Catholic Commentary on Romans 6

"Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:11)

Dead to Sin

If grace abounds where sin increases, shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? Paul's answer is categorical: by no means. We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? The argument is rooted in Baptism: do you not know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. The Catechism calls this the sacramental foundation of the moral life: Baptism does not merely change our legal status. It effects a real death and resurrection that has ongoing moral implications (CCC 1227). Those who are baptised are dead to sin and alive to God. This is not merely an aspiration; it is a fact that the moral life is called to embody.

Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The verb translated count or reckon is the same word used in Romans 4 for the crediting of Abraham's faith as righteousness. It is an accounting term: consider this as the true account of your situation, regardless of what your feelings say. You are dead to sin. Act from that reality. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.

The Wages of Sin

The chapter ends with one of the most quoted verses in Paul: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The contrast is between wages, what is earned and deserved, and gift, what is freely given without merit. Death is what sin earns. Eternal life is what God gives. The structure of grace is always this: the earned outcome replaced by the unearned gift, the death deserved by the death offered, the wages cancelled by the gift.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, Paul does not say: try to be dead to sin. He says: count yourselves dead to sin. The moral instruction is grounded in a theological fact. The fact came first, in your Baptism. The counting is the daily appropriation of what is already true. When temptation arrives, count. I am dead to this. This has no claim on me. I am alive to God. Count it, and act accordingly.

Prayer

Lord God, in Baptism we were buried with Christ and raised to new life. Let us count ourselves dead to sin and alive to you. We offer every part of ourselves as instruments of righteousness. For the wages of sin is death, but your gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

6
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
(2 Corinthians 4:7–18)
1 What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? 3 Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.
 
5 For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. 7 For anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
 
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. 11 So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
 
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. 13 Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
The Wages of Sin
 
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
 
19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
 
20 For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Public Domain