Dying To Live (Romans 6:1-11)
Some people think Christianity is just a self-improvement program, but it’s not. It’s a death and a resurrection. We aren’t just turning over a new leaf. We are chopping an old tree down, and planting a new seed to grow a new tree, free of disease and sure to last forever. Christianity is not a refreshing of the old you. It’s a rewriting of the software from the ground up.
Last week, we studied Romans 5 and learned about the assurance we have that Christ has moved us from the reign of death under Adam to the reign of grace and life under Christ. This news is supposed to assure us of our salvation, but sometimes we struggle to accept it. We wonder if God has really given us that salvation.
Today, we will begin learning about one event that marks a transition in our spiritual lives. This one event is where we moved from the domain of law, sin, and death to the realm of life and grace in Christ Jesus. Do you know what that event is? Let’s see together.
Dead To Sin, Yet Still Living In It?
Romans 6:1–2 (ESV) — 1 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?
To start with, we notice the question, “What shall we say then?” This chapter is building on the last. Adam brought death and death reigned. The law came to increase sin and death, but grace abounded over all the evil we participated in.
So, now he asks the question, “Does grace’s domination of sin and death mean we can go on sinning?” It makes sense to think this way. The law increased sin to show God is exceedingly gracious. The more we sinned, the more God showed how compassionate and merciful He could be. But there is a problem with this line of thinking.
He says, “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” What does it mean to die to sin and what does it mean to live in it? To die to sin is to transition from a love relationship to a hate relationship with sin forever. We have heard people say in a relationship, “You are dead to me.” Sin has to be dead to us. Or, to use the illustration from last week, someone who has been brought out of sin and death’s dominion after finding it inescapable should not continue as though they still live in the land of sin and death. They ought to know that being enslaved to sin is a miserable existence. That way of living should be dead to them.
Some people might hear that and think Paul is saying, “Christians should never sin again once they are out of the land of sin and death.” But notice Paul says not to “still live in it.” Later he will say “continue in it.” This is something we find repeated throughout the New Testament. We, as Christians, have died to sin, but we are still weak and we make mistakes. Our heart has been changed to where we don’t want to sin anymore.
1 John 1:8–2:1 (ESV) — 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Philippians 3:12 (ESV) — 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
We all struggle to overcome sin because we fail to see it and control ourselves. Living in sin means sinning willfully or practicing sin continually without repenting. That repetitive sin leads to death all over again. We are willingly leaving the land of grace and entering into the land of sin and death. We should never do that and think that God will be gracious toward us. Instead, we should believe that sin’s guilt, shame, and power over me is removed by my intercessor as I strive to obey Him. There is no condemnation. There is now justification through Christ.
Buried With Christ
After explaining how we must not go on living in sin, he provides us with a further explanation.
Romans 6:3–4 (ESV) — 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.
In this text, Paul simply explains how we can feel 100% assured in our salvation. The answer: “We were buried with Jesus into His death, that we might walk in the newness of life.”
We cannot go on sinning because we aren’t the same person we were before. We have experienced death and new life through the process of baptism. The meaning of baptism contradicts going back to live in sin. “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death.” In other words, all of us who were baptized are dead to sin and do not go on living in it. What does this mean about baptism? Three things.
- It is universal. He’s talking about baptism as though it is fundamental. All believers are baptized. This is an assumed reality in the first century.
- It is an immersion in water. One cannot have dirt sprinkled on them or poured on them in a small amount and consider themselves buried. Baptism is spoken about multiple times in the Bible. It means to immerse or dip. In Acts 8, Philip took the eunuch down into the water to baptize him. In John 3, “John was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there.
- It is where we are joined to Jesus. This text tells us that baptism into Christ was an immersion into Christ’s death. In baptism, we are crucifying the world to ourselves and ourselves to the world. We are saying, effectively, “I have counted the costs and I will forsake all to follow you.”
Romans 6:5–7 (ESV) — 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. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Baptism is the place where we put our old self to death, crucifying him so that we can get rid of the body of sin and death. Notice the language here. Baptism is not an outward showing of an inward faith. It’s not just symbolic of something that has already happened. It is an event where we submit to crucifying the old self with Christ, bringing the body of sin to nothing.
Now, I know that some might say, “I thought faith was counted as righteousness. Isn’t baptism a work or an ordinance or a sacrament?” Faith is counted as righteousness as we studied in Chapter 4. We aren’t saved by keeping a law, but by having faith like Abraham. Consider that Abraham believed God and moved. He obeyed God in faith in order to receive the promise making his faith real. His actions weren’t “work” that earned him something. They were acts of faith, just like all those spoken about in Hebrews 11.
Faith doesn’t say that sin is put to death before baptism, as many people say today. That is going beyond what is revealed in the word. When we do that, we doubt God’s work in baptism. That’s not faith in God. That’s faith in our traditional “faith only doctrine” over the word of God. Paul says we put our faith in God’s work in Colossians 2:12, declaring you have “been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God.” Notice that Paul says we had faith that God was working in our baptism. Our faith when being baptized is the instrument God uses to provide the promise.
So, the all important questions are, “What did you believe your immersion in water was all about? Did you believe God was doing something, or not?”
Can God forgive our sins without baptism? Sure, he could. He is powerful enough to do it. Jesus did on multiple occasions. But He didn’t promise you He would. In Acts, the promise is to forgive all who believe, repent, and are baptized (Acts 2:38-39). Our faith has to be in His promises, not popular teachings of our day. This text clearly tells us that every one of the Roman Christians were baptized to die with Christ to sin and death. Paul is incredulous because they should all know that their baptism was the point where they were united with Christ’s death. In baptism, they all were forgiven of their sins and released from slavery to sin. This is foundational information.
Raised To Life
If someone followed you around this week, would they know you’ve died to sin? Or would they think you’re still alive to it? Would they see God’s peace, comfort, hope, and joy radiating out of you, or would they see someone who is still searching for life in the things that kill us?
Romans 6:8–14 (ESV) — 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 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. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Life after that death is supposed to be different. Death has lost its grip on the baptized believer. Now we live, not to please sin and death, but to please God. We know that if we’ve been buried with Christ, we don’t have to wonder if we are forgiven. Sin’s chains are broken. Now we live with a sense of joy and satisfaction instead of emptiness, guilt, and fear. Now we live to serve God and His people. This is like the slave who has been set free saying, “I’m never coming back again!”
Colossians 3:5–10 (ESV) — 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
We believe that we live with Christ, and we will never die again in a spiritual sense. Death no longer has dominion over us. We have died once for all time, and now we live to never die again. In other words, this experience of baptism has transferred us out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col 1:13). So, we have hope of enjoying eternity with God.
What happens along with this spiritual rebirth? If we have died to sin and death, we enter a new realm where emptiness, guilt, and fear are out of our minds. If we have died to sin, sin’s powerful hold over us is gone. Grace reigns in its place and we, consequently, live to serve God with joy, peace, and satisfaction.
Conclusion
Do you hear God’s word of assurance in this text? We must die, but if we do we can truly live forever with Him. Death is the only way we can be united to Christ forever.
So let me ask you again—have you died? If you have, don’t go back to the grave. Live as someone who’s already crossed over from death to life, because in Christ… you have.
There is coming a day when our weak and sin prone bodies will be put off and we will put on a new body that matches the spiritual reality. A body where sin is not a problem and death is just a faint memory. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that the perishable will put on the imperishable and the mortal will put on immortality. We have that future hope awaiting us.
Until then, we know that our sins are covered by the blood of Christ. We don’t carry sin anymore. We aren’t enslaved. We don’t live for sinful desires or indulge in things that bring death. Grace reigns, not so that we can keep on sinning, but so that we will put sin to death in our lives and live for God. Are you experiencing that blessing and aren’t you thankful?
I have often seen Christians returning to a life that is just like the rest of the world. It is like they gave up on trying to be a new creation and fell back into slavery to sin. Don’t put sin and death back on the throne of your life. Have faith in God’s power to save you through baptism into Jesus. Remember, the baptized believer has been crucified to the world, and the world has been crucified to them. We no longer live to please ourselves, but to please God who has regenerated our dead souls by breathing new life into our mortal bodies.
Is this the way you see your life? Are you resurrected spiritually? Our purpose in life was supposed to shift from serving sin and death to serving the God who made you and recreated you in Christ.