Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 1 Study # 6
June 5, 2016
Humble, Texas
(012)
1769 Translation:
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also [
in the likeness] of [
his] resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [
him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1901 ASV Translation:
4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become
united with [
him] in the likeness of his death, we shall be also [
in the likeness] of his resurrection;
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [
him], that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;
7 for he that hath died is
justified from sin.
8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him;
9 knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him.
10 For
the death that he died, he died unto sin
once: but
the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
- I. Buried Together With Him.
- A. The composite word "buried together with" is only used here and in Colossians 2:12.
- B. The root word, "bury", is used eleven times in the New Testament and typically refers to putting a person's body into a tomb of some kind.
- 1. Paul seems to use "bury" in 1 Corinthians 15:4 to, more or less, establish the fact that Jesus was actually dead. There is a parallel here where the "according to the Scriptures" fact is followed by a kind of "proof": He died and was buried; He arose and was seen... .
- 2. The idea of our "baptism into Him" is focused upon the concept involved in our being involved in His "death" (called The Death).
- a. "The Death" is the whole while "death" may simply be an aspect of that whole.
- b. "The Death" includes both of the consequences of "The Sin": physical destruction and spiritual dominion by an evil spirit.
- C. The point seems to be that we, like Him, were buried.
- 1. Romans 6:5 picks this up with "we have been planted together in the likeness of His death".
- 2. Paul is attempting to establish the reality of our "burial" in some sense: we actually did die together with Him.
- a. This reality, however, is not, as yet, "physical".
- b. This reality is, however, genuine in some sense.
- 1) That "sense", on the one hand, seems to be the available potency of the reality: we were buried means that the power of "The Death" has been terminated.
- 2) That "sense", on the other hand, seems to be the action of God in cutting off the results of Adam's sin: by forgiveness, lifting the eternal consequences of sin in eternal death; and, by resurrection, ultimately lifting the temporal consequences of sin so that our frames are no longer subject to constant disintegration.
- a) The death and burial of Christ Jesus was specifically for the purpose of completely reversing Adam's sin by the establishment of a second Adam Who would do for His "race" what is necessary to deliver Adam's "race" from his destructive decisions.
- b) This is "Truth", but is only efficacious for those who "believe" it.
- c) The entire "relational universe" which God created stands or falls, as to individual participation in it, by "faith". Without "faith" relationships do not actually exist, let alone thrive.
- c. These meanings for our "burial" are to capture our hearts and minds so that we actively pursue the freedom contained in the promise of eternal life as well as the freedom contained in the provision of the Spirit as an indwelling presence in our current bodies.
- 1) This means, at least, that we are not to regress in our understanding by reverting back to "self-effort" in order to obtain acceptance by God. This issue -- acceptance -- is the very core of "Death's" threat and the basis for the bondage of the fear of death mentioned in Hebrews 2.
- 2) It also means that we are not to fantasize greater results than have been promised.
- d. Additionally, "burial" is the precondition for "resurrection". This is Paul's point in 6:5, but it is not technically true in that a body does not have to be buried for the person to be raised from the dead. He/she just has to be dead -- burial is simply the evidence of the reality of the death.
- II. The Outcome: Also "Baptized" Into His Resurrection.
- A. The "bottom line" in this concept is the subjunctive: "we should walk" in newness of life. This is not "indicative" (as a present inevitability), nor is it a future (as something we only look forward to at some later date): it is a subjunctive leading us to consider that it is a present possibility dependent only upon both "faith" and a growing lack of "ignorance" about the facts (we cannot believe what we do not know, nor can we believe with "great faith" something we have only begun to understand).
- B. The other involved concepts... .