Romans 6 reflections
” 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,Or be rendered powerless that we should no longer be slaves to sin-7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (NIV)”
Why is it necessary for us to understand that in our accepting of Christ as Lord and Savior we have participated with Him in His death?
Romans 6:6-7 makes it clear that only the living remain slaves to sin and because we have died with Christ and have been raised with Him then sin is no longer in control. We died. We are a new creation. We’re free.
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Great stuff Andrew…baptism is far more than an outward symbol…for whatever reason it just clicked for me this time that the reason sin no longer has any dominion over me is because I died.
It would help, I think, if we paid attention to what Paul says regarding baptism in this chapter (6.3-4) ‘don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We wer therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead throught he glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.’
One reason many of us don’t understand that we ‘died’ to sin is that there’s not a specific moment that we can point to as the moment we died, were buried, and then raised to a new life. For Paul, baptism is far more than a symbol of something that’s happening inside of us. It is the moment we are joined to Jesus and his body by joining Jesus in his life, death, burial and resurrection.
Because of this our ‘sinful nature’ has died…it is no longer ‘natural’ for us to sin because when we do we are being less than the human God created us to be and redeemed us to be.