The Life of Death and Resurrection

So our reading today comes from Romans chapter 6. "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 baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised 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 this, 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." Well, Easter is a great time of year, is it not? Last weekend is often one of the highlights of not just the Christian calendar, but each of our personal calendars perhaps.

I really love Easter, particularly as it's a time to remember and reflect in a particular way on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These are real historical events, and we remember them as such. They are things that actually happened in history, written down and recorded for us. The most important thing to happen in history was not the fall of the Roman empire. It was not World War Two.

The most important events in human history are the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Question that, the text that we read this morning and the question that we're kinda wrestling with this morning is, so what? What significance do those events have in our everyday life? If I trust in Jesus' death and resurrection, how does that change the way that I live today and tomorrow and this week? How does it affect my everyday life?

To answer that question, we're gonna be looking at three truths that came out of the passage that we just read and we'll be dipping into some other parts of the Bible as well. So three truths are: we'll see, firstly, that if we are people who have put our trust in Christ, then we are united to him by faith. Second, we'll see that because we're united to him, that means that we're united to him in his death. And third, we'll see that we're united to him in his resurrection. We'll see what each of those things mean and how they play out in our day to day life.

First, let's think about the fact that if we're people who have put our trust in Christ, then we are united to him. In the passage that we just read, Romans chapter 6 and verse 3, Christians are described as people who have been baptised into Christ. And that's not the only place that Christians are described in that way. The New Testament is full of the phrase "in Christ" or "in Jesus" or "in him". So just a couple of examples.

The second part of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30 says that it is because of Him, God, that you are in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter 8 verse 1 says, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Interesting language. The question is, what does it mean? What does it mean to be in Christ?

Wonderfully, the meaning of being in Christ is quite broad. That's because being in Christ means that we share in the vast array of spiritual blessings that come from being in Christ. Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Those blessings are then listed. Being in Christ means being loved by God, chosen by God, adopted to be one of God's children, redeemed out of slavery to sin, forgiven and washed clean and made perfectly righteous.

Wonderful, amazing spiritual blessings that come to us in Christ, in relationship with Him, in connection with Him. We receive all those blessings because we are united to Jesus by faith. To be in Christ means to share in the spiritual blessings that come from being in Christ. But more than that, being in Christ means that we have a whole new identity. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come."

Or you might put it like this, that person is a new creation. The old has gone, the new is here. To be in Christ is to have a whole new identity. It's to have yourself, your whole life, how you kinda conceive of yourself, your whole being tied up with and connected to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible uses a whole bunch of different illustrations to point that out.

Christ is the head and we are His body. Christ is the vine and we are the branches. In the same way that a husband and a wife share a kind of one flesh union, they become one, so do Christ and His people. If you've been married for any length of time, then you kinda know what that's like. Right?

In a mysterious kind of way, you have a whole lot of your identity wrapped up in the person that you're married to. You kinda don't know where you stop and where they start. You can't speak about yourself without referring to your spouse. Do you ever notice that? You ask a married person, "How are you going?"

And how do they respond? Often they respond, "Yeah, we're doing alright. Thanks." It's not "I'm doing alright." It's "We're doing alright."

Do you say that yourself? If you've been married for any length of time, then it becomes hard to speak or sometimes even think about yourself without reference to your husband or wife. And there's something kind of good and right and beautiful about that. And it's the same with a Christian and Christ. I wonder, does this describe you?

If someone was to ask you the question, "Who are you?", what would you say? Would you struggle to speak about yourself without thinking of Jesus? Would you feel compelled to say right off the bat, "I'm with Him. I'm united to Him."

"It's in Jesus that I find my life and my identity and my meaning and my purpose." Is that how you think about yourself? It's an important question to us because as people, we kind of tend to live out of our identity. That is, the way we conceive of ourselves and who we are in this world, we act according to that. So just a bit of a silly example, if you think of yourself, for whatever reason, as someone who's kind of ugly and awkward and uninteresting, then that's gonna affect how you live your life.

You might not go out as much. You might shy away from other people or feel really uncomfortable in social situations. But if you think of yourself, for whatever reason, as attractive and glamorous and a fascinating person, then you're likely going to want to spend time with other people and grace them with your presence. The point is that your identity, who you reckon yourself to be, affects the way that you live your life. And that should especially be the case when it comes to your identity in Christ, your union with Him.

Specifically, your union with Him in His death. The second thing we see in the text that we read is that being united with Christ means that we are united with Him in His death. Look with me again at Romans chapter 6 and verse 3. Paul there asks, "Don't you know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus have been baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death."

Again, verse 5 says, "We've been united with him in a death like his." And again, verse 6 says, "Our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin." To be united with Christ in His death means that what happened to Him is in some way counted as happening to you as well. Your old self, the person that you used to be before you were a Christian, a person who was a rebel against God, a sinner by nature, a lover and a slave to sin, that person has been put to death, crucified with Christ. You have died to sin.

And anyone who has died to sin, Paul says, has been set free from sin. That doesn't mean that you'll never sin again in your life. None of us know that to be the case in our own lives. Dying to sin doesn't mean sinless perfection, but it does mean new direction. It means that sin and rebellion against God are no longer the kind of defining pattern and direction of your life.

You've got a new direction. You can't kinda live in sin and wallow in it and enjoy it and delight in it or allow it to have control over you anymore because you're united to Christ in His death. You've died to sin. You've been set free. And that's how you have to think about yourself.

In verse 11 and 12, Paul says, "In the same way, count yourselves or reckon yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness." Who are you? You are a person who is united to Christ, united with Him in His death.

How should you think about yourself as someone who's dead to sin? How does that reality shape your life? It means that you don't let sin have control over you anymore. It means that you don't offer any part of yourself to sin. I think we all know ourselves well enough to know the kind of sins that we habitually struggle with or find ourselves falling into more often than we would like.

Whether it's pride or lust or anger or greed or jealousy or alcoholism or whatever it is, whatever it is for you, a sin that you find yourself going back to more than you want to, how do you fight against that? Romans 6 tells you that you need to count yourself dead to sin. Say to yourself, speak to yourself, "That's not me anymore. I died with Christ. The person who indulged in pride or lust or jealousy or anger or greed or alcohol, the person who kinda loved that stuff and who wallowed in it and enjoyed it, that person died with Christ on the cross."

"It's not me anymore. I'm heading in a new direction." That's how you have to think about yourself. Now just thinking those things might not be enough, but it is a starting point. It is the kind of launch pad if you like.

Because how you think about yourself affects how you then go and act. Count yourself, reckon yourself dead to sin. That's how you think. And Romans 6 verse 12 says, "Therefore, don't offer any part of yourself to sin." If you think of yourself as someone who's dead to the sin, again, of pride or lust or greed or anger or whatever, then allow that to change how you act.

Remember that you have your new identity, and your identity, who you reckon yourself to be, affects the way that you live your life. As a Christian, you're united to Christ in His death. So reckon yourself as dead to sin and live out of that new identity. But we're not just united to Christ in His death. The final thing that we're gonna see this morning is that we're united with Christ in His resurrection as well.

There's a number of verses that speak about a Christian's union with Christ in His resurrection. So you've got Colossians 2 verse 11 to 12 there. "Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead." And then Colossians 3 verse 1 says, "Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." The wonderful truth that we remember every Easter Sunday is, of course, that Jesus was raised from the dead.

He lives today. He is with the Father in heaven, reigning on high, ruling over all things. And as we are united to Him by faith, there's a sense in which we are there with Him. Raised with Him. We have His resurrection life at work in us.

Our old self has been put to death. Our new self is raised to life. The old is gone. The new is here. And it's important at this point to highlight that all of that is a work of the Holy Spirit.

It's the Spirit who unites us to Christ. It's the Spirit who raises us up with Him and lives in us. Romans 8 verse 11 tells us that the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And because of that union with Christ in His resurrection, because of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we can live a whole new life. Freedom from sin, victory over sin, not slaves to sin anymore, but actually with the tools and the resources and the power, everything that we need to live lives that are pleasing to God.

Now that's a splendid truth, but I wonder if it strikes you as perhaps a little bit mystical. How do we make it tangible? How do we actually experience the power of Christ's resurrection within us? Is it something that we kinda have to plug into like an electric vehicle? I think one of the key things to understanding this is to recognise that we've been united not so much with a power or a force, but we've been united with a person.

It's to the extent that we run after Christ and draw close to Him as a real person that we experience His resurrection power. The power of His Spirit dwelling in us, enabling us to live that new life. Philippians 3 verse 10 says, "I want to know Christ. Yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead." You see, there's a connection there between knowing Christ Himself and knowing the power of His resurrection.

The more you know Christ, the closer you get to Him, the more you start to experience His resurrection power in your life. Which again raises another question, how do you get to know Christ? I guess in the same way that you get to know anyone. You spend time with them. You listen to them.

You talk to them. You learn about their character, what sort of things they like and don't like, what they're all about. You find those things out about a person by spending time with them and listening to them. And you listen to Jesus by picking up His word, the Bible.

Sometimes we see reading the Bible as a bit of a chore. And there are times where it can feel a bit dry and stodgy and empty if we're honest. But I wonder if we'd be more inclined to get into the Word if we came to the words of Jesus with a hunger. He says, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of my mouth." We need the words of Jesus to live, to know His resurrection life in us.

So come to His word with a hunger that says, "I'm hungry to know you, Jesus. To know the power of your resurrection, to know the power of your Spirit living in me. I want the power to kill sin and grow in holiness and live for God and love others and live a new life and experience the joy and the peace and the comfort and the assurance and the confidence that comes from being in Christ. And I know the place where I can find that power is in His word applied to my heart by His Spirit."

Coming to the Word with that kind of hunger, it requires much prayer, requires time and reflection and meditation. You can't really short circuit this or take shortcuts, but it is worth it. Because through His word, prayerfully applied to your heart by the Spirit, you can know Christ more deeply every day. And indeed, you can know the power of His resurrection at work in you. In some ways, it's kinda ordinary.

Picking up the Bible, reading it, spending time, praying through what you've read, reflecting on it, trying to put it into practice. Yeah. It's kinda ordinary. But at the same time, it is nothing less than supernatural. If you come away from any time spent in the Word feeling in any way refreshed or encouraged or having gained a new insight or perspective or having realised that there's a problem in your life that you're facing that isn't that huge in the light of who God is or having been reminded of some great truth that brings you comfort and peace or feeling spurred on to live a life of obedience to Christ or equipped to get on with the day or somehow at peace because of being reminded of who Jesus is, a great Saviour, gentle and humble and lowly and compassionate and gracious and welcoming of sinners.

If you find in Christ's word anything of that nature, any kind of rest or sustenance for your soul, none of this, again, is particularly mystical, but something very, very supernatural has taken place. Something extraordinary is being worked out in your life through the ordinary means of grace. Reading the Bible, praying to God, experiencing the power of His resurrection life being worked out in your life by His Spirit. That's the life of death and resurrection. It's a life that comes to us from our wonderful union with Christ by His Spirit.

It's a life that's lived out of our new identity in Christ, and it's a life lived by seeking to know Christ and so know the power of His resurrection both now and for all eternity. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we wanna thank you so much again for this wonderful resurrection life that we can know and experience in and through Jesus and by the power of His Spirit living within us. Father, we pray for more and more closeness with Jesus, a closer walk with Him, a greater filling of His Spirit, a deeper desire to kill sin and live lives of new obedience to you. Lives that bring you glory, lives that are genuinely better for us, more wholesome, more restful, more peaceful, more joyous because of being so close with Jesus and because of knowing His resurrection life in us.

Help us, we pray, and we pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen.