In this section, Colquhoun shows the connectedness of justification, which Christ has won for his people, with their deliverance from the dominion of sin and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Sin no longer reigns over believers because the curse of the law as a covenant has been removed at the cross in the death of Jesus, our Surety. To paraphrase Romans 6:7, for he who has died in Christ is justified from sin. As Paul also writes in 1 Corinthians 15:56-57, The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, ...sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law [as a covenant] but under grace [as a covenant] (Romans 6:14). The reign of sin exists only where the law as a broken covenant exists. In Christ that law covenant has been satisfied and thus the curse removed and righteousness won for the elect, rendering sin impotent as a ruler in that it no longer carries with it the condemnation of the law and the penalty of death (Romans 8:1-2). Whereas sin reigned over sinners condemned under the law, Christ now reigns over sinners justified under grace. Thanks be to God indeed!
"2d, Jesus saves his people from the dominion or reigning power of sin." He that committeth sin, is the servant of sin." God had told the first Adam, as the federal head of all his natural posterity, that in the day he ate of the forbidden fruit, he should surely die. No sooner did he eat of it than he was punished with the loss of spiritual life; or, in other words, with the loss of the original righteousness of his nature, in which the spiritual life of the soul consists. Now, the corruption of the whole nature, or the dominion of sin in the soul follows as naturally, upon the want of original righteousness, as darkness follows the setting of the sun. Those, therefore, whom God hath appointed to obtain salvation, as they were involved in the guilt of Adam's first transgression as well as others, and consequently born under the condemning power of the law, which, in this sense, is the strength of sin; so they are all born destitute of original righteousness, and subject to the dominion of sin. The condemning power of the law as a covenant, so long as they continue under it, detains them as prisoners, under the reigning power of depravity. No sooner, however, does the Lord Jesus, whose office it is to say to such prisoners, "Go forth!", come and admit them to communion with himself, in his surety-righteousness, than they are delivered from the condemning power of the law, and consequently, from the reigning power of sin. This infinitely glorious righteousness [i.e. imputed righteousness], as it entitles them to the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, so it removes the curse of the law, which formerly stood in the way of those influences, and obstructed their entrance into the soul. Hence are these words of the apostle Paul: "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace," Rom. vi. 14.
"If believers would make more use of the righteousness of the incarnate Redeemer in their approaches to God than they do, they should find that sin would not prevail against them so much as it does."
- John Colquhoun. Sermon XIV, Salvation from Sin.(Bracketed comments and emphasis added)
Romans 6:7–“For one who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death He died to sin He died to sin once for all…”
ReplyDeleteI Corinthians 15: 56 Now the sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law.
Many teach that “death to sin” means not only legal status but ultimately the death of the sin nature. If this were true it would mean that the justified elect are not free yet, even though there is now no condemnation. Loyd Jones warns us that any other reading (Haldane’s for example) of Romans 6 is hasty triumphalism and will "cut the moral nerve".
Christ was never under the power of sin in the sense of being unable not to sin. Christ was always unable to sin. The only way Christ was ever under the power of sin is by being under the guilt of sin. The guilt of the elect’s sin was legally transferred by God to Christ.
Because Christ’s death to sin was death to the guilt of sin, and since the elect are united with a death like his, the death of the elect is also a death to the guilt of sin. “For one who has died has been justified from sin.”
Yet many commentators tell us that “set free from sin” must mean the elect’s sanctification by the Spirit so that the justified elect cannot habitually sin (or that their new nature cannot sin) They tell us that justification was in chapter five and that chapter six must be about something more if it’s to be a real answer to the question “why not sin?”.
But Christ was never under the power of habitual sin or any sin, and the death of the elect is like His death. Romans 6:10, “For the death He died He died to sin.” When the elect consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God, they think of themselves as dead to the guilt of sin. Death to the guilt of sin means passing from death to life and "not coming into judgment" John 5:24
Romans 6:14 does not say, For sin shall not be your master, because the Holy Spirit has changed you so that you cannot habitually sin, but only occasionally and always with repentance. Romans 6:14 says, “For sin shall not by your master, because you are not under law but under grace.”