Lectionary Year A
June 23, 2002
Romans 6:1b-11

Step II: Disposition
A. Genre

(JFC) This paragraph begins with some relatively dramatic rhetorical questions and answers. Then it declares how baptized believers die with Christ and live with Him as well. It makes these points repeatedly and in several different sentences. It seems to conclude with an imperative to accept the mindset it has been advocating.

B. Personal Interaction

(JFC) We have to wonder whether we have actually died to sin. Death is so final and irreversible, so, is having renounced sin equally final and irreversible? Did baptism really face the death of sin for and with the baptized? And, did sin lose its power over us just because we were baptized? My experience as a sinner begs to differ with this assertion. Slaves to sin maybe not, but, un-empowered sin? I doubt it. Able to live in, for and even through God's glory, perhaps, but, again, dead to sin? And, prey tell what is a new life and/or new lives? When and where and how will this eventuality transpire? These questions must have to do with comprehending only partly the doctrine of sin and living with and/or without them and/or their power/influence over life lived in faith.

C. Organization

(JFC) Dying to sin occurs in verses 2, 3, 6 and 7. New life and/or new lives occur at the end of the fourth verse. The power of sin's getting lost is in verse 6, while the image of slavery to sin occurs in the end of the sixth verse. Ability to live with, for and in God's glory is mentioned in the last verse (11) of this pericope.

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