Romans 6.3a-The Believer Has Been Identified With Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday June 3, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:3a-The Believer Has Been Identified With Christ
Lesson # 178
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:1.
This evening we will study Romans 6:3a, in which the apostle teaches that the believer has been identified with Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”
Romans 6:2, “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
Romans 6:3, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?”
“Or” is the “disjunctive” conjunction e (h&) (ay), which introduces a statement that is a “related alternative” to the rhetorical question, which asks, “How shall a believer who has died to the sin nature still live under its dominion?”
This “related alternative” is that the believer has been identified with Christ in His death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
“Do you not know” is the second person plural present active indicative form of the verb agnoeo (a)gnoevw) (ag-no-eh-o), which means, “to be ignorant” concerning the teaching that sinners are identified with Jesus Christ in His death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit the moment they were declared justified by God the Father as a result of exercising faith in Jesus Christ.
This second person plural is a “categorical” plural meaning that it does not refer to all the Roman believers but only a “particular category” of believers who were leading a sinful lifestyle as a result of erroneously concluding that grace is a license to sin.
Not all Christians were ignorant that they were identified with Christ in His death and as a result were leading a sinful lifestyle.
So when Paul says “all of you,” which the second person plural form of the verb would literally means, he is not referring to all the believers in Rome but rather “some” of them.
Rather, he is addressing only those who have erroneously concluded that grace is a license to sin and as a result were leading a sinful lifestyle because they were ignorant that they were identified with Christ in His death through the baptism of the Spirit.
Leading an immoral lifestyle is called “antinomianism,” which comes anti, “against” and noun nomos, “law,” thus it literally means, “against the law.”
In Romans 3:8, Paul states that he was accused of antinomianism by the Judaizers.
Jude addresses the issue of antinomianism in Jude 4.
In Romans 6:3, this rhetorical question that the verb agnoeo introduces, implies or presupposes that these carnal Roman Christians were expected to know that they were dead to sin by virtue of their identification with Christ in His death through the baptism of the Spirit.
The rhetorical question implies that these Roman believers should know this doctrine that they were identified with Christ in His death through the baptism of the Spirit, the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, he is saying to his readers in Romans 6:3 that if they don’t understand that they have died to the sin nature and are habitually living under the dominion of the sin nature by habitually committing sin, then they do not understand the meaning of baptism.
With the rhetorical questions in Romans 6:2b and here in Romans 6:3, Paul is saying to his readers that it is inconsistent for any Christian who understands the implications of being identified with Christ in His death through the baptism of the Spirit to desire to have a sinful lifestyle since they have died to the sin nature.
Beginning in Romans 6:3, Paul is going to present a series of spiritual truths that explain the believer’s new state of being dead in relation to the sin nature.
In Romans 6:1-10, Paul is speaking in the context of the believer’s position in Christ or in other words, his union and identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
He is not speaking in these verses in relation to the believer’s practice.
In Romans 6:11-23, Paul speaks with reference to the believer’s practice in the sense that he commands them to live in a manner that is consistent with their position in Christ, i.e. their union and identification with Christ in His death and resurrection.
So in Romans 6, Paul is informing and reminding the Roman believers of their new position in Christ and he prohibits them from placing themselves under the dominion of the sin nature.
The verb agnoeo in Romans 6:3 in this rhetorical question indicates quite clearly that believers have a responsibility to know the truth about their union and identification with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
Now, when Paul wrote this epistle, he had never been to Rome and was thus not acquainted with the Roman believers, thus his question indicates that he considered it common knowledge among the Christian community that the believer was identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
In fact, upon His ascension into heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ informed the apostles that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit, which turned out to be ten days later on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5 compare with Acts).
Romans 6:3, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?”
“All of us who” refers to those sinners who have been identified with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a result of being declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ
“Have been baptized” is the verb baptizo (baptivzw) (bap-tid-zo), “to cause the believer to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The word has two basic meanings: (1) a literal meaning-to dip or immerse (2) a figurative meaning-to be identified with.
The verb baptizo refers to “the act of identifying one thing with another resulting in a permanent change of condition.”
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines the verb identify, “to cause to be or become identical, to conceive as united (as in spirit, outlook, or principle).”
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun identification, “a process by which a person ascribes to himself the qualities or characteristics of another person.”
In Romans 6:3, 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Galatians 3:27, Paul is using the word in a figurative or metaphorical sense to denote the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit causing the believer to be placed in an eternal union and identified with Christ at the moment of salvation resulting in a permanent change of condition.
1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit we were all identified with one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
Galatians 3:27, “For all of you who were identified with Christ have clothed yourselves with the nature of Christ.”
The Baptism of the Spirit identifies the believer positionally with Christ in His crucifixion (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6), death (Rom. 6:3-5, Col. 2:20; 3:3), burial (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12), resurrection (Rom. 6:4, 9; 7:4; Col. 2:12; 3:1) and session (Eph. 2:6).
When I say that the Spirit “identifies” us with Christ, I mean that at the moment of salvation, the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit causes the believer to become identical and united with Christ and also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of Christ.
When I say “positionally” I am referring to what God has done for the church age believer and His viewpoint of the church age believer meaning He views the believer as He views His Son and does “not” view the believer according to his sins and transgressions and former manner of life prior to salvation.
Water baptism was a teaching aid to instruct believers that when they believed in Christ, the Holy Spirit placed them in union with Christ identifying them with Christ in His death and resurrection.
When the believer was dipped underneath the water, this portrayed the reality that the Holy Spirit identified them with Christ in His death and when they were taken up out of the water, they were identified with Christ in His resurrection.
When the believer was dipped underneath the water, this portrayed that he was now dead to the cosmic system of Satan and the old sin nature and when he was taken up out of the water, this portrayed the fact that he was now a new creation and was to walk in newness of life.
Baptism meant a clean break with the past and the old creation marred by sin and ruled by Satan.
Therefore, in Romans 6:3, the verb baptizo does not refer to water baptism but rather it refers to the act performed by the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit on behalf of those sinners who exercise faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
This act places the believer in Jesus Christ in an eternal union with Jesus Christ and identifies them with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session.
The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit causes the believer to become identical and united with the Lord Jesus Christ and also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ.