1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Messiah Yeshua have been baptized into His death?

The question "what shall we say then?" is in response to the fact that in Messiah all of our sins are forgiven and atoned for. In 5:20-21, Paul explained that, for believers, whenever sin increased, grace abounded all the more. It's logical to then conclude that it would be fine to continue to sin, so that grace may continue to increase as well. Paul's response of "may it never be" showed that such a conclusion missed his point altogether. While it's true that the believer does continue to sin, as we will see, it no longer characterizes his life. In fact, spiritually we have "died" with the Messiah, therefore why would we continue to live as sinners? In other words, since God counts the Messiah's death as the payment that we rightfully should have given, why would we continue to blatantly sin, knowing the great price the Messiah paid? Furthermore, the immersion that comes with being a believer is an immersion into the death of the Messiah. The word "baptize" is actually a transliteration of the Greek word "baptizo," which simply means "immerse." In a Temple context, immersion in a mikvah (a pool of running water) was necessary to indicate the change of status from ritually impure to ritually pure. The Torah spells out many instances where immersion is necessary, including but not limited to after touching a dead body, after touching a defiled object, after an unclean bodily fluid emission and after a woman has completed her menstrual period. In the first century, immersion in a mikvah was required for all Gentiles who chose to become Jewish proselytes, while male Gentiles were required to immerse and be circumcised. Interestingly, Yeshua only commanded that the nations be immersed (cf. Matthew 28:19). Immersion serves as a perfect ritual for conversion since it symbolically demonstrates that the sinner has died to his old life and has arisen to a new life. In the case of the ritual conversion in Judaism, the symbolism is one of the convert going into the water as a Gentile and emerging as a Jew but for believers the conversion is based on a legal status but a spiritual status. For believers, symbolically, we enter the water as a sinner and emerge as a righteous person. Since this is the symbolism of immersion, how could a person enter as a sinner and emerge as the same old sinner?

4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

To Paul, the immersion that believers ritually go through signifies a spiritual reality. Just as the Messiah actually died but then was raised to live a new life, we too should die to our old way of life and live a new life, a life of obedience to God. Since someone is only buried when they are indeed dead, the use of the word "buried" indicates that our old life should be understood to be indeed dead. Just as it was not the end of the story when Messiah died and was buried but instead He came back to life to live forevermore, so too with us, it is not enough to be forgiven of our sins, we must also begin to live out the new life of obedience that is expected of those who have been redeemed. Since we are united with the Messiah ("in Messiah"), we died with Him and also came back to life with Him. Of course, this refers to a future and literal death and resurrection for each of us but Paul here referred to our current lives. All believers must show evidence of this spiritual reality in their lives now.

6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7for he who has died is freed from sin.

Note that Paul called our previous life of sin as being associated with our "old self," which is opposite of the "newness of life" that we now have in the Messiah (cf. 6:4). It would appear that the phrase "old self" specifically refers to the state of being we experienced before coming to faith in the Messiah. When we were dead in our sins, we had no capability to overcome temptation and choose obedience (cf. Ephesians 2:1,5). With the spiritual regeneration that has been done in our hearts, made possible by the work of the Messiah, we now have the ability to live obedient lives; we are no longer slaves to sin. Here's a beautiful and hopeful truth for all believers: he who has died is freed from sin. The Greek of this verse indicates that Paul is using the term "died" to refer to being justified because the word "freed" could be understood to be mean "declare righteous." For the believer, since we have spiritually died with the Messiah, and therefore have been declared righteous, our sinful temptations, though still existing, no longer hold any real power over us. Every single temptation can be overcome because God has given us the ability to do so.

8Now if we have died with Messiah, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Messiah, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Messiah Yeshua.

Both in the here and now and in the future, we believe that have died with the Messiah and will also live with Him. Notice that Paul indicated that "we believe," referring to the fact that believers lay hold of this reality by faith. We live our lives with the reality that through the death and resurrection of the Messiah, we too can die to sin and live to God. The Messiah's resurrection was not like other resurrections in the Bible because Yeshua continues to live. Lazarus, for instance, was raised back to life but then died again; Yeshua's resurrection, however, was the first-fruits of the coming resurrection of the dead because He was raised to permanent immortality. The death of the Messiah was complete, meaning that His death fully satisfied the payment required for sin. With sin taken care, the Messiah can now fully live to God. Once again, since we are united with the Messiah, it is our duty to live our lives like He lives His life: with complete devotion to God.

12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

To live in complete devotion to God, we must not let sin reign in our mortal bodies, that is, our current, pre-resurrection bodies. That Paul has to exhort the Romans (and us) to not let sin reign in our lives proves that left unchecked, the "old self" will continue to live its life. It's as if our "old self" doesn't realize it has died but, perhaps more to the point, we now have the ability to let our "old self" know that it has died and has no power over us. We are no longer under compulsion to obey the lusts of our sinful nature. As a result, we should not, then, present the members of our body to sin. The term "members" can refer to any particular part of the human body. Each person can think of which particular part of their body they use to sin (i.e. the eye, the tongue, the hand, etc). Regardless of the type of sin we usually commit, the point is that we should no longer use our body as instruments of unrighteousness but rather as instruments of righteousness. God is always watching, therefore our actions should indicate that we are indeed those who are alive from the dead.