Died, Buried, and Rose Again

05- Died, Buried, and Rose

Romans 6 Page 1120

January 7, 2024

“… died and buried; the third day he rose again from the dead…”

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1 Corinthians 15:1–9 “1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

The death, burial, and ressurection is important and foundational to the gospel.

It is central to our belief and behavior.

the physical resurrection of Christ is important and vital to our belief as Christians

5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

The resurrection is historical and personal.

It really happened. he appeared to many people and even to Paul

We must see the truth and the importance of the Resurrection.

It is not a fable to make a spiritual point.

It really happened and it has both physical and spiritual repercussions.

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Acts 3:13–16 “13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.”

Believe

Last week we saw that the Crucifixion of Christ delivered us from the penalty of our sin.

It has delivered us form God’s wrath.

We are saved from hell and Christ death gives us a relationship with the Father.

His resurrection not only defeated death but……

Christ’s resurrection delivers us from the power of sin.

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

The word ‘baptism’ means to be immersed or completely engulfed.

The purpose of baptism is that the item being baptized takes on the identity of that into which it is baptized.

The greatest illustration of what baptism really means comes from a way this word was often used in common, ordinary language of that day.

If a woman had a piece of fabric and wanted to change its color,

how would she go about doing so?

She would have to dye the fabric.

In the days of Paul the word that she would use would be ‘baptism’ or ‘baptizo’ in the Greek language.

She would baptize that piece of fabric into the dying solution

so that when she brought it out,

it would bring with it the characteristics of the dye.

Romans 6:3 “3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

Salvation is not our attempt to do better.

It is not our obedience to the Law or some set of rules.

It is our being completely immersed into all that Jesus accomplished through His death, burial and resurrection and allowing that to affect how we live.

We were buried with Christ and are dead to sin. (4)

Romans 6:4 “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.”

Most of the time we put very little emphasis on the burial of Christ.

We kind of just throw it in as a part of the process.

But we need to ask ourselves some important questions.

Why Do You Bury a Body?

You bury a body because it is dead.

It is through. It is finished.

After Christ died on the cross,

they laid the body of Jesus in a tomb.

That burial signified at least things:

i.  That He Was Dead

ii. Therefore His Work in His Body is Done

b. Why Are We Buried With Christ?

i. Because We Are Dead to Sin

Our Old Ways Are Done Away With

Romans 6:5–6 “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.”

We are baptized into the burial of Christ to signify that our old nature has been put away.

It is dead to us.

We no longer serve sin.

We now live to serve Christ.

We were raised with Christ with a new life (5)

I’ve baptized a lot of people, but not yet have I ever baptized anyone who wanted to stay under the water.

Everyone wants to come up.

Some have been afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get them up.

But I have always assured them that everyone comes up.

No one goes under and stays under.

We die with Christ and are buried with Christ

so that we might be raised with Christ to walk in the newness of life.

Romans 6:4–5 “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.

Where is Jesus Today?

Is He still on the cross? Is He still in the tomb?

Jesus is risen and is seated at the right hand of the Father, (more on that next week)

And because Christ is no longer on the cross or in the grave

Romans 6:6–8“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.”

We are raised with Christ and sin and death should have no power over us.

We are no longer slaves to sin.

We can now choose not to sin.

so if we are dead to sin then……

Why Do We Still Struggle With Sin?

Some of you may be thinking,

“This sounds good but the truth is, I still struggle with sin. It doesn’t seem to me that sin is dead. It seems to me that it is alive and well.”

Please note, Paul did not say that sin is dead.

He said that he was dead to sin.

There’s a great difference.

Sin is still alive and it can still tempt us.

Yet we need to understand this

– in Christ, sin can be resisted.

Sin is no longer our master.

How are we to live in freedom

Why do we still sin?

What does it mean to de dead to sin?

The Christian is not immune to sin.

This is a very popular view, though a harmful one.

It is an argument from analogy, and it usually goes like this:

What is it that most characterizes a dead body?

It is that its senses cease to operate.

It can no longer respond to stimuli.

If you are walking along the street and see a dog lying by the curb and you are uncertain whether or not it is alive, all you have to do to find out is nudge it with your foot. If it immediately jumps up and runs away, it is alive. If it only lies there, it is dead.

In the same way (so this argument goes),

the one who has died to sin is unresponsive to it.

Sin does not touch such a person.

When temptation comes,

the true believer neither feels nor responds to the temptation.

J. B. Phillips, the translator of one of the most popular New Testament paraphrases, seems to have held this view. I say this because his rendering of verse 7 reads, “a dead man can safely be said to be immune to the power of sin” and of verse 11, that we are to look upon ourselves as “dead to the appeal and power of sin.”

Moreover, it makes nonsense of Paul’s appeal to Christians in verses 11–13,

Romans 6:11–13 “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.”

You do not urge one who is as unresponsive to sin as a corpse is to physical stimuli not to be responsive to it.

Sin is not dead, it should no longer drive us or enslave us.

While we were rescued from the authority of sin, we still struggle with the activity of sin.

We must distinguish between

the activity of sin,

which is true in all believers,

and the dominion of sin,

which is true of all unbelievers. 

The cross and the resurrection saved us from the slavery and authority of sin

WE have gone from one kingdom to another

Sinclair Ferguson has written, “Sin is not primarily an activity of man’s will so much as a captivity which man suffers, as an alien power grips his soul. 

It is an axiom that while

the presence of sin can never be abolished in this life,

nor the influence of sin altered (its tendency is always the same),

its dominion can, indeed, must be destroyed if a man is to be a Christian.

Therefore  

we no longer live in the realm of sin,

under its reign and practical dominion. 

We have, to use Paul’s words, died to sin. 

We indeed do sin and

even our best deeds are stained with sin,

but our attitude toward it is essentially different from that of an unbeliever. 

We succumb to temptations,

either from our own evil desires (James 1.13),

or from the world or the Devil (Ephesians 2.1-3),

but this is different from a settled disposition. 

Further, to paraphrase from Ferguson on John Owen,

our sin is a burden that afflicts us rather than a pleasure that delights us.

Behave

How are we to live now that we have die to sin.

Principles of Sanctification

Live as you are dead to sin. (11)

Romans 6:11 “11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

To defeat the power of sin in your life

You have to reckon, or consider or count that everything I just said actually is true.

“Dead to sin but alive to God” is basically a summary of what he said in the first ten verses.

“Consider” or “reckon.” But that might be misleading to some people.

Down South people use “reckon” to mean “maybe I will and maybe I won’t,” as in “I reckon I’ll come by and see you.”

That means, “I suppose I’m coming, but I’m not sure.”

There’s an element of conditionality in that use of the word “reckon.”

But that meaning in English has nothing to do with the meaning in Greek.

The Greek word is a term from banking or accounting.

It means to credit money to a particular account.

It means that when you deposit $1000,

the bank credits your account with $1000.

Therefore when you write a check for $500,

you don’t worry about it because you are reckoning on the fact that money is actually in your account.

Reckoning means to count on the fact that God has actually done what he said he would do.

It means to count on the fact that if God said it,

he meant it, and therefore he did it.

It means to live on the basis of the fact that God wasn’t kidding when he said he would do this,

therefore he did it, and therefore you can count on it.

Reckoning is not claiming a promise but acting upon a fact.

It’s believing that what God has said he would do,

What does that mean spiritually? When God saves you

*You have a new King.

*You have a new Master.

*You have a new Lord.

*You have a new citizenship.

*You have a new way of looking at things.

*You have new boundaries for your conduct.

You’ve been changed; you’ve been transferred.

You were living one life;

now you’ve been given a brand-new life

To reckon means to count on the fact that those things really are true.

It means we can know it, we can say it, we can live it, we can depend on it.

37 Years in the Jungle

In 1982 an unusual thing happened on the island of Guam. A Japanese soldier came out of the jungle. He had been living in the jungle for 37 years, since the end of world war II. Why? Because when the news came at the end of the war, he couldn’t believe that Japan had surrendered and the war was over. So for 37 years he lived in the jungle.

Let me ask you a question.

During those 37 years was he free? Sure.

At any time from 1945 until 1982, he was completely free to come out of the jungle.

It’s not like General MacArthur was coming in to get him.

He was free. He could come out in 1950 or 1955 or 1969.

He was completely free on a theoretical basis.

But because he didn’t believe it

because he didn’t reckon the fact of his freedom to be true–

he lived in self-imposed bondage in the jungle for 37 years.

Was he free? Yes.

Was he free? No,

because he chose to stay in bondage, in hiding, in fear in the jungle.

Many Christians are still living in the jungle of sin.

The war is over, Christ has won, but they refuse to believe it.

They live in self-imposed bondage to sin.

They are still in the jungle spiritually because they refuse to believe that Christ has set them free.

Persist in the struggle against sin. (14)

Romans 6:12 “12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.”

Romans 6:14 “14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

Sin can reign in or dominate our bodies.

It cannot dominate or destroy that new person that I have become in Christ.

That new “me” will always abhor sin and yearn for righteousness—and it will have it,

because God is determined to produce

the holy character of Christ in his people.

Augustine says

We uses to “not able not to sin”),

but now we are (“able not to sin”).

We often do sin; that is why Paul is urging us not to yield our bodies to it.

If there is no going back—if that possibility has been eliminated—there is no direction for us to go but forward!

Stott says, “A born-again Christian should no more think of going back to the old life than an adult to his childhood, a married man to his bachelorhood, or a discharged prisoner to his prison cell.”

Can an adult still want to be a child or an infant? A happily married man a bachelor? A freed man a prisoner again? Well, I suppose some could. But no right-minded woman or man would want to.[1]

[1]Boice, J. M. (1991–). Romans: The Reign of Grace (Vol. 2, pp. 655–656). Baker Book House.

Conclusion

If you’ve never experienced God’s sin-conquering grace,

He invites sinners to come to the cross and receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8).

When you receive God’s grace in Christ, the penalty and power of sin is broken.

In Christ, you can just stop it!

And you can present yourself to God as your new Master,

who brought you from death to life.

You can say no to sin and yes to the God

who loved you and gave His Son to redeem you from your sins