There are plenty of Christians in name, though far less in walk. A gulf exists between the majority professing Christianity and the minority that “walk in newness of life.” So, do we just accept that disparity and treat it as though it does not matter how one lives just as long as he professes to be Christian?
Surely we find no satisfaction in that approach to Christianity. We do not even like that approach when it comes to loyalty to sports teams! As a teenager, I would not even think of wearing a shirt with orange and blue colors lest someone think me disloyal to my favorite team!
Yet how can we be so serious with things that hold no eternal value and allow the most important things to slide? I fear that happens more often than we know.
Through the Epistle to the Romans, Paul traces and argues for the truth of justification by faith alone through the righteousness of Christ on behalf of sinners. No adherence to the Law, no religious pedigree, and no accumulation of merit can change the sinner’s status to one of righteousness before God. But the work of Christ does it all! God’s justice has been satisfied by Christ’s obedience to the Law and substitutionary death for those He came to redeem.
But the question arises: Does Christ deliver us merely from the penalty and guilt of sin? By “merely,” I do not belittle such deliverance! Nothing could be more important in the scope of eternity! Yet if that were the extent of His work, it seems that He would redeem us and then immediately snatch us from this world that is so steeped in sin. However, He doesn’t. He leaves us in the world. As our Lord prayed for His disciples just before His arrest and crucifixion, He acknowledged to the Father what He desired for them as well as for all who have followed in their line. He leaves us here after our deliverance from Adam’s sin so
…that He might keep us in His name (John 17:12),
…that He might protect us from falling (17:12),
…that we might know His fullness of joy (17:13),
…that we might understand how the world that hated Him hates us as well (17:14),
…that He might keep us from the evil one (17:15),
…that we might know that we are not of the world just as He is not of the world (17:16),
…that He might continue to sanctify us in the truth (17:17),
…that He might send us into the world just as the Father sent Him (17:18),
…that as He sanctified Himself He might sanctify us in the truth (17:19),
…that He might perfect us in the same kind of unity that is found in the Godhead (17:20-23),
…and that the same love that sent Christ might be evident in us (17:25-26).
What does that imply? It tells us that Christ has much more for us in this life so that we might truly live as those affected by the gospel in our daily walk. Union with Christ affects the way that we live our lives in this world. How does this union translate from the scope of eternity to the daily demands of life? That’s what Paul addresses in our text. He answers the question: How can we, though still sinners, walk in newness of life?
I think a good way to summarize what the Apostle teaches here is under two areas of change:
(1) Change in relationship to sin;
(2) Change in relationship to life.
If we have been united with Christ in His death—if that is true, then it is just as true that we have been united with Him in His resurrection. If the death of Christ affects our relationship to sin even so the resurrection affects our relationship to life. Let’s consider how this is unfolded in our text. Keep in mind that Paul is still dealing with the initial question: “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” He has already shown by the use of baptism as a single symbol for the whole work of Christ in the believer, that when Christ died and was raised from the dead, we were joined to Him. Here he sets forth the doctrine of our union with Christ. It is the foundation for understanding not only our eternity but the day-to-day way that we are to live. Christ’s death and resurrection affect us each day—not a little but decisively and powerfully. So, Paul further explains this in our text. He identifies the dual union in Christ’s death and resurrection in verse 5, explains what it means to be united with His death in verses 6-7, and then explains what it means to be united with Christ in His resurrection in verses 8-10. Finally, in verse 11, Paul offers the first imperative that calls for how we are to act upon the facts of our union with Christ.
We will be able to look only at verses 5-7 this morning and will consider the other in a few weeks.
If carries a lot of weight. It presents a supposition to help us consider reality. In the case of verse 5, if has a primary emphasis and a secondary. Primarily, the context insists that if calls attention to the whole picture of the believer’s union with Christ. “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” So union is not one-sided. It is not just the fact of dying with Christ when He took down Adam’s sin at the cross; it is also the certainty of resurrection with Christ. Why is this important? The answer to that is found in the implication of resurrection. What does resurrection mean? It means that death has been conquered by life. One who was dead is now fully alive, and consequently, no longer affected by death or the constraints of life lived under the reign of death. Christ conquered the reign of death through His death; so too, the believer is delivered from the reign of death through union with Christ in His death.
But He was raised from the dead! Paul insists: if union with Christ in His death is true then it is equally true that we are in union with Him in His resurrection. This means that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead now affects the one in union with Christ. That’s precisely why he told us in verse 4 that we are in union with Christ, and as the consequence of it, “so we too might walk in newness of life.” Remember that “newness” implies something that is strangely different than the norm; it is freshness to life. Because Christ was raised from the dead, and as one whom He has redeemed, you are in union with Him in His resurrection, now you are enabled to walk in newness of life.
He has more to say on this in verses 8-10 but first he must help us understand the killing power of the cross and how the death of Christ affects our relationship to sin.
That’s the primary implication in this word if. But there’s also a secondary implication. If you are not a believer, then you are not in union with Christ in His death and resurrection, and therefore, you are still a slave of sin. Notice that Paul has freely used the first person plural pronoun “we” throughout these verses. He’s talking to Christians; helping believers understand the wonders of what it means to be “in Christ” and no longer “in Adam.” But some among us do not know that reality. Paul’s words may seem to feel like you are slogging through mud and making little progress. Here’s what I want you to see. Jesus Christ died and rose again on behalf of sinners. He did this so that He might deliver us from the guilt and penalty of sin, but much more, so that we might also walk each day in the power of His death and resurrection. If you remain “in Adam,” that is, if you just continue as you are, as one born into this world under the guilt and condemnation of Adam’s sin, then what Christ has done means nothing to you. It should mean everything! Think of the wonder of it all—that the Son of God would enter the human race with the grand purpose of taking your sins in His own body at the cross where He encountered the full measure of God’s wrath that you deserve! His resurrection confirmed that God accepted Christ’s death as total payment for the debt of sin that you owe. If you turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus Christ as Lord then you are no longer “in Adam.” You will be in union with Christ in His death and resurrection. All the fears that you have about being able to live the Christian life will then be unrealistic. For if you have been united with Christ in His death, then you will also be united with Him in His resurrection.
Let’s take a closer look at verse 5: “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” I want you to notice the verb tense of “have become united.” It’s a perfect tense verb which means that an event has taken place and the results of it continue forever. Once we are in union with Jesus Christ the reality of union and its results never diminish or vanish. That’s why it is unbiblical to think that a Christian, a true Christian can lose his salvation. What Christ did was not a suggestion that depended on our behavior. When He stood in our place He did so definitively and effectively.
“United” is a good translation. The word literally means “grown together with,” which gives us the idea of being grafted into something. That’s a good picture of what happened to us when Christ died. God grafted us into Jesus Christ as He died on the cross. He joined us to Him so that the effects of His death in bearing the wrath of God, while being poured out on Christ, were by that act of union poured out on us, too. Though He stood in our place, the effects of what He did were just as if God had poured His fierce wrath out on us. I think that’s why Paul uses the word “likeness.” It is the same word that is used of Christ regarding His Incarnation in Philippians 2:7, “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men.” Why did Paul use that same word in that case? It is because Christ was like us in every respect except for our sin. “So He came in the likeness of sinful flesh” on our behalf; He did not come in sinful flesh [cf. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 6, The New Man, 57]. So physically, were we on the cross with Christ? Of course not but spiritually we were.
Many things in life lack certainty. None of us are certain of what will take place next week in our lives or in the economy or in international issues. Honestly, we have few certainties that we can count on day in and day out. Paul lays out one. “For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” If the first is true then the second is as well. How do we know that we have been united with Christ in His death? It is not a matter of having a certain feeling of death flowing through our veins! It is not something that is experiential so that we can look back to an event and say, ‘Yes, that’s where I knew that I felt the death of Christ in my own soul.’ Rather the reason we know this is quite simple: God has declared it! That’s the teaching in Romans 5:12-21, in which we are taught the federal headship of Adam so that in him we are all condemned, and the federal headship of Christ so that in Him we are all through faith made alive (5:17-19). Then Paul restated it in 6:3-4, particularly in the way that he posits our salvation as what is pictured in baptism. To be a Christian in that era would also mean that one had been baptized, so this is an appropriate picture. “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” He states it as fact; not presumption.
Since it is true of union with Christ’s death it is just as true of union with His resurrection. Now, how does that affect us? Let me answer by a question. How did the resurrection of Jesus Christ affect Him? It ended the mastery of death. He rose to never die again. He threw off all the effects of the sin that He bore and the death that He experienced.
So how does His resurrection affect those united to Him in His resurrection? It changes the way that we live. We are no longer under the reign of death. We are no longer mastered by the threats and fear of death. We are characterized by life. Paul puts it quite simply in verse 11: Consider yourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus. Alive to God! No longer held in slavery to this world; no longer bound by the devil to follow his wicked influence; no longer under the dominion of sin; no longer trapped by living for self. Alive to God in Christ Jesus, that is, you are alive to God in union with Christ. (But more on this in a few weeks.)
John Stott makes a good point regarding verse 6. “We are told that something happened, in order that something else might happen, in order that a third thing might happen” [Romans: God’s Good News for the World, 175]. Notice the three movements in this verse. “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.” There’s no uncertainty with this on Paul’s part; this is something that we know. Again, how do we know it? God declared it so, therefore it is true. He’s calling for us to see the facts and rely on the facts, not wait for an experience. The experience already took place at the cross! Though you did not feel it that does not diminish the reality of how just as you were united with Adam in his sin, you were also united with Christ in His death. Paul clearly lays out the three clauses of the text with some of his favorite markers (hoti—that, hina—in order that, mēketi—so that no longer).
Most importantly in this verse is seeing what Paul meant by “our old self” and “our body of sin.” Here is ground for much debate among Christians. But I think that it is clear that the context will yield the right understanding of these phrases. Let’s begin with “our old self.”
What has Paul been addressing concerning man without Christ through the past chapter and up to this point in Romans 6? He has been looking most thoroughly at union with Adam. Death entered the world through Adam’s sin; condemnation passed to the entire human race; sin and death shared co-regency over all humanity. Every single person entering into the world has this thing in common: he/she were made sinners through the disobedience of one man (5:19). So the nature common to humanity is sin.
But a great change occurs through faith in Christ! No longer is that person in Adam. Now he is in Christ. He is marked by the righteousness of Christ. Where death reigned, grace now reigns.
So, how does one refer to what he was before he came to faith in Christ? Here Paul calls it the “old self” or “old man.” The adjective “old” implies “in existence for a long time, often with the connotation of being antiquated or outworn” [BAG, 610]. So it is unregenerate man, man without Christ, man following the way of Adam, man reigned by sin and death. What happened to that “old self”? Paul tells us, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him.” The prepositional phrase, “with Him,” is actually not in the Greek but rather “Him” is implied with the compound word “crucified together with.” The aorist verb tells us that this is not a repeatable event but a final, completed event. The passive voice shows us that this crucifixion is not something that we have done but something done to us in Christ. What is Paul referring to at this point? He brings together all that he has unpacked concerning our identity with Christ in His death. When Jesus Christ was crucified He took you with Him. In union with Him, you were put to death at the cross, that is, your old, Adamic nature was put to death.
Then what does he mean by the phrase “our body of sin”? Even though your union with Adam has been eliminated at the cross through union with Christ, you still have the proneness and propensity to sin. A change has occurred in your nature so that you are now a new person in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). You no longer bear the image of union with Adam; you have been “created in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10). Yet you still get angry, speak rashly, have evil thoughts, struggle with coveting, battle lust, fend off pride. So, how can one that has a new nature in Christ, that no longer lives in union with Adam, how can such a person still sin? It is because you still live in the body that remains corruptible. Until you put off incorruption and put on immortality, you will still struggle with sin (cf. 1 Cor. 15). Yet sin no longer reigns in your life. “Grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Does this mean that the body is inherently sinful? Is the problem the human body and if we can escape it we will be free from sin? Many have believed this, including the Gnostics and also modern Hindus. It is not the body that is sinful; rather it is sin that still remains in the body. I know that it sounds like I am juggling words but I’m actually not. Rather I’m trying to be careful that we do not assign blame to our bodies but rather see that the problem of sin in the Christian is due to the remaining patterns of sin in our minds and personalities that have been in existence since we were born. This is why Paul spends so much time calling for specific, decisive action to not let sin reign in our mortal bodies (6:12). It is why he calls for us to regularly, decisively present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead and each detail of our life as instruments of righteousness to God (6:13). It is why Paul expresses his own struggle with sin and how it is ultimately conquered by reliance on Jesus Christ the Lord (7:21-25). It is why he tells us to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice to God as an act of worship, and not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds (12:1-2). Christians, though not sinless while in this world can definitely sin less through dependence upon God’s provisions in the death and resurrection of Christ.
Now, see how he puts it in verse 6. “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him,” that is, in union with Christ your old, Adamic nature has already been put to death; you cannot put to death what is already put to death. So live in the reality that you are no longer under condemnation nor under the reign of sin and death (8:1; 5:21). “So that our body of sin might be done away with,” that is, the reign of sin has been broken so that your tendency to sin might be rendered inoperative, made inactive (better than “done away with,” katargethe). You are to live in the reality of your union with Christ so that you might effectively say “No” to sin. You do not have to give in to sin because the threats offered by old Adam are null and void. Here the power of the cross and the new life given through Christ’s resurrection render inoperative the power of sin in the life of the Christian. And why is that the case? “So that we would no longer be slaves to sin,” literally, so that we would no longer continue to be slaves to sin (present infinitive).
How do we make sense of this in practice? Let me explain with an illustration that is not an exact parallel but will show us some of the implications. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves free in the Confederate States that did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. On January 1, 1863, he further identified the states where slaves were now legally free. So the fact of law established the basis for freedom. But did a switch flip that day so that all slaves were free in practice? Slaves had been living as slaves for all their lives; now they must learn what it was to live as free people. Even though the law declared their freedom, slaves had to think of themselves as free before they started acting free. They were overcoming many years of slavery when the law declared them free. What would it mean to be free? Many did not understand because they had never been free. They did not know what it was to no longer take orders from their former masters. So they had to be renewed in the way that they thought so that they might quit living like slaves and start living as free people in daily practice.
Likewise, we are accustomed to the reign of sin over our lives. Then by the grace of God, we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection. By God’s declaration, the reign of sin has ended in our lives. But how do you live as one under the reign of grace? First, you rely upon the fact and not upon how you feel. You see what is true and move in that direction. Second, you realize that Christ came to deliver you from the practice of sin. So you embrace every provision of His grace to battle sin in your life, knowing that sin no longer has dominion over you. Third, you refuse to live like you used to live: as a slave of sin. You are now under Christ’s reign of grace that teaches you to “flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace,” “let no unwholesome word come from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification,” put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice, “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (2 Tim. 2:22; Eph. 4:29-32). Start living like who you are in Christ. God has given you the provision and grace necessary to live as Christians through Christ’s death and resurrection. “Walk in newness of life.”
We close this study by the reminder that Paul gives to stay on the foundation: “for he who has died is freed from sin.” The word “freed” (dikaioō) is the same word that the Apostle has used eleven times already, each pointing to the legal declaration of righteousness through Jesus Christ. So what is his point to remind us of this legal declaration when he is exhorting us to practical holiness? It is simply this: remember what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross! Remember what happened to you through your union with Christ. You died. Sin and death no longer have legal claims to you. That old master that had threatened you and harassed you time and again, no longer has any legal claim to you. You do not belong under sin’s reign. You died with Christ at the cross. His death delivered you from sin’s reign. Now, live as one that is free in Christ.
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