Grow 04: Romans 6:10-11

Romans 6:10-11 (NASB)

¹⁰For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Included…positioned…identified

Romans chapter 6 is one of the most important chapters in the Bible for the understanding of our identification with Christ, as we have seen.  It is crystal clear in Romans 6-8 that our life is in Christ.  Every moment of every day is about looking to Jesus, trusting in Him, beholding Him.  Jesus didn’t just offer “fire insurance” or a “get out of hell free” card.  Our faith in, and reliance upon Him is a part of every single aspect of our salvation and day to day life.  Scripture repeatedly displays for us the reality that we are to rest in what He has done, and He is to live His life out within us.

Romans 6:10

For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

The Death He died

Unlike many world religions, our faith in Jesus is rooted in reality.  The fact that God has been interacting and involved with human history is vital.  If the accounts that are recorded in the Bible are false, then we are to be pitied above all other people.  Christianity is rooted in History, and this fact is no more clearly portrayed then at the cross.  If Jesus Christ did not die for us, then our entire faith is fully in vain.  The nice thoughts, and pretty poems mean nothing if Jesus wasn’t actually God in the flesh and if He didn’t actually die for our sins. 

This historical fact of Christ’s claims and death on the cross are beyond question.  Besides the New Testament documents (which are substantial) we have the works of Josephus and other ancient historians who confirmed Christ’s death and that His disciples believed he had risen again.  While the unbelieving world readily denies the resurrection no serious attempt can be made to deny the crucifixion of Christ.

So what?

The question may be asked:  Why is the death of Christ so important?  We learn here in this chapter that the death of Christ is not merely symbolical, nor is it mythological.  The death of Christ on the cross actually occurred and had real consequences for everyone who is in Him.  It is important to notice that Paul is emphatically and repeatedly describing Christ’s death for the chief and shining purpose of letting believers know that they share this history.  When we were placed in Christ at His crucifixion everything that was true of Christ became true of us!  When Jesus died, I died.  When Jesus died, every believer died with Him.  The effects for Him are also the effects for us.  What were the effects of Jesus’ death on the Cross?

Died to Sin

Jesus was forever separated from the power of sin.  The funny thing is that we know that Jesus had no sin nature.  There was no sin within Him.  He became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).  And died, forever separating us from the power of Sin.  The death of Christ to sin is said to have happened “once for all”.  This is a very special Greek word hapax it means something that is once given and perpetually valid.  The death that Christ died to sin is not something the He needs to repeat again and again, and thus it is not something the believer needs to repeat again and again.  This is something that is clearly shown to be done once and finished.  Christ did it once, and he doesn’t ever need to repeat it.  Thus if we attempt to repeat what Christ has already done, or pray for something that He has already given us we will be continually frustrated.

But the Life…

However, death to sin isn’t all that occurred in us at the Cross.  It gets better.  Christ isn’t just the freedom that we needed from sin, but rather the source of our very life!  This is the positive side of the coin, and it is very positive indeed!  In Christ we are now raised into His life.  His life that will never end, eternal connection and relationship to God.  We are now able, capable of, having unbroken fellowship with the Father!  This is fantastic news!  Before the cross we were only able to live by our own means and devices, and now you share HIS life, now HE is the motivator for everything.  This is why the believer is not going to continue in Sin, because we live by the life of Jesus within us, and He doesn’t sin.  So why do we still sin?  As we will see, we still have a choice.  We can choose to live by our new nature in Jesus Christ or we can choose to live by our old nature (the Sin – or the Sin Nature).

Romans 6:11

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Even so…

Resting on the reality of the life of Christ and our newfound connection and relationship to God we are to have a choice to make.  There are countless books, and methods created every year for dealing with sin in the life of the believer.  12 step programs, video courses and Christian councilors giving new and novel methods to deal with sin in the life of the believer, but this is what the Bible has to say about it.  Here it is:

Consider – Reckon – Count it as true

How are we going to have freedom from the sin nature, even though it continues to dwell within us?  How are we going to experience victory from that horrible old slave master that only brought death, pain and destruction?  The message of this passage is clear:

	KNOW – What happened at the cross, and that you were there, that you are now free from Sin (Romans 6:3-10)
			CONSIDER-RECKON – Put it down as a fact.  Count it as true.  Trust in it every moment of every day (Romans 6:11)
					PRESENT – Present yourself to God for His use and righteousness (Romans 6:13)

                                                                                                                                                             

The word translated “consider” here is an accounting term.  It means to record something in the books as a fact, an actuality.  Paul is essentially saying, “This is true – you have already been given freedom from Sin – trust in it.” 

Imagine a person jumping out of an airplane.  He has a parachute strapped to his back and is jumping with a friend.  The friend screams, “Pull your rip chord!  Release your chute!” to which the first person says, “I don’t trust my parachute!”  He then begins furiously flapping his arms like wings, and consequently plummets to his death.  This is exactly what Christians do when we try to do battle with sin on our own power or might.  We ignore what Christ has already done for us and then wind up as a messy spot on the spiritual pavement. 

Not this…but THAT

As we see in Paul’s pattern here, we haven’t just been getting the negative, but the positive as well.  To be dead to God (separated from God) was to be alive to sin (united to sin), but here we see to be dead to sin, is to be alive to God.  We are to continue to live trusting in the reality that we are alive to God.  The sin nature has no power over us.  There is no hopeless moment of doomed despondency.  The penalty and sting of sin have been forever dealt with at the cross.  The reality of what happened doesn’t just separate us from the power of sin, but unites us to the life of God.  Faith in Jesus Christ is not just about being saved from the negative, it is mostly about the immense positives of knowing God and living in a vital and active relationship with Him! 

But where?

This verse closes with one of the most powerful phrases of Scripture.  That phrase is: “in Christ.”  This is a positional statement that we have already seen outlined.  The believer has been identified with Him in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seating at the right hand of the Father.  All of our life is found, and to be lived, In CHRIST.  We are to be constantly trusting him with every moment, with every trial, with every difficulty, with every relationship.  While we live our lives at rest in Him in the heavenly places, He is living our lives out for us here on earth.  It is His life, His love, His joy, His peace.  We realize that if we try to fake these things, or try to create these outcomes on our own we continually fail, it is in HIM that we have eternal life, it is IN HIM we have victory over sin.  It is His life within us that can change our lives and the lives of those around us, and it is our greatest delusion that we thought we could “fake it.”

It is worth noting that for as frequently as this all important phrase “in Christ” is applied to the believer, the idea of being “out of Christ” is never once presented in scripture.  There is never anyone who is “un-baptized” or “un-seated”.  Everything that Scripture tells us is that once we put our faith in Jesus Christ a permanent change has occurred that cannot be ruined, destroyed or eliminated.

Conclusion

Just as your justification was by faith in what Jesus has done and is yet powerful to do, so you sanctification will be handled by the very same means – faith in the God who loves you, and has set you apart for his own purpose!