Newness of Life, Part 1 Romans 6:1-5

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1 Newness of Life, Part 1 Romans 6:1-5 We re going to begin the section of Romans that goes from chapter 6 to the end of chapter 8. And what a powerful section of this letter! Chapters 1-5 of Romans have been pointing us toward justification, that is that through Christ Jesus and faith in Him, we can be justified, that is, declared righteous. And chapters 6-8 is going to point us toward sanctification, which is our growth toward Christ likeness, the transformation that takes place in our lives to become more and more like Jesus. Both are vital. Sanctification rests upon justification. But they are different. Justification is a one-time event. It s a point of completion at the moment of our salvation, whereas sanctification is a process. It is a growing toward holiness. And so we re excited to be able to open up our Bible s to Romans chapter 6. We re just going to be looking at the first 5 verses. We re going to kind of slow down a little bit. We ve been taking the book of Romans somewhat slowly, bur as we have observed, we could spend so much more time here in this great letter. This letter is written and is just jam packed with Gospel truth to help us have greater joy in God. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:1-5 ESV) Larry the Lumberjack was old school. He believed in felling trees the old fashioned way, with a sharpened ax. A friend of Larry s finally convinced him to try a chainsaw and gave him one as a birthday present. As Larry went out to work with his new chainsaw, he quickly became frustrated. The chainsaw was not efficient. It was less fruitful than his trusty old ax. He was felling trees more slowly with much greater effort with this new birthday gift than he did with his ax. So after a few days, Larry went back to his friend in exasperation and handed the brand new chainsaw back to him. Friend, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness, but this is not working. It is worthless to me. I need to give it back. Worthless?!? I can t believe it. It s a top of the line model. Let me look at it. As he looked it over, he said, Hmmmmm! It s strange that the blade seems to be a little bent, but even at that it should work. So he set it on the ground, flipped on the switch and yanked on the cord. Rmmmmrrmmm! Larry the lumberjack jumped back and exclaimed, What s that noise?!

2 Poor Larry! He lacked knowledge. He didn t know what he needed to know. He possessed a great resource, but he didn t know how to use it. This story is rather silly and absurd. We can t fathom a person being so completely ignorant. But more silly and more absurd is the Christian who is ignorant of the powerful working of the Gospel in their daily lives. Paul began his letter by affirming the infinite power of the Gospel at work in the lives of those who believe in Jesus. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, The righteous shall live by faith. (Romans 1:16-17 ESV) Whatever else we think of the Gospel, we must understand it to be God s power at work inside the hearts of His children. The Gospel is not only God s blessing that conveys forgiveness. The Gospel is God s power that conveys to us radical transformation. The Gospel does not only justify us, but the Gospel also sanctifies us. In the Gospel, we have everything we need to live a Christ like life. The Gospel grants us a desire to live unto God and for His glory. And then the Gospel grants us power to live unto God and for His glory. Both the desire and the power to live for God are gifts of His grace, imparted to us through the Gospel. Peter writes about this in his second letter. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3-4 ESV) You won t only be forgiven, but you ll be changed. Many believers are living way below their privilege because we don t know what God has revealed for us to know. One key reason, many fall short of living Christ like lives is because we fail to know the Gospel s accomplishments that are at work in our lives to transform us. We are like Larry the Lumberjack who has been given this great resource for more fruitful labors, but we do not know what we have been given, and so we become frustrated. This does not work, we say. Many believers then live under the control and the power of sin because of a lack of knowledge. So Paul s emphasis in Romans 6 is to teach us the achievements of the Gospel of God, the achievements of God s grace toward us, so that we would then live in an increasing state of godliness. We would walk in newness of life, Paul would say. Paul s uses this word know four times. He wants to emphasize that it s important that we learn the truth of the Gospel, of God s accomplishments for us in Christ. So he uses this word know four times in this brief section, underscoring how passionate Paul is that we would learn more completely this doctrine of God s salvation. Doctrine matters!

3 Do you not know...? (Romans 6:3 ESV) We know that... (Romans 6:6 ESV) We know that... (Romans 6:9 ESV) Do you not know that...? (Romans 6:16 ESV) Our living for God s glory depends upon our looking to Christ and our learning of the Gospel. The first step toward spiritual growth is having our minds renewed by the Gospel truth. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, (Romans 12:2 ESV) Our transformation, our living for God s glory, depends upon our learning, our looking to Christ and learning the Gospel, a renewal of our mind. So the question is asked: What do we need to know? What is Paul teaching us? What do we need to learn? That s where we re going to look at the first 5 verses of Romans 6, to begin our time of learning regarding the Gospel s power to transform our lives and to sanctify us. Last time we were together we learned two truths that help us understand the infinite, conquering nature of God s grace. If you look back in Romans 5, remember we learned: Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:9 ESV) We ve been forgiven, declared righteous. Remember, chapter 5 is a section that teaches us about the assurance that the believer has when we are justified by Christ. Here is a promise that if Jesus did the much more difficult work of justifying sinners, in other words, declaring people who are not righteous to be righteous on the basis of His work for them, then surely Jesus will do the much less difficult work of keeping them. That s what verse 9 is all about. He says, If He justified us when we were sinners, won t He also then keep us? If Jesus bore the guilt of our sins upon His body and away from us so that we are reconciled to God, will He not certainly not allow for those sins to fall back on us? That s the precious truth of verse 9. But then in verse 20, he says: Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, (Romans 5:20 ESV) So that s another principle of God s grace. First, God s grace secures us and then God s grace overwhelms us. Where sin increases, God s grace increases all the more. God never withholds grace from us in the face of sin. Instead, God gives grace in multiplied measure.

4 In view of these two truths about God s grace in the Gospel, the Apostle Paul anticipates an objection. Wait a minute! If we re completely safe, we re rescued from any concern about the wrath of God falling upon us, as verse 9 teaches. If whenever we do sin, because we recognize we re still sinning even though we re justified. Whenever we do sin, that God s grace comes multiplying down upon us, raining, flooding in our soul, then there s an objection that naturally arises. That objection is anticipated in verse 1 of chapter 6. We read it. Paul asks the question, What shall we then say? And again, he is anticipating some readers who are not liking what he wrote in chapter 5 about God s grace, its lavishness, its infinite nature. People who say, Wait a minute! This is just too much grace. I m all for grace, but this seems to be extreme! And so he anticipates that, and he states their objection here in verse 1. Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1 ESV) These objectors are thinking, look if we no longer have the sword of hell dangling over our heads, what s the motivation for us to put away sinful desires? If when we do sin, God s grace increases all the more, how is it not a good thing to sin more that grace might abound more? Shall we sin all the more that grace might abound? And Paul answers that question emphatically. By no means! (Romans 6:2 ESV) God forbid! If we make this objection to God s grace, that it offers us no defense against more and more sin in our practical lives, then we have missed the very center of God s grace in Christ, of God s message of salvation. Sin never flourishes in the face of God s grace. Saving grace, whenever it comes in contact with sin, kills sin. Sin, when it comes in contact with grace never kills grace. It actually causes grace to flourish. But God s saving grace always acts as a destroyer of sin in our life. We do not root out sin from our hearts by paying more attention to God s law, by making greater efforts to do better, to be good people. God s saving grace in Jesus accomplishes that for us. If we understood the accomplishments of God s saving grace in the heart of a believer, we would never ask the question that is asked in verse 1. The question betrays ignorance, and that s why Paul goes on to use this word know four times. He says, You re ignorant of some really important Gospel truth. So in these five verses, Paul describes three spiritual effects of God s saving grace upon the believer s life. Each of these spiritual effects rests upon the foundation of a believer s union with Jesus Christ. Remember that a believer s union with Jesus is the subject of Romans 5: Before we look at these specific three spiritual effects that our union with Jesus produces in our life, that helps us to overcome sin, it is wise to take a step back and think for a moment of what our union with Jesus means. Because if we are not clear about the truth of a believer s union with Christ, we re going to get really, really confused when we read what Paul writes in chapter 6 of Romans.

5 So first, the gospel truth is that God unites every believer to Christ Jesus. He unites us vitally, permanently, intimately to the Lord Jesus. Paul taught us in Romans 5 that when we are born in this world, we are born under sin and in Adam. As long as we are in Adam, we stand condemned before God and sin has control. It reigns over our life. It rules us. But praise God, by God s grace, God removes us from our spiritual union with Adam and He unites us then in a new union with His Son, Jesus. So we are people who say we re no longer in Adam, but rather we are a people who are in Christ. What is this union with Jesus? God uses two analogies to help us understand what our union with Christ means. He uses the analogy of marriage and He uses the analogy of a grapevine and the branches. Our union with Christ is like marriage, first, in that God places us in intimate personal union with Jesus so that He is the church s Husband and the church is His Bride. So we know one another in a very special intimate, permanent relationship. Furthermore, our union with Jesus Christ is like the union between a vine and a branch. Just as the vine imparts life to the branch, as the branch has an organic connection to the vine, so Jesus Christ, when we re united with Him, becomes the life of His people. We are the branches. So daily, we receive through our union with Jesus Christ, life, power, ability. How important is this doctrine of our union with Jesus? Everywhere in the New Testament, it is emphasized. Any time you read the little phrase in Christ or in Him or in Christ Jesus, our union with Jesus is being taught. When you read those little phrases, we often sort of throw them away and discard them. We don t think of them much. We sort of think of it as spiritual language that we don t quite understand but seems to be extraneous. But friends, these are not meaningless phrases, in Christ, in Christ Jesus, in Him. But rather, they are the most central part of the teaching of the Gospel. The Scottish pastor and theologian James S. Stewart called union with Christ the heart of Paul s religion, adding that this, more than any other conception more than justification, more than sanctification, more even than reconciliation is the key which unlocks the secrets of his soul. I think that s true. Yet, strangely, many believers completely neglect this important doctrine. Many have not even thought about the doctrine of our union with Christ. There are four truths about our union with Jesus that I want to encourage you to grab hold of: Truth #1: Though our union with Jesus is spiritual, it is real. In other words, this isn t some mystical truth that is nice to think about in church and then get on with the important matters of life on Monday morning. For the Christian, this is the central reality that profoundly impacts every moment of every day. Everything we do in life as a Christian now, we do together with Christ. This union with Jesus saturates

6 Paul s thinking in Romans 6 when he talks to us about holy living, about this war against sin and gaining victory there. Notice how often Paul talks to us about being joined together with Christ. Verse 4 Buried with Him. Verse 5 United with Him in a death like his... United with Him in a resurrection like His. Verse 6 Crucified with Him Verse 8 We died with Him... we will live with Him Do you see how often Paul is addressing this doctrine of our union with Christ? Arthur W. Pink writes: The subject of spiritual union is the most important, the most profound, and yet the most blessed of any that is set forth in the sacred Scriptures; and yet, sad to say, there is hardly any which is now more generally neglected. The very expression spiritual union is unknown in most professing Christian circles, and even where it is employed it is given such a protracted meaning as to take in only a fragment of this precious truth. Probably its very profundity is the reason why it is so largely ignored. I think that s true. It s hard to get our minds around this idea that God has placed us in a mystical spiritual union with His Son, Jesus, a union that is like a marriage. Just as real as our marriage is, so is our union with Christ. Just as real as the union between a vine and the branches, so is the believer s union with Christ. Truth #2: Our union with Jesus changes our core identity. In John 15, Jesus said to His disciples, I am the Vine. You are the branches. (verse 5) A branch has no identity apart from the Vine. It s just a stick to be thrown away, to be thrown into the fire. And yet, what a sweet, treasured identity is ours because of our union to Jesus, the Vine! Without the Vine, we are like dead branches with no useful purpose in life. But with the Vine we are alive and we are filled with purpose and with fruitfulness. Our identity and value is bound up with Jesus Christ. This is a value, by the way, that we will never lose as long as we are connected to Him. Here, Romans is teaching us that our union with Him is permanent. Truth #3: Our union with Jesus gives us access to every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. I love this idea! I love this doctrine! Our only access to God s blessing, to God s grace, is through our union with Jesus. There s no way to get God s blessing or to get God s grace that is separated from Jesus, God s Son. If we re not united to Jesus, then we have no part of God s eternal blessing, of God s grace, His saving grace. But if we are united to Jesus as our Redeemer, our Lord and our High Priest, please know that God offers all of Christ to us. It s not a half way connection where we have a little bit of a conduit of God s blessing and grace, just a little tiny opening. No, when we re connected to Jesus, we re

7 connected to the whole Christ, not a partial Christ. There are no blessings enjoyed by Christ that then are not shared with those who are in Him. Did you catch that? That s the wonder of Christ. That s why we re always looking to Christ. Because when we are united to Him, we re united to Him wholly, to a whole Christ. And that means that all that God is giving to His Son, He is passing on to us through our union with Him. It s amazing! Truth #4: Our union with Jesus motivates us to passionately pursue His glory. Because we are united to Jesus, His glory is our glory. Did you catch that? We share in His glory. And we share with Him in His glory because we are united to Him. So we are never sacrificing our best interests when we pursue Jesus glory. Rather, when we are pursuing Jesus glory, we are pursuing our own best interests. Did you catch that? I ll use an illustration from the NCAA basketball tournament. Some of you perhaps watched the championship game. I wish I had. I did not, but I saw some of the replays. And evidently, it was the most fantastic NCAA championship game of all time. It went right down to the last few seconds. The game was tied and there were 5 seconds left. The point guard for Villanova drove up the court, a guy by the name of Ryan Arciadiacano, and I don t know if I m pronouncing his last name right. He drove up and he s a guy that is great at shooting. And regardless of what is happening for him, everyone is expecting for him to take the shot. But what does he do? He passes it to his teammate, a teammate that is not as well known for, especially 3-point shots. And he passed over to him and his teammate takes the shot. Kris Jenkins is his name. He takes the shot and it goes in the basket with the clock expiring. Now here s the question: Was the point guard, Ryan, giving up personal glory by sharing the ball with his teammate? Or was he actually advancing his own personal glory? The fact that we re talking about it and everybody on ESPN is talking about it shows that he s actually advancing his glory by giving up and by yielding over glory to his teammate. It s likely, because of the defense, that he wouldn t have been able to make the shot and they wouldn t have won the national championship. When we re with Jesus Christ, our pursuit of Jesus glory is never us saying, Oh, man! I have to give up my own glory and I have to give up my own best interests in order to pursue Jesus and His glory. That s never the way it is because we share with the glory of Christ now and forever more as we serve Him, as we obey Him, as we follow Him. And that s the reason why the Christian life is never one of mean sacrifice. By that I mean beggarly sacrifice where we actually are on the losing side of the bargain. No, God is the great giver and we are always on the receiving side of the relationship. Application: Do you consider yourself to be joined to Christ or are you living your life independently of Him? Conscious consideration of our union with Jesus changes the decisions we make and the priorities we hold. No practice is more practically useful than the cherishing of our union with Jesus. Let us drink from this cup. Let s think of this

8 often, our union with our Lord Jesus. Let us linger over this great event, this great work that God has provided for us in His gospel. Through our union with Jesus there are three affects. I. We died to sin. How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:2 ESV) The central argument for why Christians are not a people who sin more and more and more because they re forgiven after all, is that while we are forgiven, we are also a people through our union with Jesus, who have died to sin. You might just underline that three word phrase. It is so vital! Our having died to sin through our union with Jesus is the key to living a practically holy life. That s a curious phrase, isn t it? Died to sin. What does it mean to have died to sin? Two times this phrase, died to sin is stated here in this chapter. Once here in reference to the believer, but the second time this phrase is used, it is as a reference to Jesus. That s very important as we think about what this phrase means. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, (Romans 6:10 ESV) Do you notice this? He died to sin. It doesn t just say he died for sin. He said that earlier in Romans 5. But here, He died to sin. He died to sin, once for all. As we work out our understanding of this phrase died to sin, a couple of observations are helpful: 1. All believers have died to sin. So whatever you say this means, you must apply it to every believer. This is not something that happens to strong, mature believers, but not to weak, immature believers. We all, as he writes, have died to sin. 2. This is a statement of fact and not a call to action. This is not something, in other words, that we are commanded to do, that we are commanded or encouraged to make complete. Every believer has already died to sin. It s in the past tense. Now Colossians 3, especially verse 5, teaches us that as believers we are commanded to put to death, sins. So we re commanded to put to death, sins, but these two phrases are different. They are used differently. One is an indicative. It is a statement of a reality. The other is an imperative. It s a command for us to follow. That s why they re different. We have to understand them differently. 3. Whatever this phrase means for the believer, it also means for Christ.

9 Paul uses the same phrase in the same context. One is a reference to the believer; one is a reference to Christ, and he is consistent in the way he uses this phrase. So what does died to sin mean? Early in my Christian life, I heard Romans 6 taught this way: When we die physically, we lose the use of our five senses. We no longer see, smell, hear, taste or touch. For instance, a dead person who has died to this physical world, has died in such a way that he or she cannot see bacon cooking, hear bacon sizzling, smell bacon frying, feel bacon s crispiness, or taste bacon s deliciousness. Are you getting hungry? A dead person is completely unresponsive to bacon. Just so, we Christians have died to sin so that we are completely unresponsive to sin. We are completely unmoved by sin s appeal. So our biggest responsibility in reference to sin is simply to reckon or consider that we are dead to sin. That we are unmoved and unaffected by its appearance, by its smell, its feel, its taste, its touch. If we simply reckon this as true for us, it becomes our new reality and we overcome sin in our life. That would be nice if that s what Paul meant. But that s not what Paul means. That indeed is an expression of what heaven will be like, but it is not what happens on earth. It s not what happens in the experience of the believer. I bring this interpretation to you because it is a common one. You may have heard it. You may have taught it. Some of you may believe that that is the right interpretation. But I believe that that interpretation is actually a violent misunderstanding of the Gospel. It is one that carries disastrous practical outcomes for those who believe it. I just want to mention three ways because of the dominance of this view, three ways that this view that we are unmoved by sin s appeal is damaging: 1. This view denies the biblical teaching that our flesh is very much alive after we are united with Jesus. All throughout the Scripture, we as believers are described as having this principle working in us. Scripture often calls it our flesh. And that principle loves sin and craves to partake of sin. Never are we told that in this life our flesh is dead, it s removed. Just the opposite! Scripture often describes a war that takes place between our flesh as believers, and the Spirit. In fact, when we get into Romans 7, that war is going to be on full display. That s what Paul is going to be talking about. As a believer, he s going to say: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. (Romans 7:18 ESV) For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7:22 23 ESV)

10 He s talking, I believe, as a believer. We ll get there. The truth is, we re not going to win this battle that Paul describes in Romans 7, if we don t anticipate and prepare for it. And that particular interpretation says, No, there s not going to be a battle. All you need to do is act as though the battle isn t real. 2. This view tempts us to be dishonest with ourselves about what is happening inside of our soul. We can t escape the realities, and yet this view causes us to sort of be like the Christian Scientist who doesn t believe in physical sickness and is taught to just imagine that physical sickness doesn t exist, and to deny it, and in this way you overcome physical illness. This view is very much like that in an evangelical sense as we just deny what we know to be true, what we feel every day to be true. 3. This view tempts us toward spiritual passivity in the fight against sin. It is the let go and let God approach. And that approach ignores the explicit commands that God gives to us so that we would grow in godliness. This view says that we do not need to really make any effort by God s grace to make war against sin that is indwelling us, but rather, we just simply need to reckon ourselves as immune to it. So it s more passive. And yet, right here in this very chapter, the Apostle Paul is going to give us counsel about how we who have died to sin can practically conquer it. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. (Romans 6:12 13 ESV) We re going to talk about this in a later sermon, but these are very active words, actions that believer s have to take. So if that s not what dying to sin means, what does having died to sin mean? While we do have a powerful enemy of indwelling sin waging war in our soul, trying to control us, the believer no longer lives amidst the fear of sin s control, of sin s dominion. Our death to sin severs any rightful claim that sin presses against our lives. For a time when Jesus was on the cross, sin laid claim to Him. It grabbed hold of Him and He cried out, My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me? The Bible says that Jesus became sin for us on the cross so that while sin laid claim to Jesus, when Jesus died, He died to sin and sin released its grasp from Him. Sin didn t get its claws into Jesus anymore. He was completely relieved forever and finally, once for all, verse 10 is going to say. As long as a person remains in Adam, sin has its claws in us. It lays claim to our life. It is alive and it is conquering. It acts as though it calls all the shots for us. But, when we are joined to Jesus, we died to sin and sin s claws were released. Its grasp upon us is released. Our lives were permanently separated from sin as a controlling authority. We re

11 no longer under the crushing guilt of sin, and we re no longer under the enslaving power of sin. So this is what the Bible means when we read that we have died to sin. It means that we have been delivered from the controlling authority of sin over us. Paul presses the practical application of this spiritual truth to us. He says, How shall we who died to sin still live like sin has authority over us? So the question is asked: If it no longer has authority over us, why do I have such trouble with it? Why do I continue to sin? I m reminded of a cartoon where two couples were talking and one woman says, Well, I haven t actually died to sin, but I did kind of feel faint to it once. The good news is that sin has no authority to dominate our life! That s the work and the accomplishment of God. But that doesn t mean that sin won t try to dominate our life. It will. Imagine that you are a teen in Iraq. You ve been kidnapped from your home and forcibly drafted into ISIS army. You are under the control of these evil men. Through fear, abuse, intimidation, and terror, you are captive to do their will. Psychologically and physically, they enslave you. If they say, Run and fetch us water, then you run and fetch water. If they say, Drop down and give me 100 push ups, you drop down and give them 100 push ups. If they say, Do evil acts, psychologically, you feel like you have no options in front of you. You are under their control. But then a good and noble and loving King comes and conquers the ISIS army. You are set free to become part of His kingdom. You follow Him and find Him to be a King who truly loves you. He blesses you. You are enjoying His rule and reign. But one day while you are freely at the market, a man in rags grabs you by the wrist. You look him in the eyes and you recognize that he is the leader of the ISIS group that took you captive. He says, Now do as I say. You must steal some new clothes for me and help me break into the King s castle. I will defeat Him!! Now go! Do as I say. I will meet you back here in one hour. And then he disappears into the crowd. At first there is a surge of fear that rushes through your veins. You begin to feel the strength of his domination and you weaken to obey him. But then you stop and think, Wait a minute! I died to this guy. He used to have control over me, but he can t order me around anymore. I am a servant of the true King. My King has defeated him. How can I who died to this former slavery, still live as though this pitiful, defeated enemy has any right to order me around any longer?!? I will call my King and report him!! How shall we who have been liberated, died to sin, how shall we live in it any longer when we understand our union with Christ? Do you see why our union with Jesus in His death and resurrection is the foundation for our saying No to sin? The bottom line is when God unites us to Jesus, we died to sin! This is the foundation for all our fight against sin and for all our growth in Christ likeness.

12 Time doesn t allow us to look very deeply at these next two points. We ll take them in future weeks, but I just want to touch on them and read the verses. II. We have been baptized into Christ Jesus. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, (Romans 6:3 4 ESV) I believe Paul is talking both about a spiritual baptism, but also about water baptism. Water baptism pictures this reality, this invisible reality of our union with Christ and our having died with Christ to sin, being buried with Christ, and then being raised up with Christ. What Paul is saying is, You guys should know this. Don t you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? He says, I want you to think back about the day of your baptism. Do you know what that meant? Think back on that day every day of your life. That day was a physical symbol of an internal, invisible reality, something real, not something make believe, but something real. Don t you know that that part of your life that was underneath the control and dominion and authority of sin is over, never to be turned back to ever again? III. We walk in newness of life. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:4 5 ESV) If it s been true that we have been united with Christ so that we have died to sin when Christ died to sin, how much more certain is it that we will be united with Him in a resurrection like His? We will experience the present power of the newness of life that God offers us and that there is a future day awaiting us when the completion of the glory of God s life rests upon us and we stand before God, completely removed from the ravages and corruption of sin. We cannot live the same life we did before we were joined to Jesus Christ. God s very purpose in uniting us to Jesus is so that we would live a whole new reality. There s much theology here friends, but all of it is soooo very practical. It s not just sort of to fill our minds with ideas that we can talk about in church. It s so that we might live in a new way of life. When Jesus died, you died to sin with Him. Because you died, you are a new person. You are not under the guilt and condemnation of sin. You are not under the authority or rule of sin anymore. You are declared righteous and you are under the loving Lordship of Jesus. That position which is yours in Christ is permanent and it is irreversible. Therefore, Beloved, let us live lives that are in line with who we are in Christ.