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6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ~ Romans 6:6-10
Today, we return to our study of Romans 6 which is about the believer's relationship with sin. The broader subject in this section is our sanctification which is the process through which God delivers our souls from the bondage of sin.
Having traced the parallel between what happened to the Lord Jesus when He was crucified on the cross and the battle that takes place in the life of the new believer in Christ, the Apostle Paul now addresses what he calls "our old man." The moment we were conceived, we were infected by the disease of self. And this is "the old man."
In v.6-7 of today's passage we read, "... knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin."
The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified in order to bring to an end sin. While Christ hung on that tree, all sin was judged in His body. As a result, for those who place their faith in that finished work on the cross, the penalty and power of sin has been broken. Even though the Lord Jesus never sinned, "He was made sin for us." While on that cross His body became possessed and controlled by sin. That is why his body died. His body was rendered powerless with regard to sin. That is why he was buried. He was buried to show that the sin in his body was made useless and unresponsive.
The parallel teaching here is that when our spirit died in Christ, then the body of sin was rendered powerless. Before we became believers in Christ, even when we tried to be good, we couldn't. This happened because we were slaves to sin. But now that the bond has been broken, we have been freed to have a personal relationship with God though Christ. And, the believer in Christ, as a result, does not have to sin. If we do, it is because we allow it to happen. But we are no longer slaves to sin.
In v.8-9 of today's passage we read, "8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him."
Having been freed from the power of sin, the believer does not have to be defined by sin and death. In fact, we have been freed to experience a personal relationship with God through the Lord Jesus since He is alive and we were raised to new life in Him. We must be realistic to understand that within the believer in Christ who has been born again, there is now a civil war going on. On a given day the believer is presented with the temptation to obey sin that is still in us or to obey God who came into us when we were born again. The process of sanctification bears this fact out as the believer lives his life.
In v.10 of today's passage we read, "For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God."
Contrary to what most believe the Christian life is not about the perfecting of the believer, it is about the pronouncement of the life of the Lord Jesus in and through the yielded life of the believer. Christianity is a personal relationship with God through which He navigates life for the believer as the believer depends upon Him to do so. No one earns God's favor. No one maintains God's favor.
So, to live life as if I have got to get it right is inconsistent with the fact that Christ earned God's favor of us. Christianity is living daily life with the minute by minute choice to act and react to what life throws at us. In essence, now that we have come into relationship with God, we are now learning to listen to Him, interact with Him and follow Him as He navigates our lives. And, when we appear to be getting it right, we must be careful to give Him the credit because He is the One producing the results.
In his song, The Great Adventure, Stephen Curtis Chapman frames up what the Apostle Paul has been presenting to us. In that song Chapman sings, "Come on, get ready for the ride of your life, gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind. And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored. This is what we were created for! Saddle up your horses, we've got a trail to blaze through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace. Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown. This is the life like no other. This is The Great Adventure."
