Join our host in unraveling the complex yet beautiful tapestry of Paul’s teachings in Romans. From understanding our shared identity with Christ to the implications of living under His kingdom, this episode challenges common misconceptions and encourages a more profound faith rooted in the knowledge that we are freed from sin’s condemnation and are alive in Christ. Learn how the power of His resurrection applies to all humanity, bringing hope and eternal life.
For me, the Book of Romans gets more broad and wide and deep and high every year I teach it. Somehow there’s more in it every time I look at it, and it is awesomely beautiful. It’s not only the issue of… How we become or are accounted righteous by faith alone in him, how he is our righteousness, that’s a wonder in itself. But also the fact that this is applying to the whole of humanity. It’s astonishing that I didn’t see it earlier. That is decades and decades ago, but you have to keep reading to see what Paul is saying. And then this wonderful chapter that we’re in right now, which is identification with Jesus. I hadn’t seen that as clearly as I do now. This chapter, dead to sin and rising with Christ, is identifying with Jesus. It’s a wonderful thing. So Paul is saying to us now in 6 verse 7 and then onwards, He who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more, death no longer has dominion over him. Now, this really is astonishing. Let me explain why. Because Paul is talking about Jesus, but in talking about Jesus, he’s referring to us. When he says, “…knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more,” What is that trying to tell us? Simply that Jesus rose from the dead and died no more for himself? No. He’s saying that the fact that Christ rose from the dead and dies no more and that death has no dominion over him, the fact that that applies to Jesus means that it applies to us because we are identified with him more accurately. Christ has identified with us. Death has no dominion over us. Now that sounds odd because we die, but it doesn’t have dominion over us. It doesn’t reign in us. We who believe in him have eternal life. And that truth is going to apply to the whole world because God is going to make sure that all humanity will ultimately come to believe in him. He will do this through taking us through our suppression of Him, taking us through the consequences of our idols, so that we see that we have nothing. They are windbags, these idols, and we have nothing without Him, and thus we call upon Him for mercy. God takes us through all of these judgment experiences where we resist Him, and He allows us to resist Him, so that we come to nothing. And thus, when we come to nothing, we call out to God for his mercy. And thus, as Paul says in Romans 11, verse 32, he’s going to have mercy on all. What an astonishing thing. But what is so wonderful that I’m hitting today is this reality about our identity with Jesus. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, you remember I talked about that last time. Not we are free from sin in the sense that we never sin anymore or never have any temptation to sin, but we are freed from sin’s identity and power. and authority over us. We are freed from sin’s ability to condemn us and to declare us simply, basically, fundamentally sinners. That’s all we are. No, we’re not. We are now resurrected with Christ. We’re in Him, counted as righteous. Then he says, if we died with him, we believe that we shall also live with him. Now, that’s not a condition. Now, he’s not saying, now, look, if you die with him, make sure you die with him, then you’ll live with him. No, he’s saying, since we died with him, we shall live with him. But remember what I talked about last time or the time before in regard to what this death is. Years ago in my perfectionism and legalism, I thought to myself, I would get so angry with Paul, I’d get irritated with him. Why in the world doesn’t he explain, I would think to myself, how we die with him? How do we die? Do we go through lots of meditation on his crucifixion? Do we try to enter into his pain? Do we try to enter into his sense of separation from God? Do we try to meditate our way through this or to fast our way into it? Is that what we do? Paul, please tell us how we die to sin. Die with Christ? No, he doesn’t have to tell us. He’s already told us. And the fact is that he has told us that we are identified in Christ’s death. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? In other words, in that baptism, whether we did it literally or in our mind, We are saying to God and affirming to God, Lord, I recognize now that when Jesus died on the cross, I died with him because he did it for me. He identified with me and therefore I’m identified with him. This is what it means. We died with Christ. Well, why is that important? Because we don’t want to be endlessly condemned and judged and feel guilty and ashamed and afraid of this fallen human nature of ours in which we still live. We live in it, but we’re now Christians resurrected in Christ. Well, how can that be? How can we be living in it while we’re resurrected in Christ? were counted as resurrected in him, just as he is counted as condemned in us. And so, we swap identities, as it were. We take on Christ’s life, and we say, Father, I thank you that I’m no longer counted as a sinner anymore. I’m freed from its identity. I’m freed from its condemnation. I’m freed from its power, even though I may fall and sin, Lord God, or be tempted by it. I’m freed from its power to judge me and condemn me. We have to have this courage of faith. Those who don’t believe it think we’re being sacrilegious, think we’re taking advantage of grace. They think we believe in cheap grace, a soft gospel. Not at all. This is a courageous faith. So Paul says, knowing that Christ, what do we know about Christ? Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, you see, he rose from the dead, didn’t he? This is not a mystical rising from the dead. It’s not symbolic, a real resurrection. It is the actual rising of Christ’s body from the dead in his eternal body, and it is a real resurrection that is no longer subject to death. Now, knowing this then, that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. He’s not under the power of death. Death no longer has dominion over him. Why is Paul saying that? Is he simply explaining what Christ went through? No, he is explaining that what Christ went through is applied to us. For then he says, for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. There you have the clincher. That is what Paul is getting at. In the same way, he says, likewise, verse 11, you also reckon yourselves dead to sin. And not only reckon yourselves dead to sin, but reckon yourself as sin, a death having no more authority or power or dominion over you. And that death is linked with sin. For the death that he died, he died to sin. So you and I die to sin. Now, again, If you’re a legalist or a perfectionist, you won’t get the meaning of this. You will think that Paul is saying, now look, keep praying and keep reading your Bible and keep recognizing as you do and meditating and fasting and praying. that you are dead to sin so that you don’t feel it anymore and you don’t get tempted anymore and you don’t fail anymore. I used to go through days and weeks and months of this praying and earnest pleading with God that I could die to sin. because I thought that Paul was talking about a process that we go through by faith, by prayer, by meditation, by reading the Bible, by going to Bible meetings, and by fasting, and so on. Paul is not talking those terms. That is a psychological interpretation of the gospel. Thousands, millions, I would say hundreds of millions of Christians are stuck in that false kind of understanding. If you read the book of Romans carefully, and Romans 6 particularly is connected to Romans 5, you will realize that Paul is talking about the kingdom of Adam, which he brought in by his sin, which brought sin and death upon all of us, and we all went under the condemnation of his kingdom. He’s talking about the kingdom of Adam and the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of Christ versus the kingdom of Adam. Whereas Adam brought in sin and death upon all, Christ brings righteousness and life upon all. The extent of Adam’s kingdom that it reached to every man on the globe is… is the same extent as Christ’s kingdom, which reaches to every man and woman on the globe. So, you see, when he’s talking in those terms, he’s telling us to make sure you live in the right kingdom. Let’s read this again in the light of what I just said. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more, death no longer has dominion over him because he’s not under Adam’s kingdom, you see, anymore. For the death that he died, it’s not simply his personal death, it’s death in regard as a substitute for the whole kingdom of Adam. The death that he died, he died to sin, to the sin kingdom. of Adam. Once for all, that kingdom is now over for all men and women in Jesus Christ. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. We live our life now in the kingdom of Christ. We live it to God. Therefore, he says, likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. Not simply dead to sinful habits or sinful temptations or sinful addictions. Yes, it’s included, but it’s not the major issue. Why do I make this emphasis? Because once you see the priority of having been released from the kingdom of Adam and introduced the kingdom of Adam, which is sin and death, and introduced into the kingdom of life, kingdom of Christ, which is righteousness and life, then sinful habits and sinful temptations take a lesser and lower priority in your life. You become more concerned about whose kingdom you’re living in than about what you’re doing. And as you have faith in the kingdom you are living in, then what you are doing is slowly diminished. That is, if it is an evil, and what you are doing in Christ’s kingdom becomes slowly more wonderful. So, what a wonderful thing. Reckon yourself alive to the kingdom of Christ every day. Thank you very much. in the Denver and Colorado and surrounding states areas, well, think again because you can hear it any time of the day or night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. 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