August 29 - Romans 6:5-9

 

Paul’s Epistle to the Romans

August 29, 2021

Opening Prayer

Psalm 86

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,
    for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am godly;
    save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.
Be gracious to me, O Lord,
    for to you do I cry all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
    for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
    abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
    listen to my plea for grace.
In the day of my trouble I call upon you,
    for you answer me.

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
    nor are there any works like yours.
All the nations you have made shall come
    and worship before you, O Lord,
    and shall glorify your name.
10 For you are great and do wondrous things;
    you alone are God.
11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
    that I may walk in your truth;
    unite my heart to fear your name.
12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
    and I will glorify your name forever.
13 For great is your steadfast love toward me;
    you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

14 O God, insolent men have risen up against me;
    a band of ruthless men seeks my life,
    and they do not set you before them.
15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me;
    give your strength to your servant,
    and save the son of your maidservant.
17 Show me a sign of your favor,
    that those who hate me may see and be put to shame
    because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

Prolegomena

Wrapping up Ephesians in our sermons. Moving into James.

-        It has been interesting (to me) to dive a bit more deeply into these two letters written by St. Paul.

-        Similar themes: Grace, Faith, Reception, Baptism

-        Different emphases: Romans – Righteousness, Ephesians – Unity, Belonging

Romans 6:5-11

 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. 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.

v. 5

united – adjective - bound together, of the same kind, grown together (like a cut grows together)

If we have become united with Jesus in the likeness of his death …

-        Buried with Jesus – having received his death

Emphatic – but/also we will be of a resurrection.

-        We will be united in the likeness of his resurrection.

v. 6

Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified together with [him],

-        Foundational knowledge.

-        Strange grammar – “Do you want to come with?” The translator has to supply the pronoun.

 

The purpose of this being “crucified with” is that it might cause the “body of sin” …

-        To be left unemployed, to be abolished, to be inactivated.

o   Shut it down!

-        What do we mean by the “body of sin”?

o   There is a danger that we will slip into a kind of dualism here.

§  Gnostic heresy: Flesh (and all things physical) is evil and spirit is good.

§  Paul recognizes the corruption of our human nature – and for many people their experience of this world is rooted in bodily/sensory experience.

§  Thus, for the sake of teaching, he locates sin in “the body” to contrast it to the new life that has come, which he will identify as being “in the spirit.”

 

The result of the old “man” being crucified with Jesus and the abolition of the body of death is that we are no longer to be slaves to sin.

-        The language of slavery is difficult for us. We are steeped in the idea of choice and freedom.

o   John 8:31-38

o   We are free apart from Christ to choose sin.

o   We are free in Christ to live in righteousness … which is a gift, and a gift connected to the reception and presence of the Holy Spirit.

v. 7

For the one who has died has been justified/passively declared righteous from sin.

-        English translations seem to all get this wrong.

-        They translate justified as freed. (ESV, NASB, RSV, KJV, and NIV)

-        What if enslavement to sin is punishment for sin?

o   Romans 1:24-25 - Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

-        Freedom is not the central point of the letter.

o   Are we free to sin that grace might abound?

o   No way! You died and are passively declared righteous in God’s sight.

o   That is your confidence!

 

This section is the source of Luther’s teaching on baptism in the Small Catechism, specifically the fourth part.

What does such baptizing with water indicate?

It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

v. 8

For if … - And if – Paul is building on what he has said before.

-        The one who has died is justified from sin.

-        AND if we died with Chris, we believe that we will also live with/in him

o   Notice that all of this is about being connected to Christ.

o   Jesus is doing all of the work.

v. 9

Continues the same sentence in Greek.

And if we were raised with Christ we believe that we will also live with/in him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead no longer dies; death no longer rules/dominates/masters him.

 

The idea that death rules in this world is both obvious and denied … as in we are in denial.

-        The word here is related to the word – lord – kyrie.

-        If the chief temptation is that we make ourselves to be gods, then this denial regarding death is just a continuation of the same attitude.

o   We seek to be lords over death.

§  Cryogenics

§  Transhumanism

§  Whole Brain Emulation – uploading a mind

§  Fitness, Vitamins, Dieting

§  Medical research - COVID

o   The best we might do is delay the inevitable.

§  Is the inevitable worth delaying?

§  Philippians 1:21

o   Two attitudes toward death - Compare the following poems. 

Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-        Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

 

Psalm 90:12-17

Lord, you have been our dwelling place
    in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You return man to dust
    and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight
    are but as yesterday when it is past,
    or as a watch in the night.

You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
    like grass that is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
    in the evening it fades and withers.

For we are brought to an end by your anger;
    by your wrath we are dismayed.
You have set our iniquities before you,
    our secret sins in the light of your presence.

For all our days pass away under your wrath;
    we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
    or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
    they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger,
    and your wrath according to the fear of you?

12 So teach us to number our days
    that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord! How long?
    Have pity on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
    that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
    and for as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be shown to your servants,
    and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
    and establish the work of our hands upon us;
    yes, establish the work of our hands!

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