The foundation for a believer’s sanctification is his union with Christ in His death and resurrection. In Romans 6 we learn about this glorious union God has established, and the wonderful implications for holiness in our lives!
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The Path To Freedom From Sin: Knowing
Romans 6:1-7
This morning we come to a new section in the Book of Romans. Up until now Paul has been laboring to drive home the truth of justification by faith. He shows us our need for justification in 1:18 – 3:20. Then he gives us an explanation of justification in 3:21-31. Then, in chapter 4 he illustrates justification by faith in the person of Abraham. In 5:1-11, he shows us the fruits of justification. And, finally, in 5:12-21, Paul gives us the rock solid basis of justification. The basis of our justification is not our individual acts of righteousness, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ, just as the basis if our condemnation is not our individual acts of sin, but the sin of Adam.
Romans 5:12-21 is a very important text in the book of Romans, because it is a transition passage. It helps us transition from justification to sanctification. In 5:12-21 Paul shows us that our justification takes place by virtue of a union with Christ. If we are in Christ, His righteousness becomes ours. Now, in chapter 6, Paul is going to explain that our sanctification takes place the same way – by virtue of our union with Christ. You see, the moment a person has been justified, he begins to be sanctified. The same union that justifies you, also sanctifies you. There is no such thing as a Christian who is not being sanctified.
So, what do I mean by “sanctification”? I will give you a very concise definition. Sanctification is becoming in practice what you already are in position. What is the position of a Christian? He is the righteousness of God in Christ. So to be sanctified is to become righteous in your daily life. So, just how does a Christian make progress in holiness? That’s what Romans 6 is all about. In fact Romans 6:7 says, “for he who has died is freed from sin.” Freedom from sin! What a wonderful, joyful thought. Romans 6 lays out how the believer can experience freedom from sin. Now, we will never be totally free from sin in this lifetime. I’m not talking about sinless perfection. But I am talking about becoming more and more like Christ, and laying aside more and more of our sin during our earthly pilgrimage in this life.
In Romans 6:1-14, Paul tells us that our sanctification takes place as we do 3 things: know, consider, and present. There are some truths we must know. Then we must consider what we know. And then we must present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. The word “know” or “knowing” is used three times in verses 1-9. In verse 3, it is used of knowing of our union with Christ. In verse 6 it is used of knowing of our union with Christ in His death. In verse 9 it is used of knowing of our union with Christ in His resurrection. It is very important that we know truth. Christian living depends on Christian learning. Duty is always founded on doctrine.
As we work our way through Romans 6:1-7, Paul says there are certain things we must know: 1) The Christian has died to sin; 2) The Christian has been united to Christ; and 3) The Christian has been united to Christ in His death.
1. The Christian Has Died To Sin (6:1-2)
The method Paul uses in his teaching. He uses this method in chapter 7, 8, 9, and 11. In each of those places, he follows the same process. First, he postulates an objection to something he has just said. Then, he responds with “May it never be!” Then, he tells us why that objection is not valid. He does this twice in Romans 6. In Romans 6:1, he gives an objection to something that he has said in 5:20, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” Then, he follows that up with “May it never be!” Then, he tells us why we can’t continue in sin so that grace may increase. He summarizes it succinctly in verse 2, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” And, then he goes on to explain, expound, and unpack that short statement in verses 3-7. He does the same thing in Romans 6:15-23.
The Objection. In Romans 6:1, Paul writes, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” Now, why would Paul even ask the question? Obviously, Paul knows what objections and questions are raised in people’s minds when he preaches the gospel. And he knows that this question is going to occur to those that hear what he has just written in 5:20, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” The objector might say, “Well, if where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, then it seems like we ought to just go on living in sin, because that will give God a chance to show more of His grace. Don’t we want to give God an opportunity to bestow more of His grace?” The objector’s concern is that he feels if we preach a gospel of free grace, it will lead to sinful lives. If we tell people that their salvation has nothing to do with law-keeping, or works of righteousness, then it will just give them license to sin. They won’t have any motivation to live a holy life.
Paul’s Answer. “May it never be!” The King James translates it as “God forbid!” J. B. Phillips translates it, “What a ghastly thought!” Paul’s answer is “No, no, no, no, no!” May that never happen. By no means!
Then he follows that up with, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” His answer is that the believer can’t live in sin, because he has died to sin.
It’s important to notice what Paul didn’t say.
1) Paul didn’t say that the Christian can’t sin. He said he can’t live in sin. There is a big difference between the two. The Christian sins, but he doesn’t live in it. A fish lives in water. That is its natural habitat. The Christian can’t live in sin. Something radical has happened to him that makes it impossible for him to go on living in sin like he did before his conversion. This is exactly what we find in 1 John 3:9, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
2) Paul didn’t say that sin is dead to us. No, he is teaching that we have died to sin. The truth is not that sin dies. The truth is that we die. Sin is still very much alive all around us. But, if we die to sin, we can be free from it.
3) Paul didn’t say we are “dying” to sin. Paul is not teaching that the Christian is in the process of dying to sin. No, he uses the aorist tense, which refers to a past completed action in time. We died to sin, we are not dying to sin.
4) Paul didn’t say we should die to sin. No, he said we died to sin. Paul is not exhorting us in Romans 6:2. Paul is telling us what the truth is of every child of God. The born again believer has died to sin, Period! It is done, and can never be reversed or erased.
So, just how did our death to sin take place? That brings us to verses 3-5.
2. The Christian Has Been United To Christ (6:3-5)
Do you not know? Paul expresses shock and dismay that perhaps these believers did not know this. For Paul, what he is teaching in Romans 6, is Christianity 101. Every believer should know this. Every believer should be taught this as soon as they are converted. Friends, if you are a Christian, but you do not know what Paul is teaching in Romans 6, you are behind the curve. It is time for you to catch up!
Baptized into Christ Jesus. What does Paul mean by being baptized into Christ Jesus. Well let me say at the outset that I do not believe he is talking about water baptism. I don’t believe there is a drop of water in Romans 6. Now, why would I say that? I’ll give you a few reasons
1) Water baptism is unable to cause a spiritual union with Jesus Christ. However, the baptism that Paul talks about here does cause a spiritual union. Notice his choice of words, “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus…” The words “into Christ Jesus” imply a union with Him. Again, in verse 4 Paul says, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism…” Now, is it true that water baptism can cause a person to be buried with Christ? I don’t believe that is true. Water baptism can symbolize the spiritual union we have already entered into, but it can’t produce it. A person is united to Christ when they are born again. However, water baptism is not able to cause the new birth. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. The Bible teaches that the new birth is something that God causes to happen, not us. In 1 Peter 1:3, Peter writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again.” Did you catch that? God caused us to be born again! We didn’t cause it by getting baptized.
2) Paul explains the “baptism” of Romans 6 in verse 5. He says there that to be “baptized into Christ” is the same thing as to be “united with Him.” This becomes clear when you verse 3 and 4 with verse 5.
6:3 “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?”
6:4 “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death…”
6:5 “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death.”
Paul begins verse 5 with the word “For”, clueing us in to the fact that verse 5 is explaining and elaborating on what he has just told us in verses 3 and 4. In verses 3 and 4 Paul tells us about our baptism into Christ’s death.” Then in verse 5 he says, “For” (let me explain what I meant by baptism into Christ’s death), if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death. Do you see that what Paul means by baptism into Christ’s death is to be united with Him in His death? Therefore in Paul’s mind, baptism = union.
3) Paul must be talking about Spirit baptism here, not water baptism. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” There Paul speaks about a baptism by one Spirit into one body. Obviously, he’s not talking about water baptism, for in water baptism we are baptized into water. But in this baptism we are baptized into one body. I believe Paul is talking about regeneration. This is what takes place when the Holy Spirit places the believer into the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit unites the believer to Christ, and His body.
Why did Paul use the word “baptism” to describe our spiritual union with Christ? The usual meaning for “baptize” was “to place one person or thing into a new environment so as to alter its condition.” The word was used for cloths that were dipped into dye, so that they were permanently altered and took on the new color of the dye. The word was used of cucumbers that were submerged in brine, so that they became pickles. Well, in our situation, the Holy Spirit placed us into Christ, so that were permanently changed.
Notice Paul’s expressions in Romans 6 that speak of our spiritual union.
6:3 “baptized into Christ Jesus”
6:4 “buried with Him through baptism”
6:5 “united with Him”
6:6 “our old self was crucified with Him”
6:8 “if we have died with Christ”
6:11 “consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
These phrases, “into Christ, with Him, with Christ, and in Christ” all speak of our union to Christ.
When we were united to Christ, we inherited His history. Well, what is Christ’s history? He lived a perfectly righteous life. Then He died to sin. Yes, it is true that He died for sins. But it is also true that He died to sin. Verse 10 says, “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all.” Then we are told in verse 4 that He was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father. Christ died to sin. When He died, He exited the realm of sin. If you are in Christ, you died to sin also. How does that work?
Well, perhaps an illustration from an apple tree might help. Let’s say you are a branch on a wild apple tree, and someone comes along and snips you off that tree, and then grafts you into a different apple tree. Although your engrafting was a bit painful, everything is going great now, and you are enjoy hanging out in your new tree. And then, one day, somebody walking by notices something on the trunk of your tree. It is a carving that says “George loves Martha” inside of a heart. Lo and behold, George Washington carved that into your tree way back in 1758! When the carving was discovered, your tree was quickly made into a national landmark, and streams of tourists came to look at you every year. But wait a minute. You weren’t even on that tree when George Washington carved that note into the trunk of the tree. That’s true, but it is irrelevant. Since you have been united to the tree, you inherit its history. You are no longer a wild apple tree branch. The “old self” has died and is gone forever. Now, you are a George Washington apple tree branch.
Or, let’s say that you lost your right thumb in a freak accident. But, fortunately for you, the doctors have been able to find another thumb that they can sew onto your hand. Now, you have already had the chicken pox, but the fellow that donated his thumb never had the chicken pox. Does your new right thumb have to worry about getting chicken pox? No! Why not? Because you have already had the chicken pox, and that new member which was united to your body shares in your history. Since you have already had the chicken pox, your new right thumb has had the chicken pox also, and can’t get infected. You and I share in Christ’s history when we were united to Him. Because He died, we died.
3. The Christian Has Been United To Christ In His Death (6:6-7)
Notice Again What This Text Is Not Saying.
It doesn’t say that we are crucifying ourselves. In fact, it’s not even possible for a person to physically crucify themselves. Maybe you could nail your feet to a cross, but you couldn’t nail your hands to it. You would need another hand to hold the nail. Likewise, you can’t crucify yourself. God doesn’t ask you to.
It also doesn’t say that our old self is being crucified. He’s not. He was crucified with Jesus on the cross.
It also doesn’t say we should pray that God would crucify our old self. We might think that if we can’t crucify our old self, we should pray that God would crucify him. But that’s absurd. God has already crucified him! That’s like a chair that has had one of its legs knocked out, praying that God would make it a 3-legged chair. It already is! What we need, is not for our old self to become crucified. What we need is to understand and consider the fact that it already has been crucified!
What Does The Text Actually Say?
It Says That Our Old Self Was Crucified With Christ. What does Paul mean? He means that the old person you used to be “in Adam” was crucified with Christ. The old Brian is gone forever. He doesn’t exist anymore. He is extinct. When was our “old self” crucified? The Bible says it was “with Christ.” In other words, when Jesus was crucified, He gathered up the “old selfs” of all His elect and they were crucified with Him. Then, when they are born again, what Jesus did for them at the cross, is true for them.
Why did God crucify your old self? It was “in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” God crucified your old self so that you would be freed from the dominion of sin. He did it so that you would no longer be a slave to sin. He did it so that our body of sin might be done away with.
What is the “body of sin”? I believe it is this body that goes around choosing to disobey God. This body listens to what it shouldn’t listen to. It says what it shouldn’t say. It looks on things it shouldn’t look at. It goes places it shouldn’t go to. It commits actions it shouldn’t commit. Your body is the vehicle, either for sin, or for righteousness. Either your body carries out the dictates of your renewed nature and does righteous deeds, or your body carries out the dictates of your corrupt human nature and does sinful deeds. It is the vehicle that expresses your soul.
What does it mean for the body of sin to be done away with? That translation is a little misleading. It sounds like when the old self was crucified with Christ, that the believer no longer has a body of sin. That’s not true. Their body of sin is not “done away with.” The more literal translation is that it is “rendered inoperative”, or “rendered powerless.” The ESV puts it “the body of sin is brought to nothing.” This doesn’t mean that your body has been annihilated. It means that it has been rendered inactive. Now, how can our body of sin be rendered inoperative?
Let’s imagine an 18 year old who loves to drive fast, and he owns a new Ferrari. One day he is doing 165 miles per hour when he loses control, is thrown from the car and dies. Now the Ferari is parked in the garage. It has been rendered powerless, not because someone took the engine out, or there is no gas in the tank, but because the driver is dead. With no driver, there is no way for the car to exert its power. The Ferrari has been rendered powerless, and inoperative. The body of sin says, “Come on, let’s sin!” Our old self in Adam would have said, “Yes!” because were under sin’s reign (5:21). But our new self says, “No!” We have the same body of sin, but the person inside it is entirely new. That’s what took place when you were united with Christ. Your body of sin didn’t die. You died. And since you died, your body of sin is rendered inoperative.
Conclusion
The glory of the Christian faith is that it provides a remedy for both the penalty of sin and the power of sin. If all Christ accomplished was forgiveness for my sins, that would still be a wonderful benefit, but I would live a miserable life under the dominion of sin. When the United States passed the law which outlawed the use of alcohol in the United States in 1920, they had to somehow destroy all the liquor that could get into people’s hands. Now, it wouldn’t be enough for the police to enter all private homes and confiscate all the liquor they found there. Why? Because there are manufacturing plants producing more and more alcohol all the time. When we are saved, we are grateful that all our past sins are forgiven, but we need the part of us that manufactures new sin to be dealt with. Thank God, He has provided for both! Christ has provided forgiveness for me by bearing my sins on the cross, but He has also provided freedom from a life of sin by bearing me on the cross. My forgiveness was purchased when Christ died for sins. But my holiness was purchased when Christ died to sin, because I was in Him when He died, and I also died to sin.
So, how do I apply all of this rich Biblical teaching to my life? The very first thing you must do is “know” this glorious truth of union with Christ. You must know that your old self died with Christ, and that you are now a New Self.
Let’s say you are a private in the US Army, and you have a cruel and mean-spirited drill sergeant who makes your life miserable. Every day you have to salute him, and say “Yes sir”, “No sir”, even though inwardly you hate it. Then one day you are released from the Army. You are out with your family eating in a restaurant, and you see that old mean sergeant dressed in his uniform. Out of habit, you begin to salute him. But then you catch yourself, and remember that you aren’t under his jurisdiction any more. You remember that that sergeant has absolutely no authority over you. So, instead of saluting him, you snub him, and there’s not a thing in the world he can do about it! Friends, we may sin out of habit, but we no longer have to sin because it exercises dominion over us. You and I, if we are in Christ, have passed out of the realm where sin exercises jurisdiction. We are now free not to sin. Were born as slaves to sin. But if you have been born again, you are no longer a slave to sin. You are freed from sin.
So, the very first thing you must do is know this great truth. If you don’t know this, you won’t act on it. Next time I preach in 3 weeks, I will show you the next step on the path to freedom from sin, which is reckoning. First we must know, then we must reckon. Let’s pray.
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