Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

ROMANS 6

Everyone knows John 3:16 where Jesus says we must be Born Again to obtain everlasting life. Yet here the Apostle Paul seems to be implying we need also die unto Christ to obtain everlasting life, is this something new and additional? God forbid Paul or anyone should preach a new Gospel. No this is the same Good News that Christ brought, just expounding upon the Word. In order for the new man (righteous) to live the old (sinful) must die. This is only possible through Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary. All TRUE CHRISTIANS have died with Christ that is been Baptized unto His death and put away their sinful nature.

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BAPTISM. One of the ordinances which the Lord Jesus hath appointed in his church. An outward token, or sign, of an inward and spiritual grace. A dedication to the glorious, holy, undivided Three in One, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; in whose joint name baptism is performed, and from whose united blessings in Christ; it can alone be rendered effectual. (Matt. 28:19.) Beside this ordinance, which Christ hath appointed as the introduction to his church, we are taught to be always on the watch, in prayer and supplication, for the continual baptisms of the Holy Ghost. Concerning the personal baptisms of the Lord Jesus Christ, we hear Jesus speaking of them during his ministry. (See Luke 12:50.) Hence, to the sons of Zebedee, the Lord said, “Can ye drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” And Jesus added, “Ye shall drink of the cup that I drink of, and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptised.” (Mark 10:38, 39.)

Some have thought, that these expressions are figurative of sufferings. But there doth not seem sufficient authority in the word of God to prove this. And, indeed, the subject is too much obscured by those expressions, to determine that sufferings were the baptisms to which the Lord had respect. Besides, had sufferings been meant by Christ, could he mean that the sons of Zebedee were to sustain agonies like himself in the garden and on the cross? This were impossible.

Others, by baptism, have taken the expression of John the Baptist literally, where he saith, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” (Matt. 3:11.) Others, with more probability of truth, have considered the baptisms of the Holy Ghost, and with fire, to mean his manifold gifts and graces. The Old Testament spake of “the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning.” (Isa. 4:4.) And the New Testament gives the record of the first descent of the Holy Ghost, after Christ’s return to glory, in the shape of cloven tongues, like as of fire, which sat upon each of them. (Acts 2:4.) It were devoutly to be prayed for, and sought for by faith, that all true believers in Christ were earnest for the continual influences of the Holy Ghost, as the only real and sure testimony of being baptized unto Christ, in having put on Christ. For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Gal. 3:27. Rom. 8:9.)

Robert Hawker, The Poor Man’s Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures (London: Ebenezer Palmer, 1828), 79–81.

CHAPTER CONTEXT:

The Doctrine of Justification by CHRIST, shewn to be a Doctrine of Godliness. And so far is it, in its Nature and Consequences, from leading to Licentiousness, that it is here proved to be the only Foundation for a holy Life in CHRIST.

Robert Hawker, Poor Man’s New Testament Commentary: Acts–Ephesians, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2013), 279.

CHAP. 6:1–23.—THE FRUITS OF JUSTIFICATION IN THE NEW LIFE.
In the opening remarks on the foregoing chapter, it was stated that the second great Head of the apostle’s subject, the Fruits of Justification in Privilege and in Life, extended over three chapters—the sixth, seventh, and eighth. In the first eleven verses of the preceding chapter, the Privileges of the Justified are handled, the remaining verses being a digression. The new Life of the believer falls now to be opened up. To this fruitful topic the apostle devotes two whole chapters; in the present chapter treating of the Union of believers to Christ as the source of the new life, and in the following one continuing this subject, but following it up with some profound considerations on the great principles of sin and holiness in fallen men, both under law and under grace.

David Brown, A. R. Fausset, and Robert Jamieson, A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments: Acts–Revelation, vol. VI (London; Glasgow: William Collins, Sons, & Company, Limited, n.d.), 224.

KEY VERSE (v.3) CONTEXT:

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ—‘Christ Jesus’ it should be; for that is the reading not only of all the MSS., but even of the received text, and yet our version (as printed, at least) has “Jesus Christ.” The meaning is, “baptized,” not into the acknowledgment of Christ only, but ‘into the participation of all that He is for sinners’ (cf. Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor. 10:2; Gal. 3:27), sealed with the seal of heaven, and formally entered and articled (so to speak) as to all the benefits, so also to all the obligations of Christian discipleship in general; but more particularly, were baptized into his death?—as the hinge of His whole work. That it is so, must be manifest on the surface of the New Testament to every impartial reader. But the growing tendency to regard the death of Christ as but the completion of a life of self-devotion—which men have simply to copy—may render it fit that we should here set down a few of the more emphatic expressions of its sacrificial and life-giving virtue:—Matt. 1:22; 20:28; Luke 22:19, 20; John 1:29; 3:14–16; 6:51, 53–56; 10:15, 17, 18; 12:32; Acts 20:28; (and passing over our own Epistle) 1 Cor. 1:23, 24; 5:7; 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:14, 21; Gal. 2:20; 3:13; 4:4, 5; Eph. 1:7; 2:13, 16; 5:25; Col. 1:20–22; Tit. 2:14; Heb. 9:14; 10:10, 12, 14, 19; 13:12, 20; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19; 2:24; 1 John 1:7; 2:2; Rev. 1:5, 5:9; 7:14. Since, then, He was “made sin,” yea “a curse for us,” “bearing our sins in His own body on the tree,” and “rising again for our justification,” our whole sinful case and condition, thus taken up into His person, has been brought to an end in His death. Whoso, then, has been baptized into Christ’s death has formally surrendered the whole state and life of sin, as in Christ a dead thing. He has sealed himself to be not only “the righteousness of God in Him,” but “a new creature;” and as he cannot be in Christ to the one effect and not to the other—for they are one and inseparable—he has bidden farewell, by baptism into Christ’s death, to his entire connection with sin. “How,” then, “can he live any longer therein?” The two things are as contradictory in the fact as they are in the terms. Of all this the apostle says, ‘Know ye it not?’—as if it were among the household truths of the Christian Faith, lying as it does at the foundation of our standing as believers before God. Not that as put in this Epistle they had ever been brought before these Roman Christians, probably, until they read them here; nor is it likely, indeed, that any of the churches save those who were favoured with Pauline teaching were much better off. But they were of that nature that they only needed to be presented to intelligent and teachable believers to be recognized and acquiesced in as the very truths in which they had been rudimentally instructed from the first. Compare the similar saying of our Lord to His disciples at the Supper table, John 14:5 (on which see Commentary, p. 434).

David Brown, A. R. Fausset, and Robert Jamieson, A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments: Acts–Revelation, vol. VI (London; Glasgow: William Collins, Sons, & Company, Limited, n.d.), 225.

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A person who believes Christians are free to continue sinning betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of what a Christian is. Christians are not merely guilty sinners declared righteous by God because Christ has satisfied the demands of God’s righteousness on their behalf. That truth, which theologians call justification, is indeed an essential one. But there is much more to salvation than justification. Believers are also placed into union with Jesus Christ.

Paul introduces this momentous truth by means of the analogy of water baptism. Some wrongly interpret this passage to teach that baptism itself places us into union with Christ. But Paul had just spent three chapters (Rom. 3—5) teaching that salvation is solely by faith in Christ. He would hardly then turn around in chapter 6 and teach that it was by ritual. The apostle, as he did in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, used baptism in a metaphorical sense. (The Greek word translated “baptism” simply means “to immerse,” not necessarily in water.)

Paul also uses other metaphors to describe believers’ union with Christ. In Galatians 3:27 he says believers have put on Christ, while 1 Corinthians 6:17 says Christians are joined to Him. But none is so graphic as that of baptism; the leaving of one environment (air) and entering another (water) symbolizes believers leaving Satan’s realm (Eph. 2:2) and entering that of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What does our union with Christ mean in our everyday lives? First, it provides the means of fellowship with both Jesus and the Father (1 John 1:3). It also should motivate us to avoid sinning. In 1 Corinthians 6:15, Paul chided the Corinthians for their lax view of sexual sin: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be!” Finally, our union with Christ provides hope of future glory (Rev. 3:21).

What a blessed privilege and awesome responsibility is ours, to have our lives inextricably bound with the Son of God (Col. 3:3)!

Suggestions for Prayer

Praise God for all the blessings resulting from your union with Christ.

For Further Study

Read 2 Peter 1:3-4. In light of our union with Christ, do we lack anything necessary for living the Christian life?

From Strength for Today by John MacArthur Copyright © 1997. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.