Romans, Vol. VI of Tyndale Bible Commentaries (New Testament Series; Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963), pp. 45-46. Also: Barclay, pp. 190 and 198-205. For extensive discussion of the terms craps and cr6)}lcx, see Stacey, pp. 154-173 and 181-193; and John A. T. Robinson, The Body: A Study in Pauline Theology (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1952), pp. 11-33. 33. Since occurring in the same context with 'tiP ... mJJ}lcxn of verse 12, the 'to cr6)}lcx of verse 6 may also be thought of as having this wider meaning. 34. EtC; 'to with the infinitive expressing result here, just as in Romans I :20, e.g. 35. J. Barmby, author of the exposition of Romans in The Pulpit Commentary, edited by H. D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), XVlll, 159-160, is one commentator who supports my rendering of both 'ttl ~ A T \ and t'S1tACX. He explains: "B y our members seem to be meant, not merely the several parts of our bodily frame -eye, tongue, hand, foot, etc. -but generally all the parts or constituents of our present human nature, which sin may use as its instruments, but which ought to be devoted to God (cf. Col. iii.5). Many commentators would translate t'S1tACX 'weapons' rather than 'instruments,' on the ground that St. Paul usually uses the word in this sense (ch. xiii. 12; 2 Cor. vi. 7; x. 4; Eph. vi. 11,13); and also that O'l't1lVtCX in ver. 23, taken in the sense of the pay of a soldier (as in Luke iii. 14; 1 Cor. ix. 7), is supposed to imply that the apostle has had all along the idea of warfare in view. The second of these reasons really proves nothing. Whatever the meaning of t'S1tACX in v. 23, it is too far removed from the passage before us to be taken in any connection with it. Neither is the first reason at all cogent. "01tACX bears the sense of instruments as well as of weapons, and may more suitably bear it here. When St. Paul elsewhere speaks of armour, it is the armour of light, or of righteousness, which we are told to take up, and to put on, in order to fight against our spiritual enemies. Such a conception is inapplicable to our own members, which we have already, which we may use either for good or evil, and which require the protection of heavenly armour rather than being themselves armour; and we certainly could not be told to take them up or put them on." 54 36. Compare the use of 1taptO",;wro in Rom. 6:16,19; 12:1; 1 Cor. 4:11; 2 Tim. 2:15. 37. Blass-Debrunner-Funk, Section 258(2) does not apply here. 38. Kenneth S. Wuest, "Victory over Indwelling Sin in Romans Six," Bibliotheca Sacra, CXVI (1959), 44. 39. Althaus, p. 52: "Das stehen unter dem Gesetz und das Stehen unter der Gnade bedeuten bei Paulus einen ausschlieszenden Gegensatz. Es gibt da keine Vermittlung." 40. Cf. Bruce, pp. 54-55. 41. Cf. 1 Cor. 15:56, 1'\ o ~ &6va)lte; 'tile; a)lapnae; 6 v6)l0e;. 42. Also in the case of the believer, sin has this death-dealing power: cf. 8:13. CHAPTER IV 1. John 15 and the Johannine corpus have been referred to; compare also, for example, 1 Peter 1:22-23; 2:24; 4:1-11; 2 Peter 1:3-7. ss BIBLIOGRAPHY A. Books Althaus, Paul. Der Brief an Die Roemer. Vol. VI in Das Neue Testament Deutsch. Sixth revised edition. Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1949. Amiot, Francois. The Key Concepts of St. Paul. Translated from the French by John Dingle. New York: Herder and Herder, c. 1962. Asmussen, Hans. Der Roemerbrief. Stuttgart: Evangelisches Verlagswerk GMBH, 1953. Barclay, William. Flesh and Spirit. London: SCM Press, 1962. The Letter to the Romans. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, c. 1955. The Mind of St. Paul. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1958. Bannby, J. "The Epistle to the Romans," The Pulpit Commentary. Vol. XVIII. Edited by H. D. M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950. Barrett, Charles Kingsley. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1957. Barth, Karl. The Epistle to the Romans. Translated from the sixth German edition by Edwyn Hoskyns. New York: Oxford University Press, c. 1933. Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Translated and adapted by William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957. Baum, Gregory. That They May be One. Westminster: Newman Press, 1958. Beasley-Murray, G. R. Baptism in the New Testament. London: Macmillan, 1962. Best, Ernest. One Body in Christ. London: SPCK, 1955. Bouttier, Michel. Christianity According to Paul. Translated from the French by Frank Clarke. London: SCM Press, 1966. Blass, F., and A. Debrunner. A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 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Feme, Paul, Johannes Behm, and Werner Georg Kuemmel. Introduction to the New Testament. Translated from the fourteenth revised German edition by A. J. Mattill, Jr. New York: Abingdon Press, 1966. Flew, Robert Newton. Jesus and His Church. London: Epworth Press, c. 1938. __ . Jesus and His Way. London: Epworth Press, 1963. Franzmann, Martin H. Follow Me: Discipleship According to Saint Matthew. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961. The Word of the Lord Grows. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961. Grossouw, William. In Christ: a Sketch o/the Theology of St. Paul. Translated and edited from the second revised Dutch edition by Martin W. Schoenberg. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1965. Harrisville, Roy A. The Concept of Newness in the New Testament. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1960. Hunter, Archibald M. Interpreting Paul's Gospel. London: SCM Press, 1954. __ . Interpreting the New Testament, 1900-1950. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1951. Keller, Walter E. "Paul's Baptismal Theology with Special Reference to Rom. 6." Unpublished Master's Thesis, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 1956. Kittel, Gerhard, editor. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited and translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964-1965. Vol. I, 267-316: article on aJlap'tta by Gustav Staehlin and Walter Grundmann. Vol. I, 538-545: section of article on ~ a 1 t ' t t S O l by Albrecht Oepke. Vol. II, 333-337: article on tJ'E{pOl by Albrecht Oepke. 58 Vol. II, 537-543: article on tv by Albrecht Oepke. Vol. II, 318-321: article on tVOUOl by Albrecht Oepke. Vol. II, 383-384: article on tcjlli1taS by Gustav Staehlin Vol. III, 447-454: article on K a t V O ' t T \ ~ by Johannes Behm. Kittel, Gerhard, editor. Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Neuen Testament. Stuttgart: Verlag von W. 1C0tuharnrner, ILd. Vol. IV, 287-295: article on A . o y ( ~ o J l m by Hans-Wolfgang Heidland. 1Cn0x, John. 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