Can a Christian Ever Sin Away Salvation?

Part II An Exposition of Romans 6:12-23

by Michael Krall

In my first part I dealt with the first half of Romans 6 to show that a person who is truly saved and one who has the life of God in his soul, can neither live in sin nor fall away. .

In the previous article we showed how the person in union with Christ has died with Christ and of necessity must life a resurrected life. In this 6th chapter of Romans Paul is answering an anticipated objection "shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?". Up to this 12th verse he has been showing the Christians relationship to Christ in his union with Christ. The 11th verse is the first application in the whole of this epistle.

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Since this has happened to Christ we are now to reckon this to be the case to us if we are indeed one of Christs. The construction in the greek here is one where we have the words "men" and "de". When these words are put together in a sentence in the proper construction they mean "one the one hand....on the other hand". Literally this verse says "just as Christ lives unto God so also consider yourselves on the one hand to be corpses in regard to sin and but on the other hand living unto God". The word "dead" is "necros" which means corpse. In the light of what has happened to Christ and our union with him in his death and resurrection we are to reckon these to be true about ourselves.

In the light of that he now exhorts us:

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

What we have here in the words "reign" is a 3rd person present imperative. The 3rd person imperative does not speak of direct command but speaks of permission. What he is saying here is that we are to stop allowing, or giving permission to sin to have sway in our bodies. The word "reign" in the present tense would literally mean "don't allow sin to be in the process of reigning in the members of your mortal body". Had Paul used the aorist here for the word reign something altogether different would have been meant. The aorist means "to become king". Had he used the aorist subjunctive here, it would have then meant "Do not ever let sin reign in your mortal body." He didn't use that for a reason. Had he done so he would have been teaching the possibility of sinless perfection which, despite what Finney and Wesley and others taught, -isn't scriptural!

What does this command imply? If a 5 foot tall 95 lb. man was told to stop allowing Hulk Hogan to push him around that would be somewhat ridiculous wouldn't it? But suppose a 6' 6" 275 lb football player was told to stop letting that 5' 95lb man to tell him what to do that would make sense wouldn't it?

The point is that the command to not let sin be allowed to have sway implies power and authority to stop it!

Notice the next part of the exhortation:

13 Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God.

This verse is quite interesting and many have not read this carefully. It was said to me by one person that this implies that a Christian can give himself over to sin so as to fall from grace. Well lets look at it.

The first command is the word "yield" and it is a present imperative. This word yield means to have access. It would be like giving permission to a guest in your home to have access to anything he wanted. You would say "my house is your house."

There are a few things we must note here. First this is a present tense verb and it speaking of stopping an action already in the process or stopping it from starting and continuing. This is important as I will show subsequently. The second thing to notice is that the command is to not allow our MEMBERS to have sway with sin. Keep those 2 things in mind when we look at the next part of the exhortation.

The word "instruments" is a word of war meaning "weapons of warfare."

We are not to give liberty to our members to be used as weapons of warfare for unrighteousness. Now again this command is implying that we have the authority and power to stop it.

But notice the positive part of the exhortation:

"but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God."

Did you notice the contrast? One difference is evident and the other is only evident in the greek. The first one is the command to yield OURSELVES not merely our members. But did you notice that it did not say that we were to stop yielding OURSELVES to sin? Why? Because one that died with Christ CANNOT yield himself. It is only our members that sin can sway not our beings. So we are to stop giving access and liberty to our members but we are to yield our whole selves to God.

The second difference is the tense of the verbs. The negative command to stop yielding our members is a present tense verb and speaks of continuous action. We are stop allowing our members to have access to sin. But in the positive exhortation it is an aorist imperative. The command to yield ourselves to God is speaking of definitive and decisive action. Since we have died to sin we are once and for all to have ourselves yielded unto God.

After giving these exhortations which followed his doctrinal statements about our union with Christ he now gives additional motives for this exhortation:

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

This verse must be look at in the light of verse 12 where we are said we are to not let sin reign. The word in verse 12 for "reign" is different than the one for "dominion" in verse 14. In verse 14 we are told that sin shall not lord it over us. The word for "dominion" is the verb form of the word "lord". The significance is that remaining sin will seek to try to reign in our mortal bodies so that we will respond to its commands. But since we are not under a principle of law but a principle of grace sin is no longer the lord in our lives.

When Paul makes the statement that sin will not have dominion he then tells us why. The reason why sin SHALL NOT have dominion, (notice it doesn't say "sin better not" or "sin should not" but it says "sin SHALL NOT" have dominion) is because the Christian is not under a principle of law. It is in the principle of law "command and obedience" that we are not under. Our motive for obedience to the gospel is the grace of God.

Now up to this point Paul has been answering the anticipate objection "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" The whole of verses 2-14 is to answer that objection. He will now introduce another objection which he answer in remaining verses:

15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

Here Paul uses a different tense when speaking of sin. In verse 1 he used the present tense "shall we CONTINUE in sin...". But here he used the aorist tense "shall we commit acts of sin.." would be a literal rendering. After having shown that a Christian, because of his union with Christ in His death and resurrection, cannot live a life of sin, the question comes up as to whether or not we can excuse acts of sin. After all if we are not under a principle of law but under the power of grace, what's the matter with an act of sin here and there? The logic is that since we have the power now being under grace and not being able to fall under sin's continuous dominion we can take acts of sin lightly. That is what he deals with in the next few verses.

16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

At first glance this appears to be saying that an act of sin in and of itself constitutes being a slave of sin. Is this really saying that it is possible for sinless perfection in the life of a Christian? The words "yield yourselves" are the same words in verse 13 "but YIELD YOURSELVES unto God" except here it is a present imperative instead of an aorist imperative. He is making a statement that to be yielding ourselves to something makes us a willing bondslave to that thing we are yielding to. Whoever your are "obeying", it is a present tense verb, that is whose slave you are. To commit an act of sin can lead to yielding ourselves to that master.

"Ah" says someone "see we can yield ourselves." We will look at that in a moment but first lets look at the rest of this verse. He gives the to kinds of obedience "whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness" Notice that he does not contrast "unto death" with "unto life". You would think he would. But no for that would teach salvation by works. He contrasts "unto death" with "unto righteousness." The obedience of the child of God leads to a life of holiness for the word righteousness here is imparted righteousness not imputed righteousness (justification). The word translated justify is from the same root word as this word righteousness but they are 2 different words. Justification means to declare righteousness sanctification means to make righteous. Here in chapter 6 he is speaking about our sanctification as the inevitable result of justification.

Keeping that in mind lets look at the next verse to see if we can answer the statement about yielding ourselves to sin.

17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Here we a simple statement that shows that the child of God is no longer a slave of sin. He uses the imperfect tense verb "WERE slaves of sin". The imperfect tense speaks of continuous action in the past. The Christian was in that continual state. It was something that existed in the past. Notice the next phrase "but ye have obeyed from the heart". Here we have the aorist verb "OBEYED from the heart". We WERE in a state of being slaves to sin but now we OBEYED from the heart. That delivered us from being a willing bondslave to sin.

But notice the next phrase "that form of doctrine which was delivered you." The word "was delivered" is in the passive tense and literally means "unto which you were delivered". This is one of those verses that shows clearly God's free and sovereign grace in salvation. We were delivered to the doctrine. We were passive in the initial stage of salvation. In order to obey from the heart the free and sovereign grace of God first delivered us to that type (form) of doctrine which we obeyed. This coupled with Paul's thanking of God at the beginning of the verse is clearly showing the sovereignty of God's saving grace.

He then buttresses that statement with this:

18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

He uses the aorist participle "being made free" with the aorist verb "became...". The aorist participle shows action PRIOR to the main verb. We were made free from sin FIRST and then we became slaves of righteousness.

19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Here again Paul makes a contrast. As you once yielded your members with zeal to serve sin as a willing bond slave, with that same tenacity yield your members as willing bond slaves to righteousness. The words "ye have yielded.." is an aorist indicative which speaks of action in the past. You did that so now "yield you members...". This is an aorist imperative showing decisive determinate action. He does not say yield yourselves to God as willing slaves, NO, yield your members. But notice that he says "servants TO RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO HOLINESS". He is speaking here of sanctification and the duty of the child of God to pursue holiness. The Christian life is a change of masters. You were the willing bondslave of sin but now having died and risen with Christ you are now willing bondslaves of righteousness.

20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

Notice here he uses the imperfect tense "were the servants of sin" speaking of condition we were in. Then he uses the same imperfect tense "ye were free from righteousness". Being a slave of sin righteousness had no claim on us.

21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things [is] death.

This 21st verse has an interesting implication. We are told that the Christian had no fruit in his old life which now he is perpetually ashamed. The word for ashamed is a present tense verb. The Christian is suppose to be ashamed of his former life because of that would have been eternal death had God not saved him. What does that tell us about "testimony meetings" where people relive their life of sin as if they were proud of it?

22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

This 22nd verse is very revealing and puts the crown jewel upon our assurance of ultimate salvation.

He makes an statement "being made free from sin, and become servants to God" using 2 aorist participles "made free" and "became servants". This is what has happened in the past. The aorist participle is speaking of action PRIOR to the main verb. The main verb is "ye have" which is a present tense verb. Because the Christian is free from sin and a willing bondslave of God he has fruit unto holiness. But notice the result of that action "and the end everlasting life."

This is a tremendous statement that has passed by many a professing Christian. It is a statement of fact NOT possibility. Since the Christian has become the slave of God and HAS (not try to produce) fruit unto holiness he can be assured of the end which is everlasting life.

Now pay attention to the next verse.

23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This verse is quoted a lot to the unconverted to show that sin leads to death. That is true and it is not wrong to apply it to the unconverted. But that is not how Paul is using it here. Notice the "For...". He is connecting it to verse 22. How?

The reason we can be assured of having our fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life is because the wages of sin is death. Where is the connection? The connection is that the Christian, as Paul explained in the first part of this chapter has "died to sin" verse 2, was baptized into his death verse 3, buried with him in baptism into death verse 4, planted together in the likeness of his death verse 5, crucified with him verse 6, have died with him and made free from sin verse 7 and 8. Since we have died with him and have been made free from sin it is this that assures us of having fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. Why because "the gift of God [is] eternal life IN (greek 'en') Jesus Christ our Lord." If you are in Christ you can have that assurance that you can never fall into a life of sin. What a glorious truth and I hope that many of us can rejoice in God's free and sovereign grace unto eternity.

I have a concluding observation before I close.

Paul has clearly shown that one who is in union with Christ is in union with his death and resurrection. The end result is that we have died to sin and the dominating power of sin is broken. Since we are under a principle of grace sin can no longer lord it over us. To say we can lose our salvation is to be ill informed of what salvation is and that is "the life of God in the soul of man". If you believe that one who is in union with Christ can sin away his salvation you never experienced this life of God in your soul. If the dominating power of sin has not been broken in your life than you are unconverted. I do not care if you were baptized by the Church of Christ the UPI and RCC or Baptists it will avail you nothing. You may have answered an altar call at a Billy Graham crusade and said the so called "sinners prayer" but if you are still living under the power of any one sin you have not died with Christ. If one sin still has dominion over you- you were never savingly united to Christ.

Please direct your comments to Mike Krall.

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