Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 1 Study # 5
August 15, 2006
Lincolnton, N.C.
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<242> Thesis:   The Father's intention toward us is "newness of life." Introduction:   Last week we continued to consider Paul's claim in Romans 6:1-14 that our union with Christ by the baptism by the Spirit is to significantly affect our typical commitment to "sin". Since the issue of "sinning" has enormous implications for the quality of our lives, it seems to me that all of us ought to have some degree of interest -- even if it is totally self-interest -- in discovering what Paul was teaching in Romans 6. In the first fourteen verses of Romans 6, Paul puts his emphasis upon the potential for "newness of life" in contrast to living under the "mastery of sin". In the last nine verses of Romans 6, he puts his emphasis upon the danger of yielding to that mastery. In these first fourteen verses, the possibility of a "newness" of life is set forth upon the foundations of what Paul has called our "baptism into Christ". He is deliberately attempting to focus our attention upon not only what Christ did on our behalf in making us a part of a new humanity that has been delivered from the old Adamic humanity but also upon the absolute identification that we have with Christ by the baptism by the Spirit so that God actually treats us as "Christ's brethren". This evening we are going to look more specifically at our identification with Christ in His burial.