Romans 6: Deliverance From Sin...Continued from page 4

Suppose a businessman were to say to his accountant, "What is the total sum needed to meet this month's payroll?" After some calculation his bookkeeper says, "Twenty thousand dollars, sir; but there's a balance of only five thousand dollars in the bank right now." "Make out the checks," the businessman might say, "but do not give them to the men until you receive further word from me." Then the businessman pays a call on his banker, arranges for a loan of thirty thousand dollars, and calls his accountant and says, "You can now pass out the checks. The bank has more than covered the payroll." Presently the first employee calls at the office for his paycheck. "I'm sorry," says the accountant, "I cannot let you have this check right now. The total payroll is twenty thousand dollars and there's only five thousand in the bank. Here, you can look at the ledger and see for yourself." What would that accountant be failing to do? He would be failing to reckon, failing to take into account the fact that adequate provision had been -made for far more than the needs of the payroll. And, of course, by failing to reckon, be would be dishonoring his employer and would be putting himself in a false position.

At Calvary God made adequate provision for the sinner. He dealt fully and forever with all aspects of the question of sin. We have to reckon this to be so. We have to take this into account in the moment of temptation. God says that the believer has died to sin. He assures us that adequate provision has been made in the death of Christ and in our identification with Him for any temptation that might arise. Thus, through Jesus Christ our Lord we have been delivered from the domain of death, and as Paul is now going to demonstrate, with that we have also been delivered from the dominion of sin.

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John Phillips received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Rice Seminary. He served as assistant director of the Moody Correspondence School as well as director of the Emmaus Correspondence School, one of the world's largest Bible correspondence ministries. He also taught in the Moody Evening School and on Moody Broadcasting radio network. Now retired, Dr. Phillips remains active in his writing and preaching.

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Excerpted from Exploring Romans: An Expository Commentary by John Phillips. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications. Copyright 2002. Used with permission.

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1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Romans in the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1955), pp. 96-97. Used by permission.
2 William R. Newell for example in Romans Verse by Verse strongly maintains that water baptism is in view in Romans 6. Those who practice the baptism of believers by immersion maintain that water baptism is "the outward expression of an inward experience." It typifies that which has already been done in the heart by the Holy Spirit. Baptism by immersion does indeed afford a striking illustration of the believer's death, burial and resurrection with Christ. First, the believer takes his stand in water — an element foreign to his nature and which spells death to him as a natural man. Then he is immersed in this element of death, put right out of sight, buried. Finally, he is brought up from this watery grave by the power of another's arm. Then he lives on, publicly identified with Christ through this act of obedience. Baptism thus complements the Lord's Table. The one ordinance sets forth the believer's death with Christ; the other sets forth Christ's death for the believer.
3 W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1911), p. 157.
4 C. I. Scofield, Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1909), p. 1198.
5 W. E. Vine, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1948), p. 89.