◄ What Does Romans 6:4 Mean? ►

Christ died to pay the price for sins committed in our lives so that we might be forgiven, and Christ rose again the third day to break the power of sin in our lives so that we may live the rest of our Christian life free from the powerful strangle-hold of sin within our hearts. In this glorious chapter, Paul transports us to the pinnacle of who we are in Christ and what His death and Resurrection really means to all who believe on His name. Paul paints in spectacular technicolour what it means to be children of God, accepted in the Beloved, dead to the power of sin in our lives, and alive unto God through the life of Christ, now resident within and able to work in us and through us, to the glory of God.

Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 12, that at rebirth we were all baptised into one Body (the Body of Christ). He expands this in Galatians by explaining that as many as were baptised into the Body of Christ, which happened the moment we believed on Jesus we "put on Christ." We were placed into the Body of Christ and clothed with Christ Himself.

Because we were baptised into Christ the moment that we trusted Him as Saviour, we moved our position from being in Adam to being IN Christ.

We were IN Christ: His seed - when Christ went to the Cross - and so we were crucified with Him.
We were IN Christ: His seed - when Christ was buried in the tomb - and so we were buried with Him.
We were IN Christ: His seed - when Christ was resurrected from the dead - and so we were resurrected with Him.

The effect of having been baptised into Christ's death, burial, and Resurrection, means that everything that is true of Christ is also true of us as well. Because we are in Him, we are forever identified with Him and all that He has done. Christ conquered death when He died on the Cross and rose again, and because we are positioned in Him, because we are His seed, we are identified with all that He did.

Because the power of death was broken by Christ it was also broken in our lives too - and in the life of every single man and woman that simply believes in Christ Jesus our Lord. Prior to believing in the Lord Jesus, sin and death had power over us 24/7. Once we believed in Him, the power of sin and death was broken giving us the choice to walk in our new godly life in Christ rather that to walk in the old sinful, fleshly life in Adam.

Paul in this verse was reminding the Roman believers of a truth that he had taught them some time before: Since we have all died to sin, how can we continue to keep on sinning? Have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, when the Holy Spirit placed us into Christ's Body, we joined Him in His death and were identified with Him?

For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. We died and were buried with Him because we were IN Him as part of His Body. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Hallelujah!

Loving Father, thank You for Paul's ministry and this wonderful news that I am in Christ, I have been placed into His Body, and am now one with Him and fully identified with all that He did, including being free from the power of sin in my life. May I live godly in Christ Jesus, to Your praise and glory. In Jesus' name, AMEN.