Dead But Alive

GETTING STARTED

Sometimes when reading Romans, I feel like saying to Paul, “Too many words! You’re talking in circles!” It’s kind of like being on a hike in the woods—unless you have a master’s degree in botany, everything looks the same. With proper education, though, the forest becomes an endless menagerie of micro-cosmic brilliance filled with meaning and order. So it is with Romans. With diligent pursuit, the rabbit trails of spiritual concepts all lead to the same place… Christ!

  • Before you study the passage today, ask the the Holy Spirit to guide you through Paul’s words, helping you to understand God’s truth.

READ THE WORD: ROMANS 6:1-14 (ESV)

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

DIGGING DEEPER

  1. Consolidate the questions in verses 1-3 into one definitive statement.
  2. What are two benefits we receive from being “buried with Christ” (vss. 4-5)?
  3. List a few reasons why our old self was crucified (vss. 6-7).
  4. Verse 11 says we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. Why must we (vss. 8-10)?
  5. What passions tend to enslave you? How can you present those to God as instruments of righteousness instead?

RESPOND TO GOD

Your answers to the questions above probably read something like the following. We died to our old self when we united with Christ. Because Christ was resurrected, he remains alive in us. We no longer have to be the person that disgusts us, but we can present shame-filled characteristics to Christ to be redeemed and used for his glory. When we entertain our old way of living, we’re no longer defined or enslaved by those actions because we are under grace. And, grace brings freedom, and freedom brings life, and life always leads to Christ.

  • Embrace freedom today! Pray for a life that is free from sin, a heart free of guilt, and a soul alive in Christ.