Are you living the crucified life? (Part Five).

From the desk of Dr. Robert L. Taylor, Th.D. To help us understand and embrace the crucified life, we’re carefully examining the text of Romans 6:1-4. Romans 6:1–14 (the context) explores how believers in Christ should think about and respond to sin now that we are in Christ and our sins are forgiven. We read, “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans 6:5-6). Because of the believer becoming “united with Him in the likeness of His death” is factual and true, it affirms the certainty of the promise of being “united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection.” Paul means for believers to understand and embrace that we are newly alive, spiritually, in Christ. But that's not all, though! Paul says that since we have been united with Christ in a spiritual death like this, we will also be united with Him in a physical resurrection like the one He experienced! In other words, we will also come back to life after we die physically instead of remaining with those who are among the dead ones (see 1 Corinthians 15:20-22). Next Paul adds a new layer of understanding to what exactly happened to us when we died spiritually with Christ. He writes that we also experienced a crucifixion. Our “old self,” the one that existed in sin and self-reliance before we were in Christ, was spiritually crucified in the same way that Christ was physically crucified on the cross. In response to our faith, God powerfully put to death our old self that was under the hard and oppressive rule and power of sin. In the Bible, being “slaves to sin” means being controlled by sin and following one's sinful nature. The Bible teaches that everyone who lives in sin is a slave to sin. However, sin is not in charge of believers any longer. We were slaves to sin, and we have now been freed from its power and authority in our lives. Be encouraged!