Romans 6:5-11
For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him! For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In this passage, we continue on with the idea of our identification with Christ. You can see that this was a very important part of the Gospel that Paul was given to communicate to us. From Romans 6 on, the letter reads like an instruction manual for Christians. It is sometimes difficult to read the manual, but if we really want to know how to operate our Christian life, we need to study it.
Considering the fact that we were with Jesus in His death, we should also realize that we are with Him in His raising up from the dead. Paul makes it clear that when we died with Christ, our “old man” was killed in Him. This doesn’t mean our father died! The “old man” is the before-Christ part us that belonged to Adam’s family; the family of sin and death. This is hard for us to understand but easy for God so think carefully. Even though we died in Christ a long time ago, our bodies are actually still alive now. The full reality of our body’s death won’t be realized until we die or are changed into our new bodies. Now this isn’t really much more complicated than many modern movies today and it is far more important, so don’t give up thinking about it. Make sure you seek God’s help in understanding what He wants you to understand today. God sees all of time and He can cause us to live today what was done in the past and won’t be fully realized until the future. This supernatural, Spiritual thing causes the worst of sinners to do good in these bad bodies!
When Jesus resurrected, He resurrected for the final time. In other words, He was never going to die or resurrect again. What does this mean? Well, it means we have a permanent position in Christ right now and can’t lose our ability to be righteous even if we sin again. We can still confess our sin and get back on track because the same death and resurrection covers all sin. Jesus won’t be dying again for any of our future sins and we won’t be dying for them either unless we refuse to accept Christ’s payment.
Not only that, Jesus is not just alive, but “He lives to God.” That is how God can get us to be
righteous in Christ. In Christ we are also living to God. So, the point of this is to show that it doesn’t make sense for us to stay in our old sinful state. God is working on us to move us to
righteousness through Jesus. So, we should recognize the fact that we died with Jesus to sin and live with Jesus for God right now. Why are we not experiencing that? Well, that’s a great question and we need to get all the way through chapter eight in the Romans manual to get a full understanding. Feel free to read ahead.