Union with Christ

Application Questions: 

1. How does understanding Romans 5 help us understand Romans 6?
2. What does it mean that we were "united with Adam?"
3. What does it mean that believers have "died to sin?" (Romans 6:2)
4. Does being "dead to sin" mean that Christians no longer sin? How are we to understand this in light of the sin that remains in our lives?
5. Why is it so important that we not only understand our union with Christ, but actively consider that union? What power does that provide?
6. In what ways do you need to grow in considering your union with Christ ("dead to sin, and alive to God through Christ Jesus")?

Sermon Manuscript

What would happen if you woke up one morning not knowing who you were? If every single memory of your life up to that point—your parents, your childhood, your passions and interests, your career, your spouse, your children—all vanished in an instant? This was exactly what happened to one man in 2008. One early morning, Scott Bolzan, as he left the men’s bathroom at his place of work to go grab some coffee, slipped on some oily cleaning residue, smacked his head on the floor, and blacked out. When he woke up soon after in the ER he had lost all the previous memories of his 46 years of life. He didn’t know that the blonde woman sitting by his side in the hospital room was his wife, Joan, of 26 years. Gone too were his memories of his earlier career playing for the New England Patriots and Cleveland Browns, the still-born death of his daughter, Taryn, and the birth of his other two children.

Initially, the doctors thought that the memory loss was a temporary symptom of Bolzan’s severe concussion that would likely clear up in a week or two. However, as several months passed and the memories still did not return, they realized that Bolzan’s injury was much more extensive than any of them had previously imagined. During a followup brain scan, doctors determined that the trauma from his concussion had caused the blood to stop flowing to the right temporal lobe in his brain, where long-term memory is stored. Scott’s temporary memory loss turned out to be retrograde amnesia—one of the most severe cases on record.

By God’s grace, Scott’s wife, Joan, didn’t leave him after his injury, but has remained faithfully by his side for the last 16 years, using photographs and retelling memories to re-teach Scott who he is. Yet even with this, doctors are convinced that it would take nothing less than a miracle for Scott’s 46 years of memories to ever come back.

A lifetime of memories, gone in an instant. I don’t know about you, but I can imagine few things that would be more tragic than this—forgetting who you are, and losing the thread of the most meaningful relationships you have in your life.

Scott Bolzan’s amnesia is extremely rare, but this morning I want to talk about a kind of amnesia that is much more common. A spiritual amnesia that plagues many Christians today. What is that spiritual amnesia? It is this: We are prone to forget our union with Christ.

This doctrine of our union with Jesus may be one of the most under-appreciated, underdeveloped doctrines in the modern church today—that those who collapse into Christ] in repentance and faith are united to him—joined to him—one with him. In the words of one recent author,

“It is this (union with Christ), and not the doctrine of justification or reconciliation or adoption or any other important biblical teaching—[that] is the controlling center, according to the New Testament of what it means to be a Christian. The New Testament refers to our being united to Christ over two hundred times” (Deeper, Ortlund, 51)

When we forget that you have been united to Christ, we risk falling into the trap of legalism or license with your sin. Or, more simply, when we forget our union to Christ, we will miss out on the freedom, joy, and purpose that Jesus intends for us in the Christian life.

So, would you turn with me now to the book of Romans, chapter 6, where we will let the apostle Paul be like our “Joan,” showing us pictures and reminding us of truth to re-teach us who we are in our union with Jesus. Romans 6:1-14:

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.

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. 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. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now 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. For 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.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 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. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

This morning, Paul wants to invite us to do two things:

1. Understand Our Union with Christ
2. Consider Our Union with Christ

1. Understand Our Union with Christ (1-10)

The first thing we need to do to to understand our union with Christ in Romans 6 is to first understand what Paul has just said in Romans 5.

Paul opens Romans 6 by addressing a critique he is sure will come up in light of the audacious claim he has just made in chapter 5. The central claim of Romans 5 is that throughout human history there are two men who, more than any others, have profoundly shaped the destiny of all humanity. The first man, Adam, through his own disobedience and rebellion, brought sin and death into the world for all of us. Our sin nature finds its genesis in Adam. We were, each of us, united with Adam. When Adam sinned as the figurehead of all humanity, we too were plunged into sin and death along with him. His disobedience led to our disobedience. 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” So, all of us, through Adam, have been plunged into sin and death.

But what about “the law”—the commandments that would eventually be given to God’s people through Moses in the Old Testament? Wasn’t the purpose of the law to get humanity back on right footing with God and sever our union with Adam? No. the law came in, Paul says in 5:20, “to increase the trespass.” What does that mean? It means that one of the purposes of the Old Testament law was to act like a flashlight, pointing the light of God’s holiness on our disobedience in order that our sin might be shown to be just what it is—sin—with no confusion, misinterpretation, evading, or excusing. Thus, when we sin, we don’t do it out of ignorance. There is no “innocent sinning.” When we sin we are willfully, consciously choosing to engage in something that God hates. This is why our sin is so grievous in God’s eyes. We were united with Adam in this covenant of death.

And yet, Adam was not the only man who would forever turn the tides of history. There is another man, a second Adam, who would come to lead us—not into sin, but righteousness! Not death, but life! Not condemnation, but justification! “Therefore,” Paul says in Romans 5:18-20,

“…as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

This new covenant of grace that Jesus has brought about through his death and resurrection does not simply replace Adam’s covenant of death, it completely overshadows it. In another letter, in 2 Corinthians 3:7-11, Paul says:

“Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.”

The grace that God has poured out on pitiful sinners like you and me is so glorious, so shocking, so scandalous, that it seems too good to be true. Once, our sin, agitated and stirred up by the holy law of God, reigned over us as a slave-master. But now, the power of sin that once dominated us has become a platform for Christ’s grace to shine in crushing that sin to death, for “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” Through Jesus’ one act of obedience, anyone who turns from their sins and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is declared righteous. If you collapsed into Jesus in repentance and faith, you are no longer united with Adam. You are now united with Christ. That is Romans chapter 5, which now leads us back into our text, Romans 6.

In light of this scandalous gospel of grace that Paul has just presented in chapter 5, he anticipates the burning question that he knows his opponents will bring. Look at 6:1, “What shall we say then [in light of Romans 5] Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” So, the question is, if the grace of Jesus abounds wherever sin increases, should Christians continue to sin to provide more opportunity for grace to shine? Now, this same question could have been asked by one of two parties, for one of two reasons:

1. It could have come from the Jewish believers who may have been bothered by the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, believing it would encourage sinful indulgence. Free Grace apart from the law, they believed, would not lead to less sin, but more.
2. Or, perhaps, the question came from the other side, the antinomians who believed that the Christian’s freedom from the law provided freedom to live without any moral constraints. “If grace abounds whenever sin abounds, why not sin it up all the more?” One commentator, Kent Hughes shares about a famous historical instance of [this false teaching that] comes from the Russian monk Rasputin, who dominated the Romanov family in the early 20th century—not that long ago. Rasputin taught that salvation came through repeated experiences of sin followed by repentance. He argued that because those who sin more require more forgiveness, those who sin with abandon will, as they repent, experience greater joy; therefore, it is the believer's duty to sin.”

The motive behind the question may be unclear, but Paul’s answer is crystal clear: “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? (Verse 2) By no means. Why? For how can we who died to sin still live in it?” Or, to put it another way, how can we who are united to Christ live as if we are still united to Adam?

But what does it actually mean to be united to Christ? What are the radical implications of this new union that is now ours? We see first, in verse 2, that union with Christ results in our death to sin—”How can we who died to sin still live in it?” What does that mean, that we have died to sin? Look at verses 6 and 7: “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. For one who has died has been set free from sin.” “Now, wait a minute”, you might say, “didn’t we just see from chapter 5 that it was Jesus doing the dying, not us?” Yes, that’s true. And yet this is the root of the mystery of our union with Christ. When you place your faith in Jesus, and all that he has accomplished for you through his life, death, and resurrection, you are united to him. So in what sense have believers “died” along with Christ? When Jesus was nailed to that Roman cross 2,000 years ago, your sin nature, your “old self” was there too, crucified with him. And when Jesus died and was buried, that old sin nature died and was buried alongside Jesus, never to enslave you again. If you have placed your faith in Jesus, you are united with him in death—his death for sin has become your death to sin.

But we know from the gospel that death is not the end of the story—life is. “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.” Being simply “dead” to something does not make for an identity. Brother, sister, you are not simply united with Jesus in death, you are united with him in resurrection life.

We are visual people, and so Paul uses the picture of water baptism to illustrate for us how this new union with Christ operates. Look again at verses 3-4:

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.”

Look at how intimate this language is. When a new believer is baptized and is plunged under the water, Paul says it’s as if they are being “buried with Jesus.” And when that new believer comes out of the water, it’s as if they are joining with Christ in his glorious resurrection to new life.

This is the miracle of the new birth. I don’t know what images the phrase “born-again-Christian” stirs up in your modern mind this morning, but this is one of the Bible’s favorite ways to describe what it means to be a follower of Christ.

John 3:3: “Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”

1 Peter 1:3 “According to [God’s] great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

So, what does it mean to be a Christian? To be “born again?” It means that you have become a new creation. You have not “turned over a new leaf” in life, or have simply committed to putting more effort into religion—you are very literally not who you once were. And who is the author of this work? You? Can you cause yourself to be born? No, as we heard from Peter, it is according to God’s great mercy that he has caused you to be born again. Through the gospel, God has removed your hard and stony heart and has given you a new heart, filled with the Holy Spirit, giving you a new allegiance and new desires. You who once were an enemy of God have been brought near to God by the blood of Jesus, and have received adoption as sons and daughters. You are not who you once were.

And so, this is why Paul wants to shake the Romans (and shake us) with his question in 6:2—”How can we who died to sin still live in it?” It’s as if he’s saying, “Have you forgotten who you are in union with?” Have you forgotten how you have been changed? Don’t you know who you are?”

And yet, if we have an even an ounce of honesty in us, we feel ashamed at Paul’s questions, like a dog who has been made to rub his nose in a mess he’s just made. Why? Because we still sin every day! “You’re right, Paul,” we might say, “I should know better. I know the great lengths Jesus went to to save me from sin and death. I know how crazy, and insulting, and reprehensible it is for me to indulge in the sin that Jesus paid so dearly to rid me of. I shouldn’t be acting, and thinking, and feeling the way that I do, but maybe this is just who I am.”

Maybe this is how you’re feeling this morning. Perhaps the sin in your life feels like a wet t-shirt clinging to your body. You try to yank and pull on it to stop it from sticking to you, but it only makes the shirt wrinkle and coil around you even more. Maybe you feel such despair over the remaining sin in your life that you wonder how you can even call yourself a born-again Christian.

Oh friend, if that is you this morning, I want you to know that Romans 6 is not here to bash you over the head and kick you while you’re down. If you are a weary Christian who is heavy laden with the guilt and shame of your sin—someone who “knows better—” Romans 6 has fresh help for you. Through a single word in Romans 6:11, Paul is going to equip us with one of the greatest weapons we have as Christians to kill our sin and walk in righteousness.

2. Consider Your Union with Christ (11-14)

(v. 11-12) Consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

How do you walk in freedom as a Christian? You consider your union with Christ. What does it mean to “consider?” The word “consider” that we see in Romans 6:11 comes from the Greek word, logizomai, which is a financial word, meaning to “reckon”, to “credit to one’s account”, or more simply to “count.” This is the same word Paul uses in Romans 4:3 where he says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Abraham did not earn his own righteousness, padding his spiritual bank account over time through acts of piety. What did he do? He believed God, and God counted it to him as righteousness. If we were to play “spiritual bookkeeper” and open up Abraham’s account, and count up all the figures, what would we find for the sum total? Righteous.

So, let’s read verse 11 again with fresh eyes: “So you must also count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God.” What do you think would happen if we were to open up your spiritual bank account this morning, and put it on the projector screen for all of us to see? What do you think we would find once we counted up all the totals? If you are united with Christ, do you know what we would find in big bold letters at the bottom? Dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus—righteous. It would almost seem unbelievable unless it were in the Bible! Through your union with Christ, you truly are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is not an exercise in pretend play, like the guy who puffs out his chest and strikes a superman pose in the men’s bathroom before a big interview. We do not take a “fake it til you make it” approach in the Christian life. No, friend, growth in the Christian life does not come from striving to become what you are not, but more fully living out who you already are in Christ.

So, Paul wants to open up your spiritual bank account this morning and help you count the totals and see what’s there. You are no longer defined by your sin. Your fundamental identity has changed. There is incredible power in how we define ourselves. In the mega-popular self-help book, Atomic Habits, James Clear says that one of the most sure-fire ways to build a new healthy habit is to identify yourself with that habit. So, for example, if you want to start running, you should tell yourself and others, “I’m a runner.” And the more you commit yourself to that new internal narrative, the easier it becomes to actually perform the actions congruent with that identity. You start going to bed earlier so you can wake up earlier for a run, because that’s what runners do. You stop snacking on potato chips and having dessert with every meal, because you’re a runner, and you want to eat the right foods that will fuel your body to run better and more often. There is incredible power in the internal narratives we write for ourselves. And how much MORE power is there in governing our lives based NOT on an identity that we’re simply aspiring to, but an identity that is ours as surely as it is Christ’s?

If your fundamental identity at the core of your being is dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, what should this new internal narrative produce? Let’s look at Paul’s conclusion in verse 12:

6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.”

What’s one of the bullseyes of our “considering?” It’s this—we no longer give sin an inch of rule in our bodies. Sin—which once seemed to you like the most natural thing in the world—is now totally incompatible with your new nature in Christ. It’s like trying to run your new diesel truck on old unleaded gasoline. Your new truck is no longer built for that.

And yet, there’s a reason why Paul is giving us this command. Even though we are new creations in Christ, our bodies and minds carry with them the residue of our old nature. We have thought patterns, muscle memories, and habits that are leftover from our former life under the dominion of sin that must be reshaped and renewed every day. In one sense, the power and penalty of sin has been totally destroyed in us. We are no longer enslaved to sin and all of our sins have been paid for by the blood of Jesus. And yet, there is still a war raging inside every Christian between the Spirit and the flesh (a war that Paul addresses much more fully in chapters 7 and 8 of Romans). Jesus’ victory over sin is decisive. Paul says in 8:10, “if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

But this body of sin, though defeated and bleeding out on the battlefield, still tries to ensnare us. And one of sin’s most devious strategies is to convince you that you are still its slave. If you let it, sin will lead you into a prison cell and shut the door behind you. But here’s the thing—it’s all a façade. The shackles around your ankles? They’re made of papier-mâché,. And the prison door? It’s made of cardboard. The only thing keeping you in that prison cell is the lie you’ve chosen to believe.

Or imagine this—you have a friend who finally leaves their terrible job. For years they’ve bemoaned to you how horrible the working conditions were, how demeaning and abusive their boss was, and how little they were getting paid for their misery. One Friday afternoon, they finally work up the courage to press the eject button and resign. And yet come Monday, you find out that they woke up early, showered, and went back into work! What would you say to that friend? “You’re crazy! You hated that place. Why in the world would you go back when you don’t work there anymore?” And that’s exactly what we do when we let sin “reign in our mortal bodies.” We give sin a false power over us that it no longer has. We might even convince ourselves that the sin in our lives is so powerful it’s as if it’s making us obey its passions, pulling the marionette strings while we dangle helplessly.

Christian in this room, if you are feeling that way right now, I want to plead with you—stop believing this lie from the pit of hell. Consider and count who you are through your union with Christ! You don’t have to keep giving into your sin. You are not a helpless victim. You are united to Christ! Remember who you are:

1. When you are tempted to respond in anger to your spouse or your child when they have wronged you, you tell yourself “I am dead to sin and alive to God. I am no longer ruled by my feelings. I don’t have to sin here with my words. I can take a breath and choose the gentle, righteous path.
2. When you are by yourself and are tempted to open that app or go to that website where you know you will encounter explicit content you tell yourself, “I am dead to sin and alive to God.” Jesus has broken the power that lust once held over me, and the new resurrection life I have in him is far more satisfying than the vile dregs of sin.”
3. When you are tempted to join in with obscene talk or crude joking you tell yourself, “I am dead to sin and alive to God. My old sin nature was crucified with Christ. This isn’t who I am. This kind of talk doesn’t fit my new identity in Christ.”
4. When you are tempted by greed or materialism, you tell yourself, “I am dead to sin and alive to God.” I am no longer defined by what I have or don’t have. I am united to Christ who is for me the fountain of all joy, satisfaction, and contentment!

So, Christian, how do you fight sin? You consider, you reckon, you remember who you now are through union with Christ. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey it’s passions.”

But is the Christian life—our union with Christ— only about killing sin? I think in Christian circles like ours, that’s often what it feels like, right? That our primary aim in life is just to sin less? But this isn’t the end-goal Paul has in mind. Look with me at verses 13-14:

"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."

We are told to not present our members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness SO THAT we can present ourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, AND our members to God as instruments for righteousness! Those same body parts, those “members” that you once used for sin have now been washed and sanctified and fit and fashioned for purposes of righteousness! The mouth that once blasphemed God and tore down others can now be used to bless God and build up! The hands that were once wielded in anger can now be used to heal and strengthen. The mind that was once consumed with lustful thoughts can now be consumed with that which is true, honorable, lovely, and pure.

You can now, as Paul will say just a few chapters later, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). You were not made for sin.

There is so much more that could be said about this, but for the sake of time, I want to end by saying this: Believer, you who feel filthy, wretched, and weighed down with weakness; you who are looking up the mountain path of sanctification and feeling despair for how much is left to climb; you who feel trapped in the cardboard prison of sin—remember who you are! Understand and actively consider Who you are united to. Through your union with Christ, you have been washed, cleansed, and sanctified. Through the grace of Jesus, you have the opportunity now to present yourself to God as one o has been brought from death to life, and your instruments for righteousness. “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”