Grace Thoughts
Romans – The Gospel of God (Part 90)
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:8-11
We hope you are enjoying your study of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. You can read the last part of our study here. We will link you to free eBooks from previous studies at the end of this article.
We continue our study of Romans 6 beginning in verse 8.
Verse 8
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him
ει δε απεθανομεν συν χριστω πιστευομεν οτι και συζησομεν αυτω”
ει δε απεθανομεν συν χριστω (ei de apethanomen sun christō) “if now we died with Christ” .. ei is a conditional conjunction (followed by verb) and can mean “forasmuch as, in view of the fact that” .. apethanomen is a verb that is aorist indicative active .. it indicates a past action, something that was completed in the past .. sun means “together with, joined close-together in tight identification” .. christō is Christ ..
πιστευομεν οτι και συζησομεν αυτω (pisteuomen hoti kai syzēsomen autō) “we believe that also we will live with him” .. pisteuomen means “have faith in, trust in” .. syzēsomen means “to live together with” .. it’s a verb that is future indicative active .. autō means “him .. “with him” is a personal pronoun that dative of respect ..
Something very special happens at the moment a sinner is forgiven and saved. Paul emphasized in verse 5 that “if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Paul went on to write in verse 6 that “our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” In verse 7, Paul wrote that the person “who has died has been freed from sin.” In verse 8, Paul began to repeat some of the same truths but in a slightly different way. “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
Becoming a believer in Christ, a disciple of Christ, means that we are “united with Him” in His death and in His resurrection. That union means we are no longer slaves to sin (because we have been freed from sin) and that we will also live together with Him. That is a most extraordinary truth!
One Greek expert explained it this way –
We will live with respect to Him. That is, the believer’s new life imparted to him at the moment of believing is Christ. We will live by means of Him. The believer derives his spiritual life from Christ in that sense. Paul is not speaking here of the believer’s fellowship with Christ here or in eternity. How long does the believer derive his spiritual life from the Lord Jesus? As long as He lives. Paul says He died once for all, and that death over Him will never again exercise lordship. Thus, the believer will be sustained in spiritual life for time and eternity, since Christ is his life.
Kenneth Wuest, Romans, Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1955
This reminds me of what Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians –
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
Verse 9
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
“ειδοτες οτι χριστος εγερθεις εκ νεκρων ουκετι αποθνησκει θανατος αυτου ουκετι κυριευει”
ειδοτες οτι χριστος εγερθεις εκ νεκρω (eidotes hoti christos egertheis ek nekrōn) “knowing that Christ having been raised up out from the dead” .. eidotes means “be aware, behold, consider, perceive” .. it comes from the word eídō which means “to see with physical eyes” .. remember that Paul saw the risen Christ (Acts 9; 1 Corinthians 15) .. he was an eyewitness .. egertheis means “to waken, to raise up” .. it is a verb that is aorist participle passive .. someone or something acted upon Jesus Christ to raise Him from the dead at a past time .. ek is a preposition that means “out from, from out of” .. the idea is of something or someone exiting from an interior location to an outer location .. nekrōn means “dead, dead body, corpse” .. Jesus died on the Cross .. His dead body was placed in a tomb .. Jesus was dead, then rose from the dead ..
ουκετι αποθνησκει (ouketi apothnēskei) “no more dies” .. ouketi means “no longer, no more” .. apothnēskei means “to die, to die off” .. Jesus would no longer die off after He rose from the dead ..
θανατος αυτου ουκετι κυριευει (thanatos autou ouketi kurieuei) “death him no longer rules over” .. thanatos means “death” and was used for both physical and spiritual death .. ouketi means “no longer, no more” .. kurieuei means “have authority over, rule over, have dominion over” .. it is the idea of a property owner exercising rights over, having mastery (control) over something .. the word comes from kurios (lord, ruler) ..
Christ’s resurrection broke forever the tyranny of death. That cruel master can no longer exercise any power over him. The cross was sin’s final move; the resurrection was God’s checkmate. The game is over. Sin is forever in defeat.
[Robert H. Mounce (2012). New American Commentary Vol 27: Romans. B&H Publishing Group.
Verse 10
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
“ο γαρ απεθανεν τη αμαρτια απεθανεν εφαπαξ ο δε ζη ζη τω θεω”
ο γαρ απεθανεν (ho gar apethanen) “that which for he died” .. apethanen means “to die, to die off” ..
τη αμαρτια απεθανεν εφαπαξ (tē hamartia apethanen ephapax) “to sin he died once for all” .. hamartia means “miss the mark, to fail, sin, loss) .. apethanen means “to die, to die off” .. ephapax means “once for all, one time” .. Jesus died one time and in so doing died for all who would become His followers ..
Christ died to sin in two senses: 1) in regard to sin’s penalty–He met its legal demands upon the sinners; and 2) in regard to sin’s power–forever breaking its power over those who belong to Him. And His death will never need repeating.
The McArthur Study Bible, Thomas Nelson, 2019, p 1552
ο δε ζη ζη τω θεω (ho de zē zē tō Theō) “that which however he lives he lives to God) .. zē is a verb that is present indicative active and means “to live, I live” .. the subject (Christ) is doing the action .. He lives by and through His own power .. Someone else acted upon His dead body (the Holy Spirit, Romans 8:11) .. However, Jesus lives by His own power following the resurrection from the dead .. death no longer has any power over Jesus ..
Verse 11
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ουτως και υμεις λογιζεσθε εαυτους νεκρους μεν ειναι τη αμαρτια ζωντας δε τω θεω εν χριστω ιησου τω κυριω ημων
ουτως και υμεις (houtōs kai humeis) “so also you” .. houtōs means “so in this manner, in this way” ..
λογιζεσθε εαυτους νεκρους μεν ειναι τη αμαρτια (logizesthe eautous nekrous men einai tē hamartia) “consider yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” .. logizesthe means “reason, decide after consideration, reckon, count, conclude .. the word is a root for the English words “logic, logical” ..
It’s logical, based on what Jesus did for us, to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin.
ζωντας δε τω θεω εν χριστω ιησου τω κυριω ημων (zōntas de tō Theō en Christō Iēsou tō kuriō muōn) “living however to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” .. zōntas means “to live, I live” .. tō Theō en means “to God in the sphere of, inside of” .. Christō Iēsou tō kuriō muōn “Christ Jesus our Lord” ..
This is not a type of imitation on the part of a Christian. This is something that is a reality for a follower of Christ. We can consider (logically) ourselves to be dead indeed to sin because we live to God “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We literally died to sin “in Christ.”
Jesus is more than just an example for people to follow. He is “life everlasting.” He was dead, but rose from the dead and in so doing “dies no more.” Death no longer has any power over Christ – “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” Because of what Jesus did in dying to sin and rising from the dead, we can reckon ourselves “to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Other Commentaries
The new life with Christ will be the same which Christ Himself lives, a life inaccessible to death. The post-resurrection life of Jesus was not His old life over again; in that life death had dominion over Him, because He made Himself one with us in all the consequences of sin; but now the dominion of death has expired.
Expositor’s Greek Testament
He died unto sin – His death had respect to sin. The design of his death was to destroy sin; to make an atonement for it, and thus to put it away. As his death was designed to effect this, so it follows that Christians being baptized into his death, and having it as their object to destroy sin, should not indulge in it. The whole force of the motive; therefore, drawn from the death of Christ, is to induce Christians to forsake sin.
Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The death of Christ was settled and agreed to in the covenant and council of peace; it was spoken of by the prophets, and typified by sacrifices; Christ came into the world in order to die, and actually did die the death of the cross; in which the great love of God and Christ is expressed to us; and which is a fundamental article of the Christian faith: and when he died, he died unto sin once: he died to that, which we by nature are dead in, and could never make atonement for; which he himself never lived in, and which men naturally love to in; and which had he not died for, we must have died for to all eternity; and he died not for any sin of his own, or of angels, nor for the sins of every man, but for the sins of his people; it may be rendered, he died in sin: in the likeness of sinful flesh, in which he was sent; having as a surety sin laid on him, and bore by him, and for which he was wounded, bruised, and died: or rather to sin; that is, to make atonement for it, procure the pardon of it, take it away, and utterly abolish it: and this he did “once”; this is observed, in reference to the repeated sacrifices of the old law, which could never expiate or remove sin; and to show, that Christ’s dying once was enough, his sacrifice was fully satisfactory to the law and justice of God: but in that he liveth: which must be understood, not of his life as God, but as man; and that not on earth, but in heaven; where he lives with God, at the right hand of God, and by him, by the power of God: and he liveth unto God; to his glory, and to make intercession for us.
Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
We are to consider ourselves ‘dead to the appeal and power of sin’ (Phillips) and alive to God through our union with Christ Jesus. The very idea of responding positively to sin’s invitation should strike the believer as morbid. For the Christian to choose to sin is the spiritual equivalent of digging up a corpse for fellowship. A genuine death to sin means that the entire perspective of the believer has been radically altered.
[Robert H. Mounce (2012). New American Commentary Vol 27: Romans. B&H Publishing Group.
Christ was, indeed, never subject to sin, or himself infected with it, as we are; but he ‘bore the sins of many;’ ‘the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ He submitted for us to the condition and penalty of human sin; but, when he died, he threw off its burden, and was done with it for ever (cf. Hebrews 9:28, ‘Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation’). The purpose of thus describing the permanent life to God of the risen Christ is, of course, to show that the new life of us who are accounted to have risen with Christ must in like manner be permanent and free from sin.
Pulpit Commentary
Romans Resources
Commentary on Romans “The Gospel of God” Chapter 1 Verses 1-15
Commentary on Romans “The Gospel of God” Chapter 1 Verses 16-17
Commentary on Romans “The Gospel of God” Chapter 1:18 – 25
Commentary on Romans “The Gospel of God” Chapter 1:25-32
Commentary on Romans “The Gospel of God” Chapter 2:1-29
Commentary on Romans “The Gospel of God” Chapter 3
Commentary on Romans “The Gospel of God”Chapter 4
Commentary on Romans “The Gospel of God” Chapter 5
Next Time
We will look at Romans 6:12-14 as we continue our study of the Gospel of God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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