As with many of the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith, sanctification has been lost to obscurity. In modern faith life, sanctification is really seen more as a program, a set of classes that one takes to ensure that they have met the minimal requirements of salvation. Still others have relegated sanctification to be the “markers” of salvation; that is, merely the qualities that a believer possesses. In either case, once the believer has graduated the class or demonstrates possession of the qualities, no further thought is given to sanctification; after all the believer has acquired their “diploma” and no further work is necessary. This view of sanctification is materially different from what Paul describes in the next major section of Romans. Chapters six, seven and eight are devoted to this foundational doctrine and should be given equal credence as most typically devote to chapters one through five. It seems that for Paul the doctrines of salvation and sanctification are two sides of the same coin and without one there cannot be the other. To put it another way, concept of saved but not sanctified which pervades much of faith life today would be an alien concept to the Apostle Paul. To the doctrine of sanctification attention will now be turned.
Dead In Sin But Alive In God
A natural response to the submission motif just mentioned is, “Should the believer have a blasé attitude toward sin?” After all, if God has saved the sinner by the agency of His own good pleasure, does it matter what the human object of that sovereign grace does? Paul says certainly it does, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” The natural result of one’s previous life in sin is death; that is all that will occur for those lost in depravity. Their lives will be marked by physical death in various forms and degrees but none-the-less still death; and their eternal state, upon the consummation of physical death, is eternal, spiritual death. In contrast, those who have moved from death to life no longer live within the power of death. Though true all people die physically, what Scripture calls the first death, not all people die eternally, what the Scripture calls the second death. This second death is not simply a reference to the future eschatological, judgment on sin but rather being raised from this second death is the promise of the glorified body as evidenced in the disciplines of God’s word made manifest in the present, temporal frame. Paul says in chapter six, verse six through eleven, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul’s use of the word “know” (γινώσκοντες, present active participle) demonstrates that Paul has in mind more than just an intellectual assent about a rational proposition. Rather, he is declaring that the believer in Christ has experienced the death of the old self in regards to the former way of life. This death in many ways is literal in that certain pagan behaviors are no longer engaged in but beyond this Paul teaches that the believer is a “dying one” (ἀποθανὼν, aorist active participle) who has been intentionally and completely set “free” (δεδικαίωται, perfect passive indicative) from the bondage of sin. The one who dies to the natural, sinful self begins to see his rebellion as an affront to God and matures to the point of exercising an open hostility toward his own sinfulness. Paul further asserts that the believer “knows” (εἰδότες, perfect active participle of οίδα) perceptively that the historicity of Christ’s ministry was more than just the accounting of His life. His finished work opens the door for all those who are identified with His death and then His being “raised” (ἐγερθεὶς, present passive participle) from the power of death so that His living once again free from the bondage of death provides the means by which God’s elect also are freed from the dominion of death through His life. The result for the believer is encapsulated in three imperatives to “consider” (λογίζεσθε) oneself dead to sin but alive to God by not allowing sin to “reign” (βασιλευέτω) in one’s mortal body but rather to “present” (παριστάνετε / παραστήσατε [2 occurrences]) oneself as a “living” (ζῶντας, present active participle) instrument of God’s mercy. This concept may sound a bit like slavery, and in fact for Paul it is; slaves of righteousness.
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