Read or listen the Epistle to the Romans chapter 6 online (ESV, Bible Gateway)

Baptism into Christ's death – Rom. 6:1-14

At the end of the previous chapter, Paul states that sin can never be greater than grace. No one can present to God a sin for which Jesus did not die. On the cross, Christ bore the sins of the whole world, so there is atonement for everyone's sins. Grace always overcomes the power of sin.

But Paul understood that it is easy to misinterpret this and use it as an excuse for satisfying the lusts of the flesh. Throughout the history of the church, the true doctrine of grace has been threatened from every side: on one side there have been legalistic teachers of the piety of works and on the other side the fanatics proclaiming freedom from all law and sin. This was the case, for example, in Luther's time; he waged a battle on two fronts, against both the Roman Catholic Church and against those who were zealous for rebaptism.

What does Paul answer to the accusation that grace is an incentive to sin? No, but we must understand what we have been baptized into.

Here, as in many other passages, Paul takes it for granted that every Christian is baptized. Therefore, he will not start speaking about Christians, those who have repented, etc., but about the baptized. As for its content, we often see baptism as an empty occasion of celebration or an external act of confession, but Paul tells us that baptism is more: it is an effective act of God.

We are baptized into Christ's death (verse 3). What does it mean, what have we been baptized into? Into what Christ did on the cross of Calvary – that is, into victory over sin. Baptism means joining Christ who conquered sins!

Above, Paul showed our complete inability to overcome sin (chapter 3), so the victory that comes in baptism is not our work, but God alone works in it. Therefore, baptism can be performed even for a child because the person is only a recipient, not the doer.

On whose side do you stand?

But you cannot move into something without moving away from something. Joining Christ also means moving away from the power of sin.

Jesus tells us a cautionary parable about a cleaned house that does not have a new inhabitant moving in. The former inhabitant – an evil spirit – moves back in and brings with it seven spirits worse than itself, and thus the situation becomes worse than before the cleansing (Matt. 12:43-45). This also happens to the baptized, if he does not take baptism for real and start living with the new "inhabitant", i.e. Christ. Satan also attacks the baptized, and their only defense is to take refuge in Christ.

In Romans (Romans 1:22-32), Paul has already warned against trivializing sin. No sin is harmless or without a trace. Every sin is a weapon for Satan in his battle against us and Christ. We must choose who we want to serve – Satan or God. It is impossible to serve both.

Severe battle

Victory over sin does not mean sinlessness (Paul discusses this in more detail in the next chapter, Romans 7:14-25) but that the power of sin leading to perdition has been overcome. Sin is no longer a tyrant that has ownership over us, but we belong to Christ. However, the struggle between sin and Christ will continue as long as we live. Satan is trying to win us back to him. Our old self – completely corrupted by the Fall – wants to follow the old master and not the new.

This battle is so severe that we cannot trust our emotions in it because the devil also uses them in the fight. If our assurance of salvation depended on our emotions, it would not exist. If it depended on our works, it would not exist either. But now we have peace by believing in the sure promises of God about what he does in baptism.

In this battle we can rely on only one thing: the promise given in the Bible that we are justified by the work of Christ (compare verses 3 and 6). Christ has already won the ultimate victory, even though we experience defeats daily in our own struggle.

So how do I know if I have passed from death to life – am I with Christ or Satan? Here, baptism brings assurance: I have been baptized, and in it God has gifted me with life and salvation. Whoever does not believe in the sufficiency of Jesus' work, but wants to add his own works to it, makes God a liar (1 John 5:9-12).

But Satan wants to use the battle going on in us as evidence that I am not like a false Christian and fallen away from Christ, but I just don't know it myself! “If you were a true Christian, there would be no sin in your life. But as you continue to sin, it is proof that you are not a true Christian!” John writes to the Christians of his time, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:8-10)

We do not get rid of sin by denying it, but by bringing it to be reconciled to God. Luther taught about sanctification, about living as a Christian, that it is an ever-deepening knowledge of sin and grace. The order is important: first the sin, which leads to the experience of grace. Paul talks more about this later in the Epistle to the Romans.

When your sins terrify you, say to Satan: here is the testimony that I cannot overcome you on my own, therefore I rely on Christ alone. He who leaves his salvation to Christ alone is a true Christian.

Why did God choose baptism as a mediator of salvation? We cannot know that. Luther said that God could have chosen for example straws, and even then we would have to be satisfied with God's choice. The bronze snake made by Moses is a similar idea in the Old Testament (Numbers 21:5-9): whoever did not want to look at the serpent died, and he who looked survived. It could not be explained rationally, it just happened like that because God had ordered it.

Grace, our only hope

Verse 14 may seem strange or contradictory. How can grace take us out from under sin if the battle continues anyway? The thing is that grace is the only way out of the slavery of sin, we cannot overcome it by our own strength. Only a person freed from the works of the law can serve his neighbour in the right way and do true good deeds.

Probably one of the reasons why God chose Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles was that Paul had really tried to justify himself through works. When he had tried hard enough and failed, he knew what righteousness through the law is and where it led. So, he also understood what undeserved grace is (compare Phil. 3:7-11, victory became defeat).

Sanctification – becoming better or worse – Rom. 6:15-23

A Christian said, "It's strange that even though I came to faith five years ago, I still sometimes find myself sinning." Either he had poor powers of observation, or he had not even got rid of the sin of lying.

We easily think that the life of a believer – that is, sanctification – is that we become better and better, more and more sinless, better and better in obeying him, and better and better – perfect – in submitting to him. However, this is true only partly. Of course, God works in us, but the result is not the complete disappearance of sin, but an increasingly fierce struggle.

In the Small Catechism, Luther wrote about sanctification:

"I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; just as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church, He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the last day He will raise me and all the dead and give everlasting life to me and to all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true."

Thus we realize that our entire Christian life – its beginning, the journey, and the end – depends on God's Holy Spirit.

Martin Luther said about sanctification that it is an ever-deepening awareness of sin and grace (compare Rom. 5:20-21). By no means does sin disappear, but we can sense it more and more deeply. The closer to God the Holy Spirit can lead us, the more terrible our sins appear; the gap between the two only grows. In the dark you can't see the differences, only the light exposes them.

Even our best actions contain some selfishness and evil. Sin clings to us, it does not loosen its grip. There is an illustrative example in the book "Faith Alone" by Bo Giertz. It tells about a Roman Catholic priest who had killed enemies in war. After being caught and knowing that he was facing a death sentence, he knew that he could not get absolution from the Pope, so he began to pray fervently. But as he was reading the seven penitential psalms, he realized that he was happy that the shortest psalm was short. If his repentance had been genuine, he would have been happy to be with God as long as possible, and not the other way round.

If we look at our own lives, we will notice that Pharisaism clings to us the same way it clung to the hypocrites at the time of Jesus (Luke 18:9-14).

”The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men…
(Luke 18:11)

The sinner was righteous because he did not think too much of himself; he just cried out for God's help and mercy.

”But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”
(Luke 18:13)

It is typical of our thinking that we consider blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as an act, something that a person does to God (compare Mark 3:28-30) – perhaps opposing God or idolatry. However, the consequence of blaspheming the Holy Spirit is such a deep hardening that a person no longer even wants to think about God; he feels no need to turn to God. Also his sins have been atoned for, but he has no desire to receive the forgiveness. As long as there is internal struggle, there is hope.

Although sanctification feels like a field out of which bigger and bigger rocks emerge when it is being cleared, so that in the end what is left is only a hard rock on which nothing grows (=original sin), this "cultivation" finally leads to eternal life in heaven. Not because we fought so well, but because Christ gained victory for us. This is what the Bible declares, and in this faith that we can confidently walk one day at a time.