Read the passage: Romans 6:1-14 (ESV, Bible Gateway)
Getting started
- How and why do you think people can change their behaviour? What are the good and bad sides of each way?
Verse 1
- Why might believing in God’s grace lead one to think that it’s ok to sin or give in to temptation?
- Do you ever find yourself thinking along these lines?
Verse 2
- What does it mean that we died to sin?
Verses 1-2
- Why do you think we continue to do things that we know are wrong/sinful?
- What does this say about us?
Pause to look at the big picture
- Looking at v3-11 as a whole, how does the concept of ‘union with Christ’ feature in this passage?
Verses 3-4
- How do these verses summarise Christianity?
Verses 5-7
- How does Christ’s death and resurrection deal with every aspect of our sin problem?
- In v6 Paul talks of ‘the old self’ and the ‘body of sin’. What are these, how do they differ, and what has Christ’s death done about them?
- How does someone’s identity influence the way they live? How should our identity as Christians, as those united with Christ, change the way we live?
- In v6, what does it mean to be enslaved to sin?
- How should knowing we are no longer enslaved change the way we see decision making in the moment of temptation?
- Do you truly believe that you don’t have to sin?
Verse 11
- What does it mean to ‘consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God’. How should you practically do this?
- How might this help you in the moment of temptation?
- Considering v5-11: In what sense do we already get to experience resurrection life now?
Verses 12-13
- What does it mean, and what will it practically look like, not to let sin reign but rather to present yourself to God and your members as instruments of righteousness?
Verse 14
- Why should knowing you are not under law but under grace break sin’s power over you?
- Do you actively reflect on why you do what you do, or preach the gospel to yourself? If not, what could you do to change that?
Personal reflection
Go back over v14 and its questions.
Think about an area (or areas) in your life in which you regularly struggle with the same sin or temptation.
Take time to think of a “game-plan” based on these verses (and v14 in particular) that you can put into practice when these temptations come knocking at your door. Remind yourself that sin does not have dominion over you – because you are in Christ you can resist, you can choose His way, the better way.
Leader’s notes
Getting started
- How and why do you think people can change their behaviour? What are the good and bad sides of each way?
Paul has been saying that we are not saved by law keeping but by grace. The question comes, ‘but won’t that just encourage people to stay in their sinful ways and not change?’ So this first question is to make your group think, how do people change their behaviours and what is good/bad about those ways? Often, ways that involve self- discipline lead to pride and self-righteousness, or to rather rigid rules of what is or is not allowed, or to low self- esteem following repeated failures. In this passage Paul tells us that grace does something different.
Verse 1
- Why might believing in God’s grace lead one to think that it’s ok to sin or give in to temptation?
If we think God will forgive me anyway or that how I live does not change how much God loves me – it can undermine any resolve to fight sin or change wrong behaviour/thought patterns.
Verse 2
- What does it mean that we died to sin?
Through Christ’s death – which as we will see we have been united to – the ruling power of sin over us has been broken. It does not need to dominate our lives any more. We can resist it.
Pause to look at the big picture
- Looking at v3-11 as a whole, how does the concept of ‘union with Christ’ feature in this passage?
It’s everywhere! We have been united with Christ’s death and in His resurrection life. As He was crucified so was our old self. We died with Christ. We will live with Him. We are dead to sin and alive to God in Him.
Verses 3-4
- How do these verses summarise Christianity?
He covers Christ’s death and resurrection, baptism, changed lives and the Father’s glory. When Paul talks of baptism he is not talking about water baptism, but about our union with Christ, through faith. What happened to Him, happened to us. Because of Him, through His death and resurrection, a change of life can happen to us. And it is because all this is true of us that we will not choose to wilfully continue in sin – or ask the question in v1!
Verses 5-7
- How does Christ’s death and resurrection deal with every aspect of our sin problem?
It doesn’t just secure our forgiveness, but our freedom from the power of sin. It doesn’t just deal with our past sins, but our present and future lives, enabling us to live free from sin’s controlling power.- In v6 Paul talks of ‘the old self’ and the ‘body of sin’. What are these, how do they differ, and what has Christ’s death done about them?
Our old self is our sin-controlled self before we become a Christian. It’s the totality of who I am as a person. And when we are united with Christ by faith at conversion that old me dies. My identity now is not what it was. Now I am a new person in Christ, no longer under the power of sin. ‘The body of sin’ is my physical body/life as I give it over to sin. It’s knowing that our old self is dead and we have a new identity in Christ that will lead us to live differently. We will stop giving our bodies over to sin and so ‘the body of sin’ will be ‘brought to nothing’. - How does someone’s identity influence the way they live? How should our identity as Christians, as those united with Christ, change the way we live?
The way people think, dress, behave, eat, etc. depends hugely on their identity, on who they think they are. Out new identity in Christ should also have a radical impact on how we live. We can ask ourselves, ‘why would a non-Christian not sin?’ And, conversely, ‘why would a Christian sin?’ It’s in a non-Christian’s nature and world-view to sin, but for Christians it should be very different.
- In v6 Paul talks of ‘the old self’ and the ‘body of sin’. What are these, how do they differ, and what has Christ’s death done about them?
Verse 11
- What does it mean to ‘consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God’. How should you practically do this?
To count yourself dead to sin is to recognise and bring to mind that your identity as a Christian has changed and the power of sin has been broken, therefore you do not need to sin. As you do, your dislike of sin will grow.
Verses 12-13
- What does it mean, and what will it practically look like, not to let sin reign but rather to present yourself to God and your members as instruments of righteousness?
Sin will continue to wage war against us, but we’re not to give ourselves to it. Instead, we’re to give ourselves and our bodies to God. Note, this is not just ‘don’t do that’, it’s also ‘do do this’. To live in union with Christ and His resurrection life is not to live a life of negativity and ‘noes’. It is to live positively, giving ourselves fully instead to God and to what’s good.
Verse 14
- Why should knowing you are not under law but under grace break sin’s power over you?
Many of the things we do that are against God’s law, or His best for us, are because we think we need to do this thing or have this thing to feel good about ourselves, or be accepted in the eyes of God or others. That’s self- justification and justification by works – by something other than God’s grace. But when we understand we are accepted and loved because of Christ’s grace, the ‘need’ and drive to do these things diminishes. We don’t need to prove ourselves to ourselves, others or God.
Download the complete study: Bible study on Romans (PDF) and leader’s guide (PDF)