Romans 6:5-8

If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with [or rendered powerless], that we should no longer be slaves to sin -- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

V5,8 – United to Christ in death and life. Paul says ultimately that we should not continue to live in sin because Christ has risen. Christ’s death and resurrection are the grounds for both our justification and our sanctification. We who are united to Christ have died to sin as He died, and we have risen to new life as He has risen. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. And Paul says that it is certain for those who have been united to Christ by faith that they will be raised to new life. And it begins immediately. Sanctification is certain, because Christ has risen. See, believers experience the first resurrection before they experience the first death. We are granted a foretaste of resurrection, glory and power to come in our present experience, so that we are no longer under the domination of sin. This is the first resurrection. And Paul is saying, “When you believe on Jesus Christ, God grants you new life that flows from the resurrection of Christ. It’s yours because you’re united to Him.” Does it mean you never sin? No. Does it mean you never have a desire to sin? No. We’ll see how this works when we study Romans 7. Does it mean that you are no longer under the dominion of sin? Yes. New life is immediate in Jesus Christ.

The Christian life is an “already” and a “not-yet” experience of this sinless position and identity in union with Christ. What happened to Christ Jesus historically and finally and unchangeably—and to us in Him—is applied to us not all at once in its fullness, but some now completely, and some now progressively, and all fully in the age to come. We are already fully forgiven and acquitted and declared righteous and justified in our union with Christ by faith alone. And we are already delivered from the slavery to sin, from the power of sin as the defining direction of our lives. And we are already able by faith to grow more and more triumphant over sin in our daily life. But we are not yet perfected in our daily, earthly experience. We must fight the fight of faith and become in experience, by faith, what we are perfectly in our union with Christ. Paul put it like this in Philippians 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” You see the “already” and “not yet.” Christ has laid hold of Paul for perfection and everlasting blessing. That secures Paul. Now Paul confirms that great work of God in Christ by laying hold of that for which he was laid hold of by Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 “In Christ” = new creation; united to Him, in union with Him. Ephesians 2:10 Created in Christ for good works = Justified for sanctification.

The union between Christ and Christians, so that what happened to Christ is counted by God as happening to us, is established by God. 1 Corinthians 1:30 “It is because of [God] that you are in Christ Jesus.” God establishes a union between believers and Christ in a way that makes it fitting for Him to count Christ’s death to be our death. It is applied to us now through our faith, but since Christ died only once, and we were united to that, our death happened, in God’s way of seeing things, on the day Christ died. Just as God established a union between Adam and his people, through which condemnation came, and a corresponding union between Christ and His people, through which justification came (as we saw in Romans 5:12-21), so now in Romans 6:5, Paul makes that union explicit and relates it to sanctification as well as justification. Even though we have died to sin, and therefore cannot “live in” or “continue in” sin, we can sin, and we do sin, and we must lay hold on the reality of what has happened to us in our union with Christ and confirm it in our daily lives.

Finally, notice the word “believe” in v8. “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” That is what we believe. That is our confidence, that our future is secure and firm and unshakable and happy in Christ. Faith is how we consciously experience the transforming benefits of union with Christ.

V6-7 – No longer slaves to sin = Freedom. True freedom is simply not being bound to sin. In eternity, we will have true freedom, because there will be no possibility of sinning. God is truly free because He cannot sin. Here we are finally back around to whole slavery / freedom thing again. Apart from union with Christ, we are under the dominion of sin. Now we believe that we are perfectly free to do as we please. And we are. But Paul is making it clear in this passage that if we are apart from Christ, we are under sin and even willing slaves to it; we are dominated by it. And we can’t just look deep within, and find something to pull ourselves out of it. We need new life from the outside implanted inside, and Paul in v5-7 says, “That new life comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” God does not save and forgive us in order to get us back to a neutral position and then let us kind of take it from there. He saves and forgives us, and He grants us new life so that we will walk in that new life. And we will!

God made the Son of His love to be the object of His wrath in order that we who were the objects of His wrath, might be made the Sons of His love, but also that we would be made like the Son of His love. God makes us to be like Christ. He conforms us to His image, not physically, but morally. We have moral freedom.