The New Man

This passage comes from chapter 1 of Dr. Lloyd-Jones's book on Romans 6, The New Man published by the Banner of Truth. It is a key point in the epistle. He writes . . .

We are looking at something which has a very direct and immediate connection with the previous chapter, something which arises directly from it.

What was the apostle's theme in chapter 5? It was the theme of assurance and the certainty of salvation. Paul is asserting that our justification guarantees our final redemption in the fullest sense; that if a man is justified by faith, he can be happy about his ultimate salvation. If you are justified, you can be assured that you are going to be sanctified and glorified. If we are justified by faith we 'rejoice in hope of the glory of God'. Or, as we indicated, we find the same leap from justification to glorification as is found in chapter 8, verse 30: 'Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and who he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified. them he also glorifies.'

God gave his Son

That is the apostle's theme and argument in chapter 5 - that if we are justified, we are in a position to know that the whole of redemption is going to be ours. He wants these Romans to realise that, so he works it out and shows how nothing can come between them and this guaranteed end. Tribulations cannot do so, nothing can do so; indeed they all but add to the certainty. We have an absolute proof of that, he says, in this, that if God gave his Son to die for us when we were enemies, 'much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved in his life'.

That, in turn, led us on to that wonderful section from verse 12 to the end of the chapter, in which the apostle introduces the most wonderful of all our themes, our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We were joined to Adam, we are now joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says our salvation is as certain as that. We are in Christ, and because we are in Christ, all that belongs to him will become ours, even as all that belonged to Adam has already become ours. Because of that one sin of Adam, we have reaped the appalling consequences. But because of his one act of the Son of God, we are going to reap all the benefits of salvation. At the end of the chapter, the apostle's argument reaches its tremendous climax: 'Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.' In Christ we are under the reign of grace, our future is assured, we have certainty. That is the apostle's whole point, that this wonderful act of justification is an initial move which leads to all the other blessings and guarantees them all. He deduces them all from justification. That is the theme which he works up to the stirring climax at the end of chapter 5.

Not finished yet

But the apostle has not finished with the matter, and will not do so until he reaches the end of chapter 8. For the moment, however, he pauses. He has not finished with the great theme of chapter 5, but he feels it is necessary that he should stop and turn aside to deal with an extremely important question. At the end of chapter 5, he has made a momentous statement; he has said that the Law 'came in that the offence might abound', but he adds that, though the offence did abound, 'grace did much more abound'. Then comes the further statement, that as we are under the power and the dominion and the reign of grace, nothing can prevent our final salvation. But here Paul anticipates a difficulty, and he wants to make his meaning plain and clear. He has just said something that can be easily misunderstood; indeed there were many at the time who were misunderstanding it, and especially the Jews. And not only unbelieving Jews, but many Jews who had been converted and had become Christians were in difficulty about the matter. The apostle, as always, is anxious to help his readers understand his message aright. So, in order to prevent false deductions being drawn from his teaching, he takes up this question immediately in order to make it clear once and forever.

In other words, the statements made in verses 20 and 21 of chapter 5 raises two special problems at once and both are connected with the question of the Law. The first difficulty is this: will not this sweeping statement about grace, and the apparent setting aside of the Law, encourage people to sin and to sin even more than they did before? In other words, and introducing the technical term, is not this the kind of teaching likely to lead to what is called antinomianism, that is, to lawlessness? Are not people likely to say: 'Very well, if you tell me that where sin abounds, grace much more abounds, does it not follow that the more I sin, the more I shall know about the grace of God? There-fore, in a sense, the more I sin, the happier I shall be, and the more I shall understand these matters; what I do doesn't matter.' Isn't this teaching going to encourage people to sin?

The law's purpose

But then there is a second question. If the apostle speaks like this about the Law, was the Law then altogether useless and valueless? Why did God ever give the Law to the children of Israel? What was it meant to do? What was its place and its function in God's great plan and scheme of redemption? Now, a thinking, intelligent Jew, whether unconverted or converted, would be very liable to think along those two lines as he listened to the climax at the end of chapter 5. So the apostle pauses at once in his tremendous argument about assurance, and about the finality of justification, to deal with these two possible difficulties.

That is exactly what he does in chapters 6 and 7. We can say therefore that these two chapters are a kind of parenthesis between chapter 5 and chapter 8.

An extract from the book The New Man on Romans 6

God gave his Son

Not finished yet

The law's purpose

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