Becoming Alive To God Series

ROMANS 6: 8-14

BECOMING ALIVE TO GOD

Paul started his explanation of the believer’s death to sin by helping us understand more of the significance of the historical facts of Christ’s death, burial, and Resurrection. We learned that the true believer has been "baptized" into Christ and, therefore, is united to Christ and a participant in the experience of Christ. Thus the believer has died, been buried, and raised again "with Him."

When Jesus Christ was crucified on the Cross two thousand years ago, not only was His blood shed for your salvation, but His body was broken for your deliverance. There thus are two elements in Communion. His shed blood grants forgiveness of our sin, while His broken body provides freedom from our sin. When Jesus Christ was crucified, our sinful nature was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be destroyed. When Jesus was nailed to the Cross, my old sinful nature was there with Him. When He rose from the death my new nature rose with Him. When the body of Christ was being broken physically, our sinful nature was being broken on that same tree. How can this be? It’s beyond me. Just like this wireless mike I’m wearing. I don’t understand exactly how it works, but it does so I keep using it. Although I don’t fully understand the death and resurrection of Christ, I’ve tied in to its reality and have found that when I apply it by faith, it works wondrously. [Courson, Jon: Jon Courson’s Application Commentary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003, S. 925]

Whenever God declares a truth, Satan will deny it, saying, "Get real, how can that be?" At that point, I must decide whether to believe what God declares or believe what Satan denies.

I. SIN AND DEATH’S DOMAIN, 8-10.

II. DEAD OR ALIVE, 11.

III. ALIVE FROM THE DEAD, 12-13.

IV. UNDER LAW OR GRACE, 14.

Before we move forward let’s look at verses 6 & 7 again. Paul, who was ever practical even when theological, outlines three specific results of this divine transaction on our behalf in verse 6. "Knowing this, this our old man was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be made powerless that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin."

The word translated "destroyed" or "powerless" in Romans 6:6 is katargeo. Katargeo does not mean "annihilated." It means "rendered inactive, or paralyzed." Our old sin nature is a quadriplegic. He’s paralyzed from the neck down. Thus, all he can do is deceive or intimidate us verbally as he whispers, "You have no choice. You gotta give in. You gotta gossip. You gotta overindulge. You gotta take another look. You gotta tell that lie. I’ve got power over you."

[The "old man" is the sinful nature which the Bible says has been crucified and thought dead it is still operative. It may be dead but it won’t lie down. The "old man" is "the man of old" or the pre-regenerate person. Christians can refer to their life as a.d. and b.c. b.c. is the "old man"; a.d. is the regenerate man raised in Christ. The person you were "before Christ" has been judged, condemned, sentenced, executed, buried, and finished with forever. The new man lives.]

We spend years going through psychoanalysis, trying to get victory. But Paul would say, "Victory is not a matter of positive thinking or imaging." It is a matter of appropriating what happened on Calvary two thousand years ago. The death and resurrection of Christ "is the point where victory begins." [Briscoe, Stuart: The Preacher’s Com. Series, Vol. 29 : Romans. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982, S. 131]

Notice also that there has been a powerful impact on the "body of sin" which verse 6 says has been "done away with." The human body which, while not sinful of itself, is very clearly the instrument of sin. Paul states that this body which is so susceptible to sin’s domination before union with Christ has, through Him, been placed in a position where sin’s domination need no longer be the norm.

This leads to the third practical fact in verse 6, namely, that believers "should no longer serve sin." Now that the "man of old" which previously controlled the physical body has been dealt with in Christ and the new man has come into being, the believer should recognize that he is no longer at the mercy of sin, or, literally, "a slave of sin." In fact, he has been "freed from sin" or "justified from sin." As we have seen previously, "justification" has a legal connotation. In the same way that a man who has been exonerated in a court of law has the freedom to walk out of court and take a cab to his home, so the "justified" believer, in addition to his technical justification, has the practical freedom to walk away from the dominating power of sin in his life. [To begin to understand this is to see how far those who believe they are saved to live as they wish have strayed from the truth of the all-encompassing gospel.] [Briscoe, Stuart: The Preacher’s Com. Series, Vol. 29 : Romans. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982, S. 133]