We Know That Christ is Raised and Dies No More

Scripture — Romans 6:1b-11 (NRSV)

Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Devotion

No one has ever asked me which Biblical book I would take to a desert island—and it’s not a choice I would like to have to make, honestly—but one of the top contenders is Romans. Every three years, the lectionary compilers walk us through the argument of Romans all summer, and today, as the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost approaches, we’ve arrived at Romans 6.

Romans can be dense (like many things Paul wrote, some of which read a bit like algebra problems). You can almost see the wheels turning in his brain. He has just argued in Romans 5 that people have known that they sinned since the law was given, and when sin increases grace increases also to combat it:

But law came in, so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so grace might also reign through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 5:20-21).

Naturally, this immediately leads him to make sure that his hearers don’t take this knowledge as an opportunity to keep sinning, and that’s where our passage starts. Yes, if we do sin, there will be grace. (There is always grace where Paul is concerned, as long as there is repentance.) But if we do keep sinning, then we haven’t really gotten the picture. Life is too short to keep sinning. Why would we live a sin-shadowed life when we have the opportunity of walking in the sunlight of freedom with our Lord?

Paul is so incredulous, he almost explodes: “By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” (6:2) He tells his hearers: You were already baptized. You are already on the road. You already have all of earth and heaven open to you: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (6:5). Why in the world would you go backwards?

We can read this and feel ourselves superior to Paul’s audience after two thousand years of theologizing about this passage—but should we? Do we truly live and lead as though our old selves have been crucified with Christ? Do we truly live and lead as though we have died to sin and are alive in Christ Jesus? There is a hoary preacher anecdote about a tourist asking an Amish person whether or not he was a Christian and the Amish man replying, “Ask my neighbor.” While this is probably apocryphal, its point is real. If we asked those with whom we live and work whether we have died to sin—not just intellectually, but actually—what would they say?

The good news is that, if we aren’t quite there yet, we have the grace of Christ to help us get there—to be transformed, sanctified, made perfect in love in this life. But, so that we do not sin so that grace may abound, we had better be about it.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Walking in Newness of Life in the Workplace (Romans 6).