Romans 6:5-6 Romans 6:5-The Believer's Identification with Christ
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Romans 6:5-6 Romans 6:5-The Believer’s Identification with Christ in His Physical Death is the Basis for His Future Resurrection In Romans 6:5, Paul teaches that the believer’s identification with Christ in His physical death is the basis for his future resurrection. Romans 6:1-5, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” “For ” is the “inferential” use of the post-positive conjunction gar ( gavr ), which introduces a first class conditional statement that draws an inference drawn Paul’s statements in Romans 6:2-4. In Romans 6:2b, Paul teaches that the believer is dead to the sin nature. Romans 6:2b, “We, who are indeed of such character and of a particular class of individuals, have died with reference to the sin nature, how shall we still live under its dominion? ” In Romans 6:3, the apostle teaches that the believer has been identified with Jesus Christ and specifically that the believer is identified with Christ in His spiritual death, which solved the problem of real spiritual death. Romans 6:3, “Or, are some of you in a state of ignorance concerning the fact that all of us who have been identified with Christ, who is Jesus, have been identified with His spiritual death?” Then, in Romans 6:4a, he teaches that the believer is identified with Jesus Christ in His physical death and burial. Lastly, in Romans 6:4b, Paul teaches that Christ’s resurrection enables the believer to walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4, “Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism with respect to His physical death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead ones through the glory of the Father, in the same way, we, ourselves will also walk in the realm of an extraordinary life.” As we have noted in our previous studies, Adam died spiritually first and then physically. This pattern holds true as we noted in Romans 5:12-21 for his posterity, the human race. 2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 1 Jesus Christ’s obedience to the Father’s will in dying a spiritual death negated Adam’s spiritual death and its effects, namely, physical death and eternal condemnation. Therefore, the sinner who trusts in Jesus Christ is delivered from all three. Romans 5:12-21 taught us that the sin nature came into the world through Adam’s transgression and spiritual death through the sin nature. God imputed Adam’s transgression to every member of his posterity, i.e. the human race. Therefore, every member of the human is born into this world, physically alive yet spiritually dead and in need of justification. The sin nature resides in the physical body (Romans 6:6). Romans 6:6, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.” Personal sin is the result of obeying the desires of the sin nature. Real spiritual death is the result of possessing a sin nature and committing personal sin perpetuates this status. Therefore, the human race had three major problems that are interconnected, the sin nature, spiritual death and personal sins. Jesus Christ’s spiritual and physical deaths dealt with all three. Spiritual death is the product of the sin nature and personal sin perpetuates this status of spiritual death. The human race is under the status of real spiritual death because of the sin nature, which was passed down from Adam. Spiritual death is the consequence of not only possessing a sin nature but also obeying its desires and committing personal sin. Instead, of the human race suffering the consequences of possessing a sin nature and obeying its desires and committing personal sin, Jesus Christ died spiritually in their place as their Substitute. Thus, His spiritual death negates one of the effects of Adam’s sin, which is spiritual death that is the result of possessing a sin nature and committing sin. Therefore, our Lord had to die spiritually to solve the problem of spiritual death in the human race. His spiritual death dealt with the consequences of the human race possessing a sin nature and obeying its desires, namely, spiritual death. Adam acquired a sin nature when he disobeyed the Lord’s command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This sin nature was passed down to his posterity, i.e. the human race through sex and resides in the genetic structure of every body of every human being. Therefore, the status of spiritual death was passed down to Adam’s posterity since spiritual death entered the human race through the sin nature. Spiritual death is the status of possessing a sin nature due to the imputation of Adam’s original sin in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, our Lord had to die 2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 2 physically to solve the problem of the sin nature, which resides in the body of every human being. Our Lord’s resurrection body replaces the sinful body of Adam. The believer will receive a resurrection body like Christ in order to replace their physical bodies that possess the sin nature, the Adamic body. Therefore, God the Father viewed His Son’s spiritual death as negating spiritual death in the human race and viewed His physical death as negating the sin nature. Personal sin perpetuated the status of real spiritual death and through the function of human volition is the product of the sin nature. Consequently, the sinner who is declared justified through faith in Christ is identified with Christ in His spiritual death in order to solve the sinner’s problem of real spiritual death whereas the sinner is identified with Christ in His physical death in order to solve the sinner’s problem with the old sin nature. Therefore, Christ’s spiritual and physical death resolved the human race’s problem with the sin nature, spiritual death and personal sins. Thus, there is a clear pattern in that the first Adam sinned and then, he died spiritually while simultaneously acquiring a sin nature and then he died physically (Genesis 5:5) and this sin nature is passed down at physical birth. The last Adam obeyed the Father, died spiritually as a Substitute for Adam and his posterity, and then died physically to break the power of the sin nature. Then, the last Adam was raised from physical death and received a resurrection body, which would be passed down to His spiritual posterity, namely, those who trust in Him as Savior. In Romans 6, Paul follows this pattern. Thus, in Romans 6:3, he speaks of the justified sinner being identified with Christ in His spiritual death so as to solve his problem of being spiritually dead. In other words, the justified sinner is identified with Christ in His spiritual death in order to solve the problem of the consequences of possessing a sin nature and committing sin by obeying the desires of the sin nature. Romans 6:3, “Or, are some of you in a state of ignorance concerning the fact that all of us who have been identified with Christ, who is Jesus, have been identified with His spiritual death?” Then, in Romans 6:4, he speaks of the justified sinner being identified with Christ in His physical death so as to break the power of the sin nature. Romans 6:4, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” In Romans 6:5, the apostle teaches that the justified sinner is identified with Christ in His resurrection in order to solve the problem of possessing a sin nature. This identification with Christ’s resurrection solves the problem of the sin nature 2008 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 3 that resides in the human body in that it guarantees that the believer will receive a resurrection body like the last Adam, Christ so as to replace his sinful body. Therefore, in Romans 6:3, the noun thanatos , “ death ” is a reference to the spiritual death of Christ, which dealt with the consequences of obeying the desires of the sin nature and committing personal sin. However, in Romans 6:4, Paul teaches that the believer is identified with Jesus Christ in His physical death since thanatos , “ death ” is used in relation to our Lord’s burial, which certified that a person was physically dead. Our Lord’s physical death broke the power of the sin nature. Then in Romans 6:5, Paul teaches that the justified sinner is identified with Christ in His resurrection in order to solve the problem of possessing a sin nature and it guarantees him that he will receive a resurrection body to replace his sinful body.