Sermon Tone Analysis

I have lived in the Christian environment most all of my life.

And one thing that I have noticed.

Is that while most Christians have good understanding of the main idea of salvation.

What I mean by that is that they know that accepting the gift of God grace is a fairly straight forward thing to understand.

But what comes after is often the hardest part for people to both apprehend, and articulate, much less put in to practice.

And that is what it means to put to death the old nature.

The Context of Romans 6:6

Introduction

Romans 6:6 is an important passage and one that, if it has not been controversial to you to this point, when I talk about it, it might become controversial, because there is something in this verse that I think is very applicable to the struggle of the Christian life.

Romans 6:6 specifically talks about the death of the old nature as an accomplished fact already, and that’s going to relate to what I will refer to as the myth, the modern Christian myth, that believers still have in them the old nature.

I think Romans 6:6 rejects that idea.

The Text of Romans 6

Let’s just look at the passage so that we can get a feel for what’s going on in the passage that surrounds this particular verse.

Starting at verse 1, Paul writes,

ROM 6.1-14

Romans 6:1–14 (ESV)

What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means!

How can we who died to sin still live in it?

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

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.

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.

We know that our old self (or old nature in some translations) 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.

For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

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.

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Again, 6:6 is our key focus point—that the old nature, the old man, is in fact dead.

What does Paul mean by “old self” or “old nature”?

Paul contrasts what believers were “in Adam” and what believers are after receiving the gift of salvation in Christ in terms of their “old” and “new nature”

Terminology

This is an entry in DPL..

Few words are more dangerously ambiguous than “nature.”

Because of this there has been considerable misunderstanding of the phrases “old nature” and “new nature” (see Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9).

Numerous popular explanations of Paul’s doctrine of the Christian life argue, or assume, that the apostle distinguishes with these phrases between two parts or natures of a person.

Following this misguided thinking is the debate as to whether the “old nature” is replaced by the “new nature” at conversion, or whether the “new nature” is added to the old (see Psychology).

......These terms rather designate the complete person viewed in relation to the corporate whole to which he or she belongs.

Thus these terms are better translated as “old person” and “new person.”

The translation “old self” and “new self” (NIV, NRSV) is too individualistic, since the idea certainly means the individual Christian (Rom 6:6), but is much more than merely individual.

They speak not of a change in nature, but of a change in relationship.

(I would add not just a change in relationship to God.

But also in relationship of souls to our bodies).

The “old person” is not the sin nature which is judged at the cross and to which is added a “new person.”

The “old person” is what believers were “in Adam” (in the old era).

The “old” points to everything connected with the fall of humanity and with the subjection to the distress and death of a transitory life, separated from God (see Life and Death).

The “new person” is what believers are “in Christ” (in the new era).

Paul directs us to the completely new, to the salvation and healing that believers receive when they are crucified with Christ and raised with him.

Issues in Romans 6:6

When we think about Rom 6, and chances are when you’ve heard Rom 6 preached—many Christians see only one benefit or result of union with Christ when they read through that passage.

They typically think of salvation in terms of a future resurrection and eternal destiny (verses 8–11, for example); that is, that we are united to Christ through His death.

He died on our behalf, died for our sins, and because He rose from the dead, we will also be raised from the dead to enjoy eternal life.

That’s typically what most people get when they read through Rom 6—that point of theology.

The Immediate Benefit

Verse 6, though, points to an immediate benefit—not just a future benefit, but an immediate one.

Verse 6 says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him.”

Think about what that says.

Paul says, “We know”—he puts an air of certainty about this—“we know that our old self” (literally, in the Greek text, it says, “old man”) “was crucified with him.”

In the Greek language, this is an aorist verb.

An aorist describes a point in time, a sort of a snapshot look at an event.

It’s not an event that continues on or that is in process.

It’s an event that happened; it’s complete.

Paul is saying, “Look, our old self, our old man, was in fact crucified.”

The old you, the old nature, is either dead, or it isn’t.

I like to illustrate this with the movie The Princess Bride.

Most people have seen this.

There is this wonderful, funny scene where they go to Max, the miracle worker, to try to revive Westley, and he says, “Hey, you are in luck!

He is not completely dead.

He is just mostly dead,” and everybody laughs, because that’s just ridiculous.

You are either dead, or not.

A New Reality

Let’s apply it to Rom 6:6.

Your old self, your old man, is either dead, or it’s not.

Paul says it’s dead; it was crucified.

It’s crucified, again, “with him.”

Because of our union with Christ, the old nature, when we become united to Christ, when we believe, our old nature is put to death.

Again, it’s either dead, or it isn’t, and Paul says it’s dead.

Paul says in

2 Cor 5:17

—and this is why he uses this language—that when you are in Christ, “Old things have passed away; all things have become new.”

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.”

We have a new inner self.

We have a new inner reality.

Our old nature has been put to death, and what’s new about us inside?

The Spirit comes to indwell us.

The Spirit replaces that old nature.

The Spirit converts, or restores—whatever word we want to use for it.

The nt uses a lot of words for what happens inside a believer.

But the one thing that’s clear from Rom 6:6 is that the old nature, the old you, is dead.

You can’t say it’s mostly dead.

It’s dead.

You, as a believer, are not a body with two internal natures battling it out (one of them is redeemed, and the other one is sinful).

What you are is, you are a redeemed soul.

The inner part of you is redeemed, it’s washed (again, using all these nt terms), it’s a new creation—but you are still living in an unredeemed body.

That’s your flesh.

You don’t have two yous inside of you.