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, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that
we would 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.

I begin with a general statement about the believer's union with
Christ:

Because of our union with Christ, we have died with him and we
will most surely rise with him from the dead.

Now immediately, on hearing that, you should ask, "Is that
really what you want to say? Don't you mean to say, 'Because of our
union with Christ, we have died with him and we have been
raised with him – not: we will most surely rise with
him?' Don't you mean to say, 'Since we are united with him and he
has risen, we were in him and also rose with
him'? Isn't that present experience of resurrection implied in
verse 4b: 'As Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of
the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life'? And
verse 11: 'Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to
God in Christ Jesus'? And verse 13b: 'Present yourselves to
God as those alive from the dead'?"

"And doesn't it say in Ephesians 2:5, 'When we were dead in our
transgressions, [God] made us alive together with Christ . . . and
raised us up with Him'? And in Colossians 3:1 doesn't it
say, 'If you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking
the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God'
(see also Colossians 2:12)? So surely what you mean to say, Pastor
John, is, 'Because of our union with Christ, we have died with him
and we have been raised with him.'"

My answer is Yes, Yes, I want to honor the biblical truth that
our union with Christ means that we now "walk in newness of life"
(Romans 6:4), and we now are "alive to God" (Romans 6:11), and we
now are "alive from the dead" (Romans 6:13), and we "have been
raised up with him" (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1). But I also
want to honor the biblical truth of Romans 6:5 and 8. Verse 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." That sounds very future. It's the same in verse 8:
"Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also
live with Him." Again our resurrection is future. And I want
to honor the meaning of Romans 8:11, "If the Spirit of Him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ
Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal
bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." Again, our union
with Christ by his Spirit guarantees our future resurrection. And
it's the same in 2 Corinthians 4:14, "He who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus."

And one of the reasons I want to say it the way Paul says it in
Romans 6 is because he may be protecting himself from a heresy that
was afoot in his day. Listen to his description of the heresy in 2
Timothy 2:17-18. He warns against those whose talk "will spread
like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have gone
astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already
taken place, and they upset the faith of some." The heresy
was, "The resurrection has already taken place." So it is possible
to take the biblical truth from Ephesians 2:6 and Colossians 3:1
and Romans 6:4, 11, 13 and turn it into a gangrene-like heresy.

So how shall we not do that? Answer: We will say what the text
says in Romans 6:5 and 8, and then we will ponder how this fits
with the other rest of the truth. And what the text says in verse 5
is, "If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His
death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His
resurrection." And what the text says in verse 8 is, "Now if we
have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live
with Him." So yes, what I want to say for my general statement
today is, "Because of our union with Christ, we have died with him
and we will most surely rise with him from the dead."

Now here is what this means: One way that our death with Christ
works newness of life now (freedom from sin now) is by the effect
this death has on our future. I'm getting this straight from the
logic of verses 5 and 8. Be sure you see it. Both verses have an
"if . . . then" construction. Verse 5: "If united to him
in his death, then certainly you will be in
united in his resurrection." Verse 8: "If we have died
with Christ, then we believe that we shall also
live with Him." So one crucial point for Paul is that death with
Christ guarantees the life and glory of our future.

Believing this is utterly crucial in experiencing the
present power of Christ's resurrection in your life. Believing that
our future is gloriously secure and happy in Christ is one way that
we experience the power of Christ now to free us from sin.

Paul develops this in two different ways: one in verses 5-7 and
the other in verses 8-10.

1. Let's take the second first, Romans 6:8-10.

Look at how important it is to believe that your future
is secure in Christ. Notice the word "believe" in verse 8: "Now if
we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall 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. This is how we consciously experience the benefits of
union with Christ – we believe them. We bank on them. We rest
in them. We are satisfied by them.

Then look at how Paul buttresses this faith in the future. His
argument in verses 9-10 has five steps.

1) Christ died to sin once for all. Verse 10a: "For the death
that He died, He died to sin once for all." That is, Christ really
died, and when he died he dealt with sin so completely that his
death never has to be repeated. It is once for all. He took care of
the sin problem for all who are in him.

2) Then he rose from the dead. Verse 9a: "Knowing that Christ,
having been raised from the dead . . ." The work was done. Sin was
dealt with completely. That is why he died. So there was no reason
for him to remain dead. So he rose.

3) Now the life he lives, he lives to God. Verse 10b: "The life
that He lives, He lives to God." In dying he satisfied the claims
of sin; and in living he satisfies the claims of God. His
resurrection life is a life utterly oriented on and for the glory
of God, with the problem of sin finished and done with.

4) Therefore, he is triumphant over death. Verse 9b: "Death no
longer is master over Him." Death is a defeated foe. Christ is
master of death, not the other way around. Jesus holds the keys of
death and hell. Death serves his purposes and has no final
authority over him.

5) Therefore, Jesus will never die. He is indestructible,
forever. Verse 9a: "Knowing that Christ, having been raised from
the dead, is never to die again." Jesus will never die
again.

All of that great argument is given by Paul to support the
belief of verse 8b: "We believe that we shall
also live with Him." He means for us to feel the firmness of those
five steps in our soul by faith. We must believe, trust, be
confident that we will "live with him – forever." If we are
united to Christ by this faith, we have died with Christ; our sin
problem has been dealt with; we will rise; we will live to God;
death will not be master over us; we will never die again; we will
share his indestructibility.

That is what Paul wants us to believe and to experience. That
confidence. That hope. That security. That satisfaction. That's
what God is for us in Christ Jesus. And believing it is what makes
our union with Christ a powerful and effective experience now, not
just in the future.

This is why Paul stresses the effect that dying with Christ has
on our future. Because in believing that – in being
hope-filled and secure and satisfied in that future with Christ
– the power of sin is broken in the present. Sin can't
enslave a person who is utterly confident and sure and hope-filled
in the infinite happiness of life with Christ in the future. So
Paul stresses in verse 8 that our death with Christ secures our
triumphant resurrection with him in the future. That is the point
of verses 9-10. Believing that is how our death with Christ becomes
powerful in the present.

* * *

Now that is one way Paul develops the relation between dying
with Christ and our future (vv. 8-10). He does it a very different
way in verses 5-7. So let's look finally at the way he argues here
for the connection between our death with Christ and our future
resurrection with him.

2. Romans 6:5-7

Notice that the unit begins the same way that 8-10 does, namely,
with the connection between our death with Christ and our future
resurrection with him. Verse
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." That is given as the basis of our
walking in newness of life in verse 4. So it is crucial and
powerful for Paul that we know that we will be united with Christ
in a resurrection like his. Believing that and hoping in that is
essential, just like we saw in verse 8.

But now Paul argues for this link between our death with Christ
and our future resurrection in a very different way than in verses
9-10. There he focused on Christ's indestructible life. Here he
focuses on our transformed life.

He says, You are going to be united in a resurrection like
Christ's (v. 6), "knowing this [= for you know 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." In
other words, he argues that your death with Christ certifies,
guarantees, your future resurrection because it secures your
freedom from the slavery of sin. Your old self was crucified. Which
means that your body is no longer the helpless accomplice of sin.
Instead you are freed from slavery to sin and the body can now
become the instrument of righteousness.

So verse 6 supports the certainty of our resurrection with
Christ by showing that death with Christ sanctifies us, changes us,
breaks the power of sin in our lives. This doesn't mean that
sanctification (holiness) earns resurrection, but it does mean that
there will be no resurrection without it. (See verse 22: "But now
having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your
benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome [of this
sanctification], eternal life.")

Which raises the question, doesn't it: What about justification?
Aren't we acquitted and accepted and declared righteous by faith
alone? Isn't that what secures our final resurrection with Christ?
How does justification fit in?

Paul gives the answer in verse 7, but the English versions make
that hard to see by translating the word "justified" as "freed."
Verse 7 says, "For he who has died is justified from sin."
Everywhere else in Paul's writings (26 uses of the verb dikaiow)
the meaning of this word is "justify" or "acquit" or "vindicate."
Nowhere else in Paul does it have the meaning "free" from in the
moral sense of freeing from sin.

So how then would verse 7 argue for verse 6? Verse 6 says, in
essence, "Our old self was crucified so that we would no longer be
slaves us sin." Now verse 7 says, "For [that is, because] he who
has died is justified from sin." O how easy it is to jump to the
conclusion that since justification from sin argues for no longer
being slaves to sin, it must then not mean what it usually means
(the declaration of innocence), but rather real transformation of
behavior.

But that seems superficial to me. For this reason. How are
people enslaved to sin? One way is by the powerful lure of sin. It
is attractive. And if that is the only way that sin holds us in
bondage, then verse 7 probably would have to mean. "He who has died
is freed from this powerful attraction of sin." And "justified"
would not have its ordinary meaning.

But there is a deeper way that sin enslaves people, and holds
them captive. And I have seen it do this horrible work in recent
years. Sin creates a blinding guilt that makes a person feel
hopeless and despairing that they could ever be forgiven and
included among the righteous. This is deeper and more terrible than
slavery to the lure of sin. This is slavery to the blinding despair
of sin.

You ask a person in this slavery to sin, Don't you realize that
the promise of sin is a lie, and that you are on a dead-end street
of destruction? And amazingly, they may agree with you, and perhaps
say something like, "I know, but it doesn't make any difference.
There is no hope for me anyway." Here is a person not only in
bondage to the lure of sin, but even more terribly to the
despairing blindness of the guilt of sin. They can't make any
progress in fighting the lure of sin, because they feel no hope in
escaping the guilt of sin.

Now if there is such a slavery as that, then verse 7 is
perfectly designed to describe the remedy. It goes like this. Verse
6: "Our old self was crucified so that we would no longer be slaves
us sin." How so? How does death with Christ free us from slavery to
sin. The answer of verse 7: it goes first to the deepest root of
slavery – not the lure of sin, but the blinding and
hope-destroying guilt of sin, and says, "He who has died is
justified from sin." The guilt is taken away before the lure is
broken.

Which means this in summary: In overcoming the power of sin in
our lives we are not first given the moral ability to break sin's
allurement; we are first given the personal legal right to break
the despair that I cannot be forgiven and declared righteous. We
call this justification. To put it another way, justification is
the foundation of sanctification which, in turn, is the
certification that we are on our way to a resurrection with Christ
in union with him.

So the main point of verses 5-10 is that union with Christ
secures our eternal resurrection life of joy with Christ. It does
so in two ways: 1) it unites us to Christ who himself is alive with
indestructible life and cannot die; and 2) it unites us to Christ
who justifies us and takes away the blinding despair that we are
hopeless in our sin. And from this place of indestructible hope, we
grow in our ability to defeat the deceptive lures of sin, and give
our lives away in love.