Sanctification — union with Christ
Romans 6–8
Romans — five movements
Five movements, one gospel — argued in order from the universal verdict to the renewed life of the redeemed body of Christ.
The first five chapters answer 'how can a sinner be right with God?' Chapters 6–8 answer the question that follows: 'how then shall a justified sinner live?' Paul stages it as three objections, three demolitions.
Chapter 6: shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid — we are dead to sin, baptized into Christ's death, alive unto God. Chapter 7: is the law sin? God forbid — the law is holy; the wretched man is the believer's lifelong I, locked in conflict with indwelling sin until Romans 7:25. Chapter 8 then opens with the great release: there is therefore now no condemnation. The Spirit's law of life has set us free; the indwelling Spirit gives life to mortal bodies; sons cry Abba, Father; the whole creation groans toward the manifestation of the sons of God; and nothing — not death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height, depth, nor any other creature — shall separate us from the love of God in Christ.
Key movements
6:1–14 — Dead to sin, alive to God
Union with Christ in death and resurrection. Reckon yourselves dead unto sin. Calvin: 'Christ has abolished sin in his own flesh, in our flesh — first imputatively, then progressively.'
7:7–25 — The wretched man
Two readings (locked debate, Doctrine D Editor's Notes territory): the unconverted man under conviction (Wesley), or the believer's lifelong sin-conflict (Augustine, Calvin, Henry). Both readings preserve the same therapeutic point: deliverance is in Christ, not in the law.
8:1–39 — Life in the Spirit, no condemnation
The capstone chapter: no condemnation, the Spirit's witness, the groaning creation, the predestined-called-justified-glorified golden chain (8:30), the love of God which nothing can sunder (8:38–39).
Key verses
- Romans 6:23
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 8:38–39
The doxological close — neither death nor life… shall be able to separate us from the love of God.
Christ in this section
Christ is the indwelling life. To be in Christ is to be dead to sin and alive to God — the believer's identity is Christological before it is moral.