Romans 6.4b-Christ's Resurrection Enables the Believer To Walk in Newness of Life
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday June 10, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:4b-Christ’s Resurrection Enables the Believer to Walk in Newness of Life
Lesson # 182
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:1.
Sunday, we studied Romans 6:4a, which teaches that the believer is identified with Jesus Christ in His physical death and burial.
This evening we will study Romans 6:4b, which teaches that Christ’s resurrection enables the believer to walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:1-4, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
“So that” is the conjunction hina (i%na), which introduces a purpose-result clause that emphasizes that God intends to carry out the purpose for which He identified the believer with His Son in His physical death and burial through the baptism of the Spirit.
Namely, in the same way that Christ was raised from the dead by means of the omnipotence of the Father, so also the believer will walk in newness of life.
Therefore, the fact that hina is introducing a purpose-result clause implies that the believer can walk in newness of life now and does not have to wait for the resurrection since he has been give this capacity through the baptism of the Holy Spirit the moment he exercised faith in Christ as Savior.
“As” is the adverb of manner hosper (w%sper) (hoce-per), which is employed with the adverb of manner houtos, “so” in order to form a comparative clause that compares Christ being raised from the dead through the glory of the Father with the believer walking in newness life.
This comparison emphasizes that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father so also God’s intention in identifying the believer with Christ in His physical death and burial is accomplished with the believer walking in newness of life.
Romans 6:4, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
“Through the glory of the Father” refers to the manifestation of the Father’s omnipotence, which He exercised by raising His Son Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day in fulfillment of the Scriptures.
The word “omnipotence” is a compound word from the Latin meaning “all powerful,” and is composed of the following: (1) Omni, “all.” (2) Potence, “power.”
“Omnipotence” is one of the characteristics of the divine essence (Father: Mark 14:36 and Luke 1:37; Son: Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:3; Spirit: Rom. 15:13).
God has limitless and infinite ability to do something (Gen. 18:14a; Psa. 147:5a; Isa. 40:26; Lk. 1:37).
There is power in the Word of God (Psa. 33:6a; Heb. 1:3a; 4:12a; 11:3a; 2 Co. 6:7; Heb. 4:12; 2 Pet. 3:5).
The cross of Christ is the power of God, which delivers the believer from the sin nature, the cosmic system of Satan and Satan himself.
1 Corinthians 1:18, “ For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
The Gospel is the power of God for salvation.
Romans 1:16, “For I am never ashamed of the gospel for it is as an eternal spiritual truth God’s power resulting in deliverance for the benefit of everyone who as an eternal spiritual truth believe, to the Jew first and then to the Greek.”
The Lord was brought back from the dead by three categories of divine omnipotence: (1) Omnipotence of God the Father sent back our Lord’s human spirit to the body in the grave (Acts 2:24; Rom. 6:4; Eph. 1:20; Col. 2:12; 1 Thess. 1:10; 1 Pet. 1:21). (2) Omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit sent back our Lord’s human soul to the body in the grave (Rom. 1:4; 8:11; 1 Pet. 3:18). (3) Omnipotence of God the Son raised His physical body from the grave (John 6:39-40, 54; 10:17-18).
The Lord Jesus Christ has the power to raise the dead (John 5:21; 6:40; 11:25).
The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead will raise the believer from the dead.
1 Corinthians 6:14, “ Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.”
The same power that raised the humanity of Christ from the dead has been made available to every church age believer because of their union and identification with the Lord through the Baptism of the Spirit (1 Co. 6:14; Eph. 1:18-20).
Thus because of the church age believer’s union with Christ, he can have a lifestyle of power and wisdom (2 Ti. 1:7).
2 Timothy 1:7-8, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.”
Paul does not mention the Spirit’s omnipotence here nor the Son’s.
Rather, he is emphasizing the Father’s omnipotence since he wants the reader to know that the Father glorified Himself in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which was an answer to the Son’s prayer recorded in John 17.
John 17:1, “Jesus spoke these things (John 13-16); and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.’”
Romans 6:4, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
“We” is the personal pronoun hemeis (h(mei$) (hay-mice), which emphasizes the comparative contrast between Christ raised from the dead and Paul and his fellow Christians who walk in newness of life.
“Might walk” is the compound verb peripateo (peripatevw), which is used in the figurative sense with reference to the conduct or lifestyle of the believer who is a sinner that has been declared justified by the Father through faith alone in Christ alone.
The believer is to walk by faith in the Word of God and not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”
Fellowship with God is based upon a moment-by-moment walk of faith.
Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the {life} which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
In the book of Ephesians, Paul commands the Ephesian believers to walk in a manner worthy of their calling.
Ephesian 4:1-3, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
The believer’s lifestyle should be distinguishable from the unbelievers.
Ephesians 4:17, “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind.”
In Ephesians 5:1-2, the apostle Paul commands the Ephesian believers to be imitators of God by living their lives by means of God’s love meaning that they are to respond to God’s love for them by exercising that same love towards their fellow believer.
Ephesians 5:1-2, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
John teaches that the believer should live His life in the same manner as Christ did.
1 John 2:3-6, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
Romans 6:4, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
“In newness of life” teaches that since the believer has been identified with Christ in His death, he has entered into a new sphere or realm of existence that is extraordinary and transcendent and superior to the old way of living under the dominion of the sin nature and spiritual death.