Romans 6.8-The Believer Has Died With Christ and Will Live With Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday June 22, 2008
Romans: Romans 6:8-The Believer Has Died With Christ And Will Live With Christ
Lesson # 187
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6:1.
This morning we will study Romans 6:8, which teaches that since the believer has died with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit, he will as a certainty, in the future, at the resurrection, i.e. rapture of the church live with Christ in the sense that he will receive a resurrection body like Christ.
Romans 6:1-8, “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. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
Paul’s statement in Romans 6:8 “reiterates” or “resumes” the connection between the justified sinner being identified with Christ in His physical death and being identified with Christ in His resurrection that he taught in Romans 6:5.
Paul does this in order to present the significance of this connection in the light of the nature of Christ’s own physical death and resurrection that he mentions in Romans 6:9-10.
Romans 6:8, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
“If” is the conditional particle ei (ei)) (i), which introduces a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
The idea behind the first class condition in Romans 6:8 is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume for the sake of argument, then...”
This would encourage Paul’s Jewish audience to respond and come to the conclusion of the apodosis since they already agreed with him on the protasis.
Therefore, Paul is employing the first class condition as a tool of persuasion with his audience.
In Romans 6:8, the protasis is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument that we have died with Christ of course we have already established that this is true.”
The apodasis is “(then), we have absolute confidence that we shall also live with Him.”
In Romans 6:8, the basic relation that the protasis has to the apodasis is “evidence-inference.”
The “evidence” is that the Christian has died with Christ as a result of being identified with Him in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The “inference,” then the Christian will live with Him as a result of being identified with Christ in His resurrection.
The response to Paul’s protasis by his Christian readership would be obvious.
Of course they believe that they will live with Him!
They would agree emphatically with his protasis.
Thus, we call this a “responsive” condition.
He is not attempting to prove that his protasis is true rather he is saying with the first class condition that we agree that this doctrine is true that we have died with Christ as a result of being identified with Him in His physical death.
The first class condition would then persuade them to respond to the conclusion found in the apodasis that they will of a certainty live with Christ.
Therefore, Paul’s audience would have to come to his conclusion if they submit to this line of argumentation.
Romans 6:8, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
“We have died” is the verb apothnesko (a)poqnhv|skw) (ap-oth-nace-ko), which indicates that when Christ died physically on the Cross, God considers the believer to have died with Him as well through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
“With Christ” indicates that the believer in Jesus Christ is considered in the viewpoint of God as being associated with Christ in His physical death or in other words, to have jointly participated in Christ’s physical death.
“We believe” is the verb pisteuo (pisteuvw) (pist-yoo-o), which means, “trust, place complete confidence in” the teaching that the believer will live with Christ as a result of the fact that he has died with Christ.
The word expresses the believer’s absolute confidence and trust in the teaching that they have been crucified with Christ, they have died and have been buried with Christ and have also been raised and seated with Christ.
The verb means that the believer can experience victory over and deliverance from his indwelling old Adamic sin nature by appropriating by faith the teaching of the Word of God that he has been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.
The believer who experiences sanctification is walking in “newness of life” and he does this by obeying the teaching of the Word of God, which states that the believer has been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ and which teaching is inspired by the Holy Spirit (See Romans 6).
Experiential sanctification is only a potential since it is contingent upon the church age believer responding to what God has done for him at the moment of salvation.
Therefore, only believers who exercise faith in the teaching of the Word of God that they have died with Christ and have been raised with Christ will experience sanctification in time and which faith expresses itself in obedience to the Word of God.
2 Thessalonians 2:13, “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”
Romans 6:8, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
“We shall live” is the verb suzao (suzavw) (sood-zah-o), which means that in view of the fact that the believer has died with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit, it stands that he will “live in association with” the Lord Jesus Christ in a resurrection body.
It speaks of experiencing perpetual fellowship with Christ in a resurrection body.
1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is and everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
The future tense of the verb is a “predictive” future tense indicating that the believer will live with Christ “in the future” in a resurrection body at the rapture of the church.
It can also be interpreted as a “gnomic” future if we understand that it signifies “the certainty” of the believer receiving a resurrection body.
This passage parallels Paul’s statement in Romans 6:5.
Romans 6:5, “Therefore, if and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that we are entered into union with Him, conformed to His physical death. Of course, we believed this is true. Then, certainly, we will also be united with Him, conformed to His resurrection.”
In a sense, Paul is repeating himself in Romans 6:8 in that he is repeating his statement in Romans 6:5.
The apostles all employed repetition in their teaching.
Romans 15:15, “But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God.” NASU