Exegetical Insight (Chapter 23)

The aorist tense has often been mishandled by both scholars and preachers. Aorist verbs too frequently are said to denote once-for-all action when the text has no such intention. Bill Mounce makes this abundantly clear in his lucid discussion below. Having been warned of this error, we should not go to the other extreme and fail to see that in some contexts the aorist does denote once-for-all action, not merely because the verb is an aorist but because of the context. Rom 6:10 says of Jesus, o} ga;r ajpevqanen, th:/ aJmartiva/ ajpevqanen ejfavpax (“for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all”). The aorist ajpevqanen (“he died”) clearly refers to the once-for-all death of Jesus, for the verb is modified by the adverb ejfavpax (“once for all”). Paul’s purpose is to teach that by virtue of his death Jesus has conquered the power of sin and death once-for-all.

Jesus’ victory over sin and death is not of mere historical interest, for Romans 6 teaches that those who belong to Jesus share his victory over sin. Verse 2 says, oi”tineV ajpeqavnomen th:/ aJmartiva/, pwÇV e[ti zhvsomen ejn aujth:/ (“we who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it?”). The subsequent verses (vv. 3–6) clarify that we died to sin by being baptized into Christ, for when we were baptized into him we were crucified together with Christ. The aorist ajpeqavnomen (“we died”) in verse 2, therefore, denotes our once-for-all death to sin at our conversion. When we died with Christ the power of sin was broken decisively for us. This does not mean that we cannot sin any longer. Otherwise, the exhortation not to let sin reign in our lives would be superfluous (vv. 12–14). It does mean that the mastery, dominion, and lordship of sin has been broken in a decisive way for believers. Since Christ conquered sin at his death, and since we died with Christ, we now share in his victory over sin. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires” (v. 12).

Thomas R. Schreiner