Dead to Sin's Dominion
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Why is Romans 6 considered a pivotal passage for understanding our identity in Christ?
Thank you.
This week on Things Unseen, I've been talking about some of the passages in Scripture that have shaped my own Christian life. And I've said before, I want to encourage you not only to think about the particular verses that have influenced me, but to take some time this week, maybe over the weekend, to think about passages that have shaped your own life. It's a wonderful exercise, and it helps us to see how God's Word has been at work in us, as Paul puts it in 1 Thessalonians 2. I almost hesitate to mention the fourth passage today because it's got 14 verses in it, and it's not the easiest passage to understand. And I think not many of us read it and immediately think, yes, I've got it. I'm not going to read the passage, but it's in Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 14.
And I first became conscious of its importance in a book someone gave me when I think I was 16. The book actually taught what used to be called the higher life, and one element in its teaching which appealed to these verses in Romans 6 was that there was a new level of sanctification possible, and it could be experienced by a particular act of faith. I read and re-read the book, but to be honest, I just didn't get it. I felt as though I was being asked to leap onto the top of a table from a standing start. And so I put the book to one side.
How did the speaker’s early encounter with the ‘higher‑life’ teaching shape his view of Romans 6?
But a year or so later, when I was in my first year at university, I heard an address that touched on Romans 6. And I remember thinking, I've got to give more serious attention to studying this passage. And so I did. To tell the truth, I don't think I've preached on it all that often, considering how important it's been in my own life. but the truth it teaches has been like background music in my life ever since I was a late teenager. So what's the big deal in Romans 6? Well, just that it is a big deal. The great Welsh preacher, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who actually preached on Romans for about 14 years or so in London, recorded that a well-known individual came to see him once to ask him when he was going to begin a series of expositions on Romans.
And he replied, when I can understand Romans chapter 6. And a great Scottish churchman, the theologian Thomas Chalmers, who actually was a man of such substance, I think the Prime Minister of Great Britain was frightened of him. Chalmers thought this was perhaps the most interesting chapter in the whole Bible. So, it is a big deal.
What do historic theologians like Lloyd‑Jones and Thomas Chalmers say about the significance of Romans 6?
And it's important because Paul suggests to the Romans that there is something every Christian should know, but he's suspecting that maybe the Roman Christians don't understand it. The reason they should know it is because it's part of the meaning of their baptism. Well, what is it? It's that through the work of the Spirit, faith unites us to Jesus Christ. You remember how the New Testament puts it. We not only believe in Christ, but into Christ, so that we can be said to be now in Christ. And if we're united to Christ, that means that we are united to Him in His death and resurrection. Don't you know, he says to the Romans, that all of us who were baptized were baptized into Christ's death, and now we've been raised up with Him into newness of life.
More than that, he says, the death Christ died was a death He died to sin, that is, to the dominion or reign of sin. So, if we are united to Christ, then we too have died to the dominion of sin and been raised into newness of life. We've been set free. And that's why Paul asks this question at the beginning of the chapter.
How does Paul describe our union with Christ and death to the dominion of sin in Romans 6?
How can we who died to sin still live in it? And if that's the case, then as he said at the end of the passage, then don't let sin, whose reign over you has been broken, reestablish that reign. Don't let your bodies become instruments or weapons for sin to use. Remember, you've died to sin's dominion. You've been raised to a new life in another kingdom altogether, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. What I discovered in my studies in those now far-off early days of my Christian life was this. Paul uses a particular form of speech in Romans 6, verse 2.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why is Romans 6 considered a pivotal passage for understanding our identity in Christ?
0:04–1:39
2
How did the speaker’s early encounter with the ‘higher‑life’ teaching shape his view of Romans 6?
1:39–2:54
3
What do historic theologians like Lloyd‑Jones and Thomas Chalmers say about the significance of Romans 6?
2:54–4:18
4
How does Paul describe our union with Christ and death to the dominion of sin in Romans 6?
4:18–5:38
5
Why is it an ontological contradiction for a believer to continue living in sin?
5:38–6:42
6
How does understanding our new identity in Christ address today’s cultural identity crisis?
6:42–7:23