November 14

Read: Romans 6:11-12

Look upon yourselves as dead to the appeal and power o] sin but alive and sensitive to the call of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:11, Phillips).

Shall We Continue In Carnality?

In this sixth chapter of Romans, God is certainly telling us that Christians are to be dead to sin. Many competent Bible students say that we have here specific teaching on second-blessing holiness, the eradication of the carnal mind. What is the basis for this interpretation?

The word sin occurs here seventeen times. In fourteen of these instances the word is preceded by the definite article, making it read the sin. Lange says, “The definite article before harmartia… denotes sin… as a power or principle which controls man and reveals itself in hereditary corruption.” And Lange’s interpretation has the support of other scholars.

On this basis Dr. A. M. Hills writes: “We cannot help believing that the expression ‘the sin,’ ‘the sin,’ so often repeated, means a particular kind of sin, namely ‘indwelling sin,’ ‘inherited sin,’ ‘the sin principle,’ ‘depravity.’… Over and over again it is personified as an abiding state… as a… master, as a murderer, as a body of corruption, as a ruling tendency.”

It therefore seems obvious, in the language of Dr. Hills, “that, while in the earlier part of the epistle the Apostle was discussing God’s method of justification or pardon of sins, here he has advanced to the discussion of the gospel cure of the sin principle or sanctification… He thus brought the believers of his time, and he brings us, face to face with the abrupt question, ‘Shall we continue in sin, in depravity, in the propensity or inclination to sin?’ ‘Shall we remain unclean, unholy, unsanctified, unlike God?'”

The reply of the devout heart is a fervent “God forbid.”