On Being Crucified. Romans 6.

I remember having to write a paper in seminary on any passage from Galatians that I wanted. My thoughts automatically drifted towards Galatians 2:17-21. The day before the paper was due, I walked into the computer lab at Multnomah, sat down, and read the passage.

And then the tears came.

Unexpectedly, surprisingly, I noticed something in this passage that altered my understanding of my life in Christ.

What I realized that day was that Christ loved me enough to make it possible for my life to change. Left to myself, my life would never get better, I would never know God and become like Christ. For some reason, God looked down on me and sent His son to die so that my life might be forever altered. See, it doesn’t say, “Christ was crucified for me” or “Christ was crucified because of me,” but it says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” The passages took on a whole new meaning for me when I read it that way, because it means that something within me has changed.

As I was thinking about the text for today, Romans 6, I realized that Paul is unpacking that idea from Galatians 2 in much more detail. Here are some thoughts about Romans 6 to chew on. I hope they help.

1-4 – When did you die? Instead of asking people when they were saved, the better question is, when did you die? When did you recognize that the life you live does not have to be soaked with sin? If you have indeed died to sin, you cannot live in it any longer. But why? Is it because you simply try harder not to sin? Is it because of your good attendance at church and bible study? No. Paul is about to tell you how this death to sin occurs.

We’ve been baptized into Christ and baptized in His death. In other words, we are fully incorporated into Him. We are also buried with Him, so that we might be raised with Him. Now what does this really mean? If you participate in Christ, if Christ has truly come into your life, you become like Him, you “die” with Him so that you can live a new life. Therefore, you die to sin. You don’t just keep making the same decisions time and time again, then relying of God to forgive you so that you can go do it all again.

Or at least, you don’t have to. And, the end result is that you can live a new life, not just in the hereafter, but now.

In verses 5-10, we see the same sentence structure used twice to describe our new life.

5,8 – Full Union – we have fully become united with Christ, so we know that when we die we will live with heaven.
6,9 – Finished with sin – we no longer should be slaves to sin. Our old self might refer to the way we were in Adam. The reality of Adam is that we knew about sin, but Paul says that “our old self,” or the Adamic part of us, was crucified with Christ. In other words, it died. We now can choose whether or not to sin.
7,10 – Final work – you have been freed once and for all, you don’t have to return to the life you once had in Adam.

This section suggests that our identification with Christ takes place so that we can be permanently free from sin’s domination.

So why don’t we feel free?

11-14 – Well, try counting yourselves dead to sin but alive to God. In other words, recognize that this drastic, total change has in fact taken place in your life. You have to consistently recognize this truth, to be fully persuaded that God is capable of doing this in your life. Don’t let sin reign. Don’t offer your body to sin, but offer yourself to God, because he brought you from death to life. Sin does not have to be your master because of the grace of God. But it doesn’t happen automatically. Putting away sin does not happen without our cooperation. God did not make us robots. We have the ability to choose to make this principle real in our lives.

Sometimes we get a glimpse of what this life looks like. I think that as I sat in front of that computer that day and read Galatians 2, I caught a glimpse of the depth of life that has been offered to me through Christ Jesus. I have complete freedom from sin, if I choose to grab it. If you really want to live as a Christian, you must understand and accept this reality. Then, when it comes to making choices, you’ll know that you have more options than you think.

But, how does this work out practically? What about all those choices that you and I have to make every day? Is it really as simple as choosing not to sin?

God seems to think so.

In Joshua 24, God tells a long story through the mouth of Joshua to the entire leadership of the nation of Israel. This story contains the major events in the history of the nation of Israel. God did this, God did that. Why is He telling the elders all of this? In this case, the whole story is told for a purpose. Joshua wants Israel to make a choice. They must choose between two alternatives: serving themselves, or serving God. These are really the only two options that God is giving His people: it’s either God or yourself. There are no other choices to make.

This passage is a window into our lives as Christians today. We have seen God do incredible things, we have an intellectual understanding of God. And yet we face the same choice that the nation of Israel faces here. God says, “Fear me! Serve me! But, if that seems undesirable to you, then choose yourself.” We are in the same boat today, and we have a choice to make.

In Romans 6:15-23, Paul echoes this moment in the life of Israel, but he frames it as an individual choice.

15-16 – The basic question is this: because we have grace, does that mean that we can and should sin? The answer of course, is no. But why? If we decide that we are going to listen to that part of us that calls us to sin, we have made ourselves slaves. But, Paul just said two verses earlier that we don’t have to be slaves to sin anymore. In other words, what Paul is saying here is that we have the power now, through Christ and Christ alone, to make a choice about whether or not we obey our sinful desires or not. The choice, as he says in verse 16, is between sin and obedience. And here’s the thing: we automatically make a choice. We can’t stand back and look at these things and say, “I’m not going to choose.” By choosing not to choose, we choose ourselves. This is one of the essential truth of the Christian life: we are constantly making our choice for or against God.

Please understand: you can’t do any obeying on your own. God expects us to obey Him, but our obedience is the product of His grace. By saying, “God, I want to serve You,” you allow Him access to your life to do the work that He wants to do. This is called submission.

17-18 – Paul stops here and gives thanks for the situation that the Roman Christians find themselves in. He gives thanks not so much for their former slavery to sin, but that because of their obedience, they have appropriated God’s power to come away from sin and be slaves to righteousness. It’s always easier to see what you need when you don’t have it. These people can look back and see the history that they have and recognize where they came from, just like the leaders of Israel could as God spoke to them through Joshua.

19 – Here’s the center of this section. Think about what it would mean if you spent all your energies not on yourself and your desires, but on becoming holy. That’s what this is all leading up to. Choosing yourself will always lead you to wickedness and selfishness, choosing God will always lead you to righteousness and holiness.

20-22 – Paul now states the reverse condition: when you were slaves to sin, you were set free from the control of righteousness. It’s interesting that most non-Christians think of Christians as so restricted and so constrained by faith. But non-Christians have to make the same choices that Christians are confronted with. The difference is, they are not free to live a truly righteous life, because they don’t have the living Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. If one is not serving God, then whether knowingly or not, one is serving sin.

So, Paul is saying, think about it: How did being a slave to sin affect you? What benefit did you reap at that time from those things that you are now ashamed of? You ever sit around and tell those stories about your past and all the junk that came from it? Why? It’s one thing to learn from your mistakes. But don’t keep reliving them. Move on!

Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you gain leads to holiness, and ultimately eternal life. Holiness is what we’re talking about here. Choosing God leads you down the path to holiness.

23 – The conclusion of this section makes it clear what the stakes are in this discussion: those who are slaves to sin are storing up for themselves death, but those who are slaves to righteousness have received the free gift from God and have gained eternal life. Remember, this section starts with the question, “Should we sin because we have grace?” When we receive Christ, when we receive grace, we are free to choose our master. We don’t have to sin. We can choose not to. But it’s not automatic. Throughout this section, Paul throws in commands, implying that it just doesn’t happen without your cooperation. God can offer you salvation without your cooperation, but He can’t make you holy without your cooperation.

At the end of God’s story, Joshua looks at the long history that God has demonstrated, and he says, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” What are you going to do? Look at your own life, and see for yourself. There have been times when you have been pursuing holiness, and there have been times when you have forgotten God. You’ve made these choices throughout your Christian life. And now, you can choose once and for all. That’s what Paul wants you to know. Sin does not have to dominate you. It doesn’t have to be a roller-coaster faith. God is powerful enough to remove that from you. You’ve been crucified with Christ. But, you have to choose to live His life and let yours go.

hook's note: Tom Beasley is senior pastor of Butteville Community Church. His blog is here.