WWUTT 1242 If We Have Been United in a Death Like His? (Romans 6:3-5)

Romans 6 -5 says, if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.

This isn't talking about the afterlife, it's talking about this life, when we understand the text.

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Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of Romans chapter 6, and to start out here,

I'm going to read verses 1 -11. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin? That grace may abound? By no means!

How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.

We know that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him.

For the death He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life

He lives, He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

So yesterday we looked at verses 1 and 2. And verse 1 is not really the thesis of the chapter.

Like when you go back to Romans chapter 5, it says therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. And that statement not only summarizes chapter 4, but sets up the rest of chapter 5.

Whereas here in Romans 6, the first verse doesn't really set up the argument that Paul is making here, the apologetic that he's laying forth.

But rather it's the second verse, by no means, is the way that it starts, meaning that we don't continue in sin, making this excuse that, see,

I'm demonstrating the grace of God and that I can continue in sin and watch me not go to hell. OK, no, the

Apostle Paul says that is not what we're saying, because a person who continues to live in sin is demonstrating that they have not been saved.

They're still enslaved to sin rather than enslaved to righteousness, which is an argument

Paul is going to make a little bit later on in the chapter. Remember, John 336, he who has the son has life, but he who does not obey the son shall not see life.

But the wrath of God remains on him. Jesus saying to his disciples later on in John 14, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments.

You demonstrate that the word of God is in you when you keep it, when you do what it says.

If you continue to walk contrary to the commandments of God, then you are showing yourself to be a walking in depravity under God's judgment, rather in his grace.

So Paul is laying forth very emphatically at the start of this chapter. When we say that you are saved by grace through faith and not of works, we are not saying that you can therefore walk in sin, that the grace of God may abound.

And that is not the argument that is being made. But if you have the grace of God, if he has shown you grace and cleansed you of all unrighteousness, then you will no longer walk in unrighteousness, which which we continue to explore as we go through Roman six.

So again, verse two, he says, by no means my good Noita. How can we who died to sin still live in it?

So that's really the thesis to the rest of Roman six. How can we who have died to sin continue to walk in sin?

If we're in Christ, we're dead to sin. We're alive in righteousness. We have the righteousness of Christ. So we must demonstrate that righteousness with our lives.

Verse three. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Now, one of the things this is demonstrating is that baptism is a spiritual thing before it's something physical, before it's something that you do outwardly.

So there is a spiritual baptism that has happened before you then show yourself as one who has been baptized with Christ by doing it outwardly, being dunked in water and coming up again.

Whenever I do a baptism, when I'm taking a person down under the water, I will say, of course,

I'm Baptist. So we do full immersion, right? As we're going down under the water, I say, be buried with Christ in your sins.

And then they come up again. And I say, and raised again to new life. And it comes from this passage here in Romans chapter six, verses one through four.

We're being shown here that baptism is something that happens spiritually. And then as almost as if like a first act of obedience, you show this inward change that has happened in you by doing it outwardly, by being baptized.

And this is the way that our Christian walk should be. Something has happened in the heart.

But the evidence of what's happened inside spiritually is going to be seen by what you produce outwardly, the fruit that you produce.

We talked yesterday about the fruit of the spirit. Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven, you will know them by their fruit.

A good tree produces good fruit. Bad trees produce bad fruit. So if you are in Christ, you are going to show the good fruit of that transformation that has happened.

The cleansing, the resurrection, your dead spiritual self being raised to new life.

This has happened spiritually for you before. It's something that you do outwardly.

The outward baptism that we practice, it doesn't save anybody. There's plenty of people out there who will say that it does.

The Church of Christ, meaning the denomination, the disciples of Christ, the Campbell and Stone movement, that whole thing.

They taught that you have to be baptized in order to be saved. If you don't get baptized, then you are not saved.

So you're a pagan until you're baptized. And then it's the baptism itself that saves you.

Well, that's salvation by works. And that's heresy. According to what Paul is saying here in Romans, as his argument has been throughout, that we are justified by faith and not by our works.

Romans 4, 5, again, to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Your faith is counted as righteousness, not your baptism. But we are saved by baptism in the sense of that spiritual baptism.

We all need a baptism of the Holy Spirit. And a baptism of the Holy Spirit is not some second baptism.

It's not something that happens that causes you to be able to speak in tongues or have some sort of spiritual gifting.

When you come to faith in Christ, you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

As it says in Titus 3, 5, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our

Savior. So this is a baptism of the Holy Spirit that occurs. And that is necessary for salvation.

You're not saved until you have been washed by the Holy Spirit. So what has happened spiritually is then something that we demonstrate outwardly in obedience to the command of our

Lord Jesus Christ to be baptized and to baptize. That's part of the

Great Commission. Jesus said to his disciples to go into all nations, making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

So we, when we have been changed on the inside, show on the outside this transformation that has taken place, which, by the way, is why

I'm a Credo Baptist, meaning that I'm a Baptist rather than a Presbyterian or Methodist or Lutheran or anyone else that any other denomination that baptizes babies or infants.

It's very clear in the teaching of baptism from Scripture that we're talking about something that is done outwardly to show a change that has happened inwardly.

And an infant can't do that. They've made no profession of faith. They have no understanding of their sin and need for a

Savior. And it's when we have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer

I who live, but Christ who lives within me, when we've been raised from death to life by the baptism of the

Holy Spirit. So we show this outwardly by making this confession of faith through baptism before the body of believers.

So we have again in verse three, do you not know that all of us, therefore,

I'm sorry, that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, we, too, might walk in newness of life. Let me let me repeat that again.

So just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, too, might walk in newness of life.

So I'm going to say here again something I mentioned yesterday. What we're talking about is new birth, that we're not walking in our dead sinful ways anymore, but we are walking in new life in Jesus Christ.

This is not a passage talking about how when we die, we will be raised again to live with God in heaven.

That's certainly true. If you have faith in Jesus Christ, when your body dies, you will not perish.

You will not be cast out of God's presence in the judgment of God. You will not be cast into hell.

But all who are in Christ Jesus are saved and we will be united with God forever in glory in the place where God dwells, which is heaven.

So that's certainly true. And there's many passages that we can use to lay out that particular doctrine, the doctrine of eternal life.

But this passage is not one of them. We're not talking about that here in Romans six. We are talking about being dead to sin and alive in Christ.

We're no longer walking in our sinfulness, but we're walking in the righteousness of Jesus. So just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we, too, might walk in newness of life.

So even here, a reference to the resurrection is talking about the spiritual resurrection that we experience when we are born again.

Jesus said to Nicodemus that unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

This was the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus in John three. Truly, truly,

I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus first words to Nicodemus in John three, three and Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? It's very clear here that Nicodemus is not thinking with the mind of God.

He's not thinking with a spiritual mind, but with an earthly mind. And Jesus answered him, truly, truly,

I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

They were talking about a baptism of the Holy Spirit, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. It's mysterious.

It happens. It is miraculous. When we put faith in Christ, we're a new creation.

How can we possibly comprehend or wrap our minds around these things that are so deeply spiritual?

It's difficult and it is a mystery. There are things that are mysterious about it. There are things that are simple about it and there are things that are vastly complicated that we can't even wrap our minds around.

It's very simple in the sense that you tell a person, believe and you will be saved. That is all

Paul and Silas had to say to the jailer in Philippi when the jailer falls down before them and says, good sirs, what must

I do to be saved? And Paul and Silas say to him, believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Now that passage goes on to say that they explained many other things to him after that and to his whole household and everyone in his home became a

Christian. But it was still, it still began with this simple statement, believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That's a very simple instruction. Peter said the same thing at Pentecost in Acts chapter two, believe and you will be saved.

Jesus saying to his own disciples, whoever believes in me will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

But there's also something deeply complicated going on there because God is doing a miraculous work that we just cannot fathom when we try to think of it on the level of God.

We'll never get there. We will ponder just what the scripture says for the rest of our lives and we'll never arrive at the end of it.

I'm so grateful for first Corinthians 13, which you know is the love chapter, right?

Love is patient. Love is kind. But what it also says there at the end of that chapter is for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known.

So we know just part of these mysterious things. God knows the whole and a day will come when we will see things as he sees them.

As it says in first John three, two, we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.

So once again, I'm talking about glorified things. I'm talking about our heavenly existence.

Let's consider a little bit more about this new life that we are to be walking in in Christ Jesus.

Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life.

So when you become a Christian, you are raised from the dead. You're dead. Spiritual self has been given life.

You were born physically alive, but spiritually dead. And when you hear the gospel, you are born again, born unto new life.

You didn't have anything to do with your first birth. You don't have anything to do with your second birth. It is by the power of God.

So we go on here into verse five, and I was hoping to get to this verse today because this this is a verse that is truly intrigued me.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Why is this verse so intriguing to me? Because it's in none of my study

Bibles like the notes. I mean, it's in every Bible that I have. But the notes portion, there's no note at the bottom in any of the study

Bibles I have regarding Roman six five. I don't understand that. It's not in my ESV study

Bible. It's not in my my the Reformation study Bible. I had to look over at the title.

I couldn't remember. It's not in my NASB study Bible. It's not in my NIV study Bible. There's no note for this verse in my

John MacArthur study Bible, nor is there any note for this verse in my John MacArthur Bible commentary.

Why? Why have so many commentators skipped over writing a note on Roman six five?

I thought that was extremely bad. So this this verse became more mysterious to me. I wasn't that intrigued by it until I noticed no one was writing a note on it.

Why? Why do they go from writing notes on Roman six four to Roman six six but skip right over Roman six five?

I don't know. Anyway, I just found that extremely curious. I would think that it makes sense in light of what you read in verse four and in verse six.

So we go on in verse six to read. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

So even though once again, even though we're talking about death and resurrection in Roman six five, we're not talking about our bodily death and then our resurrection into heaven.

We're still talking about here dying to sin and being raised again to new life if we have been united with him in a death like his.

Interestingly enough, if you've been following along with me in your King James Bible, you might notice you might notice that in the

King James, it says, for if we have been planted with him. Now, I looked up a number of scholars who break down the

Greek in this particular passage, and they almost unanimously agree that planted is not the right translation of that word.

So if we have been planted with him in a death like his, but they also go on to say that a right translation of that word would be grafted.

So like you have two branches that are grafted together or you take a branch and you graft it onto a plant, a healthy branch so that it produces buds, that sort of thing.

Anyway, grafted would be the better word. But Paul is not shifting metaphors here.

So we shouldn't think that grafted is the word as though to apply to planting. We're still talking about baptism.

So the right therefore, the right translation of that word.

And I guess if I knew my Greek grammar better, I would be able to explain this better. But the right translation of that is rather united.

It's not planted. It's not grafted, but it's being united. Grafted was the best word that Paul could use.

But what he's specifically saying is that we're united. If we have been united with Christ, if we become one with Christ in a death that is like his, again,

Galatians 220, I've been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.

I've put myself to death. I've put my flesh to death. As we read yesterday in Colossians 3, 5, put to death what is earthly in you.

So no longer wanting to walk in the earthly pattern or the fleshly pattern of ourselves chasing after the desires of the body and the mind, but wanting to pursue the things that are pleasing unto

God. If we've been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

There is a fellow by the name of Charles Ellicott. He was an Anglican minister, an academic, and wrote a commentary.

In fact, you can find in many online sources, it's Ellicott's commentary for English readers.

And here is what Charles Ellicott said about this particular verse, Romans 6, 5.

He said this conformity, this unity that we're talking about here means, of course, dying to trespasses and sins, being completely removed from the sphere of their influence, and entering a new sphere corresponding to the glorified life of the

Redeemer. The Redeemer, capital R, being Jesus. So we're entering a new sphere of life that corresponds to the glorified life of Jesus.

The ethical resurrection of the Christian begins, or is ideally supposed to begin, and with the early

Christian usually did begin in baptism. It is continued through life, and it is completed with his physical resurrection, unquote.

So that is that's Charles Ellicott on this kind of resurrection that we're talking about.

We've been raised to new life, but in being raised to this new life, there is the promise of eternal life.

So it's not like the picture of eternal life isn't here at all, but we're not just talking about that.

We're more specifically talking about walking in righteousness, the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to us by faith in him, believing that when he died on the cross for our sins, he died in our place.

And by faith in him, we crucify our sins on his cross.

It's like our sins are imputed to him, and we die with him. We don't have to die that death, like physically.

You don't place yourself on the cross, but spiritually, you do. You're no longer desiring the passions of your sinful self, but you are given a new self, and that is in the righteousness of Christ.

And so raised with him from the dead, not walking in things that lead to death, which is sin, but rather walking in things that lead to life, which is righteousness.

So this is the new life that we are in, and may we continue to walk in that today.

Walk in righteousness, pursue those things that please the Lord, and do so until you join him in glory, because you are joined with him now.

I could keep adding to this if we keep going. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this love that you show to us in your son, and may we walk in these things.

Forgive us our sins and our trespasses. When we get frustrated, when we get grumpy, when we get short with people, when we get tempted, when we sometimes give in to that temptation, may we be convicted by that and turn back to you, and know it is not in sin that we should be walking, but with the grace of God upon us we desire the righteousness of Christ.

Focus our eyes on you, and make our pursuit Jesus every day. We pray these things in Jesus' name.