Until Christ came, the synagogue preached the law itself as the means of escaping the sins ruling in the world of the Gentiles. Given that it has now become apparent that sin only became more clearly known through the law, and since Christ came to acquit transgressions, would grace not become more abundant if people no longer lived under the law, but rather remained in the Gentile realm of sin? The language of Romans 6:1b reminds us of the words of Romans 5:20: where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

The question with which Romans 6:1–23 begins is therefore simply: To what do we actually belong when we no longer have to live under the law? This is a highly relevant question for a new church composed of Gentile Christians. It was a question raised in a time when it was not yet clear that a church as institution and Christianity as a faith would come about as a third way.

This question became pertinent, because apparently people were expressly accusing Paul of playing into the hands of sin with his gospel of grace. Thus, in Romans 3:8 we read, And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. People who refused to accept Christ’s resurrection had tremendous difficulty with imagining that a gospel which entailed liberation from the law would not in fact aid the growth of the Gentile world of sin.¹