Buried and Raised with Christ
Buried and Raised with Christ
Romans 6:1-23
Introduction: Ge 18:18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.
What does God mean when he says “great” and “powerful”? What is it that makes a Nation “Great” and “Powerful”? Is it population? Politics? Armament? Wealth? Possessions? Or Religiosity? In human perspective, it might be some or all of those things. But the Scripture has another perspective. It portrays the Lord as the one that makes a nation great and powerful.
There is good reason for this. God has all power. He has all wisdom. He has the love and the will to bless all nations on earth. In fact, that is the promise God made to Abraham. Even so, the perspective that the God revealed in the Scriptures is who makes a nation great and powerful gets lost, even in the minds and hearts of His people. The abilities and ingenuity of man then takes its place.
It’s not as though God doesn’t care about this. He most certainly does. And He has demonstrated that very clearly for all to see. Jesus Christ is crucified because of it. Sadly, we Christians need to be reminded that we are citizens of the greatest and most powerful nation on earth. And that is because of Jesus Christ, not man.
1. Buried with Christ (6:1-7) When Paul finishes presenting Jesus Christ Crucified and Raised; when he finishes explaining what that means for all people, and how as sin increased grace increased even more, it sounds like maybe being forgiven is a reason to live any way we want. But that is not the case. Not among the people of a Great and Powerful Nation. But what about us?
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? In other words, should our lives continue to follow the course of society and the world? Paul gives a very quick answer to his own question.
2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? How could the citizens of a great nation allow themselves to be duped into believing demonic doctrines like, “It’s my body, I’ll do with it whatever I want!” or “Let’s agree to disagree!” Do we not yet understand the craftiness of the ultimate liar, Satan? This is what I mean:
3don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? You see, in baptism God works a miracle of grace. He gives His Spirit, condemns the sinful nature to death, and raises the one who receives the promise in faith to new life. That new life is life in a new and Great and Powerful Nation. Paul says:
4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death. The sentence of death to the sinful nature means that everything of the sinful nature must die. It cannot be tamed or cajoled into doing what is right in God’s sight. So as the sentence of death to sin is carried out in Christ Jesus, so those who participate in that death are crucified with Christ. And why is that important to us?
in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. The word for New Life denotes newness in species and character. It is not a makeover of the sinful nature. It is new! This is why Paul goes on to say:
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. There are two errors Christians are prone to make regarding this new life. The first error is to assume that once a person believes in Jesus by grace through faith they must complete the work of sanctification. The other error discounts the depravity of the human nature and ignores God’s Word that condemns it. But when Paul says,
6we know that our old self was crucified with him, he is confirming the sentence of death on sinful flesh.
so that, he goes on to say, the body of sin might <be done away with>, {Or <be rendered powerless>}. When something is rendered powerless it has lost its control. And when the sinful nature loses control it acts out in defiance of God’s Word, trying to regain control. This is what Paul is getting at when he says:
that we should no longer be slaves to sin— The miracle of baptism is the change in control over the soul of an individual. The control of one nature dies, the control of the new nature lives. This is what it means to be raised to New Life.
2. Raised to New Life (6:8-14) Paul explains:
7anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Notice that it says freed from sin, not freed to sin. Being freed implies release. If we are freed from the control and sentence of sin, what is it that we are freed to do? Again Paul answers, 8Now
if we died with Christ. That word “if” is mighty powerful isn’t it. It makes what follows conditional. If we died, then something new happens. That new thing is faith. But only if we died with Christ. But, for those who died with Christ,
we believe that we will also live with him. Faith does not end with justification. Rather, the end of faith is life, life in Christ today, Life with God eternally. Paul says, 9For
we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. You see, living a holy life is as much a matter of faith as being justified is a matter of faith.
Let me explain. It is not our work that makes us Christ-like and holy. It is God’s work in us that does this. You’ve heard people say, “God isn’t done with me yet.” It’s so true for the believer. But only faith can receive that. So it is in view of faith that Paul says:
11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. In other words, faith apprehends the promise and benefit of being united with Christ in His death and Resurrection. That benefit is a clean conscience, and a new life that is being carried across the waters of baptismal grace into glory.
12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Faith becomes cooperative with God and His will. Faith seeks to be more like Christ. Faith is what gave us new life and faith is what keeps us growing in New Life, Christ’s life in us. In that faith we are enabled to cooperate with God. So Paul exhorts us:
13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness. What does sin have to do with Christ, who died and was raised? Nothing, of course!
but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
This is really good stuff, isn’t it! Indeed! We can even feel the release of sin’s control over us. As the Words of grace are spoken, you are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. What wonders we receive through faith; the miracle of God’s grace and mercy. Thus, we can now say, we are…
3. Ex-Slaves of Sin; Slaves of Righteousness (6:15-23)
14sin shall not be your master, Paul says, because you are not under law, but under grace. Okay, no law means no sin and anything goes, right? Wrong! What does God’s light, have to do with darkness? You know the answer to that. But just in case it hasn’t sunk in yet, Paul says: 15What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Shall a baptized believer continue to live a life that God detests because there is nothing to say “do this” or “don’t do that”?
By no means! Think about this my fellow redeemed. Why enslave ourselves again to what we have been set free? It doesn’t make good sense. Paul says, 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? You see, in Christ, sins control has been lost. We can resist it. So is it our obedience that Paul is referring to? No! It is the obedience of Jesus Christ who brings death to the sinful nature and life to the spirit? This is why Paul says:
17But thanks be to God that,
though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. The form of teaching is the Gospel message of Jesus Christ whose obedience we now participate in through faith. Do you now get it,
18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Slaves in a new and powerful nation.
19I put this in human terms Paul says, because you are weak in your natural selves. This weakness of the natural self makes it hard for us to grasp the things freely given us by God. It makes it hard for us to believe the truth because the natural self is still Satan’s playground where he entices and leads people away from the truth. But, as citizens of the most great and powerful nation on earth, we have working in us the same power that raised Jesus Christ from death and the grave. That power was given to us in our baptism. So,
Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. Let God’s power work in you through His Word and Sacraments. And as God works, we realize more and more that
20When we were slaves to sin, we were free from the control of righteousness. In other words, we participated in the beliefs of an earthly nation and a people enslaved to sin. We did not know what real righteousness was. The only benefit of that enslavement is death. In Scripture death is separation; separation of the soul from the body, which is physical death; separation of the soul from God, which is spiritual death; and separation of body and soul from God, which is eternal death. So baptism has tremendous benefits which Paul explains.
22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God,
the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. We are the citizens of righteousness not as Americans, but as Christians.
23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life <in> {Or <through>} Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.