Romans 6:1-5

Romans chapter 6 begins with a rhetorical question: “What then shall we say? Should we continue in si= n that grace may abound?”&nbs= p; No doubt that was the impression that Paul’s speaking left in = some of the hearers minds. In Roma= ns 5:20 Paul says, “where sin abounded, grace has super-abounded.” Some might have said to Paul, “Paul, if grace super-abounds when sin abounds, shouldn’t we sin more so we can enjoy more grace?”&nb= sp; Because Paul knew this question was in the mind of some, he answered= it with a strong “Absolutely not!”

Why would a believer have such a wrong concept? It is because he or she does not understand the “mechanics” of the sanctification process—= how the believer is separated from his former common, sinful, worldly life and = made holy, both outwardly and inwardly, by the work of Christ through His death = and resurrection.

It is vitally important that we as believers do not remain in ignorance= (v. 3), but rather understand the need of knowing the facts; the truth about what Christ accomplished to sanctify us. If this was not important, we coul= d rip Romans 6 and 7 out of our Bibles! We need to know and understand what Christ did so we can have a good= and proper experience of sanctification.

Let us use an illustration. Let’s say you purchase a new car for $30,000.00. You had an <= span style=3D'mso-arabic-font-family:Arial;mso-cyrillic-font-family:Arial;mso-de= fault-font-family: Arial;mso-greek-font-family:Arial;mso-hebrew-font-family:Arial;mso-latin-fo= nt-family: Arial;mso-latinext-font-family:Arial'>inexperienced salesman who didn’t take the t= ime to explain to you how the new car works. He hands you the keys and you driv= e it off the lot. A few days latte= r, while you are driving your new car, it just stops running. You get upset and call the dealer.= The dealer sends a tow truck and t= he driver discovers that the car is out of gas! Your response is, “No one ev= er told me that I needed to put gas in this car!” With this new knowledge you have an entire year of trouble free driving. Because now you know that a c= ar needs gas to run. But one day= , as you are driving down the expressway, the oil light comes on. You keep on driving because you don’t know what it means and before you know it, the engine locks up. Later yo= u find out that the oil got too low and you fried the engine! Why did this happen? It happened because of your ignorance. You did not know that you needed to check and even change the oil periodically. This “bad” exper= ience could have been entirely avoided with the proper understanding of how a cars works and how it is to be maintained.

Your salvation is no different. You need to understand how it works so you can have proper experienc= es in your Christian life. Too o= ften we moan, groan, complain, get depressed, and doubt because we don’t understand how God saved and is saving us.= Therefore, Paul, from verse 2, endeavors to explain the “mechanics” of our sanctification—in other words, how it works.

In verse 2 Paul continues to say, “We who have died to sin, how s= hall we still live in it?” S= in in this verse, as in all the other verses in which sin is a noun, has the defi= nite article in front of it, meaning = that it is personified and can thus be rendered “sinful nature”. Wuest,= in his translation says, “Shall we habitually sustain and attitude of depend= ence upon, yieldedness to, and cordiality with the s= inful nature in order that grace may abound?” We need to see that we have died t= o the sinful nature and it is mechanically impossible to still live or abide in continual union with it.

In verse 3 Paul asks, “Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” The day we believed in the Lord, we practically entered into a union with Him.= His history became ours. That means we enter into His death and share in its power to release= us from the grip of Sin’s evil nature.

Verse 4 goes on to say, “We have been buried therefore with Him through bapti= sm into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead throu= gh the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.” The fact is that we have been buri= ed with Christ through immersion into Him.&nb= sp; This transpired when we believed His death= is our release from the sinful nature and we are no longer obligated to live u= nder its power! Not only so, but w= e also were raised with Christ and share in his dynamic resurrection. He infused us with the power of his resurrection enabling us to live in the newness of His marvelous life!

We need to see from all of this that it is a mechanical impossibility f= or a believer to habitually sustain the same relationship to indwelling sin that= he or she had prior to receiving the Lord Jesus. Why? Because Christ= , in His death, severed us from the power of the sinful nature and infused us with a life to overcome its influence in our lives. However, we must realize that Chri= st did not take the sinful nature out of us. He just severed the umbilical cord (by His death) in order that we no longer have to live according to its power. Can we still sin? The answer is yes (1 John 1:8), bu= t we do not have to sin—we now have a choice (m= ore on this in chapter 8). <= /o:p>

Again, we share in Christ’s death and in His “being raised = from the dead.” In His resur= rection we can walk day by day in newness of life.= This implies that we have been implanted with a new life, His divine life, enabling us to choose not to obey the sinful nature still in us. This new life is the power to live= a life of sanctification.

Verse 5 goes on to say, “For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death indeed we will be in the likeness of His resurrection.” The words, “have grown together” mean to “grow up together with”. It speaks of a l= iving, vital union of two individuals growing up together. It is like Siamese twins whose bod= ies were connected at one point and share the same blood (life-flow) as one body normally would. We were place= d into Christ and share in His death and resurrection includ= ing all that these two acts embody.

In conclusion we need to see that we were put into Christ’s death. We share His history. Through His death we were severed = from the sinful nature in us, freed from its power. The sinful nature is now like a li= on with no teeth or claws—just a threatening loud roar. Yes, we can still sin, but we no l= onger are obligated to do so. We no= w have a choice. Also, we share in C= hrist’s resurrection. In His resurrection He imparted into us a dynamic life capable of living a holy (sanctified) life. We are fre= e from the bondage of Sin through our union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In chapter 8 we will see the dynamics of this sanctification, the dynamo behind it and how it is being carried out.= In chapter 7 we will see the “monkey wrench” that can br= ing the process to a grinding halt. But before that, we need to understand more about the mechanics of this process. This we will see in = the next few weeks as we continue in chapter 6. Praise the Lord for His Word!