United with Christ
Text: Romans 6:5-14
Theme: Christ’s death and resurrection change everything for us.
We are free! Salvation and liberation have come to our spirits, but we need to tell our souls that we no longer need to live in bondage to anyone or anything.
Father, I will not let sin reign in my earthly body so that I obey its evil desires. I will not offer the parts of my body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but instead, I will offer myself to you, as those who have been brought from death to life; and I will offer the parts of my body to you, Lord, as instruments of righteousness. Amen.
Here’s a thought: Once our spirits are born again, our souls need to hear and embrace the message that we need no longer live in bondage to anyone or anything.
How smart is your right foot? This experiment will boggle your mind, and you will keep trying it at least a few more times to see if you can outsmart your foot. But you can’t! While sitting down, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. While doing this, draw the number “6” in the air with your right hand - your foot will change direction!
I told you so. And there is nothing you can do about it.
There are times when our minds and the parts of our bodies get confused and have difficulty working together. In writing to the church in Rome almost 2,000 years ago, Paul calls the mind and the body to unity in Romans 6:5-14:
5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. NIV
You could read this passage in Romans chapter 6 and go on to study Christianity simply as another world religion. Exploring the Christian faith is very different from experiencing a relationship with Jesus Christ. The power and life-changing transformation come through our response to the historical events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The death and resurrection of Jesus directly affect us because:
We Died with Christ
The Greek word translated “united” in Romans 6:5 is the same word from which we get our word “symphony.” The connection we have with Jesus is like a symphony. Joined with Him, we watch the conductor - the Father - as the music of the Holy Spirit plays through the instruments of our bodies.
Before we met Jesus, we were attracted to particular desires and directions. We focused on pleasing ourselves and finding happiness through the things of this world. Some of us became better at hiding it by being polite and well-mannered, but we were selfish in our pursuits.
Ancient Near Eastern religions had long traditions of dying-and-rising gods, general vegetation deities renewed annually in the spring. Some ancient sources suggest that newcomers into various religious groups “died and rose with” a god. Paul speaks this language to bridge to an understanding of dying and rising with Christ.
Jewish teachers believed that the “evil impulse” would trouble even the most devout religious person until the time of the Messiah, when He would slay the evil impulse. For Paul, the Messiah has come, and He has overcome sin’s power. The finished work of Christ means that the believer has already died to sin and now needs to acknowledge this - to “reckon” it done in faith. Such faith in God’s complete work was not common in ancient religions, nor is it in most religions today.
We read these words of Jesus shortly before His crucifixion in John 12:23-26:
23 Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels - a plentiful harvest of new lives. 25 Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. 26 Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honour anyone who serves me. NLT
Jesus knew that the door to new life is marked “death.” We need to plant “dead” seeds in the soil to see fresh, new plants grow up from them. Every farmer and gardener knows this is the natural order. Without death, there can be no new life.
Imagine yourself hanging on the cross with Jesus.
You are back-to-back with Him, nailed to the other side of the lumber. Feel the nails through your hands, and the middle of your feet stacked one on the other. You lift yourself and struggle for every breath as the blood trickles down your body from your crown of thorns and wounds from severe beatings and whippings. After what seems to be an endless three hours on the cross, your heart ruptures, and you breathe your last.
What sins and bad habits are plaguing you today? According to Romans 6, we are to reckon or count ourselves dead to this sin. Who can you think of that has died? Are they still bothered by a vice or bad habit now? Of course not! Because you died with Christ on the cross, sin no longer has mastery over you.
It is time to change how we think about sin and bad habits. When was the last time you said, “I have _____________ (e.g. a bad temper, a loose tongue, a smoking habit, a tendency to overeat), and this is me. It is a part of who I am, and I will not change.” You are declaring to the world that you have not died with Christ on the cross!
Instead, you ought to be telling yourself and others, “I have died with Christ, and this _____________ (e.g. a bad temper, a smoking habit, a tendency to overeat) no longer has power over me. I don’t need it, and I don’t want it. It died with me when I died with Christ on the cross.”
This statement is not simply positive confession or wishful thinking; this is declaring the truth of God’s Word over your life. This testimony is preaching the Gospel or the Good News to your soul.
The death and resurrection of Jesus directly affect us because:
We Died with Christ
and
We Live with Christ
What is this “new beginning, this “fresh start”? Does it mean getting a new job, a new house, a new hairdo? We came across this hair salon in Kalispell, Montana:
In John chapter 3, Jesus explains to a religious leader named Nicodemus that a person must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus asks the logical question, “How can this happen? Does this mean a person must crawl back inside his mother and start all over again?” Jesus replied that to be born again is to have the Holy Spirit breathe life into our spirit or inner person. A fresh start begins with being born again in our spirits.
Someone has defined Christian counselling as “evangelism of the soul.” To evangelize is to share the Gospel or the Good News. I feel like I am a child only starting to understand just how great this Good News is! Because we have committed our lives to Jesus, we live with Him and enjoy all the benefits of His sinless life and His oneness with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. From the very core of our being, the new life ripples out in the ongoing process of salvation or transformation.
Philippians 2:12-13 refers to the ongoing process of salvation:
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence - continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. NIV
When Paul says, “Continue to work out your salvation,” he means, “Bring to completion your salvation by massaging it into every part of your soul.” How do we do this? Let’s go back to Romans 6:11: “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
“When you count yourself,” you take an inventory of where you are in relationship to sin and God. You believe the news and embrace it in your mind. The Greek word translated as “count yourself” is logizomai, from which we get our English word “logic.” In other words, you need to “think it through” and realize that you are no longer obligated to offer parts of your body to sin. Jesus has broken sin’s power and mastery! The enemy we once feared is no match for our new spiritual firearms. It is now up to us to face the lion that still has its roar and threatens to “gum us to death” and overcome him by using our weapons.
We now have every opportunity to offer the parts of our bodies to God rather than self-gratification. Have you come to know Jesus well enough to understand that He loves you and means you no harm? Will you trust Him?
Imagine yourself being raised from the dead and leaving the tomb with Jesus.
Your grave clothes unravel and fall to the ground. A radiant Jesus takes your hand and says, “Let’s go!” Your body is amazingly free of any aches and pains, and you look out through the tomb’s opening at the garden that seems more beautiful than ever. The heavy, round stone that covered the mouth of the garden tomb rolls to the side.
The enemy captured approximately 9,000 Canadian soldiers, airmen, naval sailors and merchant seamen and held them as prisoners of war during the Second World War (http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/historical-sheets/pow). What would have happened if the prison guards had silently unlocked the cells of these POWs in the middle of the night without telling their prisoners they were free to go? Unless they tried to open the doors to their cells, these people would have continued to live in bondage as prisoners until someone came and told them they were free to go!
We are free! Salvation and liberation have come to our spirits, but we need to tell our souls that we no longer need to live in bondage to anyone or anything.
The death and resurrection of Jesus directly affect us because:
We Died with Christ
and
We Live with Christ
Christ’s death and resurrection change everything for us.
Would you please join me in praying this prayer personalized from Romans chapter 6?
Father, I will not let sin reign in my earthly body so that I obey its evil desires. I will not offer the parts of my body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but instead, I will offer myself to you, as those who have been brought from death to life; and I will offer the parts of my body to you, Lord, as instruments of righteousness. Amen.