Grace Reigning To Eternal Life; Faith Binds Believers to Be Holy (Romans 5:18–6:3)

Rom 5:18–19. Therefore, just as through one man’s trespass condemnation came upon all men, so also through one man’s justification life came upon all men. For just as through one man’s disobedience many became sinners, so also through one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

“Therefore” – indicates that the two texts following are a conclusion from the preceding reasoning. He speaks as if to say: thus, see now, – or: thus, it is proved. He had already demonstrated before that God saves us now through the death of His only Son incarnate. Then he resolved to bring this truth closer to conviction by contrasting this work of grace “of One” with what sin “of one” Adam wrought, and saying as if: the sin of one caused ruin to all, how can anyone doubt that through “One” salvation is also worked out? This he expressed in verse 12 and further, where he said: through one man sin and death, through one man righteousness and life; for just as in the first all sinned, so in the second all became righteous and justified. Having explained further that the latter has far greater power and certainty – in verses 15–17, he now draws all the reasoning back to the same thing he said in verse 12, namely that just as from one sin and death, so from one righteousness and life; for just as in the first all sinned, so in the second all became righteous. The proposition is contained in verse 18, and its foundation – in verse 19.

The proposition is expressed thus: just as through one man’s trespass condemnation entered into all men – understood as condemnation to death – so through one man’s justification justification to life entered into all men. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Looking to Adam, the Apostle says, do not doubt what I have said (that is, that God saves all in the One Lord Jesus Christ). For if this is true, as it indeed truly is, that when Adam transgressed the commandment, the entire race received the death sentence upon itself, then clearly the righteousness of the Savior brings life to all men.” – The Apostle said: “justification to life entered”, – giving to understand that the saving powers of grace have already entered humanity, been received by it, and begun their restorative action. But when he said: “entered into all men”, – when it was only beginning to enter, he thereby expressed on one hand the certainty of the action of grace, contemplating it in one comprehensive view, and on the other – the all-sufficiency of grace, which embraces everything – present, past, and future. Do not doubt that this grace has already entered, and hasten only to avail yourself of it, so as to destroy the harmful consequences of the first sin.

The foundation, why it came to pass that there ruin, and here salvation, – all from one, – is that just as there through one man’s disobedience all became sinners, so here through one man’s obedience all became righteous. “Many” – the Apostle employed instead of: all. The holy Apostle does not explain how through the disobedience or sin of one all became sinners, but this was proved by experience; for after Adam indeed all sinned, and all were reckoned as sinners. They added their own sins to Adam’s sin and were doubly sinners before God. He does not explain either how through the obedience of one all can become righteous; but in the example of the first he gives to understand the possibility of the latter. Therefore he says: “will be made righteous”, – from the Greek: will be constituted righteous. Already they have begun to be righteous; wait, they will all become such. But that they have begun, this was evident to all. All who believed had their sins forgiven according to faith in the Lord, and all by the same faith were given the grace of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to do all righteousness and making them strong in fulfilling it: all believers were righteous and holy by deed and appeared such before all. By this path all men could become righteous. They have not yet become so, but the Apostle contemplates them already as such in the One wholly righteous and wholly holy Lord Jesus Christ, as one can behold in a seed the whole tree, many-branched and fruit-bearing.

Rom 5:20. But the Law came in, so that the trespass might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

Following the preceding words (verses 18–19), one should read verse 21, in which is expressed the providential purpose of God in such an ordering of our salvation in the Lord; but this – the 20th verse – is an interpolation. One could have done without it; but, having said that the harmful consequences of Adam’s transgression are all taken away by the grace of the One Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle seemed to hear a question from someone: but what of the Law? – and in passing answered it. “Someone, no doubt, could have doubted and objected: what did the Law do during all those years, if Christ alone justified us?” (Blessed Theophylact). The essence of the answer is this: the Law came that it might hasten the coming of grace, for the Law multiplied sins, and multiplied sins attracted superabundant grace. “The Law came, so that the trespass might increase”. “The particle ‘so that’ here denotes not a cause, but, according to the manner of speech peculiar to this Apostle, indicates a consequence” (Blessed Theodoret and Blessed Theophylact). One can read: the Law came and transgressions increased (Oecumenius). “The Law, he says, not only brought no benefit (that is, such that after it another saving remedy would not be required) and offered no help, but even with its appearance the disease intensified; however, the Law itself was not the cause of this, but only thus it was revealed in experience. For the Law was given not to multiply sin, but to diminish and destroy it. And if the opposite happened, it is not through the nature of the Law, but through the negligence of those who received the Law” (Saint Chrysostom). “Or he said this to rebuke the Jews, for he is addressing them, and they thought too highly of the Law. So, instructing them, he suggests to them here that they are in vain so highly exalting the Law. For, judging by your works, one must say that the Law has come to multiply transgressions. He said it for this reason, because he mentioned the ruin in Adam and deliverance from it in Christ. So, in order that no one might attribute something of this to the Law, he says: the Law is not for this; taking glory from the Law, that he might give it all to Christ” (Oecumenius).

The Apostle said: “the Law came in”, – to signify that it is something subordinate, established for a time in the work of ordering our salvation, “that it was a temporary necessity, and not the chief and most important” (Saint Chrysostom). “The end of the promise given to the patriarch was Christ. For it was said to him: ‘Through your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed’ (Gen 22:18). But in the middle between Abraham and Christ the Law came in. Although it conveyed a more exact knowledge that sin is an evil, nevertheless it had no power to stop sin, but on the contrary, multiplied it to the extreme; for the more commandments there are, the more transgressions there became” (Blessed Theodoret). Here was done the same as other physicians do: they first give such a medicine which more fully reveals the disease, drives it outward, and then they destroy it. The disease of sin under the Law broke out outwardly, and it became manifest to all in what power sin possessed us. But this very thing attracted grace: either hastened its manifestation, or pointed to the predetermined moment for its manifestation. “Do not fear (that sin has multiplied); all this served to manifest greater grace” (Saint Chrysostom).

“Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. – Where” – as soon as, when. When thus sin was multiplied, “abounded all the more” – appeared in superabundance, or superabundantly, grace. It had always been present and covered our race, but now it poured forth in superabundance or in the predetermined fullness. There was nothing more to wait for; it was needful to crush the serpent’s head, as promised. “Then, when through the Law sin was multiplied, through Christ the grace of God appeared superabundantly, not only freeing us from sins, but also justifying us and making us heavenly and adopting us to God. Therefore he did not say: abounded – but: ‘abounded all the more’, – showing thereby a great abundance of it” (Blessed Theophylact). Not now only is she decreed to be thus; by her very nature she is such and from eternity was predestined to be thus. Now only is she manifested in deed and as she herself is superabundant, so superabundant she is seen.

Rom 5:21. So that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Here is expressed the essence of the ordering of our salvation. Sin reigned, and through sin death; now grace reigns and from now on will begin to reign, which, destroying sin and making righteous, shatters death at its root and opens the gates to eternal life. All this is ordered for us by Jesus Christ our Lord and is accomplished in us. He who in faith cleaves to the Lord becomes one spirit with the Lord, pure, spotless, holy, and receives through this the seed of eternal life, which he will be made worthy to receive at the appointed time by the power of the resurrection of Christ.

Saint Chrysostom says: “in these words the Apostle presents sin as a king, and death as a soldier, who is in his service and is armed by him. But if death is armed by sin, then clearly, righteousness, communicated by grace and destroying sin, not only disarms death, but also destroys and overthrows the entire kingdom of sin, inasmuch as righteousness is stronger than sin, because it came not from man, but from God and grace and leads our life to the most perfect and infinite good. And the very life itself will have no limits, that from this you might know more clearly the power of grace. Christ through His merits procured all this for us. Therefore, having righteousness, do not doubt about life. For righteousness is above life – it is the mother of life”.

Thus, behold to what all our care should be directed – that we be holy and spotless before God. Take up this with all zeal, making use of all the means of grace which the divinely ordained economy of our salvation affords us. Be thus, and you will assuredly enter into eternal life. Zeal for holiness in the hope of eternal blessed life – this is the one thing needful.

3) Faith in the Lord imposes upon believers the obligation to be holy (Rom 6:1–7:6)

Above the Apostle depicted that salvation is worked out for us by grace and that, in calling us to this salvation, God looks at nothing that is past, neither at circumcision nor at uncircumcision, neither at righteousness nor at sinfulness; for both the calling to salvation, as well as the working out of salvation, is the work of God’s goodness. But although before calling God does not look at whether someone is sinful or righteous, nevertheless it is not so with Him after calling. Here is an inviolable law: you are called, you have come, you are clothed with grace – then be holy and spotless. That is what grace is for – to reign in those who have received it, but to reign through righteousness.

This obligation to righteousness and holiness in those called to faith the Apostle unfolds in the present chapter. First: a) he enacts this obligation, deriving it from the graceful mystical union of ourselves with Christ the Lord (Rom 6:1–10); then: b) he proposes ways how to stand firm in this holiness and how to manifest it (Rom 6:11–14); with the addition also of: c) incentives to do so (Rom 6:15–23); and finally: d) he turns believers away from using the means which the Law had proposed for this (Rom 7:1–6).

a) The Apostle enacts this obligation (Rom 6:1–10)

Rom 6:1. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means.

This question and the answer to it the Apostle placed here as a transition to the exposition of the obligation of Christians to be holy. The occasion for it was furnished by the preceding words: “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Blessed Theodoret). Having said this, the Apostle recalled to himself that enemies everywhere spread slander about him, saying that he teaches: “Let us do evil that good may come” (Rom 3:8). “This slander he sets forth here, only not from their lips, but as if a question to which the flow of discourse leads” (Oecumenius). He does this to sharpen attention to what he intends to say; for he considered – after the mystery of redemption – the chief subject of his teaching – the exposition of the obligation of Christians before God – to be holy and spotless. What someone was before calling, that is no concern; but as soon as he is called, be holy, for he has been called to holiness and equipped with all that is necessary to attain it. Saint Chrysostom places these verses in such a connection. He says that the Apostle turns to morality, that is, to the exhortation to be holy; but, in order not to appear burdensome and intolerable, he makes as if he turns to this not intentionally, but forced by the vain wisdom of weak minds. “He proved that grace is sufficient to heal grave sins; but the unwise could reckon such words as an indulgence toward sin. They would begin to reason: if grace is revealed to a greater measure when we have committed the gravest sins, then let us not cease sinning, that grace might appear more abundantly. Mark how the Apostle turns away from such reasoning and opinion. First he refutes the objection by a simple negation, saying: ‘By no means’, – as is customary in speaking of something universally recognized as extremely absurd. But then he brings an irrefutable proof. What then is it?”

Rom 6:2. We who died to sin, how can we still live in it?

“What does it mean: ‘died’? – It means that, having believed and been enlightened (baptized), we became dead to sin. What does it mean to become dead to sin? To obey sin in nothing. Although baptism has already accomplished this once for all, that is, has made us dead to sin; nevertheless, we are obliged to employ all our diligence unceasingly, so as to remain in that same condition, and, whatever sin might command us, not only not to obey it, but not to budge from our place, like a dead man” (Saint Chrysostom).

“We died” – we. Who are we? – We all, Christians. The death understood is not physical, but moral, consisting in the rejection of all sin and hatred of it. For how do people come to the Lord? In repentance and baptism, as Saint Peter indicated on the day of Pentecost when those asking said to him: “What shall we do? Repent, and let each of you be baptized” – he answered (Acts 2:37–38). But what does it mean to repent? To say in one’s heart: I have sinned, I will not. This “I will not” is death to sin. But what does baptism give? It confirms by grace this decision of the will and gives strength to stand firm in this decision. The baptized one, in the sense of the power from the Lord, regards every kind of sin with mortal hatred. In this consists the essence of moral death to sin. But as soon as someone begins to entertain sympathy for something sinful, then, to the extent he does so, sin is revived in him or he is revived to sin. The suppression of such sympathies is remaining in death to sin. “From this we learn,” writes Theophylact, “that through baptism every believer truly dies to sin, but, through his own negligence, he himself raises himself and immediately comes to life for it, as soon as he joins himself to it; on the other hand, the diligent one always preserves in himself this deadness, and whatever sin might suggest to him, he does not obey it, as a dead man.”

Rom 6:3. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

“Since the preceding words were not entirely clear, he explains the same thing again, in stronger language” (Saint Chrysostom). He said: we died to sin. When and how? In baptism, he says. “He unfolds how we died to sin, and says: through baptism” (Blessed Theophylact). When we were baptized into Christ, then we also died to sin. For, being baptized into Christ, we were baptized into His death. It is evident that baptism into Christ’s death is a dying to sin. But how is this so? This explains the meaning and power of Christ’s death. Having died on the cross, the Lord Savior lifted our sins onto the cross and became a cleansing for our sins. In the cross-death of the Lord – there is the cleansing power of sin. Whoever is baptized – is submerged – into the death of Christ, is submerged into the cleansing power of sin. This power in the very act of submersion consumes every sin, so that not a trace of it remains. Here happens the same as if someone had prepared a chemical composition which, when some unclean linen or cloth is plunged into it, would immediately dissolve and consume all uncleanness: just plunge it in – and all uncleanness will be consumed. So also the death of Christ, as the cleansing power of sin, consumes every sin as soon as someone is submerged in this death by baptism. In the baptized one not a trace of sin remains: he is dead to it.

But one must remember this: in this dying to sin through baptism, nothing happens mechanically, but all is accomplished with the participation of morally free decisions of the person himself. The essence of dying to sin is always one and the same: this is the turning away from sin, mortal hatred of it. Where is it in baptism? Right there, in the spirit of the baptized one. For what does the person being baptized do before immersion in the font? He renounces Satan and all his works and all his service; and this is the same as turning away from sin and hating it with mortal hatred. When then, in this spirit of turning away and hatred toward sin, he is submerged in the font, the grace of God, descending within, confirms these dispositions and decisions of the will and gives them living and effective power. All former sins are forgiven to the baptized one, and from future sins he will be guarded by this power that descended into him in baptism. He is truly dead to sin. And all this is produced by the cleansing power of sin, which exists in the death of Christ, submersion into which is accomplished through submersion in the font. Saint Chrysostom says: “What the cross and grave were for Christ, baptism became for us, though in a different sense. For Christ died and was buried in the flesh; but in us sin died and was buried. Both are death; as in Christ, so in us there is true death. But although sin truly dies in us through baptism, nevertheless it is necessary that we ourselves cooperate in its mortification.” – This cooperation is accomplished through hatred of sin, received before baptism, sealed in baptism, and preserved with the help of grace after baptism. Baptism does not free us from self-guarding against sin; on the contrary, it obligates us to it. Why do people sin after baptism? Because, placing all reliance on the power of baptism, they themselves do not wish to move a finger in opposition to sin and willingly incline toward it, first in thoughts, then in sympathies, then in desires, and finally in deeds. Through this sin is revived and again begins to live, having been so effectively mortified in baptism. Just as it is true that, being submerged into the death of Christ in baptism, we die to sin, so it is inviolable that this dying to sin is hatred of sin, which we must kindle in ourselves willingly, with all the power of the grace of Christ enveloping us.