Easter Sunday will, no doubt, lend more voices to singing, “Up from the Grave He Arose” and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” than on any given Sunday in the year. With great enthusiasm, even those that seldom utter a tune of praise to the living God will do so this day. I’m glad for that and rejoice in our Lord being praised for His worthiness and triumph over sin, death, and hell.
However, what happens next Sunday and the following will tell more about the serious nature of those worshiping on Easter Sunday. Far too many consider the Christian life a one or two Sunday event and the rest of the time, typically dull, boring, mechanical, or non-existent. Admittedly, many professing Christians fit into this mould that looks more like those spiritually comatose than those alive from the dead.
Many worshiping today have never known Christ in the power of His death and resurrection. Theirs is a religious nod to gain approval or satisfy guilty consciences; but no life lived to the glory of God as those alive from the dead. So many of these professing Christians consider themselves to be Christians, even though the strong evidence proves the contrary. Their great need is to consider again the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul’s constant message centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. On his first missionary journey, he testified that God had raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and on that basis, forgiveness of sins was proclaimed (Acts 13:34-39). On the second, he preached to the Athenians that God would “judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). Before King Agrippa, Paul preached the resurrection of Christ from the dead (Acts 26:23). And to the Romans, he explained, when once the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is applied to one’s life, there’s no turning back to follow the world; life’s never the same.
Christ has risen from the dead! His death and resurrection affect every moment of the Christian’s life. The real evidence of genuine faith in Christ can be found in the effective work of Christ’s death and resurrection in the believer. How is that the case?
Obviously, there are many things about life and eternity that we don’t know and will not know in this life. However, there are some certainties upon which both present life and eternity are grounded. Paul never hesitated to declare this certain knowledge. He uses the perfect participle, “knowing,” to affirm that this is not a fickle knowledge but a certain knowledge that has continuing effects upon the believer. We know that Jesus died on the cross. The whole city of Jerusalem and beyond knew this. Many who never believed Him to be the Savior knew that He died on the cross, though not grasping the significance of this death for sinners. His disciples and many other followers, upward of 500, witnessed His resurrection. Some among them sealed their testimony of His death and resurrection with their blood. Threat of death could not dissuade their glad confession. We stand today in the footsteps of these believers because of the truthfulness of the gospel, knowing that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead.
To say that someone died is not unusual since that is the lot of all humanity. But the death of Jesus Christ is in a singular category as the only death with eternal significance. We’ve had forefathers that laid down their lives on battlefields for our freedom. But their deaths achieved no eternal life for us. “The death that He died, He died to sin once for all,” Paul wrote. The singular significance of His death is due to His person. The Apostle introduces Christ in the opening verses of his epistle, “…concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead” (1:3-4). Both His deity and humanity are set forth as the foundation for everything we value concerning Christ.
The Son of God died! He, who also created the world and holds all of the cosmos together by the word of His power, died (Heb. 1:2-3). He, who has no beginning and through whom everything that was made, visible and invisible, died (Col. 1:16-18). He, who is omnipotent, the eternal judge, King of kings and before whom the nations bow, died (Matt. 28:18; Phil. 2:8-11; Rom. 14:11-12; Acts 17:31). He, who alone is beloved of the Father as His only unique Son, died (Col. 1:18; Matt. 17:5; Heb. 1:1-2).
But God cannot die, not being subject to death as spirit. Nor is there cause for God to die, not being sinful and deserving death. However, the Son of God entered into the human race, born of the Virgin Mary, a descendant of David, heir to his Messianic throne. Living a sinless life, obeying the Law in every point, and fulfilling all righteousness, the only human being that did not deserve death, died that we might have life. James P. Boyce’s statement concerning Christ is worth repeating as a fit summary of the significance of His death.
This one person was, therefore, able to suffer and bear the penalty of man’s transgression, because, being of man’s nature, he could become man’s representative, and could also endure such suffering as could be inflicted upon man; yet, being God, he could give a value to such suffering, which would make it an equivalent, not to one man’s penalty, but to that of the whole race [Boyce, Abstract of Systematic Theology, 291].
His death was an actual death; He did not swoon, fain death only to escape into the wilderness, recover from a near-death experience; no, He died. Jesus Christ laid down His life on behalf of others. His death was substitutionary—that is, it should have been our death, it should have been us bearing the wrath and curse of God, but Christ took our place. His death, therefore, atoned for our sins—that is, the stain of sin that no work of men could remove, He covered through His bloody death at the cross. God was pleased to accept His death for ours. He therefore, through His death, propitiated God—that is, He fully satisfied the just demands of the righteous God who requires payment for transgression of His Law. The death of Christ left nothing undone with regard to God’s justice and our forgiveness.
And so Paul could declare, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all.” That last phrase is found several times in the book of Hebrews. In reference to Christ offering Himself for our sins, the writer declares, “…this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (7:27). Instead of the repetitive sacrifices in the old covenant, “He entered the holy place [in heaven] once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (9:12). And in showing the superiority of Christ’s sacrificial death over the old economy, and as the mediator of the new covenant, the writer of Hebrews states, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (10:10). If something has been accomplished “once for all,” then that means (1) nothing else can be added to it; (2) nothing else is required to provide what it accomplished; (3) no other savior, no other work, no other ritual, no other act, no other religious practice can achieve what Christ has already achieved through His death—full payment for our sins. In his summary of the gospel, Paul said it simply, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3).
But Paul goes further. “Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.” He speaks of Christ’s resurrection as past reality—a fact that was witnessed even by the Apostle sometime after others had witnessed the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15:8). Though a strict Pharisee, intent on ridding the world of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, this witness to Christ’s resurrection was so strong that it changed Paul’s entire course of life, vocation, and ambition, even to the point of laying down his life to bear ongoing testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He joined the Gospel writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in their clear testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Each Gospel writer has his own portrait of Christ’s resurrection. It is the crescendo of Matthew’s Gospel, the anticipated culmination of Mark’s, the burning passion of Luke’s, and the triumph of John’s. In each biblical writer, the resurrection of Jesus Christ bears testimony that God accepted the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
Yet Paul’s not content with merely stating the fact of the resurrection. “Having been raised from the dead,” makes use of the aorist tense—to show that it has already happened—and the passive voice—to show that Christ was raised by Another. He tells who raised Jesus in 6:4: “so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” The use of “the glory of the Father,” is an example of one term being used for another, according to Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He wrote, “Any manifestation of the being of God is a manifestation of the glory of God” [Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 6, The New Man, 48]. He goes on to explain that this is equivalent to saying that Jesus was raised by the power of the Father which Paul indicates in Ephesians 1:19-20—“These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.”
Notice the additional statement that distinguishes the effectiveness of Christ’s death and resurrection. “…Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.” We read of several occasions in the Bible when people were brought back to life after being dead: the widow of Nain’s son; Jairus’ daughter; Lazarus of Bethany. Yet in each case, they still had to face death again. It still had a claim on their lives. Paul shows the significance of Christ’s death: He is never to die again. Here was no temporary resuscitation but absolute triumph over death. He further explains, “Death no longer is master over Him.” What a statement of the Son of God! He that is Creator and Lord of all humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross (Phil. 2:8). We would think nothing of it to state that death was master over us. By reason of our sin, death claims the mastery over us. Yet the Son of God never sinned. Death had no claim on Him except by His own infinite love that caused Him to give Himself over to death on our behalf. Lloyd-Jones writes, “What the Law therefore pronounces as punishment for sin comes upon Him, and so, because He bore our sins, death had power over Him” [p. 100]. Because of the Father’s good pleasure in redeeming a people for His own glory, the Giver of Life submitted to death, making death a temporary master over Him. The word is very strong (kurieuei), from the root of “lord,” indicating a master/slave relationship. It declares again the depths to which Christ plunged in order to redeem us from our sins. What price our deliverance from sin’s penalty and guilt demanded! The King of kings and Lord of lords became a slave to death so that we might know the forgiveness of our gracious God. But “death no longer is master over Him.” The resurrection emphasized that declaration.
C.S. Lewis pictures this so graphically in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Aslan, the lion-figure for Christ, willingly bore the guilt and death of the rebellious son of Adam—Edmund. The movie version shows Aslan slowly walking to the stone table, submitting to the bonds of the evil Queen of Narnia and her followers. They mock Aslan, shave his main, bind him, and drag him to the stone table where the Queen drives a dagger into his heart. Aslan, the great lion-king figure died in the place of another. Yet when the stone table split, showing that the curse against Edmund was satisfied, and Aslan rose from the dead, death was no longer master over him. He therefore delivered his people from the sting of death that had come by the evil queen’s hands.
And now, “the life that He lives, He lives to God.” Death has no more claims on Him. He has triumphed over the power of sin and the curse of the Law. Paul shows the contrast between the cross and the resurrection. At the cross, the Son of God was willingly mastered by death on our behalf. But raised by the glory of the Father from the grave, “He lives to God.” It’s certainly not that Jesus failed to live for God each moment of His earthly life. Even in death, He followed the will of the Father by accomplishing the work of redemption through His bloody death. Yet Paul seeks to show the effect of the resurrection life, not only on Christ who “has passed beyond [death’s] jurisdiction for ever,” but how those united to Christ in His resurrection will live to God as well [John Stott, Romans: God’s Good News for the World, 178].
These things we know: Christ has been raised from the dead, never to die again. His death ended sin’s curse for all that believe. Death has no more mastery over Him.
Paul’s purpose in Romans 6 is to begin drawing the applications from the justifying work of Christ to the believer’s sanctification. That is, because of what Jesus Christ has done in bearing the penalty of our sin, satisfying eternal justice on our behalf, and having been raised from the dead to declare the Father’s acceptance of Christ’s work for us, then there is the certainty that God is working resurrection life in every Christian. From the start of one’s Christian life to the day of glorification in God’s presence, and everything in between, the power of Christ’s death and resurrection is at work in the believer. The pivotal statement is in Romans 6:5: “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.” Paul is not referring to simply something in the future state in eternity. He’s dealing with the here and now; the lives that we live each day. As those united with Christ in His death and resurrection, we believe His death and resurrection to be applicably transforming throughout our lives.
Union with Christ is critical to grasping the language of Romans six. It implies our solidarity with Christ in His death and resurrection; it conveys a depth of intimacy and identity in relationship with Him. As mankind is in union with Adam in sin and eternal death, even so, through union with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection, believers can “walk in newness of life” (5:18-19; 6:4).
The language of the Bible frequently uses the name of one person to identify the whole group. As God dealt with the one representative, He dealt with the entire group. Thus we find God blessing Abraham singularly, yet consequently, granting a corporate blessing to the nations of the world. Paul said that all Israel was “baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,” that is, they were in union with him as their representative before God (1 Cor. 10:2). Likewise, though Adam sinned against God and bore the penalty of that fall, because he represented all of his posterity, in Adam’s sin we all sinned; in Adam’s fall, we all fell (Rom. 5:12). “So through the transgression of one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” That’s the bad news. But the good news is found in union with Christ. “Even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).
Paul builds on that foundation in chapter six. The gracious union of the redeemed with Christ in His death and resurrection breaks our downward spiral in Adam. It immerses us in the full effects of the power of Christ’s death and resurrection. So he can write that all who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death. And if we’re united with Him in the likeness of His death, we’re also in that same union in His resurrection. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is part and parcel the death and resurrection of every believer. That’s why Paul’s confidence in the application of Christ’s death and resurrection reverberates in our text.
Lloyd-Jones reminds us that Paul is not talking about our experience in this section; he’s speaking, instead, of facts declared by God for us [cf. Lloyd-Jones, Romans 6]. He’s dealing with foundational doctrine that is to be applied in our experience but not based on our experience. “You cannot come to application and to practice, to conduct and behavior and experience, until you are clear about the doctrine” [MLJ, 111]. Paul’s doctrine not only includes Christ’s death and resurrection, but here, with great passion, he declares other facts or doctrines that are true whether we know them experientially or not. It is this: you have died with Christ and you have been risen with Christ. “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” Having died with Christ changes our relationship to sin. “Our old self was crucified with Him,” therefore, the old nature, bent on nothing but disobedience and rebellion against God, was crucified with Christ (6:6). You have a new worldview, a new outlook, actually, a new life centered on living a life unto God as one who has been raised from the dead (6:4). Your disposition has been radically changed. Your nature has been transformed. Your citizenship is now in heaven. You are part of God’s kingdom. You are adopted into His family. You are an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ.
But, we often struggle at just this point by saying that we don’t feel crucified with Christ, we don’t feel as though we’ve been raised from the dead, we don’t feel like we’re part of God’s kingdom, etc. So, get Paul’s point. How you feel about this is not the issue. What your experience might be up to this point is not the issue. The substance involves the facts. The facts are that you as a believer “have died with Christ.” You as a believer “shall also live with Him,” not just in the future, but the clear implication is the present resurrection power.
One of the biggest challenges that we face is understanding what Christ has done on our behalf. The adversary whispers and shouts everything to the contrary in our ears. He emphasizes experience in contrast to the facts. If we can measure all of the Christian life by how we feel at any given moment, then we’re sunk—and the devil knows that. So, he does his best to convince Christians that doctrine is a bunch of dry-as-toast-academic-stuff that doesn’t do anyone any good. Instead, doctrine states the biblical facts. We’re not to learn doctrine to impress others with our knowledge but rather to understand the facts so that we might live in them each day to the glory of God.
Paul’s emphasis in this context is on walking “in newness of life,” as he states in 6:4. The word literally means “strangeness” of life; that is, living as one who has resurrection power flowing through his life will be strange to the world! There’s nothing like it on the planet since the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is now at work in your life in the present demands and dilemmas that you face. That’s why Paul prayed for the Ephesian church, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:18-20). Notice, that Paul, did not speak of potential for the Christian, but reality—facts; the hope of His calling, the glory of His inheritance, and the greatness of His power toward us who believe. And notice that he indicated that all of these things came about by the same power that raised Christ from the dead now at work in you who believe.
Up unto this point in the book of Romans, no command has been given. Everything has been doctrine—laying the foundation. But now, after stating the fact of our union with Christ in His death and resurrection, Paul exhorts, “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Here’s the vital conclusion. “Even so,” in the same way that Christ died and rose from the dead, in the very same way, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. The inference that he makes has nothing to do with mysticism or symbolism. He’s speaking in real, concrete terms about the way that you think and logically conclude the truths of the gospel. Concentrate on the facts of what Christ has done; ponder His death and resurrection on your behalf; see that His power is at work in you; and now, live like one alive from the dead!
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