Today’s lesson falls in the overall outline of Romans in the following way:
Theme: The Righteousness of God (1:16-17)
The Need for God's Righteousness (1:18-3:20)
(1) General Statement Explaining Why Man Needs God’s Righteousness (1:18a)
(2) The Gentile Need for God’s Righteousness (1:18-32)
(3) The Jewish Need for God’s Righteousness (2:1-3:20)
God’s Provision of Righteousness (3:21-8:39)
The Method of God Making Us Right with Himself (3:21-31)
OT Evidence that God Makes Us Right With Him By Faith (4:1-25)
Results of Being Made Right with God (5:1-6:23)
(1) A New Relationship with God (5:1-2)
(2) A New Understanding of Suffering (5:3-5)
(3) A New Assurance in Judgment (5:6-11)
(4) A New Race of Mankind (5:12-21)
(5) A New Life (6:1-23)
Experiencing God’s Righteousness Daily (7:1-8:39)
(1) The Way Not to Experience God’s Righteousness (7:1-25)
(2) The Way to Experience God’s Righteousness (8:1-39)
(1) What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? (2) May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (3) Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? (4) Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (5) 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, (6) knowing this: that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, (7) for he who has died is freed from sin. (8) Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, (9) knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. (10) For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all but the life that He lives, He lives to God. (11) Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
For the first several chapters Paul has dealt with the Jewish way to live life--keep the law. Now he is dealing with a second way people try to live life--by doing their own thing. The Jews thought that these were the only 2 ways to live: keeping the Law or practicing anarchy. As we shall see, there is a third way which actually produces God's life.
At the end of chapter 5 Paul informs us that no matter how much sin increased when Law came into the world, grace super-increased. Although our sins are great, when compared with God's grace, our sins are like a regular-sized cinder block while His grace is like the ocean. When we drop our sins into His grace, His grace like an ocean overwhelms our sins.
Although this is true, it is a sad fact that some "Christians" have misused this. Their attitude is that since we are saved by grace, since greater sin leads to greater grace, we should sin more and more so that God's grace can abound more and more. (By the way, this is the main argument the Jews used against Paul's theology. They claimed that his theology of grace led to licentiousness. Christians who misunderstand Paul's theology of grace do tends towards licentiousness, lawlessness, anarchy.)
Paul responds in horror to such an idea. The clause "May it never be!" is as close to cussing as Paul gets in his letters. The very idea is abhorrent to him. Fill in the blanks to see why this idea of licentiousness is illogical: "How shall we who ___________ ____ _________ still live in it?"
In v. 2 Paul is stating a principle which he has not yet laid the groundwork for. He begins to lay the groundwork for this idea in v. 3. Those of us who have been baptized have been baptized into what?
The prepositional phrase "in order that" introduces a purpose clause, that is, it introduces the purpose for the statement just made. In the beginning of v. 4 Paul says that we have been buried with Him through baptism into death. According to the purpose clause introduced by "in order that," for what purpose have we been buried with Him through baptism into death?
What event occurred which gave us this new life (end of v. 4)?
Paul assumes that we understand the significance of Christ's death and resurrection for you and me. We have reduced the death of Christ to being nothing more than His payment for our sins or the removal of God's wrath upon the Christian. Paul claims though that when we became Christians, we became united with Christ. We have become so united with Him that whenever the Christian enters into an illicit sexual relationship with a prostitute, he actually drags Jesus into that relationship (1 Cor. 6:12-19). In this present passage we see that we are so identified or united with Him that when He died on the cross, we likewise died. In the same way when He rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, we likewise rose from the dead. His death is our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection. At the present time we experience His death and resurrection only spiritually. A day will come when we will also experience it physically.
This "newness of life" or new life is linked inextricably with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the life that was created by Jesus Christ when He rose from the dead, the life that He God the Son enjoys right now, and the life which He offers to you and me.
This passage supports the reason Baptists insist on immersion as being the scriptural form of baptism. Baptism according to this passage represents 2 things: first, the earthly life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and second, the earthly life, death, burial, and resurrection of the believer. Immersion is the only mode of baptism which can portray the death,burial, and resurrection of both Christ and the believer.
In addition to this the literal translation of the Greek word word baptizein is to immerse. Outside of the Greek NT it always means "to immerse." For example, Plato writes of ships being baptized when they are sinking into the ocean. It is used in Greek literature of submerging a cup into a bucket of water. Today even the Greek Orthodox church which knows Greek immerses their children. (Remember the hilarious scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding in which the Greek Orthodox priest immerses her fiance in the wading pool.)
If the Greek word baptizein literally means "to immerse," why didn't the translators of the Bible translate it as "to immerse"? For the simple reason they did not want to lose their heads. King James 1 of England practiced infant baptism. As king he was also despot. He would not have taken kindly to the translators of his Bible contradicting what he believed about baptism; therefore, in order to save their own necks, they transliterated the word instead of translating it. Newer translations still refuse to translate baptizein because it has become such a part of the Christian vocabulary, they don't want to tinker with it. (Moreover, the sad truth is that Bible publishers would not be able to sell many Bibles if they translated the word as "to immerse."
While baptism is only a symbol, it is more than just a symbol. It is a "commanded" symbol. Just before Jesus ascended to heaven, one of the last things He told His disciples was "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, BAPTIZING them . . ." (Matt. 28:19). Baptism never saves a person; it just fulfills our Lord's command, which is good enough in and of itself.
Verse 7 tells us why we are no longer slaves to sin. What reason does Paul give?
Whereas verses 6-7 focused on Christ's death, verses 8-11 focus on Christ's resurrection. According to v. 9 what will never happen to Jesus since He has been raised from the dead? Also, what no longer will be master over Him since He has been raised from the dead?
When Paul speaks of resurrection, he does not mean "resuscitation." Resuscitation is nothing more than the physical body being reanimated. It may come back to life again; however, it remains primarily a physical body which will one day die again physically. Resurrection though is the radical transformation of the body. It has been transformed to such an extent that it will never, no never die again. (Read John 20:19-24 to see what kind of body this was).
To wrap this up, Paul says that from now on we should __________________ ourselves to be _______________ to sin but _______________ to God in Christ Jesus (v. 11).
We need to remember what we studied last week about the Christian having 2 spiritual natures AFTER he becomes a Christian: the old nature from Adam which has become sin nature and the new nature created by the Holy Spirit. When Paul writes that we walk in newness of life, he means that we are walking in this new nature, that the Holy Spirit is producing His life in and through us. Remember though that the old nature is still with us. He will not be completely eradicated until Christ returns; however, the Holy Spirit is giving us a real taste of that life RIGHT NOW. Although the Christian is going to fail from time to time because of the old nature which lives in him, he should be experiencing this new life on a consistent basis.
Here Paul introduces the practical portion of this passage. Any time you see the word "therefore," you need to ask what it is there for. In verses 1-11 Paul has been giving the theological basis for what he is saying here in verses 12-14.
According to v. 12 now that we have died to sin, we should no longer let what reign in our mortal bodies?
This verse introduces a major area of concern for many Christians, the problem of lust (whether it be sexual lust or lust for power, fame and/or material possessions, etc.) According to v. 12 now that we have died to sin, are we going to quit having lusts?
According to v. 12 what will be true of the Christian with regards to lust?
Very good and sincere Christians have attempted to do away with lust completely. Some have even gone so far as to become eunuchs in order to insure that they will do away with their lusts. Even that has not helped. Until Christ returns, we will experience lust. Lust is simply part of the human condition, especially as it helps in continuing the human race. What Jesus does though is give us victory over our lusts so that (1) they don't control us and (2) we channel them in the proper direction. Giving in to our lusts is not acceptable; trying to eradicate them completely is futile and will lead to unnecessary frustration.
How then do I practice purity if I can't eradicate lust? In other words what is purity? It is not dwelling on sexual thoughts whenever one enters my mind. It is turning my head whenever something sensual is thrown in my field of vision. It is refusing to go to movies which are sexual in nature. It is having sex with only one person, my spouse. Even then there are boundaries for the sexual relationship between the husband and wife.
I apologize for using this analogy one more time; however, Paul once more launches a MOAB right in the middle of the Jews of his day. According to the Jews keeping of the Law made people good and holy; Paul though claims that law-keeping actually results in a person being mastered by sin.
