Romans 6:6, in Romans 6:7, freed, not improved, not enrolled in a program, not given a second chance to do better, freed, the slave market has been shut down, the auction block is empty, the papers have been torn up, the old self was a slave, the new self is free. And if you have ever felt like sin owns you, like you cannot stop, like the pattern is bigger than you are, like the same failure will keep finding you no matter how many times you promise to do better, Romans 6:7 is aimed directly at you. The bondage is broken, you are not a slave anymore, but here is the honest question, the one everyone is afraid to ask, the one that keeps people from even opening this chapter, because they are afraid of what it will say, if the old self was crucified and the body of sin was done away with and you are no longer in bondage to sin, then why do you still sin?
This is the question that Romans chapter 7 is built around and here is what is so comforting about it, the man who wrote that chapter is the same man who wrote Romans chapter 6, he is not writing from a comfortable distance, he is not a theorist describing a war he has only read about, he is not a professor grading papers from a safe office, he is writing about a war he knows, Romans 7:19, have you ever felt that? You know the right thing, you want the right thing and then in the moment you do the thing you did not want to do and you walk away wondering what is wrong with you. Scholars debate whether Paul is describing his own experience as a believer here or describing life under the law before Christ, good, careful people land on both sides, but here is what is not debated.
The struggle is real, it is described in scripture, it is part of the Christian life and it does not mean the crucifixion failed, it does not mean the door is still locked, it means there is a difference between sin’s power being broken and sin’s presence being gone. The war is over, but the enemy stragglers are still in the field, they can still fire, they can make you duck, they can still make you afraid, they can still make noise in the night, but they cannot take the ground that was won, sin’s dominion was broken at the cross. Sin’s presence will not be fully gone until the day you see Jesus face to face and in the gap between those two things, you live, you fight, you stumble, you get back up, you learn, you grow and that gap is exactly where Romans 6:11 comes in, because Paul does not leave you in the gap with a shrug, he does not say well, good luck, he gives you something to do.
This is the question that Romans chapter 7 is built around and here is what is so comforting about it, the man who wrote that chapter is the same man who wrote Romans chapter 6, he is not writing from a comfortable distance, he is not a theorist describing a war he has only read about, he is not a professor grading papers from a safe office, he is writing about a war he knows, Romans 7:19, have you ever felt that? You know the right thing, you want the right thing and then in the moment you do the thing you did not want to do and you walk away wondering what is wrong with you. Scholars debate whether Paul is describing his own experience as a believer here or describing life under the law before Christ, good, careful people land on both sides, but here is what is not debated.
The struggle is real, it is described in scripture, it is part of the Christian life and it does not mean the crucifixion failed, it does not mean the door is still locked, it means there is a difference between sin’s power being broken and sin’s presence being gone. The war is over, but the enemy stragglers are still in the field, they can still fire, they can make you duck, they can still make you afraid, they can still make noise in the night, but they cannot take the ground that was won, sin’s dominion was broken at the cross. Sin’s presence will not be fully gone until the day you see Jesus face to face and in the gap between those two things, you live, you fight, you stumble, you get back up, you learn, you grow and that gap is exactly where Romans 6:11 comes in, because Paul does not leave you in the gap with a shrug, he does not say well, good luck, he gives you something to do.