Today, we return to our study of Romans 6 which is about the sanctification of the believer in Christ. Whereas justification is a one time event in the life of the believer in Christ, sanctification is a process whereby God installs His culture into the believer. Today's chapter is predicated on the question that the Apostle Paul asks in v.1, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?"
One way that we discover a theme in a passage is to take note of the repeatedly used words therein. And, you will notice that the word "sin" is used in Romans 6 some seventeen times. Therefore, the theme of Romans 6 is the relationship between the believer in Christ to sin. This is the apex arena for the process of change that the Lord Jesus died to render in the lives of all who have come to believe on the Lord Jesus as our savior.
The major key to Christianity is that we learn to embrace the new life that is offered to us in Jesus Christ. The world around us says we have to grab all the life this world has to offer before we die. The Lord Jesus says just the opposite. It is only when we begin to learn to die to self that we really begin to live. And, nothing prevents us from being fully alive like fear.
When the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church at Rome, he addressed some of the most affluent, well educated people in the world at that time. These to whom Paul wrote had tried all this world has to offer to fill the holes in their hearts to no avail. This is why Paul spends the first five chapters of this letter making the case that only the grace of God can really satisfy us. But, most often the church has distorted the grace of God by equating Christianity with moralism. As the Apostle develops in the remainder of this book, it is the grace-saturated life that is God's answer.
Moralism is not the same as the grace-saturated life for moralism is religion because it is based upon our efforts to try to get life right. The problem with moralism is it says that on the cross the Lord Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, but now it is up to us to get life right. Moralism has a second chance mindset, whereas the grace-saturated life brings us to an end to ourselves. Moralism reduces the Lord Jesus to a moral example to be emulated. As a result, moralism eventually reduces salvation into guilt for our failed attempts at trying to imitate Christ. The problem with this is we can't. Rather than needing one second chance to get life right, we need a whole new life. And, that whole new life is the very life of Christ come to abode in and through us.
In v.3 of today's passage we read, "Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?"
The major key to Christianity is that we learn to embrace the new life that is offered to us in Jesus Christ. The world around us says we have to grab all the life this world has to offer before we die. The Lord Jesus says just the opposite. It is only when we begin to learn to die to self that we really begin to live. And, nothing prevents us from being fully alive like fear.
The Lord Jesus died to give us a life that we could not produce for ourselves. The life that the Lord Jesus offers is life of the eternal nature and it brings us to real freedom. Most believe freedom is the ability to do what we want to do, how we want to do it, when we want. This is not true because we are our own worst enemies, even though we have been born again. Real freedom is the ability to be what we were created to be. And that is to have a personal relationship with our Creator, whereby He gives us His transforming life.
In v.4-5 of today's passage we read, "4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his."
The justification of the believer in Christ is not just a legal matter, it's a living relationship. Our justification brought to us the very life of Christ. Therefore, the power to live the life the Lord Jesus died to give us is not the result of us learning to imitate the Lord Jesus. No believer in Christ can avoid sins power by merely imitating the example of the Lord Jesus to get life right. We can no more do this any more than we could avoid falling off a building by imitating Superman. Imitation is not what this newfound relationship with God is about and it is not the essence of Christianity.
The key to the life the Lord Jesus died to give us is impartation. This is why the Apostle uses the object lesson of water baptism. The believer in Christ, according to the scriptures, is in Christ. This means that we through our baptism have been identified with Him. Therefore, whatever happened to Him, happened to us. When He died, we died. When He rose from the dead, we rose from the dead. When He conquered sin, sin was conquered in our lives. This does not mean we will be perfect. It just means that we will no longer be defined by sin.
Through our living union with the Lord Jesus, we have a new relationship with sin. The believer in Christ has made a break with his past. We are dead and buried in our identification with the death and burial of the Lord Jesus Christ. Due to this we are also risen with Him in newness of life. So, the key is to learn to appropriate His resurrected life and death into our lives. And now, we are no longer servants to self and sin, we are now servants to the living God whose life is setting us free from even our fear.
