Putting On Christ-Romans 6:1-4

Live in Christ’s Death

Do you remember the day you died? Most people ask do you remember your wedding day, or the day you graduated high school, but what a question to ask, the day you died. How can I be dead if I am alive? The reality is everyone of us that becomes a Christian has died to something. And if you die to something, you live for something else. This morning is going to serve as a reminder of what I died to and what I live for, and it begins with our death. Romans 6:1-4

Romans 6:1–4 ESV

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 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.

What we read here is not just some verses about baptism, but the representation, the action, and the reaction of our lives. Paul starts by disconnecting grace from a license to sin. That isn’t what the grace of God is about. Notice the connection to Jesus’ death in verses 2-4. Our immersion in the water stands as a representation of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. We die to our sins, we become buried in the water, and when we come up, we are resurrected, made new, something different. Hence why we read in John 3:3 “3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

What does this death look like. We can see multiple times throughout the scriptures that following after Christ means taking up your cross, bearing your cross, and ultimately getting on that cross. Look in Galatians 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” We are united with Christ by reflecting everything about Him. A concept we see in the scriptures is something called shadows. These shadows, while imperfect represent that which is in heaven. See in Hebrews 7-10 about the tabernacle and its contents are just shadows, representations of what is contained in heaven. We are supposed to be the representation of Christ, who is in Heaven, but every person can see through our lives

This is further clarified in the next few verses. Romans 6:5-8

Romans 6:5–8 ESV

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.

When we put on Christ, it means that our lives take on His life that He lived. Our lives are not our own that we can do what we will. We turned everything over to God for us to do His will. In order for us to do so, then something must die. That something, is our old self we read in verse 6. Look at Peter. In Luke 22 Peter denies Jesus 3 times in order to save his own life. After Jesus dies, he goes back to being a fisherman, he gave up. But after seeing Jesus risen, history tells us that he followed Christ to the point of being crucified himself. Because he knew of what Christ had done for him, Peter knew that even though he may die physically, he will live on with Christ. See this expanded in Romans 6:9-14

Romans 6:9–14 ESV

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.

Now the real meat, we must not go on sinning. One thing the religious world is trying to do is downplay the holiness of the saints to relate to the world. Something being stated over the recent years is the phrase, “I am a sinner saved by grace.” If you are a sinner, you are someone who allows sin to reign in your life. If you are a sinner, you are someone who uses your body as an instrument of unrighteousness. The only time we see the scriptures describes saints as sinners is either in the past tense, or in the present tense regarding unrepentant sin. That is what makes a person a sinner.

A person who has put on Christ is someone who has been brought from death into life. Christ died to death so that we can live in Him. We know that sin brings forth death. We know that death means destruction, but according to verse 14, sin will have no dominion over you. That’s not a maybe, but a person who is a follower of Christ does not allow sin to reign in their lives. Hence, what we read in verse one, “Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?”

Slaves to Righteousness.

The rest of the chapter makes a focus towards being a slave. And everybody is a slave to something. Even though we live in a free country, we are not truly free. Everyone has a master. Everyone has an owner, it just all depends on what it is. Look in Romans 6:15-19

Romans 6:15–19 ESV

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

Some people find themselves slaves to money, to sexual immorality, to work, to hobbies. Whatever you obey is your master. Just as the dog has been conditioned by it’s master, you too can and will be conditioned by your master. Paul uses the terms slave for a reason. In the Roman empire, about 10-20% of the whole population were slaves. That would have been about 5-10 million people that were owned by others. It was a show of power and status to own slaves. To be free also meant to be a citizen. See, slaves had no rights. They were property. They were bought, sold, traded, exploited, and even beaten to the point of death, and there was no care in the world. That is what sin does to us. It passes us around, buys and sells different temptations, and beats us to the point of death.

But someone redeemed us. All we do is switch masters. We no longer are a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness. We belong to God and it is by His power we are set free from sin. We set on this path not for no reason, but to lead to our sanctification as it says in verse 19. We once presented ourselves as slaves to sin. We ate what that master gave. We wore what that master gave. We slept where that master gave. We worked where that master commanded and all of it leads to death. But a slave of righteousness? It leads to life. Look in Romans 6:20-23

Romans 6:20–23 ESV

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In your business, you work for a certain goal. If you are an educator, the end goal is to have your students achieve understanding and applying the principles you were to teach. If you are a construction, you are to build the best house to the specifications given. That is your fruit. With sin, that fruit is death. But when we become slaves to God, our fruit leads to sanctification and ends in eternal life.

So how do we find freedom in becoming a slave to God. Slave and free seem completely contradictory. Think of a drug addict. And addict thinks that they are truly in control, until they’re not. Then they lose homes, relationships, time, and even their actual freedom. The only way to find freedom is by restricting themselves from the addiction. In the same way, we restrict ourselves from the things of sin and unrighteousness so that we find freedom in Christ.