“Buried with Him, Raised with Him”
(Romans 6:1-11)
Easter Sunday
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
•Take your Bibles and join me in Romans, chapter 6 (page 760; YouVersion).
We’re interrupting our series on the Book of 1 Corinthians this morning and focusing on a passage of Scripture that teaches us to live out the implications of Easter. In other words, what does the reality of Easter, the fact of Easter, what does Easter have to say to the follower of Christ?
The context of Romans 6 is important. Paul has just been writing in chapter 5 about how Christians are forgiven for their sin, and forgiven forever. He begins to teach the doctrine of the assurance of salvation, that one may be absolutely assured that he or she has eternal life forever.
And one of the reasons the Christian may be assured of this eternal life is because God’s grace is eternal. In the last couple verses of chapter 5 Paul says, “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” That is, no matter how much we may sin, there is always enough grace to cover that sin.
Now Paul recognizes that someone may get the wrong idea here. Someone may argue, “Well, you can’t go around teaching that! I mean if you teach that eternal life is possible because of eternal forgiveness because of eternal grace—well that might lead some to eternal sin!” Stated another way, “A Christian may be emboldened to sin because he may falsely reason that it is okay since there will be enough grace to cover and forgive his sin.”
And that’s how chapter 6 actually begins. Paul writes in verse 1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” His answer in verse 2, “Certainly not!” Now, we’ll go ahead and read the first few verses.
•Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
•Pray.
Introduction:
It is impossible to be a Christian and not believe in a literal resurrection of Christ. I don’t mean that I am unaware of those who profess to be Christians and deny the bodily resurrection of Christ. I know there are many persons like this.
I simply mean that when it comes to being a Christian as defined in the Bible, as one who believes the Bible to be the very Word of God, it is a given that Christians believe in a literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, His literally coming back from the dead. The Bible does not allow for the option that someone one may be a Christian and, at the same time, jettison the biblical teaching of a bodily resurrection of Christ.
I will not argue for the evidences of a bodily resurrection this morning. While we have in the past done that to some extent, it seems rather needless as most of us in this room believe in the resurrection and affirm as true the statement that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 15 where he says to Christians, “If Christ has not risen, then…your faith is empty…and you are still in your sins (verses 14, 17).”
The resurrection is a truth of history, a fact, a real event occurring in real space and time. But no one becomes a Christian simply by believing a fact of history. Truth must be experienced. The fact must be felt. The resurrection of Christ is not merely a truth to be understood, it is a truth to be received.
Suppose you tell me that you have a new espresso machine. You tell me that you got it last week and that you have learned to use it very well. You tell me that you have learned to pull a perfect shot of espresso. You tell me how it looks and smells. And you tell me that it is very good.
Well, I know you and I know that you tell me the truth. You have never lied to me before so I have no reason to doubt you. I tell you that I believe you. And I do. But then you invite me over to your house. And I see the new machine right there on your kitchen counter. And I watch you take out a tiny glass, a demitasse, and I watch you grind some coffee beans and put them into that tiny glass and tamp the dosage down and put it under the portafilter and I watch you pull a perfect shot of espresso. You hand it to me. I admire the beauty of it, the quarter inch of crema on top. I smell it and it smells so good and I sip it and I am in heaven!
I have now experienced the reality. I had no reason to doubt you before. I believed you were telling me the truth. But now I have experienced that truth personally.
And if you will allow the rough analogy, imperfect as it is, you will appreciate that the resurrection of Christ is not merely a truth to acknowledge; it is a truth to receive. The resurrection of Christ is a truth to savor, to know, to feel, to experience, to live. And so this morning I want to study this passage with you and invite you to two actions, two responses to the truth of Easter. There is in this passage both the picture of Easter and the power of Easter. Those two things. Very simple outline. First, number one, let’s:
I. Look at the Picture of Easter (1-4)
Verses 1-4 picture what took place that first Easter weekend, from Good Friday when Christ was crucified to Easter Sunday, when Christ rose from the dead.
After Paul addresses the faulty notion that his gospel preaching might lead people to exploit God’s grace by continuing in sin, he says again in verse 2, “Certainly not!” And then asks the question there in verse 2, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” Christians have died to the old way of life, Christians have died to sin.
Now the picture in verses 3 and 4:
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Do you see the picture of Easter? Easter weekend is pictured in the ordinance of baptism. Baptism pictures death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism pictures what happened to Jesus on Easter weekend: He died, He was buried, He rose again.
And baptism also pictures what happened to the Christian. Christians have died to the old way of life, they have been buried, and have risen again.
In the ordinance of baptism, when a Christian is immersed into the water and brought up out of the water, we see these two pictures. Baptism pictures what happened to Jesus. Going down into the water symbolizes going down into a grave, descending down—burial—and then coming up out of the water symbolizes resurrection.
And baptism also pictures what happened to the Christian: He died—died to the old self—he was buried, and he rises again to walk in a new way of life. So going down into the water, the Christian is reminded that he has died to the old way of life. He is buried with Christ and is risen in resurrection power, raised to walk in newness of life.
Look again at verse 3: “Do you not know that as many of us—(and Paul is writing to Christians)—as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” And he adds in verse 4, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we,”—that is, even so we are raised—raised to “walk in newness of life.”
Baptism is an outward symbol of an inward experience. Baptism pictures the Christian’s conversion from death to life. Without Christ we are spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. We are doomed to hell. But through the power of the Gospel, God transforms us, gives us life. We receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and we are now alive. We have “newness of life.” That conversion is pictured in the ordinance of baptism—death, burial, and resurrection.
It’s like Lazarus in John’s Gospel. Remember Lazarus? He had been dead for a few days before Jesus came and spoke to the tomb where Lazarus was buried. And Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” And then He said, “Lazarus, come forth.” And the Bible says Lazarus came out of the tomb. He was dead and now he is alive.
I don’t know whether he went to funerals after that, wearing a T-shirt that said, “Been there, done that!” But he was once dead and now was alive.
By the way, anyone in the Bible who ever died and came back from the grave never once spoke of what he saw in heaven, agreeing with the Apostle Paul who, when caught up to the third heaven, saw things he couldn’t bear to speak of. Something to think about what with all of these so-called near-death experiences today. There is nothing authoritative in a person’s experience. Nothing. There is money to be made, for sure—no end to the books and movies. Our faith rests not in man’s fallible experience, but our faith rests in the rock solid Word of God, what the Bible teaches about heaven. Never forget that.
God has blessed us with the sufficiency of Scripture, our highest and grandest authority is the Word of God!
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said—
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
Stand on the Word. Man’s experience is fallen, faulty, and flakey. The Bible is sure, solid, and strong. You can stand on its promises.
Easter weekend is pictured in the ordinance of baptism. What happened to Jesus? He was placed down into a grave—buried—and on the third day, the first day of the week, the first Easter Sunday—he came up! He arose! He is risen.
Baptism pictures what happened to Jesus and baptism pictures what happened to the Christian. See, it’s not that baptism itself saves. Baptism is a symbol. It is an outward symbol of an inward experience. Baptism pictures conversion.
The Christian has died to the old way of life, verse 2, “died to sin,” dying to the old person we were when our lives were dominated by sin. Christians have died. If we have not died to the old way of life, then we should not be baptized.
Occasionally we learn of someone buried alive. I agree with Spurgeon who said, “I fear that many have been buried alive in baptism, and have therefore risen and walked out of the grave just as they were.” In other words, some have been baptized who were not saved. They had never really repented and died to the old self.
In baptism, the Christian demonstrates that he or she has died to the old way of life. Through baptism, the Christian identifies with Jesus Christ, being baptized into His death, having been buried with Him through baptism into death.” He or she is now a new person. Through baptism, the Christian identifies with Jesus Christ and His church.
Baptism is a beautiful picture, a beautiful symbol. Baptism tells the world that we belong to Christ. We identify with Him. We have been united together with Him. It’s like my wedding band. Wearing my wedding band does not make me married. I can take it off and I am still married, right? My wedding band is a symbol. It tells everyone that I belong to someone. Christian baptism is like that. It tells everyone that we belong to someone—and His name is Jesus.
The picture of Easter. Easter weekend is pictured in the symbol of baptism. We have looked at the picture of Easter; action number one. Secondly, action number two:
II. Live in the Power of Easter (5-11)
Paul teaches that if we have died with Christ that we should also live with him, live in resurrection power. Verse 5:
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be (united together) in the likeness of His resurrection,
Paul is writing about the Christian’s union with Christ. Apart from union with Christ, all mankind has union with Adam. Apart from Christ man is spiritually dead, dead in sin. Apart from Christ, all humanity is united together in Adam. Adam is our father. Paul writes of this in the previous chapter. Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden.
Adam, whose name means man, was mankind’s representative. When Adam sinned, we sinned. We sinned in him, and fell with him in that first transgression. That’s why we are born sinners. It is our nature to sin.
If, however, we have received Christ as Lord, we are now longer united together with Adam. We have died to the old life. We are now united together with Christ. We have united together in the likeness of Christ’s death, believing He died to pay the penalty of our sin, united together with Christ in the likeness of His death so that—as Paul writes in the end of verse 5—we may be united together “in the likeness of His resurrection.”
Reading on in verse 6:
6 knowing this, that our old man (who we once were) was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
The “old man” is our “old self” before we were saved. The “old man” is who we used to be before we became Christians. Paul says you’ve died to the old you. Your “old man” your “old self” was “crucified with Christ.”
He adds in verse 6 that “the body of sin” is “done away with.” That is, our old lives were once dominated by sin. Sin ruled and reigned and held sway over our lives. But because we have died to the old self and the old life in Christ, we now live in resurrection power.
The rule and reign of sin, in terms of its mastery over us and its stranglehold upon us, is broken. Sin’s power is broken. We live in a new power, resurrection power. We are no longer enslaved to sin. We are now free in Christ. Verse 7:
7 For he who has died (with Christ) has been freed from sin.
To be “freed from sin” is to be no longer under sin’s control. It doesn’t mean that we cannot still sin. We can and often do, but sin no longer dominates our lives like it once did. We have a new freedom and power in Christ.
So where we once lived under the tyranny of sin, we are now free. The power of Easter is freedom from the rule and reign of sin. The Christian is changed. He or she has new desires, new interests. And the Christian’s life is marked by growth in Christ.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Christ’s death on the cross demonstrates the truth that Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins. He died, He was was buried. And Paul adds, “The life that He lives, He lives to God.” Christ died, was buried, and rose again. Easter weekend means that Christ defeated both sin and death. And how does this apply to us? Verse 11:
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Christians are to “reckon” or to “consider themselves” dead to sin. That’s what the Christian reminds himself each and every day—and frequently throughout the day. As Christians we must remember when facing sin and temptation, that we have died to the old way of life. We are dead to that.
But not only must we reckon ourselves “dead to sin,” we must also—verse 11—reckon ourselves “alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We must remember that we are alive in Christ. We have newness of life.
We walk in the power of His resurrection! We are free! We are living in the power of Easter!
The master of sin in our lives is broken. We used to sin and feel trapped by its hold on us. Christian, remember! That old rule and reign of sin over your lives has been broken.
God has rescued you from your old life.
Some of you will remember when we were preaching through the book of Romans that we referred to the old life as the old neighborhood across the tracks. That’s where we used to live. That’s where we lived when we were “united together in Adam.” But God came to us in the power of the Gospel and rescued us from that old neighborhood. He came to us through the power of Easter, the power of resurrection, and took us away from Adam.
With the precision of a team of Navy Seals, Christ comes to us where he finds us bound in sin, handcuffed and tied to the mastery of sin—He comes to us and rescues us—freeing us from sin’s mastery and whisking us away to freedom. We once were united together in Adam. We are now united together in Christ.
You don’t have to sin anymore. You are free. You once struggled with sins of alcoholism, drugs, addiction, sexual immorality, lying, stealing. You are now dead to that old way of life. Christ has picked you up and taken you into a new neighborhood. You have a new Master now!
You may still be tempted by the old neighborhood, but you don’t have to cross the tracks and go over there anymore. You’re free from that old meaningless life!
You can live in the power of Easter. You can have freedom, real freedom, real purpose, real meaning in life.
You have died, been buried, and have risen in Christ. You are now walking in a new way of life. And one day you will meet Christ face-to-face.
Conclusion:
One day you will die. And if you are saved, if you are “in Christ,” then at death your soul will immediately go to be with the Lord in heaven.
And others will take your body and bury it in a grave. But that’s not the end of your body. One day, Jesus will return. And all of those who have already died in Christ will return with Christ. The souls of the redeemed, the souls of the saved, will return with Christ. And the Bible says that Christ will raise up our old bodies out of the grave and change them into a glorified body like the Lord’s. And our soul will inhabit that new glorified body. And we will live in that new body forever and ever.
Oh, the Christian’s glorious future! No hell, no cancer, no tears, no pain, no death. Reunited with Christian loved ones who have gone on before us. Life, real life! I invite you to live in the power of Easter.
•Stand for prayer.
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