“God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? — Union with Christ through baptism is described as a death to sin's dominion, not merely to individual sins; Paul appeals to the indicative reality of the believer's status (nous, "we know") before issuing the imperative. The rhetorical μή γένοιτο underscores that death to sin is not hypothetical but constitutive of Christian existence. Baptism is corporate and mystical incorporation into Christ's death.
Church Fathers on Romans 6:2
“How shall we,” he says, “that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” What does “we are dead” mean? Does it mean that as for that, and as far as it goes, we have all received the sentence of death? Or, that we became dead to it by believing any being enlightened. This is what one should rather say, since the sequel makes this clearly right. But what is becoming dead to it? The not obeying it in anything any more. For this baptism effected once for all, it made us dead to…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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