10/02/2026
REACH FOR HOLINESS: TEASER!
(The image in this post is AI generated. The text of this post CERTAINLY IS NOT!)
New Life Means Victory Over the Power of Sin (Romans 6:11)
Therefore, Paul reasons, our new, resurrection life has brought us into a decisive victory over sin in the present, and placed us on a trajectory to a future fulfillment of God ultimate purposes (Phil. 1:6). Since those who have been justified and reconciled to God have been raised to new life in Christ, they can no longer live in reference to the fallen world out of which they came, or live under its power and as prisoners of its sinful passions (Eph. 2:3-10; 4:17). In Christ, we are to live a new life without reference to sin and our previous connection to the world (Eph. 2:1-3). We have been redeemed from its claims and power; we are now free from an automatic and default surrender to sin, and to the impulse to sin once inherent in our nature (Rom. 7:4-6; 8:2, cf. John 8:31-32, 36; 2 Cor. 5:17; Ga. 5:1. 13; Eph. 2:5).
Just as in his resurrection from the dead Christ lives to God in a new way, so in our resurrection to new life, we live in new resurrection life to God, one that has left sin and sinning behind, and is going on the righteousness that leads to holiness (Rom. 6:10, 16, 19). Justified and reconciled believers, whose old life has been crucified, and who have begun a new resurrection life in union with Christ, must live with reference to God, and in a way that is consistent with their new relationship with him through the Spirit who dwells in them (Rom. 7:6; Gal. 5:16, 24-25). This new life is necessarily different from our previous life, and possesses different properties, goals, controlling principles, and so forth. In Ephesians 4, where Paul addresses this same theme, he reminds his readers not to behave like the people around them, because through their experience of salvation they have been created to be like God in true holiness and righteousness. On that account, they must be certain that they have put off the old man, and fully clothed themselves with the new man that is constantly being renewed in the attitudes of its mind to achieve those goals (Eph. 4:17-24, cf. Rom. 6:11). Notice this. The new man is being renewed, it is being changed to be more like God, into his image, maturing in godliness, developing in righteousness, and holiness, in which it was created by God. The transformation of salvation, justification, and reconciliation to God, as Paul has states in Romans 6:6, is tasked with ending our slavery to sin and sinning, and in Ephesians 4:23-24, with developing new attitudes in our minds that reflect the holiness and character of God going forward. In Ephesians 4:17-24, Paul is exhorting those who belong to Christ to more resolutely and seriously make the commitment to living in the power of the new life they have in Christ, and to surrender to the renewing of the attitudes of their minds. In Romans 6:11, the apostle makes a similar demand of his Romans readers, based on everything that has gone before in this section, that they now apply fresh faith, reckon on, count on, take firm hold of this new life they have in Christ, in order to live it out in obedience to God.
So, we come to an important imperative, which follows Paul’s introduction to the new life and the rationale for living a morally and spiritually transformed life since initial justification has taken place. The new life, lived differently and without reference to the power of sin, is not automatic. We must embrace it resolutely, Paul implies. It is something to be deliberately, purposefully engaged by an act of calculating faith that appropriates it fully, and surrenders to the power of God to bring it about (Rom. 6:11). Later in this epistle, Paul will return to this idea and remind his readers that they must present themselves fully and wholly to God, in order to determine his will, and for their ongoing moral transformation through the continual renewal of their minds (Rom. 12:1-2). Romans 6:11 is consistent with Paul’s instruction in verse 6, later in chapter 12, and similar instructions elsewhere in other letters, where he demands his reader put off the old life, and more resolutely adopt the new life they have in Christ (Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:5, 8, 9).
Paul does not assume that holiness follows automatically from transformation without resolute, and persistent faith in God, as well as ongoing surrender to him, and this is something that those in union with Christ must consciously embrace by continuing in faithful, determined surrender to God. Paul has moved from a description of the new life, an exposition of its theology, to an exhortation to pick it up, to engage it, to take hold of it decisively, and to personally engage it before God (Rom. 6:11). Later in this epistle, as the argument progresses, Paul will address more closely the dynamics of God’s grace operating in them through the Spirit that makes this new life possible and underwrites its success. But for now, he is seeking to enlist them in the life of radical surrender to God, in which grace operates and the righteous live by, through the operation of, in the context of, in the power of their faith in God (Rom. 1:17; 5:1-2, 20-21; 6:1-11).
A new section or paragraph will begin in verse 12 (The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition), with the exhortation, “Don’t let sin reign in your mortal bodies,” in which Paul seeks to work out the practical implications of the previous discussion of new, resurrection life and particularly his final exhortation that they take up the new life with fresh resolution and faith. But before leaving this section that describes new life in Christ, he makes a demand from his readers that they go on to apply a fresh resolution by faith to take up this new life Christ and apply it rigorously to their lives going forward as they serve God
While it is common for believers to wave this last exhortation off as a sidebar, or an unimportant, offhanded comment by the apostle, a shallow exhortation, other places in Paul’s letters signify how critical this exhortation really is in his theology of salvation. The parable of Jesus and the sower warns us that even if the seed germinates, that does not necessarily mean it will produce a harvest, and may be in danger of drying up or being choked out (Luke 8:5-8). Similarly, Paul warns that our faith in Christ is ultimately successful only if we hold it firmly until the end (Rom. 11:22, cf. 1 Cor. 15:2; Col. 1:23; Heb. 3:14). The harvest, he warned the Galatians, would come only if they did not grow weary in doing well, and only through persistence is the harvest guaranteed to them (Gal. 6:9). The principle of persistent faith that sees the enterprise of salvation to the end is a settled principle in Paul’s theology, and indeed a steady principle in Jesus' teaching, and the core message of the book of Hebrews (cf. Luke 9:61-62; Heb. 3:6, 12-14). He self-consciously confessed to the Philippians that he had not yet arrived at his goal, or had apprehended from God the full righteousness of Christ for which he was striving. Rather, he fully exerted every effort possible to go after the prize for which God was calling him upward in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:7-16). His progress in his Christian life and experience was not a matter of indifference to him. Far from it, it was a matter of utmost importance that called forth every ounce of his engagement and commitment to God (cf. 1 Cor. 15:19-11; 2 Cor. 11:12-12:10).
If we do not see Paul’s exhortation in Romans 6:11 (and similar in other places), we will miss the heart of his intended meaning. “Count yourselves…” (λογίζεσθε ἑαυτοὺς εἶναι – consider yourselves to be) is a phrase that aims at the mind and will, where faith in Christ embraces the new state of affairs represented by resurrection to new life in Christ. Paul has gone beyond the theology, beyond the mere knowledge of what has occurred in transformative justification and reconciliation to God, the sheer fact of what occurs at union with Christ when faith is applied to Christ for salvation. He has even gone beyond the carefully reasoned argument in Romans 6:4-10, and what new life implies with respect to the old life, that we are dead to it, and with respect to God, that we have new, resurrection life that is equipped to produce holiness. The key theme of this section surfaces in verse 6, that the purpose of doing away with the old man, is to be released from slavery to sin (τοῦ μηκέτι δουλεύειν ἡμᾶς τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ - in order that we should no longer serve sin), the automatic and default human condition of indiscriminately surrendering to the passions of the flesh, a flaw in our human nature that binds us over to habitual and, oftentimes, unrestrained sinning. Paul enlists a response of the will and the mind to our possession of new life in Christ as a result of the transforming power of God. His readers must bend their minds and will to a full apprehension and acceptance of the death of the old life, ending their slavery to sin, and of a resurrection to new life in Christ that has as its goal the inculcation of the holiness and righteousness of God, leading to conformity to the image of God’s beloved Son (Rom. 6:11; 8:29-30).
