Introduction

Scripture Reading

Romans 6:3–14 (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.
• (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.
• (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.

Opening Comments

Christ is Risen (He is risen indeed)!

This is a special week in the Christian calendar. And today is a special day in the Christian calendar - the day we specifically remember and celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Though we meet on the first day of the week every week of the year to commemorate the resurrection, this day is set apart to draw particular attention to this glorious truth. The truths we celebrate today set Christianity apart from all other religions. For on this day, we celebrate the historical reality that Jesus the Messiah was raised from the dead. He came out from the tomb after three days. This changed history. And more importantly, this made a way for us to be forgiven our sins and reconciled to God.

On Friday, we met in this very place to remember and commemorate Jesus’ death on the cross. Ricky served us so well by drawing our attention to Jesus’ words on the cross from Psalm 22. It is amazing to consider how these words from David one thousand years earlier could express the pain and anguish that the Son of God went through on the cross because of our sin.

But, praise be to God, this was not the end. Though we may try to understand the despair and disillusionment of the disciples at this point, we cannot. We have read and heard the rest of the story - that Jesus rose from the grave. Let’s try today not to lose the awe and wonder that this truth demands. When all seemed lost and the disciples’ trust seemed displaced, Jesus conquered death and removed its sting.

In our study through the Gospel of John we have seen one of the great benefits accomplished for us through the resurrection of Jesus - eternal life. Here are some of the passages we have encountered so far in our study:

John 3:16 (ESV) — "“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

John 4:14 (ESV) — "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”"

John 5:24 (ESV) — "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."

John 6:40 (ESV) — "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”"

In a few months, we will hear Jesus say to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live," (John 11:25)

We know from these texts and others that Jesus’ resurrection makes our own future resurrection sure. Because he lives, we will live also. This is one of the great promises of the gospel.

Today, however, our focus will not be on our future bodily resurrection from the grave. Instead, I’d like us to consider this question: “What impact does Jesus’ resurrection have on us today, in our present-day circumstances?” To help us answer this question, we will be looking to Paul in Romans 6 to help us.

We are jumping in a bit midstream into Paul’s epistle to the Romans. He has spent 5 chapters explaining how all people - Jews and Gentiles - have sinned and become estranged from God through their sins; and, how true righteousness comes through faith, not through works of the law. He explained how God can only forgive sinners because of the atonment of Christ on the cross. Finally, he has explained that we have access to God by faith.

To summarize, we could say - “Salvation is of the Lord - it is not of us.”

This brings us to our text for today. You may think this an odd text for Easter Sunday. In fact, I myself was a bit surprised as I was reading some through Romans a couple of months ago at how much “resurrection” language showed up in this passage. We don’t typically think of Romans 6 as a classic resurrection passage. But these verses are quite full of references to the resurrection. It is somewhat different from other passages about the resurrection because it is not as focused on the historical details as it is on the theological importance for our salvation and sanctification.

The main points we’ll find in the passage today are that:

1. we are united with Christ in his death
2. we are united with Christ in his resurrection
3. we are to walk in newness of life, as those who have been brought from death to life.

I. We are united with Christ in his death

Let’s look at the passage again - vv. 3-10. We should notice several things as we read.

• Death is mentioned in all 8 of these verses.
• look for the language about us being united with Christ.

Romans 6:3–10 (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.

(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.

(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.

thoughts on union with Christ

This passage beautifully describes aspects of our union with Christ. Don’t be distracted by that sounding too theological or philosophical. It is vital to understanding how we enjoy the benefits of Christ’s work of salvation for us.

You can spot passages about our union with Christ with language like:

• “in Christ”
• “with Christ”
• “Christ in you”

Many benefits of our salvation are applied to us through our union with Christ.

• in Ephesians, we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in him,” “Chosen in him” and “seated with him in the heavenly places.”
• in Colossians, we are “Raised with him”
• here in Romans, we have “died with him,” “buried with him,” and “raised with him.”

In addition to language of “in Christ” or “with Christ,” there are also passages that describe our union with Christ through analogy.

• a bridegroom and his bride
• a body and its parts
• a vine and its branches

John Murray sums up the significance of our Union with Christ in his great little book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied.

Union with Christ is the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation. All to which the people of God have been predestined in the eternal election of God, all that has been secured and procured for them in the once-for-all accomplishment of redemption, all of which they become the actual partakers in the application of redemption, and all that by God’s grace they will become in the state of consummated bliss is embraced within the compass of union and communion with Christ.

• John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Let’s look a little more closely at exactly how we are united with Christ in this passage.

Though we would like to jump to the part where we are united with Christ in his resurrection, first we must grasp what it means to be united with him in his death.

Paul is making an argument here to the Roman Christians that we all need to heed. Since he had just expounded the glorious truth of justification by Faith and not of works, Paul was compelled to answer the critics who would say this leads to a life of antinomianism, or living without any law. In other words, when you come to faith in Christ, you cannot live as though you are outside of Christ.

Paul does this by describing our being united with Christ in his death.

• v. 3 - we were baptized into his death
• v. 4 - we were buried with him
• v. 5 - we have been united with a death like his
• v. 6 - our old self was crucified with him
• v. 7 he who has died has been set free from sin.

In other words, the strangle hold of our fallen, sinful, corrupted nature which Paul has gone to great lengths to describe in Chapters 1-3 is broken via our union with Christ in his death.

A Few Thoughts on Baptism

We should say a few words about the “Baptism” language in vs. 3-4.

• Though we know that the spiritual realities of this passage do not happen just because a person is immersed in water, we should not unnecessarily attempt to separate water baptism from them.
  • We are accustomed to a separating of time between faith/repentance and the time of water baptism, so much so that we begin to think of these as two distinct things. In Paul’s time, there was no reason to think of these as two separate events on one’s salvation timeline.
• Baptism represents the beginning of the Christian life.

Paul refers to baptism in Romans 6 and Colossians 2 because baptism recalls the conversion of the readers from the old life to the new. The grace of God secured their freedom from the power of sin at conversion, and the simplest and easiest way to recall the readers’ conversion is to speak of their baptism.

• Thomas R. Schreiner and Shawn D. Wright, Believer’s Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ

• We must be sure to make the point that Paul is not saying that these benefits of salvation are only available to a subset of Christians who have been water baptized. His point, in fact, is just the opposite. He is making the point that this is true for ALL Christians.
• So, just as a reminder to those of you here today who profess faith in Christ, but have not been baptized, Paul doesn’t have a category for separating baptism from your conversion. Whenever possible we should not separate things which the Bible keeps together. In this case, the bible keeps conversion (that is faith and repentance) with baptism.
• In Colossians, Paul makes the connections between baptism, union with Christ, and faith more explicit.

• Colossians 2:12 (ESV) — "having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead."

• One other point to make is that the language of baptism here is not just some warm, fuzzy, ceremonial experience.
• Paul does not refer to baptism to remind them of a nice, peaceful ceremony. He is speaking of baptism in violent terms - being put to death with Christ.

When it is applied to Christian initiation we ought not to think in terms of gentleness and inspiration; it means death, death to a whole way of life. It is this that is Paul’s point here. Christians are people who have died, and their baptism emphasizes that death. Death runs through this passage and is mentioned in every verse up to v. 13. We should not let the modern associations of baptism blind us to the point Paul is making so strongly. He is saying that it is quite impossible for anyone who understands what baptism means to acquiesce cheerfully in a sinful life. The baptized have died to all that.

• Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans

So, before we move on to the resurrection, we should feel the weight of this - that we who profess faith in Christ have died to our old ways of thinking and doing.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ESV) — “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

II. We are united with Christ in his resurrection

We just spent a long time setting up the idea of our union with Christ so that we can get to this encouraging news.

If you have been united with Christ in his death, you are also united with him in his resurrection. For the longest time, I read this passage wrongly, thinking that the point was that if I was united with Christ at conversion, I would be united in his resurrection at death. However, this misses the whole point. This whole passage is about the daily life of the Christian. The reality of our union with Christ in his resurrection is meant here to encourage us in the daily walk, not just life after death. Let’s look at a few examples.

vs. 4 “in order that”

• this is a great purpose statement for why we were united with Christ in his death and burial.
• it is so that we can walk in newness of life.
• Newness of life is not a reality reserved for after we physically die. It is available now.

vs. 5 - “certainly”

• if we’re not careful, we’ll read vs. 5 to be speaking of the future resurrection of our body. Paul does switch to future tense tha we will be united in a resurrection like his. Of course we will receive the resurrection of the body at the end of the age, but that’s not Paul’s point here. Paul’s point here is that we have begun to live in light of Christ’s resurrection now.
• vv. 6-8 make this clear.
  • another purpose statement in vs. 6 - that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.
  • that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
• what are we to thin of “death like his” and “resurrection like his?”
  • this doesn’t mean that we have physically died like Jesus did, or that we have been physically raised from the dead like Jesus.
  • We are connected to the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection even though we haven’t physically died or been raised.
• vs. 8 “we believe we will also live with him”
  • Again, at first glance, we may see this as primarily about being in the presence of Christ after the end of the age, but the conclusions that Paul draws from the truth relate to our experience NOW as Christians.
• vs. 9 - death no longer has dominion over him.
• vs. 10 - “lives to God”

Paul sees this present death and resurrection with Christ as a way of describing and explaining the change that the Holy Spirit brings about in our character and personality when we become Christians. It is as if the Holy Spirit reproduces Jesus’ death and resurrection in our lives when we believe in Christ.

• Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology

III. Now walk in newness of life

Finally, let’s look at vv. 11-14 again.

Romans 6:11–14 (ESV)

(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.

Amazingly, the first imperatives or commands of the entire book of Romans.

• Paul has gone five and a half chapters without giving a single command. He has been explaining and exulting in the glorious plan of God to save sinners.
  • God is the creator of all things.
  • We know that God should be worshipped, but we have all sinned and worshipped things other than God.
  • Jews and Gentiles alike have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
  • No one can achieve a righteous standing before God through the keeping of the law.
  • Therefore, we are all under the curse of sin - the wages of sin is death.
  • While we were rebellious sinners against God, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ to take way the punishment from those who would believe and trust in him.
  • Those who have faith in this Jesus are counted righteous before God.
• And once he explains how we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection he asks us to take action.
• But the first action that he commands is basically an act of faith. He is asking us to believe these truths and live in light of them.
  • remember your baptism (conversion).
  • remember that you died with Christ
  • believe that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you to resist sin and live for God.

vs. 11 - “Consider”

is not based on your emotions or how you feel about your union with Christ. It is a command to count or reckon this to be true.

vs. 12 - “let not sin reign”

vs. 12 ackowledges that this union with Christ doesn’t make you sinless. This life is not automatic.

vs. 13 - present yourselves to God

This is also an act of faith. The idea of presenting yourselves to God and presenting your members as instruments for righteousness - this takes place before the word or action. It is an act of your will; it is a commitment. It is being resolved to live for God while trusting in the power of resurrection.

vs. 14 - under grace

All of this was impossible under the law, without being united with Christ in his resurrection. But we are under grace. We have been shown the mercy of God and invited to trust in him for the righteousness that we cannot obtain on our own.

vs. 4 - walk in newness of life

looking back to verse 4 reminds us that this new reality of the resurrection is a simple daily act of “walking.” It’s not just about the event of conversion with faith and repentance.

The reality of being united with Christ’s resurrection should lead us to walk in newness of life.

Paul summarizes well in the letter to the Colossians.

Colossians 3:1 (ESV) — "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

And one final quote from John Murray:

Apart from union with Christ we cannot view past, present, or future with anything but dismay and Christless dread. By union with Christ the whole complexion of time and eternity is changed and the people of God may rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

• John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Conclusion & Application

In closing, I’d like to speak to three groups of people and pray for you.

1. Some of you know that you have none of the benefits of being united with Christ. You have never trusted in Christ for salvation. There is an invitation at the end of this chapter for you.
   • Romans 6:23 (ESV) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
   • The offer of salvation is free to all who will trust in the work of Christ alone for salvation.
2. Some of you have trusted in Christ, but you have a casual attitude toward sin, or you think that sinful choices are inevitable for you in your current circumstance.
   • remember that you have died with Christ. Your old man has been crucified with him.
3. Some of you have trusted in Christ and are trying really hard to avoid sin, but you have forgotten that the resurrection power of Jesus is at work in you.

Let’s pray

Father, help us to live in light of the work of Christ for us.

• help those who have never trusted in you to respond in faith toward Jesus who died to save us from eternal punishment and from the power of sin.
• Help us to remember that we have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection.
• Give us faith to live in the benefits of Christ even when our emotions and circumstances make us feel distant from you.
• Give us assurance that we died in Christ, that we are risen in him, and that we will be victorious in the power of the resurrection.

Romans 8:11 (ESV) — "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."