It’s a sad fact that many people perceive Christianity as being negative. It’s viewed as a series of don’ts. It is possible that some reader has taken our first studies of Romans 6 negatively, because the emphasis has been on the fact that once a person has been joined to Jesus Christ he or she can no longer go on sinning (vv. 1-2). Death and dying does sound negative, particularly to the non-Christian. If you do not know Christianity better than that, it sounds almost like “no more anything.” But that is not what real Christianity is, of course. In fact, it is just the opposite. It is sin that is negative. So to be freed from sin is to be freed to a brand new life, which is positive. As the believer identifies with Christ in His death he enters into newness of life. For the Christian, death is followed by a resurrection. And not just at the end of time! True Christianity is living out a new, joyful, abundant, resurrected life with Jesus Christ now.

In verse 5 Paul states a thesis which verses 6-10 develop. It has two parts: the first part is; “If we have been united with Him like this in His death…” and the second part is; “…we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.” Paul unfolds the first part in verses 6-7 and he explains the second part in verses 8-10. When Paul unfolds the meaning of the first part in verses 6-7, he isn’t just repeating himself. This is the point at which he is starting to talk about the Christian life, particularly the Christian’s sure victory over sin. Now when he mentions our union with Christ in His death, it is to show this frees us from sin’s tyranny.

The second half of Paul’s topical sentence in verse 5 is explained in verses 8-10, where Paul speaks of a present resurrection. Unless we take these verses together we will perceive the words “we will also live with Him” as referring to our future resurrection, when actually they refer to an experience of resurrection life here and now. Don’t misunderstand. There is a future resurrection, and the same union of the believer with Christ that we have been talking about is a guarantee of it. But that is not what these verses are about.

We have already seen in the case of Christ (Rom. 6:2). They refer to His passage from the sphere where death reigned to the sphere of the resurrection, from where He was to where He is now. In the same way, they refer to our passage – from the reign of death to the reign of grace, to a present resurrection. This is what Paul says of himself in Philippians 3:10. He means that he wants to be victorious over sin. Anyone who has been united to Christ has died to sin, is on the way to God, and can never return to his or her former sphere of existence.

Verse 11 is an exhortation, and it’s the first in the epistle. This is the first time in five and a half chapters that the apostle has urged his readers to do anything. What are they to do? The text says  “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” With today’s “quick fix” offerings we may be wondering why Paul waited until the sixth chapter for the first exhortation. Was Paul not interested in the spiritual growth of the Roman Christians? Of course, he was. But he knew that there was no use rushing ahead to tell them how to live the Christian life until he had first fully instructed them on what God had done for them in Jesus Christ. This is because the work of God in Christ is foundational to everything else about Christianity. Paul wanted us to learn that, we have no more joined ourselves to Jesus in His resurrection than we have died for our own sins. If we are Christians, everything that is necessary has been done for us by God.

In verse 11 Paul says there are two things God has done that we are to count on. First, that we are dead to sin if we are Christians. It doesn’t mean that we are immune to sin or temptation. It doesn’t mean that we will not sin. It means that we are dead to the old life and cannot go back to it. The second reality Paul says we are to count on is that we are now “alive to God in Christ Jesus.” This statement completes the parallel to verse 5, in which Paul said, “If we have been united with Him in His resurrection.” It explains how the earlier verse is to be taken; that we are to experience Christ’s resurrection life now. That is exactly where verse 11 has brought us. It tells us that just as we have died to sin (and must count on it), so also have we been made alive to God in Jesus Christ (and must count on that also). That is what has happened to you, if you are a Christian. You have been removed from your former state to another. Your job is to reckon it so, and to count on it.

Romans 6:5-11 Reflection Questions:

The word in verse 11 that is translated as “calculate” or “count” is a word that is used in bookkeeping, in calculating accounts, in working out profit and loss figures. What might be the purpose of Paul using this term in verse 11?

What does “being dead to your old life” mean to you?