Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 1 Study # 7
August 29, 2006
Lincolnton, N.C.

• I. This Verse is a Declaration that Restates Verses 3-4.
  • A. The word "to be dead" is used in Romans Six five times.
  • B. The word "death" is used seven times.
  • C. The word "crucified" is used once.
  • D. The word "the dead" is used four times.
  • E. The word "mortal" is used once.
  • F. The word "buried" is used once.
  • G. That makes 19 references to death in this part of Paul's explanation of how we are to live.
• II. This verse is set in the context after this manner...
  
  Romans 6:1-14 MAJOR QUESTION
  1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Major Thesis
  2 God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? Argument
  3 Or are ye ignorant
  that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
  4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death:
  that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
  so we also might walk in newness of life.
  5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death,
  we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; 6 knowing this,
  that our old man was crucified with him,
  that the body of sin might be done away,
  that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;
  7 for he that hath died is justified from sin.
  8 But if we died with Christ,
  we believe that we shall also live with him; 9 knowing
  that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;
  death no more hath dominion over him.
  10 For the death that he died,
  he died unto sin once:
  but the life that he liveth,
  he liveth unto God.
  11 Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin,
  but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
  12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,
  that ye should obey the lusts thereof:
  13 neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness;
  but present yourselves unto God,
  as alive from the dead,
  and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
  14 For sin shall not have dominion over you:
  for ye are not under law, but under grace.
• III. As a Restatement, It Makes No New Contribution to His Argument.
  • A. It begins with "For" -- indicating that it is going to explain a preceding statement.
    • 1. The preceding statement is a declaration that "we should walk in newness of life."
    • 2. Thus, the reasoning is: "We should walk in newness of life" because we have been "planted" in the likeness of both His death and His resurrection.
      • a. The word translated "planted" is a compound that is only found here in the New Testament, but the basic word from which the compound is built is used in three other places. All of these other contexts indicate that the word is used to indicate the initial growth that comes from a seed that has germinated and sent a shoot out of the earth. Thus, the word does not mean so much "planted together" as it means "coming up together out of the seed's setting" -- a very graphic picture in Paul's argument here in Romans 6 because "death" is the "locus" wherein Christ and those who believe in Him begin their "union" and subsequent "growth together".
        • 1) Paul begins his argument in Romans 6 with "we are dead" (v. 2); he develops it with "we were baptized into His death" (v. 3); and he states it yet again in the words "we were buried with Him by baptism into death" (v. 4). Somehow I think he wants us to think in terms of being "dead" with Christ as a beginning point for our thinking about how we are going to now live.
        • 2) But, that "death together" became a "seed bed" wherein the newness of life has its roots as the "glory of the Father" applies "resurrection power" to those who are united together in death. Thus, we "grow together" up out of that "death" into a "newness of life."
      • b. Though, from the analogy, we can easily see why the Authorized Version translators chose to translate it "planted together", it is more accurate to think in terms of the "union" that is the root of the idea. We have been "thoroughly united together" with Him so that whatever He does, we are "with" Him. In this text, the "whatever" happens to be rising from the dead. Being "planted together" implies two seeds in one seedbed. But Paul's "point" is that there are not two seeds -- there is only one seed made of two identities (Christ's and ours). As the glory of the Trinity consists, in part, of a mulitiplicity of personalities in indissoluble union, so the glory of the Church consists, in part, of an indissoluble union of multiple persons.
  • B. The future tense of "we shall be" (in the likeness of HIs resurrection) is a declaration of our immediate future.
    • 1. Since Paul is seeking to establish a present life that is marked by some level of freedom from the dominion of sin, he is either using "hope" (the declaration of our distant future) to provide a basis for such a life, or he is using a "present reality" to motivate an immediate future of sin-free living. But, there are only five future tense verbs in Romans 6 and they are all tied directly to the immediate future (shall we continue in Sin?; how shall we live any longer therein?; Sin shall not have dominion over you; shall we sin because we are not under Law?)
    • 2. Since all "living" is rooted in the way we think (even Sin cannot "slay" us until it first "deceives" us -- Romans 7:11), it is critical that we "think" true thoughts. Nothing is more true than that we have been united to Christ in such a way that His actions are ours, His experience is ours, and His accomplishments are ours. However, there is another truth that must be in our thinking: our current experience is a mixed bag in which both the "flesh" and the "Spirit" vie for the freedom to express themselves through our bodies. As long as we are in this body, this reality is going to exist. There is no "autopilot" that we can "set" that will enable us to escape the reality of this internal struggle. Paul calls the struggle a "fight of faith" and he indicates that it begins with our grasp of our death to sin in Christ and develops with our grasp of how the "glory of the Father" is applied to our daily living.
    • 3. The question is of "what" shall be in our case.
      • a. Christ's death under the Law abrogated the Law so that there is no divine reaction to sin in the lives of those who are in Christ in one major respect: Justice does not react (where there is no Law, sin is not imputed). This is Romans 6:1-14.
        • 1) This does not mean that there is no divine reaction at all.
        • 2) The "glory of the Father" is comprehensive and there are many aspects of His person which react to the actions of others.
        • 3) In the case of the child of the Father, there is always a reaction to anything that threatens the child's true welfare. Likewise, there is always a reaction to anything that promotes the child's true welfare.
        • 4) On this level, a child of the Father is free from every "compulsion" that is driven by fear: we do not "have" to do anything that has its roots in "fear". In respect to the Justice of God, there is nothing to fear.
        • 5) But, the conclusion is this: even though the Father does not react to sin in the lives of those who are in Christ, there is nothing here that insists that sin is not produced out of their bodies.
      • b. Christ's death did nothing about the inevitable function of Creation: Creation functions under many "laws" (such as cause/effect) and the only escape from that function is to escape this creation and its "order". This is Romans 6:15-23.