This passage tells us that we were united with Christ in His death, His burial, and His resurrection. Water baptism is a physical picture of this spiritual truth. When we go under the waters in baptism, we are showing that our old self died with Christ, our old labels relating to sin were washed away, and when we come up out of the water, we show that we were raised with Christ to walk in a new life where our identity is in Christ alone.
Question 7. According to Romans 6:4, what is the result of our being united with Christ in His death and resurrection?
We’ve been united with Christ in His death and resurrection:
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his (Romans 6:5).
If we died with Christ to our old life, and we were raised up with Christ, it’s clear that we are now able to live a new life in Christ. We have a new identity now!
The apostle Paul explains what this means and how it applies:
For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 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.
Romans 6:7-10
Notice verse 7 says, “For one who has died has been set free from sin.”
This tells us that at the cross all believers were set free from sin. In God’s eyes, our old selves with our old identities, are legally dead! We died with Christ; we have been set free at the cross.
Well, what exactly does it mean that we have been set free?
It means that at the cross we were…
Justified. We were acquitted of all charges. The gospel tells us that Jesus was charged with your sin and my sin, and He assumed our guilt so that we would be freed from our sin. So, we have now been discharged from any penalty which our sin would have brought. We are justified through Jesus’ death. “Through him, everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39).
Pardoned. How is it that you, as a trespasser against God’s holy law, can be given mercy instead of a penalty? That you can be pardoned instead of prosecuted? It’s because Jesus was charged with your sin, and died for your sin, and so all charges against you have been dropped. The prosecutor has declined to prosecute your case because you were already prosecuted 2,000 years ago, found guilty, and put to death. Now, the you, who is alive today, has been set free with a full pardon.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55:7 KJV).
Released. Think of the cross as a giant jail key that was entered into the lock on your jail cell. The door has now been opened, you are set free.
...now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant (Hebrews 9:15).
Question 8. What does it mean to you personally to know that you are justified, pardoned, and released? Please share your thoughts.
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