DYING IN ORDER TO LIVE (Lesson 3)

DYING IN ORDER TO LIVE (Lesson 3) ROMANS 6 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. DYING IN ORDER TO LIVE (Lesson 3) Page 1 of 6

As we begin the third lesson in our study Dying In Order To Live, I feel compelled to make the following remarks. In the letters that the apostle Paul wrote to the churches, he invariably ended with a list of practical duties that were based on the doctrines he had discussed. It is very important for us to understand that in the Christian life, doctrine and duty always go together. What we believe should determine how we behave. Doctrine should always come before exhortation since it is in doctrine that we are shown our position in Christ which makes the exhortation to live a holy life, a reasonable one. In doctrine, we are also informed of all the resources of grace we possess with which to obey the exhortations. It is not enough for us to understand Paul s doctrinal explanations. We must translate our learning into living and show by our daily lives that we embrace God s Word. Truth must not only be taught and accepted intellectually, it must be lived. If truth is not practically applied, it is worthless. We must always ensure that the truth we have heard changes our thinking first, and ultimately our conduct. In our previous lesson, we noted that when an individual receives New Testament salvation, there is a separation that is effected between the individual and the sinful Adamic nature that resides within that individual. God uses His surgical knife to cut the believing sinner loose from his or her evil nature. This surgical operation accomplishes two things. These two things are: 1) the breaking of the power of indwelling sin; and 2) the impartation of the divine nature through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. While it is a fact that God separated the believing sinner from the sinful nature, He did not take it out of him or her, but left it in their inner being. It remains in the Christian throughout his or her earthly life and is not eradicated until that Christian dies or is glorified, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns for His church. The sinful nature has not died but the born-again child of God has been separated from the control and dominance that it formerly exerted in his or her life. Paul explains in verse 2 that the Christian is dead to the sinful nature in the sense that he or she is no longer in its control. In this way, he answers the question as to whether a Christian should continue to live a life of habitual sin, by stating that it is almost a mechanical impossibility for him or her to do so because the sinful nature which made him or her sin habitually before they were saved has had its power broken. In Romans 6:3-4, Paul proceeds to show us how this wonderful separation was effected. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Paul says that the separation between the repentant sinner and the sinful nature was accomplished by God s act of baptizing the person into Jesus Christ so that that person would be identified with the death of Christ on the Cross. He speaks of the same thing in verse 11, where he says that Christ died with reference to the sinful nature once for all So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus (New Living Translation). The death of our Lord on the cross has two aspects with reference to sin. In Romans 3:21-5:11, Paul informs us that He died with reference to our acts of sin. He paid the penalty for us which the law demanded. In Romans 6:11, Paul explains that He also died with reference to our sinful nature. His death brings about a separation between the believing sinner and the sinful nature. The first verse of Augustus M. Toplady s well known Hymn, Rock of Ages, expresses this twofold aspect of our Lord s death with reference to sin very well: Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure; Save from wrath and make me pure. DYING IN ORDER TO LIVE (Lesson 3) Page 2 of 6

The words Save from wrath speaks of God s act of justification. The words make me pure speaks to the process of sanctification, which starts with the breaking of the power of indwelling sin. There is a note of surprise and dismay in Paul s question to those who desired to continue living a sinful lifestyle so that God would have an opportunity to demonstrate more and more of His wonderful grace. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? He is asking in effect, Don t you realize what happened to you when you were baptized? The repetition of the word know in Romans 6:3, 6, 9 and 16 indicates that Paul wanted us to understand a basic doctrine. Christian living depends on Christian learning; duty is always founded on doctrine. If Satan can keep a Christian ignorant, he can keep him impotent. First, we must know what happened to us when we were converted or justified. The basic truth Paul was teaching in Romans 6:3-4, is the identification of the Christian with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Just as we were identified with Adam in sin and condemnation, so we are now identified with Christ in righteousness and justification. Jesus Christ not only died for our sins, but He also died unto sin, and we died with Him. The chart shown below may help us to understand the contrast between the death of our Lord unto sin and our dying with Him a little better: Romans 3:21-5:21 Romans 6-8 Substitution: He died for me Identification: I died with Him He died for my sins He died unto sin He paid the penalty of sin He broke the power of sin Justification: righteousness Sanctification: righteousness Imputed (put to our account) Imparted (made a part of our lives) He saved us by His death He saves us by His life Justification by faith is not simply a legal matter between me and God; it is a living relationship between me and God. When we are in Christ, we are identified with Him. God counts all of those whom He justifies as being joined to the risen Lord Jesus Christ forever in the totality of His being. Therefore, whatever happened to Christ has happened to me. We who are in Christ were in the mind of God and chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, according to Ephesians 1:4. We were in Christ in His birth; we were in Christ in His life, we were in Christ in His death; we were in Christ in His resurrection; we were in Christ in His ascension. We are now in Christ as He is seated in Heaven and is making intercession for us. We will be in Christ when He arises from the throne and comes back to remove us from the earth. We shall be in Christ forever in all the glories of His eternal reign. Because of their relationship with Christ, Christians have a totally new relationship to sin. In verse 3, Paul emphasizes the fact that the born-again child of God is dead to sin by using the illustration of baptism. The Greek word has two basic meanings: 1. a literal meaning - to dip or immerse; and 2. a figurative meaning - to be identified with. It appears that Paul had both the literal and the figurative meanings in mind, for he used the Roman saints experience of water baptism to remind them of their identification with Christ in His death and burial. Water baptism is a personal identification with Christ; it places us into Christ. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27). Of course, both water baptism and Spirit baptism are necessary components of the new birth, so actually one baptism comprised of both water and Spirit results in our salvation. We were baptized into Jesus Christ and in the name of Jesus Christ, in order that we might be identified with Him in His death on the Cross. Through our identification with Him in that death, we have died with reference to sin. That means that the power of indwelling sin has been broken in our lives. DYING IN ORDER TO LIVE (Lesson 3) Page 3 of 6

Paul writes about this in Colossians 2:8-12: Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. The New Living Translation renders this passage as follows: Don t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. When you came to Christ, you were circumcised, but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision - the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. The nature of sin must be dealt with by the knife. Our hearts must be circumcised. Without the circumcision made without hands a sinner can never be transformed, for there is still a connection between the sinner and the sinful nature. We were also baptized into His death so that we might share His burial, and thus His resurrection, and in that way have His divine life imparted to us. If we have identified with Christ s death and burial, we will also identify with His resurrection. Just as God raised the man Christ from death, so we should rise from repentance and water baptism to walk in newness of life. The verse is not speaking merely of future bodily resurrection after physical death, but of new life now. The negative aspect of conversion is death to sin, which is symbolized and completed by burial with Christ in water baptism. The positive aspect of conversion is new life in Christ, which we receive by the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The word baptized is a translation of the Greek word baptizo which in a mechanical sense may be defined as the introduction or placing of a person or thing into a new environment or into union with something else so as to change its condition or its relationship to its previous environment or condition. This is one of the ways in which Paul uses the word in Romans 6. It refers to the act of God introducing a believing sinner into a vital union with Jesus Christ, in order that he or she might have the power of their sinful nature broken and the divine nature implanted through their identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. In this way the condition and relationship of that sinner with regard to his or her previous state and environment is changed, and they are brought into a new environment, the kingdom of God. God placed us in Christ when He died so that we might share His death and thus come into the benefits of that identification with Him, namely, be separated from the evil nature as part of the salvation He gives us when we believe. We were placed in a new environment, Christ. The old environment was the First Adam in whom as our federal head we were made sinners and came under condemnation. In our new environment in Christ we have righteousness and life. Our condition is changed from that of a sinner to that of a saint. That is what Paul refers to when he says in Colossians 1:12-13, Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. The Message renders the verse as follows: Thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. God rescued us from deadend alleys and dark dungeons. He s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. As we noted earlier, we were not only placed in Christ in order that we might share his death and thus be separated from the evil nature, but we were placed in Him in order that we might share His resurrection and thus have divine life imparted to us. DYING IN ORDER TO LIVE (Lesson 3) Page 4 of 6

This he tells us in the words, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). The newness of life here refers to a new quality of life imparted to the individual which affects his or her conduct. In Romans 6, Paul does not deal with the Christian s behaviour. He deals with that in chapters 12-16. In Romans 6 the key word is machinery, the mechanics of the Spirit-filled life being Paul s subject. The newness of life therefore refers, not to a new kind of life the believer is to live, but to a new source of ethical and spiritual energy imparted to him by God, through the Holy Ghost by which he or she is enabled to live the life to which Paul exhorts in Romans 12-16. Paul is saying in effect that we were identified with Christ in His resurrection that we may conduct our lives in the energy of the new life that has been imparted to us, through the in-dwelling Holy Spirit. Here we have the twofold result of the major surgical operation God performs in the inner being of the sinner when he places his trust in the Saviour. He is disengaged from the evil nature, separated from it, no longer compelled to obey it. He has imparted to him the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) which becomes in him the new source of ethical, moral, and spiritual life, which causes him to hate sin and love righteousness, and which gives him both the desire and the power to do God s will. Paul, speaking of the same thing in Philippians 2:12-13, says, Therefore, my dear ones, as you have always obeyed [my suggestions], so now, not only [with the enthusiasm you would show] in my presence but much more because I am absent, work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ). [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight (The Amplified Bible). The will of the born-again child of God has been made absolutely free. Before salvation it was not free so far as choosing between good and evil is concerned. It was enslaved to the sinful nature. But now, it stands poised between the sinful nature and the divine nature, with the responsibility to reject the suggestions, enticements and commands of the former and obey the pleadings, exhortations and warnings of the latter. To constantly say NO to the former and YES to the latter becomes a habit, and then the victorious life has been reached. Paul has answered the question, Shall we as a habit of life continue to sustain the same relationship to the evil nature that we sustained before salvation? by showing that this is almost a mechanical impossibility and for two reasons, first, the power of the sinful nature has been broken, and therefore the Christian is not compelled to sin, and second, the divine nature is imparted, and the Christian does not want to sin. When a person does not have to do something which he does not want to do, he simply does not do it. We conclude lesson 3 by stating that it is vital that every saint understands and embraces the fact that as a result of the spiritual surgery that was performed by God at the moment of his or her salvation, the saint has a new relationship to sin. He or she is dead to sin. Paul emphasizes this in Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me (The Amplified Bible). If an alcoholic dies, he or she can no longer be tempted by alcohol because his or her body is dead to all physical senses. They cannot see, smell, taste, or desire the alcohol. In Jesus Christ we have died to sin so that we no longer want to continue in sin. But we are not only dead to sin; we are also alive in Christ. We have been raised from the dead and now walk in the power of His resurrection. We walk in newness of life because we share His life. This tremendous spiritual truth is illustrated in the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11. When Jesus arrived at Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for four days (verse 39). There was no question about his death. DYING IN ORDER TO LIVE (Lesson 3) Page 5 of 6

By the power of His word Lazarus come forth! (Verse 43) Jesus raised His friend from the dead. But when Lazarus appeared he was wrapped in grave clothes. So Jesus commanded, Loose him, and let him go! (Verse 44) He had been raised to walk in newness of life. In John 12, Lazarus was seated with Christ at the table, in fellowship with Him (verse 2). We see Lazarus dead, raised from the dead, set free to walk in newness of life, and seated with Christ: all of these facts illustrate the spiritual truths of our identification with Christ as given in Ephesians 2:1-10. In Colossians 3:1-3, Paul writes, Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory (New Living Translation). It is clear, then, that the saint cannot deliberately live in sin since he or she has a new relationship to sin because of his or her identification with Christ. They have died to the old life and have been raised to enjoy a new life. They do not want to go back into sin any more than Lazarus wanted to go back into the tomb dressed again in his grave clothes! Since we are identified with our Lord in His death, we shall not continue in sin that grace may abound. Our justification is not an end in itself. It is the means to a greater end: holiness of life. We have been accepted by God that we may be possessed by God. We have been set free in order that we may walk with God, not away from Him. Because we are justified, we are to be holy, separated from sin, separated to God; not as a mere indication that our faith is real and that therefore we are legally safe, but because we were justified for this very purpose, that we might be holy. God has promised resurrection life and power for our activities in this present life. We must not believe that consistent victory over sin is reserved only for the future. My brothers and sisters, we must not allow ourselves to be confused because we find sin warring in our members. We need to understand that when we received New Testament salvation our identification with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death was actualized, it became a living reality. Our identification with Him in His glorious resurrection was also actualized; it became a living reality also. We must live our lives in such a manner as to demonstrate that we have embraced these realities. DYING IN ORDER TO LIVE (Lesson 3) Page 6 of 6