Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
Today is 2-for-1 Friday!
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The Questions
1) What does Paul’s question, “how can we who died to sin still live in it”, mean for believers? (verse 2)
2) How are we united with Christ in His death and resurrection? (verses 5-6)
3) What does it mean for us to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ? (verses 8-11)
Romans 6:1-11
What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Original Intent
1) What does Paul’s question, “how can we who died to sin still live in it”, mean for believers? (verse 2)
Historically, the temple was the place God designed for humans to sacrifice animals to atone for their sins. This was a sacred grace God gave His people until Jesus came to make the final sacrifice. While there can be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22), animal sacrifices cannot permanently remove humanity’s sin (Hebrews 10:4). To enter the temple however one would have to dip into the mikvah as a ceremonial cleansing rite. (see a mikvah!) This ritual did not remove sin and did nothing to enable a person to live without sin, but was a tangible reminder of every person’s individual need to be cleansed from sin. Both the ceremonial mikvah washing and the animal sacrifice were instituted by God to show Israel, and the rest of the watching world, we are sinners in need of forgiveness. It was abundantly clear to every Jew that without death, there could be no forgiveness or freedom in life. Because God set up this picture of life and death connected to sin and sacrifice, Jesus’ death on the cross as a sacrifice to cover sin permanently, made sense. Jesus conquered death and sin by giving up His life, effectively removing our sin from “as far as the east is from the west”. (Psalm 103:12) When we surrender our life to Jesus, His victory over sin and death is shared with us in full. We are no longer enslaved to sin, we have indeed “died to sin”! While we no longer have an “obligation to sin” because Christ is our master (Romans 8:12), we still live in a fallen world where Satan rules and he “prowls around” us tempting us to sin against God. (1 Peter 5:8) In essence, Paul’s question asks, “If you have indeed died to sin through Jesus’ sacrifice, why do you keep choosing to give into temptation and live like Sin is still your Master?!” Temptation is the plot of the enemy to distract believers and draw them away from Christ; we are called to remember we are alive to Christ and dead to sin! (verse 11)
2) How are we united with Christ in His death and resurrection? (verses 5-6)
Every human heart is bound as a slave to the Master of Sin and Death by default because of our sin nature. Jesus came, fully human and fully God, to live a perfect life only to offer Himself as a payment to death on behalf of the sin of the world. (1 John 2:2) In His death, He permanently paid off the debt we owe to God because of our sin. Just like money in a bank account, however, unless we choose to access it by surrendering ourselves to Him, we cannot claim His righteousness as our own. To ask Jesus to rescue us from our personal sin debt is to be united with Him in His death, allowing His death to crucify our life as a slave to the Master of Sin. Herein, the chains to Sin and Death are forever gone! As Jesus was raised to life, He not only proved His eternal victory over Sin and Death, but He also was the “firstfruit to rise from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22) as He rose victorious over the grave to live forever. Just as He offered His death payment for us, He also offered His eternal resurrection to us. If we surrender to Him our life, knowing we are slaves to Sin and Death and allowing Him to free us from that taskmaster, He will awaken us to a resurrection of life! He doesn’t merely break our chains, He gives us new life! This was precisely what Paul wanted his readers to understand. Our old selves have been crucified with Christ, therefore, we are alive to live whole and free in the life He purchased through His resurrection!
3) What does it mean for us to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ? (verses 8-11)
Paul loved the gospel and gave his life to not only preaching it at every opportunity, but also in entering deeper and deeper into its depths by studying it and learning as the Holy Spirit taught him. The more he understood, the more he came to know in richer ways just how much freedom and abundance is available through the gospel because of the Holy Spirit living within us. Each day holds countless opportunities to surrender anew to Christ and die to our old sin nature. As Christians saturated in the whole understanding of the gospel, we know and must firmly grasp the truth that both the mindset of the world and its ways no longer have any hold over us. Christ broke that once and for all. When we are tempted to fall back into the old ways, the path of sin, we know we can claim Christ’s victory over our own struggles. The more we focus on how much power we have in Christ because of the Holy Spirit the more we realize we are so much more alive than we once were.
Everyday Application
1) What does Paul’s question, “how can we who died to sin still live in it”, mean for believers? (verse 2)
We have a sin problem, one that begins in our hearts and runs rampant through our everyday life choices. Pause for a few minutes, pray, and honestly ask the Lord to show you examples of sinful choices in your life. Maybe it was yesterday, last week, or 5 minutes ago, but if we are humble enough to ask the Holy Spirit to show us our sin, He definitely will! If you’ve surrendered your life to Christ and accepted His righteousness in place of your sinfulness, you have been forgiven! You don’t need to “give in” and live according to the pattern of sin anymore because you have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside you. His power gives us the God-sized ability to choose to serve Him over our desire for sin. This is why Paul spends so much time telling his Christian readers they were dead to sin and alive to Christ! In rich grace, God lavished the gift of righteousness in Christ upon all who call on Him to save them from sin. God is able to withhold punishment upon us for our sin because
He poured out the fullness of His just, righteous wrath on Jesus Christ instead of us. Though there is an abundance of grace flowing from the heart of God to cover our sin, this does not give us a blank check to keep on sinning. (verse 1) Just because grace can cover sin doesn’t mean we should allow ourselves to continue giving in to temptation to sin as this denies that we have died to sin! Every true Christian has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them and it’s His power that allows us to walk away from temptation. As you can recall sins you’ve committed, being a Christian doesn’t mean we will never sin again, but it does mean we are not “obligated” to our old sin nature. We are no longer slaves to sin! We have been rescued! Next time you’re tempted to fulfill a sinful desire, remember you’ve been set free!
2) How are we united with Christ in His death and resurrection? (verses 5-6)
In Jesus’ death, we die to ourselves; in His life we are alive and free to glory in His resurrection with Him. On days when temptation hits us on all sides, we must remember we are dead to sin! When we are tempted by our lusts, or to speak negative lies to ourselves in the mirror, or anger threatens to overtake us, we can release the grip of sin by remembering we are dead to it! As Christ was buried so is our old self; we are dead to sin! When Christ arose, He offered us His own resurrected life so we can freely walk in its power every single day, every single moment. I know, it doesn’t always feel true because we all have rough days, especially this year in 2020. It’s so easy to lose heart and forget that we have a resurrection hope. Whether we suffer a job loss, an illness, or some other tragic, or not so tragic event, we still have hope because of Christ’s resurrection. In the midst of our struggle, we can remember this trial is NOT eternal. Look beyond and see the coming resurrection hope we have because of Jesus! It is these struggles that allow our faith to grow because we have opportunity to prayerfully ask God to “not bring us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13) As He faithfully does this, we learn to exercise our ability to access the Spirit’s power within us to fight against temptation to sin. We also can rejoice in the knowledge that our new creature isn’t just for this world and our present everyday struggles. Our new-creation-selves are also for the life to come! Christ could not be held by death (Acts 2:24), He held victory over it and because our life is hidden in Him, we will also reign victorious over death! (Colossians 3:3-4) When either our physical bodies die on this earth or Jesus comes again, we are guaranteed to be with the Lord forever with new resurrected bodies to experience life that will not end in Christ’s Heavenly Kingdom! (2 Timothy 2:11, Ephesians 2:6)
3) What does it mean for us to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ? (verses 8-11)
While we, in our sin nature, have all fallen far short of God’s perfect standard of righteousness (Romans 3:23), Christ did provide a way for us to leave our dead-end way of living. Once we come to Christ in repentance and turn away from our bondage to the captivating chains of sin, He is both faithful and able to forgive our sins. (1 John 1:9) He purchased our freedom with His sinless sacrifice of Himself on the cross as payment for our sin. Everyone who has accepted this sacrificial gift for themselves has the righteous Holy Spirit of Christ available to us to lead us into life and away from the stench of death! (Romans 8:10) We have life and have it more abundantly because of Jesus! Hallelujah! This is what Paul means when he says we are dead to sin; the acts of sin have no power over us because of Jesus! In addition to being swept over with grace and forgiveness for our past sins, we have God’s power to withstand future temptation. (1 Corinthians 10:13) In Christ, the old sin nature has been crucified with Christ and we are becoming new creations. If you want this power of Christ to help you overcome sin and temptation along with the sweet assurance you have been made new and have an eternal place in eternity with Christ, it’s easy! Simply repent of your sins, acknowledging to the Holy God that you are indeed sinful while He is fully righteous. Ask Him to transform you, cleanse you of all unrighteousness, forgive you, and once and for all, slay the taskmaster of Sin over you. The Spirit of God will come and live within you; you will be made new as He surrounds you with His peace and abundant joy!
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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