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Romans Chapter Six
Rom. 6:6
How can sin be rendered
powerless, as Paul says in Romans 6:6? Consider the effect of gravity on a
book. Gravity would cause an unsupported book to fall, but gravity can be
rendered “powerless” against the book by simply placing a table under it. As
long as the table is under the book, gravity cannot cause it to fall. Of course
gravity has not really lost its power nor is it no longer present. It is just
that the table is “stronger” than gravity’s effect on the book.
For the Christian, the
Holy Spirit is like that table and our sin nature is like gravity’s pull. As
long as we allow the Holy Spirit to hold us up, which places our dependence on
his power to give us victory over sin, our sinful impulses have no power to
pull us down.
Rom. 6:12~14
A little girl was learning
to ride a bicycle. She did quite well until it was time to stop. The only way
she could ever stop was by running into sidewalk. The problem was that although
she knew that the bike had a coaster brake, she wasn’t using it.
The question implied in
Romans 6:12~14 is: What good is it to be set free from sin by Jesus Christ and
have every opportunity of walking in holiness and righteousness if—at the
moment of choice—we ignore these things and go right on letting sin rule us!
Rom. 6:16
Well before Paul was born,
there had been a Roman law stating that no freeborn man could be enslaved. Therefore,
a man could literally sell himself into slavery, collect the proceeds, then
have a friend come and attest to his status as freeborn man, and he would have
to be released at once. This caused havoc with the Roman economy, which was
well oiled by its slave labor. Therefore, just before Paul’s day, a new law was
enacted whereby any man who sold himself into slavery could no longer claim
free status later. The law could no longer help him. It was therefore clear to
Paul’s readers in