Becoming Dead to Sin and Alive in Christ

Romans 6: Immersion in Christ Leads to Eternal Life


Since "the gift is not like the trespass,"  (5:15) I am tempted to take advantage of that power.  Grace brings life immediately through the presence and influence of God.  Sins cannot take away that life, that relationship.  That is the power of the gospel.  It overcomes sin completely.  The only thing that removes life is removing myself from life.

The way of grace is shown through baptism.  Just as baptism buries me in water, so my old self is buried through taking up my cross and following Jesus.  I am to "count myself dead to sin." (v.11)  This is not pretending or imagining, but learning how to count on a reality.  In my effort to deal with some arthritis that I have, I was lead into regular, rather intense exercise.  One thing I began doing was pull-ups.  One time about a year after I was training, I was in my garage, needing to get up to the rafters to get something.  I bemoaned the fact that in order to get up there, I would need to pull myself up there.  Suddenly, I remembered that I had already been pulling myself up all the time through pull-ups.  My mind had not yet "counted on" or "reckoned" that reality, even though it was already so.  This is how I am dead to sin.  I no longer have to sin any more; it is merely old habits and fears that need to be extinguished.

Baptism also shows new life.  Just as I come up out of the water, I am raised to new life in Christ.  This is a present reality with increasing fulfillment.  I am "alive to God in Christ Jesus."  Just as my sin is reckoned as dead, now God is reckoned as alive and present.  This reckoning, again, is not pretending or imagining, but counting on God as real and as revealed.  This reckoning is the life of faith.

So the power of the gospel is not that it excuses sin, but that it renders it powerless.  The power of the gospel is not that it enables me to be right through my deeds, but through a continuing relationship to God, who makes me good and right.  Baptism gives this picture, dead and buried to sin, but immersed in the life of God as a living, present, and eternal reality.

This departs from the law, which seeks to make up for sins through righteous acts.  Such a departure does not eliminate the need for obedience to God in righteous deeds, but shows that righteousness comes from what or who my heart is dedicated to.  "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as a slave, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (v.16)

The movement of goodness begins with immersion in Christ, not merely as an external act with water, but as a surrender of my desires and old habits and an acceptance of his grace and new life.  Only the regeneration of Christ can begin this walk with God.

Following new life brought by Christ is obedience.  Obedience leads to righteousness.  What is good?  Trusting in Jesus enough to obey him.  This obedience brings true goodness, that is, righteousness.  That righteousness leads to holiness.  Holiness is being closely associated with God in a life as he intends and therefore being separated from the world and its ways.  The character of holiness is what results in eternal life.  The life that Jesus begins through regeneration, he completes through obedience, righteousness, and holiness.  The completion never ends and always grows.  It is eternal.

Lord, may I reckon myself dead to sin and live to God.  May I stay the course with you of obedience, righteousness, and holiness and not be diverted to law or license.  I do not want to try to manage my sin or just ignore it, I want to see it dead and buried as it is.  Change my heart and mind to accept these realities and embrace your eternal life of living in and with you.  Amen.

The power of the gospel can lead to unwarranted conclusions, such as in verse 1.  Since God's grace so completely covers and defeats all sin and suffering without our righteousness, I have been tempted to conclude that my efforts toward salvation are unnecessary.  Although effort toward my own salvation is what self-righteousness is made of, not all effort toward salvation is self-righteousness.  To put it another way, all self-righteousness requires effort, but not all effort leads to self-righteousness.

Immersion into Christ-likeness begins with the cross.  The image of baptism is one of death.  I begin my walk with Christ by renouncing the devil, the world, and my flesh.  I choose God's way over my way.