Romans 6:1-5

Our Walk in Newness of Life in Christ

In chap. 5 Paul wonderfully declared that you have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness that leads to destruction and through faith in Christ you have been transferred to the kingdom of His marvelous light.  In the old kingdom your king was Adam, who through his sin lead you to a life of sin, death, and condemnation.  Because of his sin, you were born in sin and have lived a life of rebellion before God.  But as that one man plummeted you into utter hopelessness, the new man, Jesus Christ, has graciously lifted you out of the pit of despair and set you upon the rock of salvation.  This free gift has been given to you solely on the basis of Christ work alone on your behalf.

But Christ has delivered you even further so that as the law came in and actually intensified your rebellion, God's grace proved greater than your sin and in the exact same place where your sin increased, God's grace super-abounded all the more and saved you from destruction. 

But Paul is nowhere near the end of describing just how glorious your salvation in Christ truly is.  In chap. 5 he reveals that your guilt of sin has been forever removed.  You are no longer condemned for what Adam has done and what you have done as a result.  Through Christ's righteousness, you are now considered forever right with the Holy God of the universe.  Where you were once condemned, you have now been justified in God's sight as He has accepted the work of Christ on your behalf.  And all of this has taken place through faith, through resting in the work of Jesus Christ alone, and that faith itself is the gift of God that none of us can ever boast in our works.

But as we turn to chap. 6, Paul further describes the beauty of your salvation in that not only have you been delivered from the "penalty" of sin, but equally you have now been delivered from the "power" of sin in your life.  Through faith in Christ, you can now live a holy, obedient life to God so that you may walk worthy of the name of Christ.  You not only have a new relationship with God, based upon His grace, but you have also been given a whole new life to walk in, based upon His grace.

By being united to Jesus Christ through faith you have now been empowered by the life of Christ so that in him you are now enabled to live a life in which sin is being conquered and you are enabled to grow up in the fullness of Christ.  You have been empowered by Christ to be conformed into His life and to walk in His ways.  Although your sin will never be completely eradicated in this life, daily it will be subdued and by God's grace you will walk in greater and greater obedience to His will. 

It is this subduing of the power of sin in your life that is the main point of chap. 6.  Paul pictures sin as a powerful master that exercises tyrannical control and rule over all who are in Adam (cf. 5:12).  The image of slavery is prominent throughout chap. 6 (cf. vv. 6, 14, 17-22).  You once were enslaved to sin, under its bondage, so that you could do nothing but obey your master and rebel against God.  But that power has been broken so that you no longer have to serve that old master which ruled over your life.  Just as Israel was delivered from the bondage of Pharaoh, so you have been delivered from the bondage of sin so that you may now walk in a new life before God.

You are now living in the wilderness period of your salvation, just as Israel walked in the wilderness for 40 years.  Also, just as Israel was making their way to the promised land, flowing with milk and honey, you are a pilgrim making your way to the glorious land of heaven where all the blessings of Christ are waiting for you.

But how do we walk in this wilderness period of our life, without falling away as many in Israel did in the desert?  By one word:  GRACE.  It will be by God's grace that you will never fall away but that you will persevere on this often difficult and dangerous journey before you.  God has broken the power of your heavy taskmaster and by His grace you are being led with all assurance to the promised land that has already been victoriously won for you in Christ.

That's Paul's overriding purpose in chap. 5-8.  He wants to assure you that the battle has been won for you and you have definitely been saved in Christ and you will make it all the way to the end so that you will enter into his glory because all the work that is necessary has been accomplished for you by Christ.

In Christ you have been transferred into a new kingdom, a new age of salvation where you have been joined with Christ so that you now live under his reign of grace and you may now make your way with confidence to the glorious entrance into eternal life.

In order to assure you just how radical and definitive this work of Christ is for you in your daily life, Paul uses the analogy of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ to describe for you how the power and tyranny of sin has been broken in your life.  But Paul is giving you much more than just an analogy.  You have actually participated in Christ's work so that God now considers Christ's life to be your life.  You are now living your life out of this mysterious union with Christ.  Christ is your life and like a branch that receives its life-giving nourishment from the roots and trunk of the tree, so Christ daily nourishes you with his life-giving power so that you may walk in the newness of life.

In v. 1, Paul begins by responding to an anticipated question that would naturally be raised by his hearers, esp. Jewish hearers, in regards to what Paul has proclaimed in 5:20-21.  Think about what Paul has just said.  God's grace has triumphed over our sin.  Even in the era where the law of Moses caused his people's sin to increase, God did not abandon his people.  But in the fullness of time, God sent his Son to redeem his people and shower them with blessings solely by His grace.

But if grace always increases and super-abounds precisely in the place where sin is increased, so that sin is always overpowered by God's grace, does that mean that we will respond to God's grace by sinning all the more (v. 1)?  Does a child that receives his father's forgiveness lead the child to disobey his father with complete abandonment so that he will enjoy more forgiveness?  Are we to take God's grace for granted and simply grow accustomed to his grace so that we can simply live our lives for ourselves and indulge in our own pleasures regardless of our Father's good pleasure simply because we know that He has and will forgive us?

Notice that Paul doesn't cower at all from the question and simply answer it by imposing all kinds of threats of judgment upon us if we continue sinning.  Paul doesn't reverse his declaration of the freedom of God's grace and suddenly return to works of the law as the answer.  No!  Paul gives us more grace, which illustrates what he said in 5:20 -- where sin increases, grace super-abounds.  The answer to our life of sin is not the law, but the gospel.  It is by grace that you have been redeemed and it is by grace that you are being renewed.

This accusation that Paul answers has always been raised in response to the teaching of God's free and unconditional grace.  Someone will argue, "If one preaches the unlimited grace of God it will undercut our life of good works.  If we are saved by grace ALONE, then what motivation do we have to live a life of godliness?"

Martin Lloyd Jones has a wonderful reminder for us in his sermon on this passage:

The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it.  There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace.  That is a very good test of gospel preaching.  If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel (8, Romans, chap. 6).

What Jones is saying is that the true test to whether or not you are hearing the gospel being preached is to whether or not you are compelled to ask this question in 6:1.  When you hear any sermon or lesson from the Bible, always ask whether or not you are compelled to bring up this question by the end of the sermon.  If you do not come to this question, you can be assured that you have not heard the gospel.

So, does the life of the gospel -- living under the reign of grace and not the law -- lead to more sin?  Paul's unqualified answer is NO!  Not only is the law ineffective to curb sin, but God's grace is the ONLY means by which sin can be truly defeated.  Grace alone has the power to produce a godly life in Christ.  Why is God's grace so effective?

Because we have died to sin and if we are dead to it, then how can we live in it (v. 2)?  But when did we "die to sin"?

In vv. 3-4, Paul tells us that we died and were buried to sin in Christ's death and burial AND that our baptism is somehow the instrument or means that God uses to put us into a relationship in which we actually participate in the death and burial of Christ.  Let's unpack Paul's incredibly full statement here.  First, in what way have we actually participated in Christ's death and burial?

Did our death and burial to sin take place in A.D. 30 or did it take place in our lifetime?  Well, we have to make a distinction between when our redemption was accomplished in the work of Christ and when it was applied to us by His Spirit.  When Jesus Christ died on the cross and was buried in a borrowed tomb he completely accomplished your salvation.  But it wasn't until the Spirit opened your heart and gave you the gift of faith that the effects of Christ's finished work were applied to you in time.  In this way you were truly born into a sinful condition and you were under God's wrath and condemnation and Christ truly saved you from that final judgment. 

When you, by God's grace, put your faith in Christ and rested in His work alone, all the benefits of Christ's work were applied to you and you were given a completely new life, all old things passed away and everything has become new.  You no longer relate to God where your relationship is based upon your keeping the law but it is based upon Christ having kept the law for you.

His life has become your life.  His history is now your history.  And as he died and was buried, so you are considered to have already died and been buried to that old life of Adam, sin, and destruction. 

Think of it this way:  The freedoms of our country, with all its privileges and blessings, were won for us in the American Revolutionary War.  And those freedoms have been maintained and protected by all those who have, through blood, sweat, and tears defended those freedoms through various wars.  There have been many that have gone before you to pay the price for the blessings you now enjoy today.

When you were born, even as an infant, you fully entered into a life of privilege and became a citizen of this country where you fully inherited all the wonderful privileges as if you had fought for them yourself even though you did absolutely nothing to attain them.  You did not fight those wars.  You did not shed your blood.  You did absolutely nothing to gain those privileges.  But when you were born you received all the blessings that were accomplished by those who went before you.

In the same but greater way, Jesus Christ accomplished all the work necessary for your complete salvation 2000 years ago.  Everything was accomplished in His death, burial, and resurrection.  You did absolutely nothing to accomplish that work.  However, when you were born again from above by God's Spirit all the blessings and privileges of Christ's work became yours.  You were born into His work so that you are considered to having participated in that work.  You share in all of the blessings that you did nothing to gain.  As a citizen of God's kingdom you now enjoy all the blessings and privileges not because you fought the battle but because of God's champion who went before you. 

You are now considered by God as having died and been buried.  Paul mentions burial here because the burial confirms the reality of death.  You can be assured that you truly died to the old age of sin.

But if all of this has taken place through faith alone, then why does Paul mention that it is applied at our baptism?  Because baptism is God's gracious gift to you to assure you of what you cannot see.  You cannot see that through faith you have been united to Christ so that his life is now your life.  But in baptism you see it and it is God's picture of what He has done for you spiritually in Christ so that you may be assured of what He has done.

Think of it this way:  When you were born you were given a birth certificate with a legal seal on it to prove that you were born in this country.  And that birth certificate follows you all through your life.  You must have it to get a social security number in order to work, or a driver's license in order to drive, or a passport in order to travel abroad.  It is your proof and confirmation that you are a legal citizen of this country and with it you have access to all the benefits this country offers.

But is the birth certificate your birth?  Did you only inherit the blessings of your United States citizenship when you received that piece of paper or did you inherit them when you were born?  Note that the certificate isn't the birth, but the sign and seal of it.  It points to and confirms your birth.  In the same way, your baptism is not your new birth in Christ.  But it points to it and confirms that it has taken place.  Your baptism wasn't the time and place that you were born again -- that happened the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ and rested in His work alone -- but your baptism is God's gracious gift through which he assures you that that death and burial to your old life of sin and death has certainly taken place.  You can then look to your baptism in faith as your assurance that Christ's life has become your life or as Paul says in Gal. 3:

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ (Gal. 3:27).

You have been transferred to God's kingdom and all the blessings which Christ accomplished are now your eternal possession.  And your baptism points to that new life that you now enjoy in Christ.

But what is the main point of all that Paul is saying?  The whole purpose of your participation in the death and burial of Christ is so that you may now "walk in newness of life" (vv. 4-5).  And this "newness of life" is your daily walk or life that is now empowered by your heavenly King and it is a life that now reflects the life and character of your new Master.  We now live/walk/obey our Lord because we have been given a whole new life in Christ that is now empowered from above by His Spirit so that we may walk holy before him. 

This newness of life is so radical that Paul compares it to the resurrection of Christ.  Just as you participated in the death and burial of Christ so that your old life in Adam has been put to death, so you have equally participated in the resurrection of Christ so that you may now be empowered to live your new life in Christ.

Now this is very important:  It is because Christ has been raised from the dead that you can and should walk in newness of life.  This is your assurance that you can live a holy and obedient life before Christ.  This is your motivation to holiness.  Not only has your guilt and penalty of sin been forever removed, but now through Christ's life you have the power to live a life that is pleasing to God.  You are just as assured that you are enabled to live a life of obedience as you are of Christ's resurrection. 

Another way of saying this is that your present life of holiness and obedience (the entire sanctification process) is grounded and constantly fed and nourished by your union in Christ who has been powerfully raised from the dead.  The resurrection power of Christ is at your complete disposal so that you may walk in obedience to Christ.  John Calvin wrote on this verse:

By these words (vv. 3-5) he not only exhorts us to follow Christ as if he had said that we are admonished through baptism to die to our desires by the example of Christ's death, and to be aroused to righteousness by the example of his resurrection, but he also takes hold of something far higher; namely, that through baptism Christ makes us sharers in his death, that we may be engrafted in it.  And, just as the twig draws substance and nourishment from the root to which it is grafted, so those who receive baptism with right faith truly feel the effective working of Christ's death in the mortification of their flesh, together with the working of his resurrection in the vivification of the Spirit (Calvin, Institutes 4.15.5).

Jesus Christ is your meat and drink that nourishes you to live a life of holiness corem deo (before the face of God) and you receive him graciously through Word and Sacraments.

There is a real, physical resurrection that awaits each of us when Christ appears from Heaven, but the effects of that future resurrection has already broken into our present life to sustain us in our present wilderness journey (cf. Phil. 3:10-11).  Jesus Christ is the rock from which the true living water quenches our thirst.  He is the bread and quail from heaven who fills and removes our hunger.  He is our life and we live in Him.

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 delivered Himself up for me (Gal. 2:20). 

Amen! -SDG-