< Romans 6 >

It would be a serious mistake to think that because God will graciously give people eternal life, it does not matter if we continue to sin after we have believed. Paul counters this argument by showing that we must also obey God’s commandments. The first commandment the believer must obey is to be baptised which is immersion in water. It must be complete immersion because it represents burial, just as Jesus was buried after his crucifixion. Of course, only dead people are buried and therefore the individual must first die to sin.

God requires all men to die to sin, but if we leave this to the end of our natural lives we will then remain in the grave for ever. We can however die to sin now, be buried with Christ in baptism and, coming out of the water, be “born again” to start a new life. We will then have the hope that, just as we have risen from the waters of baptism, so we can in the future rise like Jesus from the grave.

In the rest of this chapter, Paul exhorts the disciples to serve God instead of sin.

We can choose whom we serve: whether sin, the natural impulses in our flesh, or God whose commandments are found in his word. The right choice is vital because the consequence of serving sin “is death” while the consequence of serving God is “everlasting life”: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.