Romans - Chap 6 The Necessity of Sanctification #1

"It is the spirits work to persuade us to Holiness our hearts naturally opposed to it." Matthew Henry.

If you have stuck with this series through Romans Six so far you might have thought, "he really uses Matthew Henry." This is purposeful. In 1989-1990 as I was reading through Matthew Henry's Commentary and encountering Romans Six I found this chapter especially helpful. I must have stayed there quite a lengthy time, gathering an outline from Henry that has stuck in my own mind for this many years. I couldn't pass through chapter Six without once again referring to it. The last several posts discussing Mortification and Vivification follows a partial outline of how I perceived Matthew Henry to expound on this same text.

Henry, once Finished explaining the Nature of Sanctification consisting in Dying and Living, Mortification and Vivification, goes on to explain the NECESSITY of Sanctification as described In Romans Chapter Six.

Here we begin by referring to Baptism:
1. We are dead to sin
Rom 6:2
"To participate in sin is to contradict our profession, violate an obligation."

“return to that to which we were dead, like walking ghosts than which nothing is more unbecoming and absurd. Rom 4:7 Return to that slavery from which we were discharged."

Matthew Henry:
In general, we are dead to sin, that is, in profession and in obligation. Our baptism signifies our cutting off from the kingdom of sin. We profess to have no more to do with sin. We are dead to sin by a participation of virtue and power for the killing of it, and by our union with Christ and interest in him, in and by whom it is killed. All this is in vain if we persist in sin; we contradict a profession, violate an obligation, return to that to which we were dead, like walking ghosts, than which nothing is more unbecoming and absurd. For (Rom_6:7) he that is dead is freed from sin; that is, he that is dead to it is freed from the rule and dominion of it, as the servant that is dead is freed from his master, Job_3:19. Now shall we be such fools as to return to that slavery from which we are discharged? When we are delivered out of Egypt, shall we talk of going back to it again?