Rom. 6:3-11.
Know ye not that all we which are baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized into his death? So we are buried with him through baptism into death, that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. But if we are planted together with him to the same death, we shall also be like unto the resurrection, knowing that our old man is crucified together with him, that the sinful body might cease, that we should not henceforth serve sin. For he that is dead is justified from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, and know that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies not henceforth; death shall not have dominion over him. For that he died, he died to sin once: but that he liveth, he liveth to God. So you also, consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ our Lord.
(1) In this epistle St. Paul teaches Christians about the Christian life on earth, and attaches to it the hope of the other, future, eternal life, to which they were baptized and became Christians. For he makes of this life on earth a death, yes, even a grave; but directed to the end that henceforth another resurrection and new life may be found in us. And this teaching comes from the cause: for it is always so in the world, when one preaches of grace and forgiveness of sin, given to us without any merit on our part, that people want to be free from it, and do no works except what they desire. This was also the way St. Paul was, when he praised the grace of Christ so highly and comfortingly, as he had said shortly before in chapter 5, v. 20: "The greater the grace and forgiveness of sin, the more we are free. V. 20: "The greater and more powerful sin is, the more powerful is also the grace of Christ.
Grace, that where there is great and much sin, there is also great, much and abundant grace. Oh, if this is true," said the mob, "that great grace follows and is given for great sin, then let us only confidently charge ourselves with sin and easily help the cause, so that we may also have the more and greater grace.
(2) St. Paul now meets such with this reproach and says: "It is not the opinion of the Gospel that it teaches sin or permits sin; but the very contradiction teaches how to get rid of sin and of the terrible wrath of God against sin. This does not happen in such a way that we bring it about by our own works, but that God forgives our sin out of pure grace for the sake of His Son. For he finds nothing in us but vanity.
Sin and damnation. How then can this doctrine give or permit cause to sin, since it is outright repugnant to sin, and teaches how the same may be blotted out and done away with?
3 For St. Paul did not teach or say that grace is obtained through sin, or that our sin brings grace; but the opposite he says, that God's wrath is revealed from heaven against the sin of all men: but because the sins of men are great and grievous, and very much to be taken away, therefore there must also be great, mighty, strong, and abundant grace to drown and destroy them all. Just as one might say: Where the thirst is great and strong, there also belongs a great strong drink; where the fire was great, there must have been much greater and stronger outpourings of water, by which it was quenched; where the disease is great and severe, there is the medicine much stronger and more powerful. From this it will not follow that you also want to make up such a thing: "Oh, let us only drink up confidently, so that we may thirst the more for good wine; or do ourselves harm and give cause for illness, so that the medicine may be the stronger and more helpful. Neither can it follow that we should bear and heap up much sin, that we may have the more and greater grace; for grace is against sin and eats it up, how then should it strengthen and increase it?
(4) Therefore he begins this sermon with the sixth chapter, saying, "What shall we say then? Shall we then persevere in sin, that grace may be the more powerful? Let this be far from us. How shall we live in sin, to which we are dead?" As if he wanted to say, "How can these things stand together and be said, because grace has killed and strangled sin in you, that you should now live in it? And further explaining and stamping out such things, he continues, saying:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ have been baptized into his death?
(5) Thus he speaks in painted, flowery words, that he may make this thing clear to us, or else it would have been enough: If we have died to sin, how shall we live in it? That is, because ye are saved from sins by grace, it shall never call you to sin any more. For it is ever for this reason that it kills sin. But he wants to remind us with these words and immediately put before our eyes what Christ has done and given us, and thus say: "Think behind yourselves from whence you are Christians, for you were baptized into Christ. Now do you know why and for what purpose you were baptized, and what it means that you were immersed under the water, that it came upon you? Namely, not only that you are washed and cleansed according to the soul through the forgiveness of sins, but also that your flesh and blood are condemned to death and handed over to be drowned, so that from now on your life on earth is a constant dying to sin. For your baptism is nothing else but a choking of grace or gracious choking, by which sin is drowned in you, so that you remain under grace and do not perish through sin under God's wrath. Therefore, if you are baptized, give yourself up to the gracious drowning and merciful killing of your dear God, saying, "Drown and strangle me, dear Lord, for I will gladly die to sin with your Son, that I may also live with him through grace.
6th But that he saith, They which are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death; item, We are buried with him in death; this is spoken in his Pauline manner of the power of baptism, which the death of Christ worketh in it. For as he paid for our sin by his death, and so took it away, that his death was a choking and dying of sins, that it had no right or power over him: so also we have forgiveness of sins because of his death and dying, and so also die to sin by the same power, that it need not condemn us, because we are baptized into Christ, by which he communicates such his power to us and works it in us.
7. Yes, he continues, we were not only baptized into his death, but also buried with him (through the same baptism) in death; for through his death he also took our sin with him into the grave, and buried it completely, and left it in it; so that it should now be completely blotted out and buried and remain for those who are in him through baptism; but we now live a different life through his resurrection, through which we have conquered sin and death in faith, and have eternal righteousness and life.
(8) Therefore, if we have these things through baptism, it must follow that we no longer live or follow sin, which still stirs in our flesh and blood in this life, but always kills and strangles it, so that it has no power or life in us; if we will otherwise be found in the state and life of Christ, who died to sin, and by his death and grave put it to death and buried it, and by the resurrection obtained life and victory over sin and death for us, and gave it to us through baptism. For that Christ Himself had to die for sin is an indication of the great serious wrath of God against sin. And because sin had to be put to death in His own body and laid in the grave, God shows that He does not want sin to remain alive in us, but for this reason He has given Christ and baptism, so that sin may also be put to death and buried in our bodies.
9 So St. Paul shows with these words what both the burial of Christ has accomplished and also means, and we are also buried with Christ. For in the first place Christ was buried for this purpose, that he might bury and destroy in his grave our sins, both of which we have committed before, and which are still left in our flesh and blood (through forgiveness), so that they might not be our fault nor condemn us; and then that he might also kill this flesh and blood with the rest of his sinful lusts through the Holy Spirit, so that they should not reign but be subject to the Spirit, until we are completely rid of them.
10. so we are also still lying with Christo
in the grave according to the flesh; that though we have forgiveness of sins, are the children of God, and are blessed, yet the same is not yet before our eyes and the eyes of the world, but is hid and covered up in Christ through faith until the last day; for there does not appear or feel such righteousness, holiness, life, and blessedness as the word says and faith must grasp. Therefore also St. Paul Col. 3, 3. 4. speaks (as we heard in the Easter sermons): "Your life is hidden with Christ in God; but when Christ, your life, reveals Himself, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."
11. secondly, we also lie outwardly in the cross and suffering, persecution and plague from the world and the devil, under which we are pressed as with a heavy stone, so that the old sinful nature in us may be subdued and controlled so that it does not become rebellious to the Spirit etc.
But if we are planted together with him to the same death, we shall also be like unto the resurrection; knowing that our old man is crucified together with him, that the body of sin might cease, that we should not henceforth serve sin: for he that is dead is justified from sin.
This is again a special apostolic speech. What he now said about being baptized into Christ's death and buried with him etc., he calls here being planted together with him to the same death. Bind and draw together Christ's death and resurrection and our baptism, that they be not taken for a mere sign, as the Anabaptists blaspheme; but that the power of both the death and resurrection of Christ be put into them. To this end, he says, we are planted with him, that is, thus implanted, so that he is powerful in us and his death works in us; for through baptism he endows us and gives us the power of both his death and resurrection. This is done so that both death and life may follow in us. For this cause our sin is put to death by his death, that is, it is taken away, so that it may finally die in us and never live again.
13 Thus, that we are put under the water in baptism shows that we also die in Christ; but that we come out again signifies and gives us that we also live again in him; just as he did not remain in death, but was resurrected. But such a life should not and cannot be a life of sin, because it was previously killed in us and we had to die to it, but must be a new life of righteousness and holiness; just as Christ through his resurrection completely and finally destroyed the sin for which he had to die, and instead brought forth in himself the life of righteousness and communicates it to us etc. So then we are called planted or united in Christ, and baked as in a cake, that we both have the power of his death and resurrection in us, and also the fruit and consequence of it is found in us, after we have been baptized into him.
14 It is also comforting to hear him speak of the death and dying of Christians in this way, saying, "To be planted," 2c, to show that the death and suffering of Christians on earth is not a death, nor something harmful and corruptible, but a planting of life, since we are both redeemed from death and sin through the resurrection, and shall live forever; for what is planted is not planted to death and destruction, but that it may first flourish and grow. So Christ himself, through death and the grave, was also planted to life; for only then torn from this mortal life and from the sin that lay upon him and cast him into death for our sake, he now lives in divine glory and power. But since such planting begins with baptism, as has been said, and we already have life with Christ through faith, it must also be proved that such life remains in us and does not remain without fruit; for what is planted is not planted in vain and in vain, but is planted for something good, so that it will grow up and bear fruit from now on. So we too must prove that we are planted for life in Christ with new life and fruit.
(15) St. Paul then states the reason for this and says: "Because we know that our ancient
Man was crucified with him, that the sinful body might cease" etc. It does not rhyme that we, who are baptized and Christians, want to remain in the old sinful nature. For the same has already been crucified with Christ, that is, the sentence of condemnation and death has been pronounced and passed over it, for that is to be crucified; just as Christ was crucified for our sins and bore the condemnation of death and the wrath of God. But because Christ himself was crucified, who was innocent and without sin, for our sins' sake, sin must also be crucified in our bodies, that is, it must be utterly condemned and cease to have any life or power; therefore we must not serve it at all, nor consent to it, but consider it condemned, even condemned in deed, and resist it with all our might, and subdue and kill it in us.
(16) But he sets forth two different things, saying, Our old man is crucified with Christ, and that the body of sins might cease; as if the old man were something else than the body of sin. He calls the "old man" not only the body, or the gross sinful works that the body commits with the outward five senses; but the whole tree with all its fruits, that is, the whole man as he was born of Adam, with body and soul, will, reason and understanding, which is still in unbelief, contempt of God and disobedience, both inwardly and outwardly. He is not called "old" because of his years, for he may well be a fresh, strong, young man without faith and spirit, who does not respect God, is stingy and pompous, or lives in arrogance and presumption of his wisdom and power, but because he is still unconverted and has not become anything else at all, except as he came from Adam in sin. This is both a child of one day and a man of eighty years; for we are all called so from the womb, and the more he has much sin, the older and more unfit he is before God. This old man, says St. Paul, must be badly "crucified", that is, even condemned, executed and destroyed, even in this life; for where he is still alive
and strong, there can be no faith nor spirit, and man remains even in sins, drowned under God's wrath, and in an evil conscience, which condemns man and does not allow him to come to God's kingdom.
17 Again, "new man" is the name given to the one who is now converted to God through repentance, and now has a different heart and mind than before, believes differently and lives according to God's word and will through the Holy Spirit. This must now be found in all Christians; as it begins in them in baptism, or otherwise in repentance and conversion, so that he resists and subdues the old man and his sinful lusts through the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says in Gal. 5:24: "Those who are in Christ have crucified their flesh with its lusts" etc.
18 Now, although in those who are now new men the old man has been crucified, yet there still remains in them in this life, says St. Paul, "the body of sin"; these are the remaining lusts of the old man, which still stir and are felt in the flesh and blood, and would gladly be contrary to the Spirit. But because the head and the life of sin are killed, they must not harm the Christians; but in such a way that they nevertheless do not become subject and obedient to it, so that the old man does not arise again, but the new man keeps the upper hand and the remaining sinful lusts are also weakened and subdued. Therefore, this body must also finally decay and become ashes, so that sin may cease to exist in it and be nothing.
019 Therefore, saith he, if ye be now both dead in spirit, and new men of sins, and also dead in body, ye must no more suffer sin to bring you under its obedience, lest it should accuse you again, or condemn you; but live so as they which are now altogether loosed from it, and are free, and over whom it hath no more right or power. For it is said, "He that is dead is justified, or loosed from sin." This is said of all who die: whoever has died has paid for his sin and may no longer die because of it;
because he no longer does evil works and sins. So, when sin in man is killed by the Spirit, and the body or flesh with its sinful lusts also dies and ceases, man is now completely rid of sins and free etc.
20 See, St. Paul summarizes the life and being of Christians on earth in the death of Christ, and presents them as now dead and buried in the coffin, that is, having ceased from the life of sin and having nothing to do with it. And calls them dead to sin, and again, dead to sin, because they are no longer found in such sinful life of the world. Yes, they have now died twice or twice: once, spiritually, of sin, which is a gracious, consoling, and blessed death (though it hurts and sours flesh and blood), and a sweet, sweet death; for it brings, on the other hand, a heavenly, pure, perfect, eternal life; and secondly, bodily, which is not a death, but rather a clean, gentle sleep. Therefore, St. Paul says, you are blessed to the extent that you have already escaped death in Christ through such death of sin, and have no more death; for the first, which was inherited from Adam through sin (that is, the right, bitter, eternal death), has already been taken from you, and therefore you are now without death at all. But nevertheless you must still have a death, because you are still on earth and human beings from Adam, even if it is only a painted death.
(21) This is how it is: the first death from Adam is to be taken away and changed into a spiritual death, by which we die to sin, so that the soul does not want to sin and the body no longer does; and thus already for the death which sin had brought upon us, eternal life has begun in you. Therefore, since you are free from the horrible, condemnable death, accept this sweet, holy, blessed death, which is the death of sin, that you may guard against sin and not serve it. For this is the work of Christ's death in you, into which you were baptized, that such baptism also brings a death with it, because Christ himself died for it and therefore commanded you to be baptized, that sin might be drowned in you.
22) Now the other little death is the outward, bodily dying, which the Scripture calls a sleep, put on this flesh, so that it does not cease, because we live on earth, to resist the Spirit and its life, as St. Paul says Gal. 5:17: "The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are contrary to one another, lest ye do what ye will. For the spirit or soul says, I am dead to sin and will sin no more; the flesh says, I am not yet dead, I must have my life because I have it. The spirit says: I believe that God has forgiven my sin and taken it away from me through Christ; on the other hand, the body says: What do I know about God and His will? The soul says: I must be mild, chaste, chaste, humble, patient etc., and strive for the life to come; the flesh counters: Oh, what heaven! if I had here flour and bread, money and goods enough etc. So the flesh, as long as it lives here, is always on guard, stretching and dragging sin after it, resisting and not wanting to die; therefore God must finally execute it, so that it may also have its death from sin.
(23) And yet this also is a fine gentle death, and truly nothing else but a sleep; for it shall not abide in death, because the soul and spirit are no more in death; but shall come forth again, cleansed and purified at the last day, to the spirit again, where it shall be a fine, pure, obedient body, without all sin and evil desire.
Therefore, these words of St. Paul are a fine, beautiful, Christian painting, which presents and forms death to us not terribly, but comfortingly and sweetly. For how could he make it more lovely, neither by showing it stripped of all its power and hideous form, nor by depicting life and joy in death? What is better and dearer than to be rid of sins and all the punishment and sorrow of them, and to have a fine happy, calm heart and conscience? For where sin and right death is, that is. Feeling sin and God's wrath, on the other hand, there is such terror and trembling that a man would like to run from it through iron walls, and
as Christ Luc. 23, 30. says from the prophet Hosea Cap. 10, 8. wish and ask that all mountains and hills would fall on him and cover him.
25. This terrible death, which the Scriptures call the other death, has now been taken away from believers through Christ and swallowed up in his life, leaving in its place a little death, even a sugar death, when a Christian dies according to the flesh, that is, from unbelief to faith, from the rest of sin to eternal righteousness, from all sorrow, sadness, and temptation to all eternal joy. Such death is sweeter and better than any life on earth. For all the life, good, pleasure and joy of this world cannot make one so happy as to die with a good conscience, in the certain faith and consolation of eternal life; that indeed such death of the body means nothing else than being put into a gentle, sweet sleep, so that it may cease from sins, and no longer hinder the spirit nor make it restless, and thus also be cleansed, rid of sins altogether, in which obedience, joy and life of the spirit come forth again through the resurrection.
(26) But the only thing we lack is that the flesh, which has no understanding, cannot comprehend this, is still frightened by the shell of death, and thinks it is still suffering the old death; for it does not understand the spiritual death of sin, and cannot judge otherwise than how it feels and sees that man perishes, and is decomposed and consumed under the earth. Such a hideous and ugly larva before its eyes makes it not want to go up, and yet it is solely the fault of its lack of understanding; otherwise it would certainly not be afraid of it nor be frightened by it. For here reason is like a child who is frightened by a monster or larva and cannot fall asleep or be lulled by it; or like a poor man whose senses have gone mad and who, when he is put to bed, thinks that he will be thrown into the water and drowned; for what is not rightly understood cannot be rightly handled. As if a man thinks a penny is a florin, he is just as ignorant of a penny.
If he loses the penny, he is as sad as if he had lost the florin: not that the florin is lost, but that he is in ignorance and error.
(27) It is not the fault of death and burial that you are so afraid of it, but of your flesh and blood, which cannot understand that its pestilence, death and grave are nothing else than God putting you neatly, as a child, in the cradle or gently in the little bed, where you sleep sweetly until the last day. But so does flesh and blood, that it fears and shrinks from it, since there is nothing to fear nor to shrink from; and again, it comforts and rejoices in it, which gives no comfort nor joy; that Christians must bear and drag themselves with the stupid, mad flesh, which understands nothing that is good or evil to it, yes, struggle with it, because they live, with great heavy toil.
For there is no one so perfect who does not feel such fleeing and awe of death and the grave; as St. Paul also complains and confesses of himself, and in his person of all Christians: "What I do, I do not understand; for I do not do what I want" etc. As if he also wanted to say: "According to the spirit I know that God, when this body is to die, will lay me in my resting bed and sweet sleep, and I would like my flesh to understand this; but I cannot bring myself to do it. The spirit is willing and desires bodily death as a gentle sleep, for it considers it no death, indeed, it knows of no death, since it also knows that it is free from sin; but where there is no sin, there is also no death, but only life: but when the flesh is to die, it wriggles and fidgets, always worrying that I must die and perish in the abyss. It cannot even be tamed, nor brought to obedience, so that it would also accept it and surrender to it, as the spirit believes and knows: that even he, St. Paul, must cry out about it out of a fearful spirit Rom. 7, 24, "I poor wretched man, that I might be delivered from the body of this death" etc. For here one can well notice and feel what there is.
means: "The flesh lusts against the spirit"; that it must be dragged and forced by force through the spirit, that it must nevertheless follow and be obedient, how much it resists and fears, that it must also have to follow without its thanks until it is overcome. Just as the mother has to bind the child, who is restless and has come out of sleep, in its swaddling clothes and force it back to sleep.
See, these are the things St. Paul speaks of in these words, when he says: "We know that our old man is crucified", that is, that we have already died to the soul and spirit of sin, "that the body of sins might cease"; that is, because he does not yet willingly and gladly follow the spirit, but still resists and would gladly remain in the old life of sins, he is also already judged that he must go and be put to death, so that sin must also cease in him.
(30) Now he does not say that the body ceases as soon as a man is baptized and becomes a Christian, but "that the body of sins" (or the sinful body) "ceases"; that is, that the body, which before was rebellious and disobedient to the Spirit, is now changed, so that it is no longer a body of sin, but of righteousness and new life; as he also says, "That we henceforth serve not sin" (2c).
But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; and we know that Christ, being raised from the dead, shall not die henceforth; death shall not have dominion over him henceforth; for that he died, he died to sin once; but that he liveth, he liveth to God.
(31) He brings us out of the death and grave of sins unto the resurrection and life of both spirit and body. If we both die spiritually to sins and bodily to the world and to ourselves, what do we gain? Shall there be nothing else with a Christian but dead and buried? Nay, saith he, but of this we are assured by faith, that we also shall live, even as Christ came out of the grave.
He also died with him, or, as he said before, was planted with him in his death. For by his death he hath put an end to our sin and death: therefore shall we also be with him unto the resurrection, and unto life: so that there shall be no more sin, neither death, neither of soul, nor of body; even as in him there is no more death at all. For Christ, having died once and now being raised, dies no more, and is now nothing more for which he should die. He has done it all, has purged sin, because of which he had to die, has swallowed up death; and that he now lives, that is an eternal righteousness, life and dominion. So also you, when you have once passed through both deaths, the spiritual death, so willingly dead to sins, and the gentle death of the body, then you have accomplished that no death will be able to touch you anymore, nor will it be able to rule over you.
32 This is the consolation against the stupidity of the poor weak flesh, which is still afraid of its death. For if thou art a Christian, know that thy Lord Christ, having been raised from the dead, cannot die, and that death can do nothing against him; therefore, since thou hast been baptized into him, he can do nothing against thee. Yes, death is hereby commanded to defy and scorn, that it may try what it is able to do against Christ with all its power and terror. For it is said: Death shall overcome
Do not rule over him. He may be angry, wicked, pissed off, threatened, and terrified in our poor weak flesh, but he should not rule over Christ; instead, he should suffer Christ to rule over him, not only in his own person, but also in us, who in him have already died to sin once, that is, have been delivered from the sting, power, and dominion of death. For Christ has already completely accomplished and finished the work, so that he may have dominion over death, and has given it to us as a gift, so that in him we may also have dominion over death. Therefore St. Paul also concludes, saying:
So you also, consider that you have died to sin, and live to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
33 "Consider yourselves," he says, "that is: You also, as Christians, ought to know this about yourselves, and to present yourselves in this way with all your doings and being, as those who have already died to sin in Christ, and are found dead, even before the world, that you neither serve nor follow sin, as if it ruled over you; but prove the contradiction, that you now live another life, which is called: Divine life, both inwardly in faith and outwardly in life, ruling over sin, until the flesh or body also falls asleep, and thus both kinds of death are accomplished in you; then there will be nothing left but life itself, without all the terror, fear, and dominion of death.