ACC ~ Romans 6 v2

CAN ONE WHO DIED TO SIN STILL LIVE IN IT? ORIGEN: In order for this point to be clearer, let us inquire as to what it means to live to sin and what it means to die to sin. Just as living for God means living according to God’s will, so living for sin means living according to sin’s will, as the apostle says [in verse 12] below. To live to sin therefore, means to obey the desires of sin. … To die to sin is the opposite of this; it means refusing to obey the desires of sin. … If someone dies to sin, it is through repentance that he dies.

Note how carefully Paul has weighed his words when he says: “Can we still live in sin?” To go on in this way means to continue something without interruption. If someone does this it is clear that he has never been converted to Christ. But it sometimes happens not that someone continues in sin but that after having broken with it he goes back to his vomit and becomes most unfortunate, since after having rejected the rule of sin and death and accepted the rule of life and righteousness he returns to the control of sin and death. This is what the apostle calls the shipwreck of faith.

However, although someone may continue in sin, although he may persist in the rule and power of death, nevertheless I do not consider that this rule of death is eternal in the same way that the rule of life and of righteousness is eternal, particularly as I hear the apostle telling me that death is the last enemy which must be destroyed. For if the eternity of death were analogous to the eternity of life, then death would not be opposed to life but its equal. One eternal is not contrary to another eternal but identical with it. But it is certain that death is contrary to life, and therefore it is certain that if life is eternal, death cannot be eternal as well. For this reason, the resurrection of the dead is necessary. For when the death of the soul, which is the last enemy, is destroyed, then this common death which we have described as the shadow of that one will of necessity be abolished. Then there will be room for the resurrection of the dead, when the rule of death is destroyed along with death itself. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

WHAT DYING TO SIN AND LIVING TO GOD MEANS. AMBROSIASTER: To sin is to live to sin, and not to sin is to live to God. Therefore, when the grace of God through Christ and through faith came upon us, we began by the spiritual rebirth of baptism to live to God, and we died to sin, which is the devil. This is what dying to sin means: to be set free from sin and to become a servant of God. Therefore, having died to sin, let us not go back to our earlier evils, lest by living once again to sin and dying to God we should incur the penalty from which we have escaped. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE DEAD TO SIN IN BAPTISM. CHRYSOSTOM: Being dead to sin means not obeying it any more. Baptism has made us dead to sin once and for all, but we must strive to maintain this state of affairs, so that however many commands sin may give us, we no longer obey it but remain unmoved by it, as a corpse does. Elsewhere, Paul even says that sin itself is dead … in order to show that virtue is easy. But here, since he is trying to rouse his hearers to action, he says that they are the ones who are dead. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 10.

WHEN WE BECOME AN OBSTACLE TO GRACE. AUGUSTINE: Here Paul makes the point that past sins have been forgiven and that in this pardon grace so superabounded that earlier sins were remitted as well. Thus whoever tries to increase sin in order to feel an increase of grace does not understand that he is behaving in such a way that grace can do nothing in him. For the work of grace is that we should die to sin. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 31.

AUGUSTINE: Nothing shorter or better could be said. For what more useful gift does the grace of God confer on us than to make us die to sin? LETTER 215.

PELAGIUS: Paul wants the baptized person to be steadfast and virtually perfect. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

A NEW LIFE. GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: Carnal people and unbelievers may live like this, but we are totally incapable of it because we have a new life, having died to sin once for all. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

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